Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

94 THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOMphysical, or metaphysical studies which are not conductedfor this end. In this point of view it is thatStoici sm is rather a religion than a philosoph. Itshistorical importance consists in this position. In thissubordination of all science to the end of making manvirtuous, which springs, as we have seen, out of itsvery conception of virtue, the Stoic doctrine presentsa^ain o an analogy ev with the Christian. As the obedientfollowing of the divine order of nature in the one case,so in the other the knowing and loving God, and theimitation of Him by loving Him, is the end whichgives its value to all knowledge.4. Hence follows what is no less a marked featureof the whole Stoic line, a preference of the philosophicallife, as thus conceived, to the public or politicallife. For the cultivation of that virtue, " whichalone the Stoic recognised, to which he subordinatedall study, and for which he exercised all action, belongedto the interior life, the life of the mind. Toprocure tranquillity within the domain of the mind,to be independent of the iluctuations which assaultthe outer life, attend all forms of government, andrun into all human occupations, was the very effortwhich gave rise to the philosophy. And it remainedon the whole faithful to this principle throughout itscourse. If the Stoic became soldier, lawyer, or statesman,this according to his sect's doctrine, though anecessary, was an inferior sphere of action. Epictetus iexpresses this: " You inquire whether a man is toembrace political life ? Do you then ask for a greaterpolity than that which he administers ? He has toconverse with all men, whether it be at Athens, atCorinth, or Kome, not about ways and means, nor1 Diss. iii. 22.