Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

THE STANDING-GROUND OF PHILOSOPHY l6lduty disjoined from worship altogether, which derivedall its sanction from the possession of this reason,and so, at the bottom, from man himself.Another thing also is to be remarked, that thephilosophy then in vogue was connected with oppositionto the government or imperial rule. For thisit was persecuted by Nero and even by Vespasian,as afterwards bv Domitian. Seneca and Lucan,VThrasea, Helvidius, and Rusticus were put to death,and many more were banished, at three distinct intervals,by these emperors, for their political, whichwere connected with their philosophical, opinions.But from the accession of Nerva another state ofthings begins. Philosophy accepts frankly the imperialgovernment, and as frankly the polytheisticworship. It swears by the genius of the emperor,and offers its cordial vows to the Capitoline Jupiter.Note also that this double alliance is not brokendown to the time of Constantine. We must viewthe second and third centuries of the Christian erander this aspect; and it is full of instruction. Itoints unquestionably to the working of influenceswhich Roman historians dissembled as long as theycould and Grecian philosophers carefully ignored.We- shall find that Tacitus, Plutarch, and Epictetuspass them over in silence, thoi gh we are not therefto conclude that they knew nothing about them.Ignoring is often the most convenient mode of dealingwith a peculiarly obnoxious adversary.From the accession of Nerva the empire answeredthe altered temper of philosophy with a differentmode of treatment. From that time forth it favouredits studies and promoted its teachers. The youngerPliny in his panegyric praises Trajan for encouragingVOL. in. L