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NEOSTOICISM AND THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 57right ^^ -L.J. U with 1 *. VJ *-» a W right *-"*-^*. intention, such as the wise manpossesses. Right conduct, as such, abstracting fromthe intention, is the suitable.1 Only the wise manperforms the perfect fulfilling of duty. The wiseman is without passion, though not without feeling:he exercises justice, not indulgence, towards himselfand others. He alone is free. He is king and lord,and is inferior in inward worth to no other reasonablebeing, not even to Jupiter. He is likewise master ofhis own life, and may end it according to his own freedetermination. The later Stoics admitted that noone perfectly answered the ideal of the wise man, butthat in fact there only existed the distinction betweenools and those in progress towards wisdom.There are four illustrious productions of this philo-ophy, who happen singularly enough to represent thefour chief constituent parts of the Roman commwealth. Seneca gives us an instance of the Sitor; Musonius of the Stoic knight; Epictetushe Stoic slave; Marcus Aurelius of the Stoicmperor. All are formed, whatever may be thsrences of individual character, out of the commontissue of these principles, and to understand theirlanguage aright we must interpret it by this generalcharter of Stoic thought.Seneca, from the time and circumstances of hislife and the large amount of writings which he hasleft, is full of interest and instruction as a specimenof the wealthy, cultured, and philosophic Roman ofthat day. We may count his years with those of thChristian era. Born at Corduba, of knightly parentage, he was early brought to Rome. The years ohis youth, he says, were passed under the principat1TO Kadr/Kov. ' 2 Zeller, iv. 616.