Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

x'v INTRODUCTION SECT.
marked; in psychology a new, or at least modified,
physiological basis was furnished by the medico-phy-
sical speculations of the Pneumatists ; in epistemology,
Epictetus becomes of no less importance than Cleanthes.
Thus the treatment of Stoicism will be selective, intended
to supply so much of history and exposition as a careful
reader may desire for comprehension of his author.
The treatment of the subject is neither strictly chrono-
logical, nor strictly systematic. As each topic comes
under consideration, I have felt free to follow it to its
particular destination in the pages of Marcus, or merely
to allot its place in the general corpus of doctrine, which
he received as Stoic dogma.
I. ORIGINS OF STOICISM
Of all ancient philosophies Stoicism is the most his-
torical. The person of the founder is but a term in a
continuous series of thought. The system of Plato or of
Aristotle bears the sharp impress of a single mind, appre-
hending and affirming a new synthesis of truth ;
the office
of disciples was to preserve and transmit thoughts, which
in their fulness they grasped imperfectly. Emphatically,
the disciple was less than the master. But Stoicism was
the product of many minds, not one : the function of Zeno
was to combine far more than to originate ;
his individual
contribution to philosophic thought was small, and to
some extent tentative. The unification of the system
and its logical completion was largely the work of
successors, Cleanthes and Chrysippus, so that the proverb
'
said truly, Had there been no Chrysippus, there would