Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

xliv INTRODUCTION SECT.
regard, and in so doing produced a corresponding
modification in each determination of the will. The
characterisation of the Wise Man, and even the valuation
of things indifferent, felt the effects of the change.
As apostles of individualism in the sphere of morals,
the Cynics had led the way in personifying the moral
ideal in the figure of the Wise Man ; and it was not
unnatural that, in emphasising the salient features, they
fell into extravagances that verged on caricature. His
end was to be self-sufficing, to assert and to secure for
'nature' its undisturbed prerogatives of independence.
By force of will he will put down all foreign disturbers
of the peace; as champion of the independence of
the primary impulses and instincts, he will resist the
intrusions of thought, the distractions of fancy, the
clamour and agitation of the affections ; deaf to praise
or blame or provocations from without, he will remain
inflexibly true to self-regard, and give no quarter to
competing
interests or solicitudes. He will claim full
satisfaction for each demand of nature, though he may
elect to keep one or another in abeyance rather than
involve himself in extraneous and entangling obligations.
He will imperturbably coerce feeling and behaviour by
restraints of will, and regard everything outside the inner
authorisations of his personality as matter of unqualified
indifference.
Apart from excess of emphasis and something of
wilful paradox, the deformities and eccentricities of the
Cynic '
'
Wise Man
spring chiefly from that narrow and
one-sided intolerance which must result from satisfaction
of the self-assertive instincts, when reason is not per-