Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

ii 2 BIRTH OF STOICISM xlix
of man and his material embodiment,
of moral aim
and realised experience, which conducts to the baffling
problems
of determinism and free-will.
It was the work of centuries to unfold the implica-
tions thus latent in the formula, '
life in agreement with
nature,' so different from those which it first seemed
to convey. But even at an early stage, and from the
purely psychological side, Cleanthes was amply justified
in replacing the term 'nature' in the symbol of the
School, and adopting the full formula as his definition
of conduct and ideal. Nor, from the Stoic standpoint,
did the adoption involve an ambiguity which has been
sometimes charged against it. It was a cardinal assumption
of Stoicism, that nature in man is identical with
the nature of the universe at large, and on that assumption
it is meaningless to ask whether Cleanthes meant
'
to prescribe accordance with his own individual nature '
or 'accordance with nature at large.' He would have
repudiated the distinction; and whatever ethical im-
plications might result, at least they would not depend
on initial ambiguity of term.