Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

Preface
In the following pages I have attempted to put be
fore my readers a solution of some of the problems
to which this question gives rise. No one will deny
that Seneca stood on the threshold of Christianity,
while in the opinion of many he had already
passed
within; yet all will admit that, at best, he fell far
short of the standard Christianity sets up for its con
verts. Plutarch is not claimed by Christians, but he
exemplifies many of their virtues, and commends
many of the precepts they endeavored to put in prac
tice. These two men best represent the strong and
the weak points of characters formed under the
stimulus of earnest effort to lead upright lives
and to
discharge faithfully their duties to themselves, their
fellow men, and the higher power that controlled their
destinies. I have selected a typical work from the
writings of both as a nucleus around which to group
such reflections and facts as seem best fitted to illus
trate the environment in which they lived and the in
tellectual inheritance to which they had fallen heir,
while I have allowed each to speak for himself on
one of the profoundest problems that has ever en
gaged the serious attention of man.
Surely, it cannot be a merely accidental coincidence
that a Greek at Delphi, a Roman in his adopted city,
a Jew in Alexandria, and another Jew in Palestine,
who had been converted to Christianity and had
adopted the profession of a traveling evangelist,
should at the same time, yet almost or quite inde
pendently of each other, maintain the doctrine of a
7