Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries
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Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

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440 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH ANDwhich rules the world : while on his moral side,inasmuch as the first general cause can only bea soul full of reason and wisdom, he is the world-reason, / a blessed beino;. O> the originatoro of the morallaw, ever occupied with the government of theworld, being in fact himself the world. Thuseverything is subject to the law of absolute necessity; everything eternally determined through anendless series of preceding causes, since nothinghappens without a cause, and that again is the workingof a cause before it. What, then, is called,or seems to be, chance, is merely the working ofa cause unknown to us. The will of man is ac-cordingly mere spontaneity. He wills, but whathe wills is inevitable : he determines himself, butalways in consequence of preceding causes. Andsince here every cause is something subject to theconditions of matter, something purely inside theworld, it becomes unalterable destiny. But inasmuchas the series of causes leads back to thefirst, and this first cause has not only a physicalside, but includes intelligence with it, and soeverything in it is foreseen and predetermined,therefore that which considered under the aspectof inevitable necessity is called fate or destiny,viewed as thought may be termed Providence, adivine arrangement.With such a doctrine it is evident that allmorality was reduced to a matter of physics: anyet no sect of Greek philosophers struggled so

THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY.441hard to solve the great problem of moral freedas the - ^ Stoics.18 /^N» "* O But T the iron grasp of their leading tenet was ever too much for them. Man'ssoul is of the same substance as the world-soul,that is, breath or fire, of which it is a portion: inman it manifests itself as the force from whichknowledge and action proceed, as at once intelligence,will, and consciousness. It is, then, closeallied with the Divine Being, but at the same timecorporeal, a being which stands in perpetual actionand reaction with the human body. It is that heat-matter bound to the blood, which communicateslife and motion: it is perishable, though it lastsbeyond the body, perhaps to the general conflagration.It has therefore, in the most favourable view,the duration of a world-period, with the outrun ofwhich it must return to the universal ether or;odhead: its individual existence and consciousnessend.As to the popular religion,19 the Stoics admittedthat it was filled with pretended deities, falsetrines, and rank superstition; that its wildf fables about the gods was simply conteniptibbut that it was well to retain the names of god Oconsecrated in public opinion, who were mereljf particular incorporations of thworld-godThe Stoics did not representh mj:rnents of human nature as18 Ddllinger, pp. 322-324. » Ibid. p. 324.

THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY.441hard to solve the great problem <strong>of</strong> moral freedas the - ^ Stoics.18 /^N» "* O But T the iron grasp <strong>of</strong> their leading tenet was ever too much for them. Man'ssoul is <strong>of</strong> the same substance as the world-soul,that is, breath or fire, <strong>of</strong> which it is a portion: inman it manifests itself as the force from whichknowledge and action proceed, as at once intelligence,will, and consciousness. It is, then, closeallied with the Divine Being, but at the same timecorporeal, a being which stands in perpetual actionand reaction with the human body. It is that heat-matter bound to the blood, which communicateslife and motion: it is perishable, though it lastsbeyond the body, perhaps to the general conflagration.It has therefore, in the most favourable view,the duration <strong>of</strong> a world-period, with the outrun <strong>of</strong>which it must return to the universal ether or;odhead: its individual existence and consciousnessend.As to the popular religion,19 the Stoics admittedthat it was filled with pretended deities, falsetrines, and rank superstition; that its wildf fables about the gods was simply conteniptibbut that it was well to retain the names <strong>of</strong> god Oconsecrated in public opinion, who were mereljf particular incorporations <strong>of</strong> thworld-god<strong>The</strong> Stoics did not representh mj:rnents <strong>of</strong> human nature as18 Ddllinger, pp. 322-324. » Ibid. p. 324.

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