STOICS

A celebrated sect of antiquity; so called from the stoa or porch in Athens, which was the scene of the discourses of their founder Zeno of Cittium (b.c. 300). The Stoics are proverbially known for the sternne and austerity of their ethical doctrines, and for the influence which their tenets exercised over some of the noblest spirits of antiquity. To give a connected and systematic account of the philosophical principles on which they grounded their moral precepts is a le easy task than, from the notoriety of the latter in some of their main features, might have been anticipated. Their speculations were not confined to ethical subjects, but.limed at embracing the whole circle of human knowledge; physics, theology, and logic, no le than morals and politics. Their system, as far as we can gather from the notices preserved by Cicero, Diogenes, and others, appears to be an attempt to reconcile a theological pantheism and a materialist psychology with a logic which seeks the foundations of^ knowledge in sensible experience, and a morality which claims as its first principle the absolute freedom of the human will. Of the mode in which thoy combined dogmas apparently so inconsistent into a philosophical whole, we have accounts suflicient to inspire us with respect for the earnestne and strength of character po e ed by the leaders of their sect, and with admiration of their subtlety, ingenuity, and depth. We discern, at the same time, in all their speculations, equally a narrow and controversial spirit, most unlike the critical but comprehensive impartiality which marks the philosophical writings of their great predece ors; of Plato, and, in a still more eminent degree, of Aristotle. The [s. 1187]