appearances, and that therefore nothing really exists outside of spirit.[1] Zeno of Elea particularly, who denied the existence of movement, brought against this existence some objections very difficult to remove.[2] The Stoic philosophers became more or less strongly attached to this opinion. Chrysippus, one of the firmest pillars of the Porch, taught that God is the soul of the world, and the world, the universal extension of that soul. He said that by Jupiter, should be understood, the eternal law, the fatal necessity, the immutable truth of all future things.[3] Now, it is evident that if, in accordance with the energetic expression of Seneca, this unique principle of the Universe has ordained once to obey always its own command,[4] the Stoics were not able to escape from the reproach that was directed toward them, of admitting the most absolute fatality, since the soul of man being, according to them, only a portion of the Divinity, its actions could have no other cause than God Himself who had willed them.ə Nevertheless Chrysippus rejected the reproach in the same manner as did Epicurus; he always sustained the liberty of man, notwithstanding the irresistible force that he admitted in the unique Cause[5]; and what seemed a manifest contradiction, he taught that the soul sins only by the impulse of its own will, and therefore that the blame of its errors should not be put upon destiny.[6]
But it suffices to reflect a moment upon the nature of the principles set down by Epicurus, by Chrysippus, and
- ↑ Senec., Epist., 88; Sext. Empir., Adv. Math., l. vii., c. 2; Arist., Métaphys., l. iii., c. 4.
- ↑ Arist., Physic., l. vi., c. 9; voyez Bayle, Dict. crit., art. Zenon, rem. F.
- ↑ Cicér., de Natur. Deor., l. i., c 15.
- ↑ Semel jussit, semper paret, Seneca has said. "The laws which God has prescribed for Himself," he adds, "He will never revoke, because they have been dictated by His own perfections; and that the same plan, the same design having pleased Him once, pleases Him eternally" (Senec., Præf. ad Quæst. nat.).
- ↑ Cicer., ibid., c. 9.
- ↑ Aul. Gell., l. vi., c. 2.
