The doctrines of the Stoics were gathered from the various schools of Philosophy which had preceded them, and embraced a system constituted of the best and purest, soundest and most beautiful portions of the precepts emanating from the schools of Thales, Solon, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Antisthenes; forming a code of moral instruction the fairest, the least exceptionable, and the best of any springing from the foun- tains of heathen antiquity. Hence the work now presented to the public, in a garb entirely new, is unquestionably the best. moral production of the ancient schools.
I shall here take leave to cite one passage from a modern writer, who holds no mean place amongst those who have written upon the subject of the doctrines and morals of the heathen philosophers; and I do so, in order to give my read- ers an idea of the nature and tendency of the Stoic Philosophy, and of the estimation in which its founder was held by the men of his day:"It was very true," observes this writer, "that Zeno intended to study the various tenets of other phil- osophers, and from them to form a new system of his own. He now commenced teaching; and chose for the place of his school the Poecile, or Painted Porch,' a portico adorned with paintings, and so much more beautiful than any other portico in Athens that it was called for distinction, Stoa, The Porch.' From this circumstance, his followers were named Stoics, or 'Disciples of the Porch.' His school was soon crowded by disciples who excelled in subtle reasoning, at that time very popular; and in his doctrines he recommended strict morality, of which his life formed so pleasing a picture that he was very much beloved by the Athenians. So highly did they
