of his life was reflected in the moral principles which he promulgated; principles, however, which were not without grandeur and truth, could we but get them exhibited to us in a clear and systematic exposition.
4. So scattered and fragmentary are the notices of the Stoical philosophy that have come down to us, so declamatory and incoherent is every exposition of their ethical opinions, that it is by no means easy to give any account of their moral philosophy which shall be either intelligible or interesting. The germ of the Stoical morality seems to lie in some such proposition as this: All good, all happiness, all virtue, consists in a conformity to law, just as all evil, all misery, all vice, consists in lawlessness, in a repudiation or violation or defiance of law. Submission to law, acquiescence in the established order of the universe, this seems to be the principle, and, indeed, the sum and substance, of their moral code. That being, I think, the general root of their system, we have now to consider the details into which it branches. And I ask what is the law, a conformity with which is equivalent to good, is equivalent to happiness, is equivalent to virtue? The answer, so far as man is concerned, seems to be this: To be virtuous and happy, man must conform first to the law of his own nature; secondly, he must conform to the law by which society is held together; thirdly, he must conform to the law of Providence. A life in conformity with these three laws, or rather three
