rather to a Stoical than to an Epicurean principle. It might mean, I endeavour to bend or subdue things to myself rather than myself to things; I endeavour to rise superior to circumstances, and refuse to allow my happiness and peace of mind to be dependent on the caprices of fortune. It might mean that; but that is a Stoical position, which Horace in this line is very far from intending to express. The meaning, therefore, must be, I endeavour to make outward things and events minister to my pleasure and contentment. Instead of submitting to be a mere tool in the hands of circumstances, I endeavour to take these circumstances into my own hands, and to convert them into the instruments of my happiness.
20. The radical difference between Stoicism and Epicurism is one which has announced itself in metaphysics no less than in morals, in speculative no less than in practical philosophy. The distinction is expressed in the antithetical terms feeling and thought, sensation and reason, sensualism and naturalism, passion and intellect; and when looked at from a moral and religious point of view, in the antithesis of the flesh and the spirit, carnal-mindedness and spiritual-mindedness. All these expressions point to a distinction which has divided the world, and the adjustment and explanation of which has occupied the attention of philosophers, both speculative and practical, from the earliest times.
