Page:Marcus Aurelius (Haines 1916).djvu/35

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

STOICISM

possible for a man to maintain his moral standard.[1] The door is open, but the call must be very clear.[2] Still the act seems quite inconsistent with the doctrine of submission to Destiny, and the classing of things external as indifferent.

In this brief sketch of Stoicism much has perforce been omitted, and much may seem obscure, but Marcus confesses that "things are in a manner so wrapped up in mystery that even the Stoics have found them difficult to apprehend."[3] This at least we know, that Stoicism inspired some of the noblest lives ever lived, left its humanizing impress upon the Roman Law, which we have inherited, and appeals in an especial way to some of the higher instincts of our nature.

  1. v. 29; ix. 2.
  2. xi. 3; Epict. i. 29, §28; i. 24 ad fin.; iii. 13, §14.
  3. v. 10.
xxvii