The Stoic Philosophy
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does agony matter? It will be ecstasy and triumph, the soul reaching its fiery union with God.
The doctrine, fine as it is, seems always to have been regarded as partly fanciful, and not accepted as an integral part of the Stoic creed. Indeed, many Stoics considered that if this Absorption in Fire should occur, it could not be final. For the essence of Goodness is to do something, to labour, to achieve some end; and if Goodness is to exist the world process must begin again. God, so to speak, cannot be good unless He is striving and helping. Phusis must be moving upward, or else it is not Phusis.
Thus Stoicism, whatever its weaknesses, fulfilled the two main demands
