CON WAY MEMORIAL LECTURE :cr LT)
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THE STOIC HILOSOPHY DELIVERED AT SOUTH PLACE INSTITUTE ON
MARCH
16,
1915
BY
Professor
GILBERT MURRAY
WATTS
CO.,
,
SOX
523
S
COURT, FLEKT STREET,
E.U.
RGK ALLEN & LNWIN, LTD., \ HOUSE, MUSEUM STREET, W.C. Price Sixpence Net
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
UNIFORM WITH THIS LECTURE. Each
in
boards, 6d. net (by post y^d.) net (by post ud.).
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in cloth, gd.
THE TASK OF RATIONALISM. By JOHN PEACE AND WAR IN THE BALANCE.
RUSSELL, M.A.
By HENRY W. NEVINSON.
ART AND THE COMMONWEAL. By WILLIAM WAR AND THE ESSENTIAL REALITIES.
ARCHER.
By NORMAN ANGELL.
THE LIFE PILGRIMAGE OF MONCURE DANIEL CON WAY. By J. M. ROBERTSON, M. P.
CONWAY MEMORIAL LECTURE
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY DELIVERED AT SOUTH PLACE INSTITUTE ON
MARCH
16,
1915
BY
PROFESSOR
GILBERT MURRAY
( William Archer in the Chair )
WATTS & 17
JOHNSON
S
CO.,
COURT, FLEET STREET,
E.C.
GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN, LTD., RUSKIN HOUSE, MUSEUM STREET, W.C. 1915
CHAIRMAN S INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS
IN the
far-off,
before the
almost fabulous, Golden
War,
I
Age
once attended a lecture by
our speaker of to-night, Professor Gilbert It was a most entertaining and Murray. lecture
learned on
that occasion
hope never Chairman.
to forget
;
what
but
instructive
was
I
a
chiefly
lesson
I
as to the duties of a
Nothing would tempt me to I will only reveal who the Chairman was :
say that
I
don
t
think he has ever figured, or
ever will figure, on this platform.
His speech
was a conspicuous and masterly example of how not to do it. He began by confessing that he
knew nothing
subject, but
read
it
paedia
;
went on
of Professor
Murray
to explain that
up for the occasion and thereupon he 5
in
s
he had
an Encyclo
retailed
at
great
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS and
length,
the
in
information
work
a most lugubrious fashion,
he had gleaned from that
There happened
of reference.
to
be
two or three anecdotes, manifestly the plums of the subject and the Chairman must needs ;
put in his
and
thumb and them
pull out those plums,
for the
lecturer
by serving them up with consummate insipidity. What Professor Murray must have suffered in spoil
having his subject thus broken on the wheel, His conduct I shudder even now to think.
was
certainly a noble
Had
I
been
in
example of Stoicism.
his place,
I
should infallibly
have risen up and slain that Chairman, and claimed from a jury of my countrymen a verdict of Served him right "
!"
The
my that
of
No
soul I
was burnt
into
Murray need not
fear
lesson of that occasion ;
so Professor
am going
my
to
pour out to you the stores
erudition on the subject of the Stoics.
doubt, half an hour with the Encyclopaedia
Britannica would have supplied capital
me
with some
anecdotes of Zeno, and Epictetus, and
^ IN TROD UCTOR Y A DDKESS have sternly averted from temptation. The ideal Chair
Marcus Aurelius
my
face
man, as
that ideal,
ideal If
heard."
is
away from
fall
I
who
child,
my belief that England whom Moncure
only to express
it is
no man
is
I
the
possible
seen but not
there
but
conceive him, ought to emulate as
I
nearly as "
;
in
Conway, were he alive, would more warmly welcome to this platform than our speaker His presence here
of to-night.
stood and strove
Conway
is
humanism
that that large-minded
ordinary progress even
is
a proof
for
making
which extra
our apparently
in
slow-moving England. For Professor Murray, as you
all
know,
is
not a biologist, not a
physicist, not a chemist.
He
has not pursued
any of those studies of cause and were supposed, in the Victorian
not.
which
era, to lead
and
did, in fact, enlightenment enlightenment, whether perilous or
to perilous
lead to
effect
He
hardened
not
is
in
even
a
the audacious
and two make
four.
No,
mathematician, heresy that two
his life-work has
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS lain
among
those literae humaniores which
have so often been associated,
in the
past,
with violent Toryism in politics and dense obscurantism in thought. He does not
come sity,
us from godless
to
even
nor
mildly
from
Whiggish
London
Cambridge
proclivities.
and a very loyal son, of Oxford
known how if
I
may
to
He
Univer with is
its
a son,
but he has
;
absorb the best of her culture
use a somewhat discredited word
without drinking in either her prejudices or her snobbishnesses or her cowardices.
pose we
may
take
Matthew Arnold
I
sup
as a type
of Oxford enlightenment in the last genera tion,
and
I
am
or his influence
from undervaluing his work but imagine Matthew Arnold
far ;
coming down to address us here to-night Think of the vague and Or think of Pater aesthetic vaporous paganism which was all !
!
that
Pater could extract from the spiritual
sustenance offered him by Oxford
!
Professor
Murray, as we know, occupies one of the greatest
positions
in
English scholarship
;
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS but while he scholars, he
is is
eminently a scholar pre-eminently a man
among among
His imagination and insight, working a upon solid basis of knowledge, give him an men.
extraordinary power
as
no
show you to-night
of
re-vivifying
doubt
he will
Greek
thought and experience, and making it human and real to us. Ancient Greece is not, to him, a picturesque
phenomenon
to
be contemplated
under a glass case, but an absorbing chapter in the story of
humanity,
full
mean
of vital
What
ings for the present and for the future.
,
has specially attracted him to Euripides, we may be sure, is, in the last analysis, neither hTs lyric splendour nor his dramatic subtlety, but his daring rationalism and his passionate resentment of the stupidities and cruelties
which are summed up inhumanity
to
man."
in
the phrase
These
"
man
s
cruelties, these
always with us, more or less, as we know to our cost, liable to
stupidities, are
and
are,
frightful
recrudescences.
resolute in
No one
is
more
combating them than Professor
IN TROD UCTOR V ADDRESS
io
He
Murray.
one of our foremost cham
is
pions of reason and humanity.
am
I
sure
Moncure Conway would warmly have appreciated the consistency, the sincerity, and that
the courage of his intellectual attitude, and
would especially have welcomed duct of modern Oxford.
it
as a pro
For Professor Murray does not stand alone. He is one of a group of scholars, his contem poraries
and
who
his juniors,
Oxford from a home of
lost
are converting
causes into a
Great Headquarters for causes yet Is
it
to
be won.
not a most encouraging sign of the times
that that admirable series, the sity Library,
Univer
should be edited by two
New
Professor
Murray and
Mr.
now
Vice-Chancellor
College
dons,
Herbert
Fisher,
said
if
of
What would Moncure
Sheffield University?
Conway have
Home
anyone had predicted
that, within seven years of his death, such a
book as Professor Bury s History of Freedom of Thought would be written by the Regius Professor
of
History
at
Cambridge,
and
IN TROD UCTOR Y A DDRESS
1 1
published under the editorship of the Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford?
would have
"
said,
No, no
;
move so quickly as that move it has moved and not
;
;
think he
I
the world does "
!
I
But
am
it
does
optimist
hope that the present outburst of colossal unreason, alleged to be under the
enough
to
patronage of God, may in the end promote the cause of reason, or at any rate may not involve any intellectual set-back.
hope
good
fight of spiritual illumination.
I
now
call
let
With
that
us not cease to fight the
in view,
upon Professor Murray.
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY I
FEEL a peculiar pleasure
being asked
address in commemoration
this
to give
in
of
Moncure D. Conway. I knew Mr. Conway But when I was a boy and but slightly. struggling
with
books were
among
religious
those which brought
both comfort and liberation.
who
in
his
difficulties
And
all
me
those
our generation are stirred either by convictions to a con
their doubts or their
sciousness of duties not yet stamped by the
approval
of
their
community,
recognize
him
beacons.
His character
the
as
history of his
one
life.
of is
may
their
guiding
written
large in
Few men
time have been put so clearly to
and so unhesitatingly
well
of
our
the
test
sacrificed their worldly 13
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
14
interests
of
heroic quality,
Conway
s
which
I
his
Mr.
beneath
the subject of
think,
address this evening
lay
kindliness and easy
unpretentious
humour, makes,
This strain
consciences.
their
to
not
inappropriate
my to
memory. wish
I
outline
lecture
this
in
some account
of organized thought
had
built
to
in
rough
of the greatest system
which the mind of man
for itself in the
up
give
Graeco-Roman
world before the coming of Christianity with its
inspired
tion.
book and
Stoicism
its
authoritative revela
may be
philosophy or a religion. in
its
exalted passion
inasmuch as
it
;
made no
powers or supernatural not suggest that
no errors of theory.
It
fact is
it
is
it
called It
either
was a
a
religion
was a philosophy
pretence to magical
knowledge.
I
do
a perfect system, with
and no inconsistencies of
certainly not that
;
and
I
do
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY not
know
of
any system
it
represents a
believe that
the world
and the
which possesses
human
for the
But
is.
I
of looking at
problems of
a permanent
still
life
interest
and a permanent power
shall
I
way
practical
race,
of inspiration.
that
15
approach
it,
therefore,
rather as a psychologist than as a philosopher
or historian.
I
shall not attempt to trace the
growth or variation of Stoic doctrine under its
various professors, nor yet to scrutinize
the logical validity of
merely try as best its
great central
I
its
arguments.
can to make intelligible
and the almost
principles
made
irresistible
appeal which they
of the best
minds of antiquity.
From
this point of
very rough general the religions
known
shall
I
view
will
I
to so
many
begin by a
suggestion
viz.,
to history fall
into
that
two
broad classes, religions which are suited for times
of
good
which are suited
government for times of
and
religions
bad government
;
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
16
for
religions religions
or
prosperity
for
adversity,
which accept the world or which
defy the world, which place their hopes in the betterment of
human
which look away from
By
tears. I
mean
"the
life it
on
as from a vale of in
world"
this earth or
this
connection
the ordinary concrete world, the well-
known companion
of the flesh
not the universe.
For some of the religions
and the Devil
;
which think most meanly of the world they
know have nearly
all,
a profound admiration for
all,
or
those parts of the universe where
they have not been.
Now,
to
be really successful in the struggle
for existence, a religion
of circumstances. adversity,
;
religion
which
fails in
it is
almost equally
a religion to collapse as soon as
successful.
sets
would be a very poor
on the other hand,
fatal for
suit both
which deserts you just when the
world deserts you, affair
A
must
Stoicism, like
Christianity,
it
is
was
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY primarily a religion
the
for
and defiance
religion of defence
a
oppressed,
like
but,
;
had the requisite power of
Christianity,
it
adaptation.
Consistently or inconsistently,
it
opened
its
of success I
wings
and of
embrace the needs both
To
failure.
mean- contrast
an active,
to
a
for
practical,
illustrate
moment
the
Simeon
Stylites, living in idleness
on the top of a large column
;
life
of
modern
philanthropic,
Bishop with that of an anchorite
what
like
and
or,
St. filth
again,
contrast the Bishop s ideals with those of the
author of the Apocalypse, abandoning himself to visions of
a gorgeous reversal of the order
of this evil world
All three are devout Chris
of the blessed. tians
;
and the bloody revenges
world of men, seeking ing
its
is
working with the
its
welfare and help
but the Bishop
practical
needs
rejecting or cursing
same way we
it.
;
the other
In
shall find that
two are
somewhat the our two chief c
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
i8
preachers of Stoicism are, the one a lame
and penniless slave is
whom
to
as nothing, the other an
keenly interested in
The founder came from
ficant.
Stoic
He was
fierier
Greek.
Rome,
Zeno,
school,
Athens about the year is,
perhaps, signi
a Semite, and came from the
The Semite was
East.
be
Cilicia to
of
administration.
good the
Emperor
His place of birth
B.C.
320
of
worldly success
apt in his religion to
and more uncompromizing than the
The time
significant.
It
of his
coming is certainly was a time when landmarks
had collapsed, and human
life
seemed, without a guide.
The average man
in
Greece of the
fifth
:
left,
as
it
century B.C. had two
main guides and sanctions life
was
for his
conduct of
the welfare of his City and the laws and
traditions of his ancestors.
and next the
First the
traditional religion
;
and
City, in the
fourth century both of these had fallen.
us see how.
Let
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY Devotion
the
to
19
or
City
produced a religion of public
Community The service.
City represented a high ideal, and
it
sented supreme
B.C.
supreme
had
had
power
Athens, and
By
power.
all
320
been
repre
overthrown.
independent Greek
fallen before the
the
cities,
force of
overwhelming
the great military monarchies of Alexander
and
his
The high
generals.
same time was seen to
community himself,
the
at
narrow.
be
to
ideal
The
which a man should devote
he should devote himself at
if
all,
must surely be something larger than one of these walled cities set hills.
Thus
had
taken from "
nothing Law."
Now when
Holy City they had
that they
their separate
the City, as a guide of
proved wanting. their
upon
still,
us,"
is left
says the
the Jews
still,
a guide
left.
Book
save the Holy
life,
had lost
or believed "Zion
is
of Esdras
;
One and His
But Greece had no such Law.
The
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY Greek
had
tradition
religious
been riddled with criticism.
long
since
would not
It
bear thinking out, and the Greeks liked to
The
think things out. fell
traditional
religion
not because the people were degenerate.
Quite the contrary
it
;
fell,
as
has some
it
times fallen elsewhere, because the people were
The people had advanced, and
progressive.
the traditional religion had not kept pace with
And we may add
them. tion.
If the
themselves
Gods
another considera
of tradition
capable
of
protecting
worshippers, doubtless their intellectual
deficiencies
had proved their
many moral and
might
have
been
But they had not. They had proved no match for Alexander and the overlooked.
Macedonian phalanx.
Thus tion of
the
work
320
B.C.
rebuild a
new
that lay before the genera
was twofold.
They had
to
public spirit, devoted not to
the City, but to something greater
;
and they
\x THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY had
to rebuild
21
a religion or philosophy which
should be a safe guide in the threatening chaos.
We
will see
how Zeno
girded him
self to this task.
Two
questions lay before him
and what_to
believe.
in the first,
but
without
first
it
His could
real
how
interest
For
not in the least
know what
real or unreal,
we cannot form any
as
it
was
not be answered
facing the second.
rules about conduct or
to live
if
we do
true or untrue,
is
anything
else.
reliable
And,
happened, the Sceptical school of phi
losophy, largely helped by Plato, had lately
been active
in
denying
the
possibility
human knowledge and throwing doubt on very existence of reality.
of the
Their arguments
were extraordinarily good, and many of them
have not been answered yet
;
they affect both
the credibility of the senses and the supposed
laws of reasoning.
The
Sceptics
showed how
the senses are notoriously fallible and con-
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
22
and how the laws of reasoning
tradictory,
lead by equally correct processes to opposite
Many modern
conclusions.
philosophers,
from Kant to Dr. Schiller and Mr. Bertrand Russell, have footsteps.
followed
respectfully in their
But Zeno had no patience with
sort of thing.
He wanted
Also he was a born
this
to get to business.
fighter.
His dealings
who argued against him always remind me of a story told of the Duke of Wellington when his word was
with
opponents
The Duke, when
doubted by a subaltern.
he was very old and incredibly distinguished,
was
how
telling
sula, his servant
once, at mess in the Penin
had opened a
and inside found a a very large
The Duke a
bottle,"
fixed
"It
subaltern, abashed
bottle."
"
;
"
rat."
must have been
remarked the subaltern.
him with
damned small
a very small
rat.
bottle of port,
his eye. "Oh,"
"
said
then no doubt
It
It
it
was the
was
was a damned large
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY rat,"
And
the Duke.
said
23
there the matter
has rested ever since.
Zeno began by asserting the existence the
real "
real ?
world.
"
What do you mean by I
mean
that this
table
asked the Sceptic.
material.
I "
matter."
mean
And
God,"
"
solid
said the Sceptic,
Are they solid matter?" "more solid, solid," says Zeno ;
thing, than the
or the Rule of Three; also solid "
is
Of course,"
what may be
Zeno
s
Zeno
said
called
"
if
;
and Per
any
matter?"
"
quite
solid."
doctrine,"
"high
This
and
successors eventually explained that
their master did not really
was
"
virtue or justice
"And
table."
and
solid
is
the soul? fectly
ot
solid
matter, but that
"
tension, objects. situation.
mean
"or
mutual
it
relation,
that justice
was a
among
sort of
material
This amendment saves the whole
But
it
is
well
to
remember the
uncompromising materialism from which the Stoic system started.
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
24
Now we world
is
If
the
how do we know about
it ?
can get a step further.
real,
the evidence of our senses
By
;
for the sense-
impression (here Stoics and Epicureans both followed the fifth-century physicists)
As such
must be
it
senses
The
in
case
impression."
a
is
"grasp,"
any
case,
object
upon our
of necessity
;
is
it
What we
it
sense-
grasps
is
means a sense-
"
"
need
object us, or
we cannot doubt
;
but
it
which it.
In
get the real imprint of the
senses, then this imprint
true.
we
of this phrase
its
"grasps
so that
when we
right
"
be one which
"our
incorrectly.
comprehensive
think
I
impression which
we
"
that
wrongly, or received
The meaning
not quite clear.
may
it
interpreted
all
some incomplete way.
each
in
we speak
"
sense-impression was
who have it
us
deceive
In the few
true.
we say
exceptional cases where
simply
upon our mind-
the imprint of the real thing stuff.
is
When
is
the Sceptics talk
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY about a conjurer making us,"
or
when they
"our
is
if it
were bent In
middle, they are talking inexactly.
such cases the impression it
senses deceive
object that a straight stick
put half under water looks as in the
25
is
the interrjretation that
perfectly true
may
-.
;
gQ.jwrong.
Similarly, when they argue that reasoning is fallacious because men habitually make
mistakes in
it,
they are confusing the laws of
reasoning with the inexact use which people
make
You might
of them.
two
that twice
is
just as well say
not four, or that 7 x 7
make mistakes
not 49, because people often in
is
doing arithmetic.
Thus we place real
we can
obtain a world which
and
in the
get to
is in
second knowable.
work on our
down
it
upon a very simple
first
by
Zeno
s
first
Now
real philosophy,
our doctrine of ethics and conduct. build
the
principle, laid
master,
founder of the Cynic School
And we
:
Crates,
the
the principle
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY that
Nothing but Goodness
That
Good.
is
seems plain enough, and harmless enough and so does its corollary Nothing but bad
;
"
:
ness
is
In the case of
bad."
object which clear that
it
in
goodness
call
you
"good,"
any concrete it seems quite
only good because of some
is
We,
it.
perhaps,
should
not
express the matter in quite this way, but
should scarcely think
Zeno chooses
if
to
it
worth while
phrase
the statement itself seems
it
we
to object
so, especially as
little
better than a
truism.
Now,
an ancient Greek the form of the
to
He was
accus
good
It
was
problem of conduct.
It
phrase was quite familiar.
tomed to
to
"
asking
him the
meant
"
:
element
having?" "
Nothing
ness."
central
What
in
What is
is
the
the object of
?"
life,
or the
things which makes them worth
Thus is
the
principle will
worth living
The only good
for
for
man
mean:
except good is
to
be good.
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
27
And, as we might expect, when Zeno says "good"
,
he means good in an ultimate Day-
of-Judgment sense, and
The
measures.
will
no
take
half-
principle turns out to be not
nearly so harmless as
it
looked.
It
begins by
making a clean sweep of the ordinary conven You remember the eighteenth-century tions. lady
s
epitaph which ends:
to the Earl
of
passionate,
was second cousin
religious, she
and deeply
kingdom when the
"Bland,
of Leitrim,
and of such are the
heaven."
One doubts
critical
moment came,
whether,
her relation
ships would really prove as important as her
executors hoped
;
and
it is
the
same with
conventional goods of the world before the bar of Zeno.
all
the
when brought riches, social
Rank,
distinction, health, pleasure, barriers of race
or nation
what
the tribunal of
will those things matter before;
ultimate truth
Nothing but goodness
you are that matters
is
?
good.
Not a It is
jot.
what
what you yourself are
;
|
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
28
and
these things are not you.
all
external
on
They
are
they depend not on you alone, but
;
other
The
people.
that
thing
really
matters depends on you, and on none but you.
From
You
surprising conclusion. if
important and
this there flows a very
you only knew
The good
is
if
yours
A
is
worth desiring.
you but
You
need fear nothing. utterly free.
that
all
it,
possess already,
wicked
will
are safe, inviolable,
man
or an accident
can cause you pain, break your
you
ill
;
You
it.
leg,
but no earthly power can
make
make you
good or bad except yourself, and to be good or bad is the only thing that matters.
At
common
this point
plain
man
well
but we
;
says to Zeno
know
sense rebels. :
"This
is
all
good
reverse are bad
;
very
as a matter of fact that
such things as health, pleasure, long fame, etc., are
The
;
we
we
all
like
them.
life,
The
hate and avoid them.
All sane, healthy people agree in judging
so."
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY Zeno
answer
s
he says
place,
is "
:
In
interesting.
Yes
that
;
29
the
most
what
is
first
But the judges who give that
people say.
Pleasure, though not
judgment are bribed.
really good, has just that particular
power of
bribing the judges, and making them on each occasion say or believe that she
is
Assyrian king Sardanapalus thinks to
his
stay in
good say?
;
good
it
harem, feasting and merry
making, rather than ing his
The
good.
kingdom.
suffer
He
hardship
in
govern
swears his pleasure
is
but what will any unbribed third person
Consider the judgments of history.
Do
praises a
man
you ever because
find
that
history
he was healthy,
because ho
enjoyed
or long-lived,
himself a great deal
History never thinks of such things are valueless
memory.
or
;
?
they
and disappear from the world
s
man
s
The thing
that
lives is
a
goodness, his great deeds, his virtue, or his heroism."
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
30
If
questioner was not quite satisfied,
the
Zeno used another argument. He would bid him answer honestly for himself: "Would
rupted
To have abundance
?
be a worse
Zeno
s
and cor
really like to be rich
you yourself
man ?
eyes were upon you,
Some
say you would. cular instance.
of pleasure
it
was
difficult to
Stoics took a parti
When Harmodius
and Aris-
togeiton, the liberators of Athens,
tyrant Hipparchus (which
a praiseworthy a certain
young
act),
and
And, apparently, when
"
is
slew the
always taken as
the tyrant s friends seized
girl,
named Leaina, who was
the mistress of Aristogeiton, and tortured her to
make her divulge
spirators.
And under
the
names
of the con
the torture the girl bit
out her tongue and died without speaking a
word.
Now,
assume
that Leaina
in
her previous
life
we may
had had a good deal of
Which would you sooner have as your own the early life of Leaina, which
gaiety.
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY was
of
full
the last hours of
pleasures, or
Leaina, which were
of
full
31
And
agony?
with
a Stoic s eyes upon them, as before, people
found
hard to say the
it
first.
They
yielded
arms and confessed that goodness, and
their
not any kind of pleasure,
is
the good.
But now comes an important question, and the answer to just
I
it,
will venture to suggest,
redeems Stoicism from the danger
of
becoming one of those inhuman cast-iron systems by which mankind may be brow beaten, but against which
What which
is
Goodness?
have been a
to
of the question.
We
body knows who
is
it.
What
secretly rebels. is
this
thing
the only object worth living for?
is
Zeno seems
desire.
it
Still,
And
little
impatient
know quite well
;
every
not blinded by passion or
the school consented to analyze
the
reasonableness
profound of
common
average
sense and
Greek
thought
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
.32
expressed the answer
Let us see
way.
by
chisel
in practice
characteristic
what we mean
good musician, a good horse, a good will find that
you
;
own
Take a good bootmaker, a good
"good."
father, a
in its
each one of them
has some function to perform, some special
work
to
do
;
and a good one does the work
well.
Goodness
well.
But when we say
is
performing your function "well"
falls
back on a
it
"well"?
scientific
great influence in the
it
in
fifth
do we
Here the Greek
century
B.C.,
differently
our own days.
The Greeks
"Evolution."
still
conception which had
somewhat transformed and has regained
are
What
using the idea of goodness.
mean by doing
we
called
named,
We it
and,
call
Phusis^
a word which
we
which seems
mean more exactly "growth,
"
to
the process of
translate
growth."*
by
"Nature,"
It is
it
but "or
Phusis which
* See a paper by Professor J. L. Myres, The Back ground of Greek Science," University of California "
Chronicle^ xvi,
4.
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY gradually shapes or
more
thing into a seed,
the oak
ing dog If
city.
It
shapes the
puppy
you analyze is
good hunt
into the
this process,
its
towards the good.
some
own
function
fails
some
of the seeds never take root.
the it
that, too,
seems
Phusis.
I
we
;
has
development
like a failure in the
;
Again, been
generally followed by decay
reached,
now
is,
of the blind puppies die
proper is
that
Of course Phusis some
times
;
find
you
shaping each thing towards
the fulfilment of
when
into
the savage tribe into the civilized
;
Phusis
that
perfect form.
the blind
;
shape every living
and exact gradations,
infinite
by
tries to
33
;
work of
will not consider these objections
they would take us too far afield, and
shall
need a word about them
later.
Let
us in the meantime accept this conception of a force
very like that which
most of us
assume when we speak of evolution perhaps,
it is
like
what Bergson
;
especially,
calls
La
Vie
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
34
L
or
Elan
though
Creatrice, ,
present in
all
L
Evolution
Greeks
the
to
more personal and vivid
still
is
Vital at the back of
seemed
it
a force which
;
and
the live world,
is
always
making things grow towards the fulfilment of their
is
goodness to Phusis, effort
We
utmost capacity. ;
it
is
now what
see
living or acting according
working with Phusis
in
You
towards perfection.
her eternal will
notice,
means a good deal more than we usually mean by living accord ing to nature." It does not mean living
of course, that the phrase
"
"
or
simply,"
It
means
"living
like
natural
the
man."
living according to the spirit which
makes the world grow and progress. This Phusis becomes of
much
in
Stoicism the centre
speculation and
much It
imaginative understanding.
everywhere.
It is like
running through life
of a
man
all
is
a soul, or a
matter as the
runs through
all
effort
at
at
work
life-force, "soul"
his limbs.
or It
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY the soul of the world.
is
Now,
it
35
so happened
time the natural sciences had
that in
Zeno
made a
great advance, especially. Astronomy,
s
This
Botany, and Natural History.
made people
all
the
the
life
a principle which ran through
movements
Kosmos, or
"
of
ordered
Law
what they
is,
from another point
of Nature
chain of causation by which
their
called the
Thus Phusis,
world."
of the world,
of view, the
for the
;
it
all
is
the great
events occur
;
Phusis which shapes things towards
end acts always by the laws of causation.
Phusis
is
not a
sort
of arbitrary personal
goddess, upsetting the natural order is
had
familiar with the notion of natural
Law was
law.
fact
the
natural
order,
;
Phusis
and nothing happens
without a cause.
A alive,
natural law, yet a natural law which
which
is
itself life.
It
becomes
is
indis
tinguishable from a purpose, the purpose of the great world-process.
It
is
like a fore-
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
36
common word
Providence
"
translation of this Pronoia,
meaning has been
its
Pronoia
power
fore-thinking
seeing,
"
the
is
down and
rubbed
principle of providence or forethought to
God which
must be
in
some sense
comes
fire,
not ordinary
A
intellectual fire.
warm, fire
fire,
is in all
is
made
made
is
it
;
fire
which
is
of
present in a
in a cold,
which has consciousness and
not subject to decay.
This
fire,
dead life,
man and
;
is
Phusis, God,
creation.
We are
led to a very definite
Pantheism.
The
usual objections.
God
is
it
but what they called
man, and not
live
And, since
material,
of the finest material there
"
a
admitted
is
by the austere logic of Stoicism.
a
it
As
be regarded as God, the nearest approach
to a definite personal
it
Latin
though of course
in the process of the ages.
cheapened
our
;
in fleas
and complete
Sceptic begins to "
God
make
in worms?"
and dung
beetles?"
his
he asks.
And, as
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY made
usual, the objector
is
he spoke.
not?"
"
"Why
to feel sorry that
the Stoic answers;
cannot an earthworm serve
suppose that
is
it
or
who
lowest
the
is
a
private
attendant fight his best and give his
camp
life
Do you
God?
only a general
Cannot
good soldier?
37
for his cause ?
Happy
are
and carrying
serving God,
if
you out
you are
the
great
purpose as truly as such-and-such an earth
That
worm?"
world
is
is
working together.
It
fact,
affected.
that the
And,
it.
no single part of
either rejoice or suffer without all
being
one
all
is
living whole, with one soul through
as a matter of
All the
the conception.
The man who does
it
the
can rest
not see
good of every living creature
is
his
good, the hurt of every living creature his hurt,
is
one who wilfully makes himself a
kind of outlaw or exile
So we
are led
up
:
he
is
blind, or a fool.
to the great doctrine of the
later Stoics, the Su/nrafla a
rwv oXwv, or
Sym-
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
38
Whole
pathy of the truth of
which
is
;
a grand conception, the
illustrated in the ethical
and by the feelings of good men,
We
of natural science
excused
for feeling
a
little
:
Thus Goodness
by the
surprise
because they
It is
may be
as well they is
world
moderns may be
fact that the stars twinkle.
are so so rry for us
in the
world
acting,
!
according
to
Phusis, in harmony with the will of God.
But here comes an obvious
God
is
God
is
Nature
all,
the ;
objection.
how can any one do otherwise? omnipresent Law God is all ;
in
no one can help being
with him.
The answer
is
that
God
except in the doings of bad men. is
a
free
How
do we know that?
sense impression which
"
Why
a
phantasia,
katalcptike
resist.
If
it
it
is
harmony is
in
For man
Why, by
comprehensive impossible to
should be so we cannot
God might have
preferred
for his fellow-workers
;
but,
all
tell.
chained slaves as a matter of
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY he preferred free
fact,
39
Man
men."
s
soul,
being actually a portion of the divine
God
has the same freedom that
He
can act either with
God
fire,
himself has.
or against him,
though, of course, when he acts against him
he
will
Thus
ultimately be overwhelmed.
Stoicism grapples with a difficulty which no religion has satisfactorily solved.
You
have observed that by now we
will
have worked out two quite one
Stoic
who
works with tianity,
have
defies the
the world
world and one as
and,
in
first
the scorner of
badness bad.
human
indifferent.
Pain,
is
all
who
Chris
both types are equally orthodox.
Nothing but goodness
ness,
;
different types of
We
earthly things.
good
pleasure,
;
nothing but health, sick
friendship and affection, are
The
truly wise
man
possesses his
he communes with God.
soul in peace
;
always, with
all
his
force,
all
He
wills the will of
v
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
40
God
thus everything that befalls him
;
is
a
^
own
fulfilment of his
will
A type
and good.
closely akin to the early Christian ascetic or
the Indian saint.
And
in the
second place we have the
man
who, while accepting the doctrine that only goodness
is
good, lays stress upon the defini
tion of goodness.
It
is
acting according to
Phusis, in the spirit of that purpose or fore
thought which, though sometimes
failing, is
working always unrestingly for the good of the world, and which needs its fellow workers.
God
is
helping the whole world
only help a limited
fraction of
;
you can
the
world.
But you can try to work in the same spirit. There were certain old Greek myths which told how Heracles and other heroes had passed laborious lives serving and helping humanity,
and
in the
end became gods.
such myths as allegories. to
heaven
;
that
The
Stoics used
That was the way
was how a man may
at the
end
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
41
become not a dead body, but a star. In the magnificent phrase which Pliny trans
of his
life
from a Greek Stoic,
lates
nothing but that of
man
Deus
;
man
;
s true
in the
all
and
the helping
is
mortalem.
Roman
governors.
we
the principal kings in existence
generations following Zeno
And
themselves Stoics.
professed
the most famous of
Marcus Aurelius, found
all Stoics,
that,
the successors of Alexander
all
say
is
a religion appealed to
such
kings and statesmen and
may
God
est mortali iuvare
No wonder
Nearly
God
his religion
not only in meditation and religious exercises,
but in working some sixteen hours a day for the
good
practical
government of the
Roman
Empire. Is there
real contradiction or inconsis
any
tency between the two types of Stoic virtue?
On
the surface certainly there
the school
way
to
felt
meet
it,
it.
and
The
seems
to
be
;
and
tried in a very interesting difficulty is this
:
what
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
42
is
the
good of working
humanity
such welfare
if
for is
the welfare of
really worthless?
Suppose, by great labour and
skill,
you
sifc-
ceed in reducing the death-rate of a plaguestricken area
;
suppose you make a starving
country-side prosperous it
all
if
;
what
is
the
good of
health and riches are in themselves
worthless, and not a whit better than disease
and poverty
?
The answer
A
is
clear
good bootmaker
boots
;
is
and uncompromising. one who makes good
a good shepherd
sheep well
;
is
one who keeps his
and even though good boots
are,
Day-of-Judgment sense, entirely worth and fat sheep no whit better than starved
in the less,
sheep, yet the good bootmaker or good shep
herd must do his work well or he will cease to
To
be good. function
;
and
be good he must perform his in
performing that function
there are certain things that he to others,
must
"prefer"
even though they are not really
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY He must
"
good."
prefer a healthy sheep or
a well-made boot to their opposites.
she shapes the seed into the
tree, or
the blind
good hound. The perfection or hound is in itself indifferent, a Yet the goodness
thing of no ultimate value. of Nature lies in
working
for that perfection.
more than once ?nce
Life becomes, as the Stoics
which
us, like a play
counters
engaged
in
is
that the
should be played.
ame game ,M.
outside,
to
those
importance
and
really
game
but
;
their
game
What
paramount. matters
valueless
are
the
acted or a
is
Viewed from
played with counters. the
when
into the
of the tree
tell
thus
It is
or Phusis, herself works
that Nature,
puppy
43
is
ultimately
shall be played as
it
God, the eternal dramatist,
has cast you for some part in his drama, and
hands you the
role.
It
may
turn out that
are cast for a triumphant king
a slave
who
dies of torture.
matter to the good actor
?
;
it
may
7
you
be for
What does that He can play either
\
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
44
part
his only business
;
given him, and to perform life is
a
to play
board he
game it
to accept the role
is
well.
it
in the right
Similarly,
Your business
of counters.
He who
way.
may have given you many
may have
arranged
at
that,
counters
;
have
a particular point in the
men
game, most of your
shall
You
accidentally off the board.
be swept
will lose the
game; but why should you mind is
set the
He may
given you few.
is
that?
It
your play that matters, not the score that to
you happen
He
make.
not a fool to
is
judge you by your mere success or Success or failure
is
a thing
without stirring a hand.
Him.
What
interests
He
It
Him
your
free
and conscious
This view at times
it
is
can determine
hardly interests
is
which he cannot determine
failure.
the one thing action
the
of
will.
so sublime and so stirring that
almost deadens one
s
power of
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY how it works
Let us see
criticism.
45
in a parti
Suppose your friend is in sorrow what are you to do ? In the first place,
cular case.
or pain,
all
sympathy runs and if the stars
since
you may sympathize
through the universe,
And
sympathize surely you yourself may.
you must
of course
your function.
bound
to
all
Yet,
are helping and
That
help.
the time, while
sympathizing, are
remember
mistaken
Similarly,
if
in
you
you not
that your friend s pain or
sorrow does not really matter quite
part of
is
that
imagining
a village in
He
at all ?
your
it
is
does.
district
is
threatened by a band of robbers, you will rush off
with soldiers to save
every
effort,
will give
But suppose,
sary. late,
you
and
it
your
after all,
will
life
you
if
make neces
arrive too
find the inhabitants with their throats
cut and the village in ruins
mind ?
you
;
You know
it
why should you
does not matter a straw
whether the villagers throats are cut or not
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
46
cut
all
;
that matters
the hour of death.
and
of the Stoics of
pound
how
is
Mr. Bevan, whose studies Sceptics form a rare
delicate
and
learning the
imagination, says that Stoic in
they behaved in
a case like this
messenger boy sent
is
to
but of
if
go duly
the addressee
is
itself
not to be found at any
has no interest for him.
;
The good
to the
messenger
has done his duty, and the parcel
and say he found
various
to all the addresses,
them what does that matter
boy? He
of a
parcel to
try
addresses in order to find him. will
of the
that
deliver a
to
someone, with instructions
messenger boy
historical
attitude like
com
is
sorry that the
but his sorrow
is
He may return man cannot be
not heartfelt.
It
is
only a polite pretence.
The comparison Stoics.
No
this point
is
a
little
hard on
the
doubt they are embarrassed at
between the claims of high logic
and of human
feeling.
But they meet the
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY embarrassment bravely. your friend
s suffering,"
course you will suffer.
"
You
says Epictetus. I
Yet !
in the centre
"E
/ilvrot
man
accept the will of
Man
;
cannot but suffer
yet a Christian
God and
is
told to
believe that ulti
some way which he does not Judge of the World has done right.
mately, in the
Finally, life
what
of Stoic
is
for
duty and
pleasure,
to
virtue?
basing their whole stern
Many
religions, after
theory of
self-sacrifice
lapse
into
conduct
in the
on
and contempt
confessing the un
by promising the
a reward that they shall be
monly happy
see,
be the end after this
reality of their professions faithful as
/xr)
very like the Christian doc
trine of resignation. for his fellow
Of
do not say that you
of your being do not groan It is
will suffer in "
must not even groan aloud.
47
next world.
was not
It
that they really disdained pleasure
uncom
;
it
was
.
j
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
48
only that they speculated for a higher rate of a later date.
interest at
open
to that criticism,
and so
of popular Christianity.
maintains
its
ideal
You remember
Notably, Islam is
a great deal
Stoicism
is
not.
that
we touched,
in passing,
Nature shapes things
towards their perfection, but she also fall
altitude.
end, said the Stoic
and he said
as a suggestion
confidently, in
lets
away after reaching a certain She fails constantly, though she
reaches higher and higher success.
dogma
It
unchanged.
the problem of decay.
them
is
the very end,
it
In the
not very
rather than
perfection
a
should
be reached, and then there will be no falling All the world will have been wrought
back.
up
to the level of the divine soul.
is
Fire
;
and
into that Fire
we
That soul shall all be
drawn, our separate existence and the dross of our earthly
Then
nature burnt
there will be no
utterly
away.
more decay or growth
;
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY no pleasure, no disturbance.
moment
of
matter?
It will
agony, but what
soul reaching
The
It
49
be a
may
does
agony
be ecstasy and triumph, the
its
fiery
union with God.
doctrine, fine as
it
is,
seems always
have been regarded as partly
fanciful,
to
and
not accepted as an integral part of the Stoic creed. if
Indeed,
this
is
to
some end
Stoics considered that
in
Absorption
could not be
ness
many
Fire should
and
to labour, to
Goodness
if
is
achieve
exist the
to
world process must begin again.
God, so
speak, cannot be good unless he
is
and
upward, or
Thus fulfilled
else
must
Phusis
helping.
it is
Stoicism, the two
it
For the essence o
final.
do something, ;
occur,
;
be
to
striving
moving
not Phusis.
whatever
main
its
weaknesses,
demands
man
that
makes upon his religion it gave him armour when the world was predominantly evil, and :
E
I
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
50
it
encouraged him forward when the world was It
predominantly good.
afforded guidance
both for the saint and the public servant.
And
developing this twofold character
in
think
was not influenced by mere incon It was trying to meet the actual
it
stancy.
For
truth of the situation. it
seems
to
there
Life
striving
most systems
in
be recognized that in the is
both an element of
it is
it is
Good
outward
and an element of inward peace.
There are things which we must yet
I
try to attain,
not really the attainment that matters
the seeking.
And, consequently,
sense, the real victory best, not with the
For beyond
all
is
in
;
some
who fought
with him
man who happened
to win.
the accidents of war, beyond
the noise of armies and groans of the dying, there It is
A
is
the presence of
our relation
to
Him
some
eternal friend.
that matters.
Friend behind phenomena,
phrase to Mr.
Bevan.
It
is
I
owe
the
the assump-
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY tion
which
or later
cism
all
all
make, and sooner
religions
The main
philosophies.
which
I
should
on Stoicism would
51
criti
be inclined to
lie
pass
Starting out,
here.
with every intention of facing the problem of the world by hard thought and observation, resolutely excluding all
and mere mythology,
it
appeal to tradition
ends by making
tremendous assumption, that there ficent
a bene
purpose in the world and that the force
which moves nature
we once grant system
fall
is
akin to ourselves.
of pleasure
there
easily into place.
universe,
There may be
the worthlessness
and worldly goods is
;
though, after
a single great purpose in the
and that purpose good,
must admit
If
that postulate, the details of the
some overstatement about
all, if
is
this
that,
in
I
think
comparison with
happiness of any individual at this dwindles into utter insignificance.
it,
we the
moment
The good,
and not any pleasure or happiness,
is
what
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
52
must
then the problem
from the
A
no such purpose,
If there is
matters.
all
well,
be stated afresh
beginning".
second
criticism,
which
is
passed by
modern psychologists on the Stoic system, is more searching but not so dangerous. The language of Stoicism, as of
all
ancient philo
sophy, was based on a rather crude psycho-
ly- ^ too
was
much
over-intellectualized.
attention
to
saw
is
life
mental
below the
acts,
human conduct
level of consciousness.
much
too
attention to
little
the enormously larger part of
which
and not
correction
needs.
of
sufficiently as
statement
into a motive impulse,"
or
force. o^/i//,
origin rises in .the
It
a con
Yet a very is
Stoicism does not really
"
It
as a series of separate
tinuous, ever-changing stream. little
paid
fully conscious and
and too
rational processes,
It
all
that
it
make reason
explains
that
an
of physical or biological
mind prompting
to
some
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY action,
and then Reason gives or withholds
There
assent ((rvyKaraOtaig).
its
53
wrong
seriously
is
nothing
here.
Other
criticisms, based
on the unreality of
the ideal
Wise Man, who
acts without desire
and makes no
errors,
seem
They depend
importance.
me
of smaller
chiefly
on certain
to
idioms or habits of language, which, though not really exact, convey a fairly correct
mean
ing to those accustomed to them.
But the assumption of the Eternal Purpose stands
a
in
different
However
category.
much
refined away,
tion.
We may discard what Professor William
James used our
own
may
to call
it
"
remains a vast assump
Monarchical Deism
claim to personal immortality.
or
We
base ourselves on Evolution, whether of
the Darwinian or the Bergsonian sort.
we do seem
to find, not
but in practically that
"
man
is
all
only
in
all
philosophies,
But
religions,
some
belief
not quite alone in the universe,
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
54
but
is
met
in his
endeavours towards the good
by some external help or sympathy. find
it
We
find
everywhere
in the unsophisticated
in the
it
unguarded
We man.
self-revelations
of the
most severe and conscientious Atheists.
Now,
the Stoics, like
many
other schools of
thought, drew an argument from this con
sensus of
mankind.
all
It
was not an absolute
proof of the existence of the Gods or Provi dence, but
it
was a strong
existence of a
the
mind
of
that there
common
man
indication.
The
instinctive belief in
gives at least a presumption
must be a good cause
for
that
belief.
This
is
a reasonable position.
be some such cause.
But
it
that the only valid cause is
content of the belief.
ing that this
is
I
There must
does not follow the truth of the
cannot help suspect
precisely one of those points
on which Stoicism,
in
company with almost
all
to
the present time, has
philosophy up
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY gone astray through not its
sufficiently realizing
dependence on the human
natural
important
in
this matter to
so-called belief
mind as a
For
product.
biological
is
it
realize that
not really an
is
55
very the
intellectual
judgment so much as a craving of the whole nature. It is
logists
only of very
have begun
to
realize the
dominion of those forces is
years that psycho
late
escape
men dreamed from
as easily as these brave
powers beneath
the grip of the blind
Indeed, as
of which he
We cannot
normally unconscious.
threshold.
man
in
enormous
I
the
see philosophy after
philosophy falling into this unproven belief in the
that
I
Friend behind phenomena, as
myself cannot, except for a
and by an
effort,
same assumption, here too
we
ineradicable
refrain it
seems
I
find
moment
from making the to
me
that perhaps
are under the spell of a very old instinct.
We
are
gregarious
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY
56
animals
;
our ancestors have been such for
We
countless ages.
cannot help looking out
on the world as gregarious animals do see
it
in
;
we
terms of humanity and of fellowship.
Students of animals under domestication have
shown us how
is
which a dog
no
longer
there
the time he
is
the
pack to
out walking, the pack he
when danger
threatens.
It
a strange and touching thing, this eternal
hunger of the gregarious animal of friends it
shaped
to the lost
way back
tries to smell his
calls to for help is
his kind, are
thousand details by reference
pack which
all
habits of a gregarious
away from
creature, taken in a
the
may
who
are not there.
And
very possibly be, that,
of this Friend behind
for the herd it
may
in the
be,
matter
phenomena, our own
yearning and our own almost ineradicable instinctive conviction, since they are certainly
not founded on either reason or observation, are in origin the groping of a lonely-souled
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY gregarious animal to find
herd or
its
57
its
herd-
leader in the great spaces between the stars.
At any get rid
it
rate,
is
a belief very
difficult to
of.
NOTE. Stoicism,
Without attempting a bibliography of may mention the following books as
I
(i) Original Stoic trans Epictetus, Discourses* etc. Marcus lated by P. E. Matheson, Oxford, 1915. Aurelius, To Himself ; translated by J. Jackson,
likely to be useful to a student
:
Literature.
;
Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, Oxford, 1906. collected by Von Arnim, 1903-1905. (2) Modern Roman Stoicism (Cambridge, 1911), Literature.
by E. V. Arnold a very thorough and useful piece Stoics and Sceptics, by Edwyn Bevan of work. (Oxford, 1913) slighter, but illuminating. The doctrine of the things which are preferred ;
;
"
"
(7rpo?7yp:Va), first
though not
"good,"
correctly explained by H.
was,
I
think,
Gomperz, Lebens-
auffassung der Griechischen Philosophie, 1904. Professor Arnold s book contains a large biblio
graphy.
,
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
BIOGRAPHICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES CONCERNING MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY 1832.
1850.
1851.
Born
in
Virginia.
Free Schools in Virginia. Enters Methodist Ministry.
1854.
Enters Unitarian Ministry.
1858.
Marries.
1863.
Comes
1864. 1865. 1869.
1870.
to England. Preaches at South Place Chapel.
Appointed permanent Minister.
Abandonment of prayer, followed gradual abandonment of Theism. The Earthward Pilgrimage.
1874.
The Sacred Anthology.
1877.
Idols
1883.
Lessons for the
1884.
Temporarily
and
by
Ideals.
Day
(2
vols.).
(Revised
edition, 1907.) retires 61
from South Place.
A PPENDICES
62
1892.
Returns to South Place. Life of
Thomas Paine.
1897.
Death of Mrs. Conway. Final retirement from South Place.
1904.
Autobiography
1906.
My Pilgrimage to
1907.
Dies
1909.
1910.
(2 vols.).
the Wise
Men
of the East.
in Paris.
Moncure D. Con-way. Addresses and Re prints. (A Memorial volume containing a complete Bibliography.) First Memorial Lecture.
1911.
Second Memorial Lecture.
1912.
Third Memorial Lecture.
1913.
Fourth Memorial Lecture.
Memorial Lecture.
1914.
Fifth
1915.
Sixth Memorial Lecture.
APPENDIX B THE CONWAY MEMORIAL LECTURESHIP AT
a general meeting of the South Place Ethical Society, held on October 22, 1908, it was resolved, after full discussion, that an effort should be made to establish a series of lectures, to be printed
and
APPENDICES
63
Memorial
widely circulated, as a permanent Dr. Conway.
Moncure Conway pation of the
s untiring- zeal for
human mind from
to
the emanci
the thraldom of
obsolete
or waning beliefs, his sympathy with the oppressed and
pleadings for a
for
wider and
profoimder conception of human fraternity than the world has yet reached, claim, it is urged, an offering of gratitude more permanent than the eloquent
or
obituary
reverential
of
service
mourning.
The range is
of the lectures (of which the sixth published herewith) must be regulated by the
financial support accorded to the is
hoped that
for the
sufficient
endowment
tinguished public social,
political,
scheme
;
but
it
funds will be forthcoming
of periodical lectures by dis men, to further the cause of
and
which Dr. Conway
s
religious
name must
freedom, with ever be asso
ciated.
The Committee, although not yet in possession of the necessary capital for the permanent endow ment of the Lectureship, thought it better to inaugurate the work rather than to contributions. The funds
further
for
hand,
which may reasonably be the immediate future, will ensure the
together with
expected in
wait in
those
APPENDICES
64
delivery of an annual lecture for
some years
at
least.
The Committee
earnestly
appeal
donations or subscriptions from until
Memorial
the
Contributions
may
either to
year
for
year
permanently established. be forwarded to the Hon. is
Treasurer.
On
behalf of the Executive Committee
W.
C.
COUPLAND, M.A., Chairman.
(Mrs.) C. FLETCHER SMITH and E.
Hon.
:
J.
FAIRHALL,
Secretaries.
M. COCKBURN, Hon. Treasurer, Ashburton Road, Croydon.
(Mrs.) F. deniya,"
"Pera-
Murray, G. The stoic philosophy
B 528 ,M8
