Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/488

Rh by the word passion, is always rendered by Cicero, when speaking in the language of the Stoics, by the term perturbatio, or perturbation. In considering the philosophy of the Stoics, the word  should always be held equivalent to perturbation. The definition, indeed, of the term , as given by the Stoics, was , translated by Cicero appetitus vehementior.  means, not passion in a state of moderation, but passion in a state of excess, a tendency or motion of the soul which is excessive and beyond bounds. This explanation of the word  as a perturbation or state of mind which was always in excess, is confirmed by Stobæus, who, in his collection of philosophical fragments, says that "Zeno does not call a  something merely capable by nature to pass into excess, but something actually in excess already, or having its essence not in mere capacity, but in actuality."—(Ecl. Eth., p. 159.)

14. Apathy therefore means, not an entire extinction of passion, but merely a liberation from immoderate and excessive passion. This being explained, it follows that their wise man, the man of perfect character, must of necessity be , apathetic or void of perturbation, not in the sense of being devoid of all feeling, but in the sense of being free from those disturbances which cloud the reason and pervert the judgment.

15. That this was the sense in which the Stoics