Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/495

440 by which happiness, the summum bonum, may be attained. They further agree in holding that a life according to nature is a life of virtue. It is a life of virtue, of rectitude, because it is the right way leading to the true end of man, viz., to felicity. Nature has fixed happiness as the end of man; a life, therefore, according to nature must lead to this end; and a life according to nature must be a virtuous, that is, a rightly directed life, because it leads to this end. The points of agreement, then, are these: 1st, The end of man is happiness; 2dly, The mean to this end is the life according to nature; 3dly, The life according to nature is virtue, and is right, because it leads us right to the end for which we were destined by nature, viz., happiness. On the other hand, the life adverse to nature is vicious, because it leads us away from our proper destination, and causes us to miss the end for which we were created.

24. These being the chief points of agreement between the Stoics and the Epicureans, we have now to consider wherein it is that they differ. They differ in their opinions concerning happiness, and concerning the nature of man, and also concerning the character of virtue; and these are very important points in which to differ. Agreeing that happiness is the end, that the life of nature is the means, and that the life of nature and the life of virtue are coincident or identical, they by no means agree in regard to what happiness is, or in regard to what man's