Page:Ferrier Works vol 2 1888 LECTURES IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY.pdf/509

454 in either case be regarded as of no account, or as a thing to be got entirely rid of, and let the essential be made all in all, and you have either system, as the case may be, developed in its most extreme form. Let the Stoic insist, not mainly but exclusively, on the limit, the restraint, as that which should be encouraged and enforced, and you obtain a system of thoroughgoing asceticism, a system of penance and mortification of the flesh. This is the extreme into which Stoicism has run in the fastings and vigils and other austere practices of certain religious bodies. This is the form in which it has shown itself among certain orders of Roman Catholic monks, and also to some extent among the Protestant Puritans of our own country. In these bodies we frequently see Stoicism carried to an excess, because they have made the essential to be all in all, and have allowed no influence whatever to the accidental. The passions are extinguished, and the limits are set up to rule and to reign alone. On the other hand, let the Epicurean insist, not mainly but exclusively, on the passions as that which should be indulged in, and you obtain a system of thoroughgoing sensuality. This is the extreme into which Epicurism has run in many a profligate period of the world's history. Here, too, Epicurism has run into excess, because it has made what it regards as the essential to be all in all, and has allowed no influence whatever to what it regards as the accidental. As in extreme Stoicism the limit absorbs