Page:Marcus Aurelius (Haines 1916).djvu/30

STOICISM Rhetoric, was the necessary instrument of all speculation; but Marcus found no satisfaction in either branch of it, nor in such Physics as dealt with Meteorology.

The key-note of Stoicism was Life according to Nature, and Marcus was converted to the pursuit of this possibly by Sextus the Boeotian. By "Nature" was meant the controlling Reason of the Universe. A study of Physics was necessary for a proper understanding of the Cosmos and our position in it, and thus formed the scientific basis of philosophy; but it was regarded as strictly subordinate, and merely a means to an end.

Though he confesses to some disappointment in his progress therein, there is no doubt that Marcus was well versed in Stoic Physics. Fully recognizing the value of a scientific spirit of enquiry, he describes it as a characteristic of the rational soul to "go the whole Universe through and grasp its plan" affirming that "no man can be good without correct notions as to the Nature of the Whole and his own constitution."

To the Stoics the UniverseGod and Matter was One, all Substance, unified by the close sympathy and interdependence of the parts, forming with the rational Power, that was co-extensive with it, a single entity. The Primary Being, by means of its

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