Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/85

 in the immortality of the soul as a stimulus to virtue and self-abegnation in the present life.

The philosophers are marked by the same strenuous seriousness as the poets. The letters of Seneca to Lucilius are still an Enchiridion for those that love virtue, and though there were, doubtless, in the ranks of the philosophers some who deserved the ferocity of Juvenal; some who laid themselves open to the sarcasms of Seneca's friend, Marcellinus; some like Euxenus, an early teacher of Apollonius of Tyana, "who did not care much to conform the actions of his life" to the tenets of the philosophy he professed; some who resembled the Cynics who haunted the streets and temple gates of Alexandria, and did nothing, as Dion said, "but teach fools to laugh at Philosophy;" yet it is beyond controversy that philosophers at this time were generally recognized as the moral teachers of society, and contributed largely, both as domestic chaplains like Fronto, and evangelistic preachers like Apollonius of Tyana, to the spread of that virtue whose praise and admiration are so conspicuous and sincere in the Greek and Roman writers of the period. The contrast presented by the Sophists, with their artificial graces and their luxurious lives, only served to emphasize the worth of the true philosopher, and when a