CHAP.

VI.

from Destiny, and both of these notions again from Zeus, the distinction can only be, that the three conceptions describe one original Being at different stages of His manifestations and growth. Viewed as the whole of the world He is called Zeus; viewed as the inner power in the world, Providence or Destiny;2 and to prove this identity Chrysippus maintained. that at the close of every period Zeus reunited Providence to Himself.3

Moreover, upon closer examination, the difference between the materialistic and idealistic description of God vanishes. God, according to Stoic principles, can only be invested with reality when He has a material form. Hence when he is called the Soul, the Mind, or the Reason of the world, this is only done on the assumption that these conceptions have a material form. Such a material form the Stoics thought to discern in that heated fluid which they at one time denominated Air Current, at

45, 1: Vis illum fatum vocare?
Non errabis. Hic est, ex quo
suspensa sunt omnia, causa caus-

arum.

1 Stob. Ecl. i. 178 (Plut. Plac. 1. 28, 5): Ποσειδώνιος τὴν εἶμαρμένην] τρίτην ἀπὸ Διός, πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ εἶναι τὸν Δία, δεύτερον δὲ τὴν φύσιν, τρίτην δὲ τὴν εἱμαρμévny. In Cic. Divin. i. 55, 125, prophecy is deduced, according to Posidonius, (1) a Deo, (2) a fato, (3) a natura. Plut. C. Not. 36, 5: λέγει γοῦν Χρύσιππος, ἐοικέναι τῷ μὲν ἀνθρώπῳ τὸν Δία καὶ τὸν κόσμον, τῇ δὲ ψυχῇ τὴν πρόνοιαν· ὅταν οὖν ἐκ πύρωσις γένηται μόνον ἄφθαρτον ὄντα τὸν Δία τῶν

another Ether, at another Fire; definitions all of which appeared to them equally indispensable, and which become identical as soon as the Stoic premisses are granted. According to these premisses the infinite character of the divine Reason depends on the purity and lightness of the fiery material which composes it. Seneca is therefore quite in harmony with Stoic theories when he speaks of its being indifferent whether God is spoken of as Destiny or as an allpervading Air Current.3 Those who would charge the Stoics with inconsistency for calling God at one time Reason, at another Soul of the universe, at another Destiny, at another Fire, Ether, or even the Universe, forget that they are attaching to these

4

Cic. Acad. i. 11, 39: (Zeno) statuebat ignem esse ipsam naturam. Diog. vii. 156: doкeî de αὐτοῖς τὴν μὲν φύσιν εἶναι πῦρ τεχνικὸν ὁδῷ βαδίζον εἰς γένεσιν, ὅπερ ἐστὶ πνεῦμα πυροειδὲς καὶ τεχνοειδές. Stob. Eel. i. 180: Χρύσιππος δύναμιν πνευματικὴν τὴν οὐσίαν τῆς εἱμαρμένης τάξει τοῦ παντὸς διοικητικήν; or, according to another definition: εἱμαρμένη ἐστὶν ὁ τοῦ κόσμου λόγος, ἢ λόγος τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ προνοίᾳ διοικουμένων, κ.τ.λ. stead of Aoyos, he also used aλθεια, φύσις, αἰτία, ἀνάγκη, &ε.

In

2 Cic. N. D. ii. 11, 30: Atque etiam mundi ille fervor purior, perlucidior mobiliorque multo ob easque causas aptior ad sensus commovendos quam hic noster calor, quo hæc quæ nota nobis sunt, retinentur et vigent. Absurdum igitur est dicere, cum homines bestiæque hoc calore teneantur et propterea moveantur ac sentiant, mundum esse sine

sensu, qui integro et puro et
libero eodemque acerrimo et mo-
bilissimo ardore teneatur. Ar.
Didymus, page 124.

3 Consol. ad Helvid. 8, 3: Id
actum est, mihi crede, ab illo,
quisquis formatio universi fuit,
sive ille Deus est potens omnium,
sive incorporalis ratio ingentium
operum artifex, sive divinus
spiritus per omnia maxima ac
minima æquali intentione dif-
fusus, sive fatum et immutabilis
causarum inter se cohærentium
series.

Cic. N. D. i. 14: Zeno calls natural law divine, but he also calls the Ether and the all-pervading Reason God; Cleanthes gives the name of God to the world, reason, and the soul of the world; Chrysippus to reason, to the soul of the world, to ruling reason, to communis natura, destiny, fire, ether, the world-whole, and eternal law.

СНАР.

VI.

СНАР.

VI.

(b) God as original matter.

terms a meaning entirely different from those in which they were used by the Stoics.'

The more the two aspects of the conception of God-the material and the ideal-are compared, the clearer it becomes that there is no difference between God and original Matter. Both are one and the same Being, which when conceived of as universal subject-matter, is known as inert matter; but when conceived of as acting force, is called universal Ether, all-warming Fire, all-penetrating Air, Nature, Soul of the world, Reason of the world, Providence, Destiny, God. Property and material, matter and form, are not as with Aristotle things radically different, though united from all eternity. Far from it, the forming force resides in matter as such; it is in itself something material; it is identical with ether, or fiery matter, or atmospheric current. The difference, therefore, of material and efficient cause, of God and matter, resolves itself into the difference between Air Currents and other materials. It is in itself no original ultimate difference. According to the Stoic teaching, every particular material has developed in the lapse of time out of the original fire or God, and to God it will return at the end of the world. The difference is therefore only a temporary and passing one-one with which we have here nothing to do. The conception of God, however, taken in its full meaning, includes the original matter, as well as the original force. The sum of all real existences constitutes the divine Air Current, extending beyond Krische, Forsch. i. 365.

3

its own limits, and withdrawing into them again.1 God is the original fire, containing in Himself the germ of force and of matter;" He is the World in its atmospheric condition, the Universal Substance changing into definite materials, and returning to itself again, which regarded in its real form as God includes everything, but is more often regarded under one or other aspect only, as including only a part of real existence.1

CHAP.

VI.

theism.

(1) God

with the

world.

From all that has been said it follows that the C. PanStoics did not think of God and the world as different beings. Their system was therefore strictly pan- identical theistic. The world is the sum of all real existence, and all real existence is originally contained in God, who is at once universal matter and the creative force which fashions matter into the particular materials of which things are made. We can, therefore, think of nothing which is not either God or a manifestation of God. In point of Being, God and the world are the same, the two conceptions being declared by the Stoics to be absolutely identical.5 If they have

1 Chrysippus. See p. 145, note 1. Aristocles. See p. 141, note 3. Mnesarchus, in Stob. i. 60. Orig. c. Cels. iii. 75: Erwïκῶν θεὸν φθαρτὸν εἰσαγόντων καὶ τὴν οὐσίαν αὐτοῦ λεγόντων σῶμα τρεπτὸν διόλου καὶ ἀλλοιωτὸν καὶ μεταβλητὸν καί ποτε πάντα φθειρόντων καὶ μόνον τὸν θεὸν καταλιTóvTWV. Ibid. iv. 14: ó tŵv Σtwiκῶν θεὸς ὅτε σῶμα τυγχάνων ὅτε μὲν ἡγεμονικὸν ἔχει τὴν ὅλην ovσlav Öтaν † EKπUpwσis · ÖTE δὲ ἐπὶ μέρους γίνεται αὐτῆς ὅταν Η διακόσμησις.

Besides the quotations already given from Chrysippus and Cleanthes, compare Phaedr. Nat. De. (Philodem. repl evσeβείας), Col. 5 : Διογένης δ' ὁ Βαβυλώνιος ἐν τῷ περὶ τῆς ̓Αθηνᾶς τὸν κόσμον γράφει τῷ Διὶ τὸν αὐτὸν ὑπάρχειν, ἢ περιέχειν τὸν Δία καθάπερ ἄνθρωπον ψυχήν. Cic. N. De. ii. 17, 45: Nothing corresponds better to the idea of God, quam ut primum hunc mundum, quo nihil fieri excellentius potest, animantem esse et Deum judicem. Ibid. 13, 34:

CHAP.

VI.

nevertheless to be distinguished, the distinction is only derivative and partial. The same universal Being is called God when it is treated as a whole, World when it is regarded as progressive in one of the many forms assumed in the course of its development. The difference, therefore, is tantamount to assigning a difference of meaning to the term world, according as it is used to express the whole of what exists or only a part.'