The Stoic Philosophy

CON WAY MEMORIAL LECTURE
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THE STOIC HILOSOPHY

DELIVERED AT SOUTH PLACE INSTITUTE ON
MARCH
16,
1915
BY
Professor
GILBERT MURRAY
WATTS
,
CO.,
E.U.
SOX
COURT, FLEKT STREET,
523
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THE LIFE PILGRIMAGE OF MONCURE DANIEL CON WAY. By J. M. ROBERTSON, M. P.
CONWAY MEMORIAL LECTURE

DELIVERED AT SOUTH PLACE INSTITUTE ON
MARCH
16,
1915
BY
PROFESSOR
GILBERT MURRAY
( William Archer in the Chair )
WATTS &
17
CO.,
E.C.
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COURT, FLEET STREET,
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1915
CHAIRMAN S INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS
IN the
far-off,
almost fabulous, Golden

I
Age
before the
War,
once attended a lecture by
our speaker of to-night, Professor Gilbert It was a most entertaining and Murray.
instructive
lecture
;
but
what
chiefly
learned on
that occasion
to forget
was
lesson
hope never Chairman.
as to the duties of a
Nothing would tempt me to I will only reveal who the Chairman was
:
say that
don
think he has ever figured, or
ever will figure, on this platform.
His speech
was a conspicuous and masterly example of how not to do it. He began by confessing
that he
knew nothing
went on
of Professor
Murray
subject, but
to explain that
in
he had
read
it
paedia
up for the occasion and thereupon he

5
an Encyclo
at
retailed
great
INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS
length,
and
in
a most lugubrious fashion,
the
information
he had gleaned from that
work
of reference.
There happened
to
be
two or three anecdotes, manifestly the plums of the subject and the Chairman must needs
;
put in his
thumb and
them
pull out those plums,
by serving them up with consummate insipidity. What Professor Murray must have suffered in
spoil
and
for the
lecturer
having his subject thus broken on the wheel, His conduct I shudder even now to think.
was
certainly a noble
I
example of Stoicism.
I
Had
been
in
his place,
should infallibly
have risen up and slain that Chairman, and claimed from a jury of my countrymen a verdict of Served him right
"
!"
The
lesson of that occasion

;
was burnt
into
fear
my
that
soul
I
so Professor
to
Murray need not
am going
pour out to you the stores
of
my
erudition on the subject of the Stoics.
No
doubt, half an hour with the Encyclopaedia
Britannica would have supplied

capital
me
with some
anecdotes of Zeno, and Epictetus, and
^
IN TROD UCTOR Y A DDKESS
Marcus Aurelius
have sternly averted from temptation. The ideal Chair
;
but
my
face
I
man, as
"
conceive him, ought to emulate as

possible
nearly as
the
ideal
If
I
child,
fall
who
is
seen but not

it is
heard."
away from
that ideal,
only to express
in
there
is
no man
my belief that England whom Moncure
Conway, were he alive, would more warmly welcome to this platform than our speaker
of to-night.
His presence here
is
a proof
that that large-minded
humanism
is
for
which
extra
Conway
stood and strove

in
making
ordinary progress even
our apparently
slow-moving England. For Professor Murray,

as you
all
know,
is
not a biologist, not a
physicist, not a chemist.
He
has not pursued

effect
any of those studies of cause and were supposed, in the Victorian

to perilous
which
era, to lead
lead to
not.
did, in fact, enlightenment enlightenment, whether perilous or

is
and
He
not
even
mathematician,
heresy that two
hardened
in
the audacious
four.
and two make
No,
his life-work has
lain
among
those literae humaniores which

in the
have so often been associated,
past,
with violent Toryism in politics and dense obscurantism in thought. He does not
come
sity,
to
us from godless
London
Univer
with
is its
nor
even
from
Cambridge
mildly
Whiggish
to
proclivities.
He
;
a son,
and a very loyal son, of Oxford
but he has
known how
if I
absorb the best of her culture
may
use a somewhat discredited word
without drinking in either her prejudices or

her snobbishnesses or her cowardices.
I
sup
pose we
may
I
take
Matthew Arnold
as a type
of Oxford enlightenment in the last genera

tion,
and
am
far
;
or his influence
from undervaluing his work but imagine Matthew Arnold

!
coming down to address us here to-night Think of the vague and Or think of Pater aesthetic vaporous paganism which was all
!
that
Pater could extract from the spiritual

!
sustenance offered him by Oxford
Professor
Murray, as we know, occupies one of the

greatest
positions
in
English scholarship
but while he
scholars, he
is
is
eminently a scholar pre-eminently a man
among among
His imagination and insight, working a upon solid basis of knowledge, give him an
men.
extraordinary power
as
of
no
doubt
he will
show you to-night
re-vivifying
Greek
thought and experience, and making it human and real to us. Ancient Greece is not, to him,
a picturesque
phenomenon
humanity,
to
be contemplated
under a glass case, but an absorbing chapter

in the story of
full
of vital
mean
ings for the present and for the future.
What
has specially attracted him to Euripides, we may be sure, is, in the last analysis, neither hTs lyric splendour nor his dramatic subtlety,
but his daring rationalism and his passionate resentment of the stupidities and cruelties
which are summed up

inhumanity
to
man."
in
the phrase
"
man
These
cruelties, these
stupidities, are
and
are,
always with us, more or less, as we know to our cost, liable to

recrudescences.
frightful
No one
is
more
resolute in
combating them than Professor
io
IN TROD UCTOR V ADDRESS
Murray.
that
He
is
one of our foremost cham

I
pions of reason and humanity.
am
sure
Moncure Conway would warmly have appreciated the consistency, the sincerity, and
the courage of his intellectual attitude, and
would especially have welcomed duct of modern Oxford.
it
as a pro
For Professor Murray does not stand alone. He is one of a group of scholars, his contem
poraries
and
his juniors,
who
lost
are converting
Oxford from a home of
causes into a
to
Great Headquarters for causes yet

Is
it
be won.
not a most encouraging sign of the times
that that admirable series, the

sity Library,
Home
Univer
should be edited by two

Professor
New
Mr.
of
College
dons,
Murray and
Vice-Chancellor
Herbert
Fisher,
now
if
Sheffield University?
What would Moncure

anyone had predicted
Conway have
said
that, within seven years of his death, such a
book as Professor Bury s History of Freedom of Thought would be written by the Regius
Professor
of
History
at
Cambridge,
and
IN TROD UCTOR Y A DDRESS
1 1
published under the editorship of the Regius

Professor of Greek at Oxford?
I
think he
would have
not
"
said,
No, no
the world does

"
move so quickly as that move it has moved and

; ;
But
it
does
am
optimist
hope that the present outburst of colossal unreason, alleged to be under the
enough
to
patronage of God, may in the end promote the cause of reason, or at any rate may not
involve any intellectual set-back.
With
that
hope
in view,
let
us not cease to fight the
good
I
fight of spiritual illumination.

call
now
upon Professor Murray.

I
FEEL a peculiar pleasure

this
in
being asked
of
to give
address in commemoration
Moncure D. Conway. I knew Mr. Conway But when I was a boy and but slightly.
struggling
with
religious
difficulties
his
books were
among
those which brought
me
both comfort and liberation.
And
all
those
who
in
our generation are stirred either by

convictions to a con
their doubts or their
sciousness of duties not yet stamped by the
approval
recognize
beacons.
the
of
their
community,
one
of
is
may
well
him
as
their
guiding
large in
of
the
His character
life.
written
history of his
Few men
our
test
time have been put so clearly to
and so unhesitatingly
sacrificed their worldly

13
14

to
interests
their
consciences.
This strain
beneath
of
heroic quality,
s
which
lay
Mr.
Conway
unpretentious
I
kindliness and easy
humour, makes,
think,
the subject of
my
to
address this evening

his
not
inappropriate
memory.
wish
in
this
lecture
to
give
in
rough
outline
some account
of the greatest system
of organized thought
which the mind of man
had
built
up
for itself in the
Graeco-Roman
world before the coming of Christianity with

its
inspired
book and
its
authoritative revela
called
It
tion.
Stoicism
may be
it
either
philosophy or a religion.
in
its
was a
religion
exalted passion
it
was a philosophy
do
inasmuch as
made no
pretence to magical
powers or supernatural
not suggest that
it
knowledge.
is
a perfect system, with
no errors of
theory.
It
fact
is
and no inconsistencies of
;
certainly not that
and
do

not
15
know
of
it
any system
represents a
that
is.
But
believe that
way
of looking at
life
the world
and the
practical
problems of
which possesses
for the
still
a permanent
interest
human
race,
I
and a permanent power

approach
it,
of inspiration.
shall
therefore,
rather as a psychologist than as a philosopher
or historian.
shall not attempt to trace the
growth or variation of Stoic doctrine under

its
various professors, nor yet to scrutinize

its
the logical validity of
arguments.
shall
merely try as best

its
can to make intelligible
great central
principles
and the almost
irresistible
appeal which they
made
to so
many
of the best
minds of antiquity.
view
I
From
this point of
will
begin by a
viz.,
very rough general

the religions
suggestion
that
known
to history fall
into
two
broad classes, religions which are suited for

times
of
good
government
for times of
and
religions
;
which are suited
bad government
16

for
religions religions
prosperity
or
for
adversity,
which accept the world or which
defy the world, which place their hopes in

the betterment of
human
life
it
on
this earth or
which look away from

tears.
I
as from a vale of
in
By
"the
world"
this
connection
mean
the ordinary concrete world, the wellof the flesh
known companion
not the universe.
and the Devil
For some of the religions
which think most meanly of the world they
know have
nearly
all,
a profound admiration for
all,
or
those parts of the universe where
they have not been.
Now,
to
be really successful in the struggle
for existence, a religion
must
suit both
sets
of circumstances.
adversity,
religion
which
fails in
which deserts you just when the
world deserts you,

affair
;
would be a very poor

it is
on the other hand,
almost equally
it
fatal for
a religion to collapse as soon as

Stoicism, like
Christianity,
is
successful.
was

primarily a religion
religion of defence
for
the
oppressed,
;
and defiance
but,
like
Christianity,
it
had the requisite power of
adaptation.
it
Consistently or inconsistently,
opened
its
wings
to
embrace the needs both
of success
I
and of
failure.
To
illustrate
what
of
mean- contrast
for
moment
the
life
an active,
practical,
philanthropic,
modern
like
Bishop with that of an anchorite
St.
filth
Simeon
Stylites, living in idleness

;
and
on the top of a large column
or,
again,
contrast the Bishop s ideals with those of the
author of the Apocalypse, abandoning himself

to visions of
a gorgeous reversal of the order
of this evil world of the blessed.

tians
;
and the bloody revenges
All three are devout Chris

is
but the Bishop
working with the

welfare and help
world of men, seeking

ing
its
its
practical
needs
it.
the other
two are
rejecting or cursing
In
somewhat the
our two chief
c
same way we
shall find that
i8
preachers of Stoicism are, the one a lame
and penniless slave

is
to
whom
worldly success
of
as nothing, the other an
Emperor
Rome,
keenly interested in
good
the
administration.
Stoic
school,
The founder
came from
320
B.C.
of
Zeno,
Cilicia to
Athens about the year

is,
His place of birth
perhaps, signi
ficant.
He was
a Semite, and came from the

apt in his religion to
East.
The Semite was The time

It
be
fierier
and more uncompromizing than the
Greek.
significant.
coming is certainly was a time when landmarks

life
of his
had collapsed, and human

seemed, without a guide.
in
was
left,
as
it
The average man

for his
Greece of the
fifth
century B.C. had two
main guides and sanctions

life
:
conduct of
the welfare of his City and the laws and

First the
;
traditions of his ancestors.
City,
in the
and next the
traditional religion
and
fourth century both of these had fallen.
Let
us see how.

Devotion
to
19
the
City
or
produced a religion of public
Community The service.

it
City represented a high ideal, and
repre
the
sented supreme
power.
By
been
320
B.C.
supreme
power
all
had
overthrown.
cities,
Athens, and
independent Greek
had
fallen before the
overwhelming
force of
the great military monarchies of Alexander
and
his
generals.
The high
to
ideal
at
the
same time was seen
be
narrow.
The
community
himself,
if
to
which a man should devote

all,
he should devote himself at
must surely be something larger than one

of these walled cities set
hills.
upon
their separate
life,
Thus
the City, as a guide of
had
lost
proved wanting.
their
Now when
a guide
the Jews
Holy City they had

had
still,
still,
or believed
"Zion
that they
left.
is
taken from
"
us,"
says the
Book
of Esdras
nothing
Law."
is left
save the Holy
One and His

The
But Greece had no such Law.

Greek
religious
tradition
had
It
long
since
been riddled with criticism.
would not
bear thinking out, and the Greeks liked to

think things out.
fell
The
traditional
religion
not because the people were degenerate.

;
Quite the contrary
it
fell,
as
it
has some
times fallen elsewhere, because the people were

progressive.
The people had advanced, and

another considera
the traditional religion had not kept pace with
them.
tion.
And we may add

If the
Gods
of tradition of
had proved
their
themselves
capable
protecting
worshippers, doubtless their

intellectual
many moral and

have
been
deficiencies
might
But they had not. They had proved no match for Alexander and the
overlooked.
Macedonian phalanx.
Thus
tion of
the
work
B.C.
that lay before the genera
320
was twofold.
They had
to
rebuild a
new
public spirit, devoted not to

;
the City, but to something greater
and they
\x
had
to rebuild
21
a religion or philosophy which
should be a safe guide in the threatening

chaos.
We
will see
how Zeno
girded him
self to this task.
Two
questions lay before him

believe.
how
to live
and what_to
in the first,
His
could
real
interest
was
but
it
not be answered
without
first
facing the second.
For
if
we do
not in the least

real or unreal,
know what
is
true or untrue,
reliable
we cannot form any

anything
else.
rules about conduct or
And,
as
it
happened, the Sceptical school of phi
losophy, largely helped by Plato, had lately
been active
in
denying
the
possibility
of
the
human knowledge and throwing doubt on

very existence of reality.
Their arguments
were extraordinarily good, and many of them
have not been answered yet
they affect both
the credibility of the senses and the supposed
laws of reasoning.
The
Sceptics
showed how
the senses are notoriously fallible and con-
22

and how the laws of reasoning
tradictory,
lead by equally correct processes to opposite
conclusions.
Many modern
followed
philosophers,
from Kant to Dr. Schiller and Mr. Bertrand

Russell, have
footsteps.
respectfully in their
this
But Zeno had no patience with
sort of thing.
He wanted
to get to business.
Also he was a born

with
fighter.
His dealings
who argued against him always remind me of a story told of the Duke of Wellington when his word was
opponents
doubted by a subaltern.
The Duke, when
he was very old and incredibly distinguished,
was
telling
how
once, at mess in the Penin
sula, his servant
had opened a
rat.
"It
bottle of port,
and inside found a

a very large
must have been
bottle,"
remarked the subaltern.

his eye.
"Oh,"
"
The Duke
a
fixed
him with
bottle."
It
was
the
damned small
said
it
subaltern, abashed
"
then no doubt
was
a very small
"
rat."
It
was a damned large

rat,"
23
said
the Duke.
And
there the matter
has rested ever since.
Zeno began by asserting the existence

the
real
"
ot
world.
"
What do you mean by

"
real ?
asked the Sceptic.

I
"
mean
table
solid
is
and
material.
matter."
mean
that this
solid
"
And
God,"
said the Sceptic,
and
Per
the soul?
fectly
Are they solid matter?" "more solid, solid," says Zeno

;
"
if
any
thing, than the
table."
"And
virtue or justice
matter?"
or the Rule of Three; also solid

"
Of course,"
said
Zeno
called
"
quite
solid."
This
is
what may be
s
"high
doctrine,"
and
Zeno
successors eventually explained that
their master did not really
mean
it
that justice
sort of
was
"
solid
matter, but that

"or
was a
tension,
objects.
situation.
mutual
relation,
among
material
This amendment saves the whole
But
it
is
well
to
remember the
uncompromising materialism from which the

Stoic system started.
24
Now we
world
is
can get a step further.
If
the
it ?
real,
how do we know about

;
By
the evidence of our senses
for the sense-
impression (here Stoics and Epicureans both

followed the fifth-century physicists)
the imprint of the real thing
stuff.
is
simply
upon our mindIn the few

that
"our
As such
it
must be
true.
exceptional cases where
we say
senses
deceive
us
"
we speak
all
incorrectly.
;
The
sense-impression was
interpreted
it
right
it
is
we
who have
it
wrongly, or received
in
some incomplete way.

case
is
What we
need
senseis
in
each
"
comprehensive
impression."
The meaning
I
of this phrase
not quite clear.
think
"grasps
"
it
"
means a senseits
"
impression which
object
us, or
but
it
may
we
any
be one which
so that
grasps
which
it.
"grasp,"
we cannot doubt
In
case,
when we
get the real imprint of the

is
object
upon our
senses, then this imprint
of necessity
true.
When
the Sceptics talk

about a conjurer making
us,"
25
"our
senses deceive
or
when they
object that a straight stick

if it
put half under water looks as

in the
were bent
In
;
middle, they are talking inexactly.

is
such cases the impression

it
-.
perfectly true
is
the interrjretation that
may
gQ.jwrong.
Similarly, when they argue that reasoning is fallacious because men habitually make
mistakes in
it,
they are confusing the laws of
reasoning with the inexact use which people
make
of them.
You might
is
just as well say

is
that twice
two
not four, or that 7 x 7
not 49, because people often

in
make mistakes
doing arithmetic.
Thus we
place real
obtain a world which

in the
is in
the
first
and
second knowable.
Now
we can
get to
work on our
real philosophy,
our doctrine of ethics and conduct.

build
it
And we
the
upon a very simple
principle, laid
down
first
by
Zeno
master,
:
Crates,
founder of the Cynic School
the principle

that
Nothing but Goodness
is
Good.
That
;
seems plain enough, and harmless enough and so does its corollary Nothing but bad
"
ness
is
bad."
In the case of
call
"good,"
object which
clear that
it
you
is
it.
any concrete it seems quite
only good because of some
goodness
in
We,
it
perhaps,
should
not
express the matter in quite this way, but
we
should scarcely think

if
worth while
it
to object
Zeno chooses
to
phrase
so, especially as
the statement itself seems
little
better than a
truism.
Now,
tomed
to
to
an ancient Greek the form of the
phrase was quite familiar.

to
"
He was
good
?"
accus
It
asking
What is
the
was
It
him the
"
central
is
problem of conduct.
the object of
life,
meant
What
Thus
is
or the
element
in
things which makes them worth

the
principle will
for
having?"
"
mean:
Nothing
worth living
for
except good
is
ness."
The only good
man
to
be good.
27
And, as we might expect, when Zeno says

"good"
he means good in an ultimate Daywill
of-Judgment sense, and

measures.
take
no
half-
The
principle turns out to be not

it
nearly so harmless as
looked.
It
begins by
making a clean sweep of the ordinary conven You remember the eighteenth-century tions.
lady
s
epitaph which ends:

religious, she
"Bland,
passionate,
and deeply
to the Earl
was second cousin
of Leitrim,
heaven."
and of such are the
kingdom when the
of
One doubts
whether,
critical
moment came,
and
the
her relation
ships would really prove as important as her
executors hoped
it is
same with
all
the
conventional goods of the world

before the bar of Zeno.
when brought
riches, social
Rank,
distinction, health, pleasure, barriers of race
or nation
what
will those things matter before;
the tribunal of
ultimate truth
is
Not a
It is
jot.
Nothing but goodness
good.
what
;
you are that matters
what you yourself are
28

all
and
these things are not you.

;
They
that
are
external
they depend not on you alone, but

people.
on
other
The
thing
really
matters depends on you, and on none but you.
From
this there flows a very
important and
surprising conclusion.
if
You
that
is
possess already,
you only knew

is
it,
all
if
worth desiring.
will
it.
The good
yours
you but
You
need fear nothing.

utterly free.
You
are safe, inviolable,
wicked
man
or an accident
leg,
can cause you pain, break your
make
you
ill
but no earthly power can
make you
good or bad except yourself, and to be good or bad is the only thing that matters.
At
plain
this point
common
:
sense rebels.
"This
The
very
man
says to Zeno
is
all
well
but we
know
as a matter of fact that

life,
such things as health, pleasure, long

fame, etc., are
good
;
we
all
like
them.
The
reverse are bad
we
hate and avoid them.

so."
All sane, healthy people agree in judging

Zeno
place,
s
29
answer
he says
is
"
interesting.
In
is
the
first
Yes
that
what
most
people say.
But the judges who give that

Pleasure, though not
judgment are bribed.
really good, has just that particular
power of
bribing the judges, and making them on each

occasion say or believe that she
is
good.
it
The
good
Assyrian king Sardanapalus thinks

to
stay in
his
harem, feasting and merry

suffer
making, rather than

ing his
hardship
in
govern
is
kingdom.
He
swears his pleasure
good
say?
but what will any unbribed third person
Consider the judgments of history.

find
Do
man
or
?
you ever
because
that
history
praises a
he was healthy,
enjoyed
or long-lived,
because ho
himself a great deal

;
History never thinks of such things

are valueless
they
s s
and disappear from the world

that
lives is
memory.
The thing
man
goodness, his great deeds, his virtue, or his

heroism."
30

If
the
questioner was not quite satisfied,
Zeno used another argument. He would bid him answer honestly for himself: "Would
you yourself
rupted
?
really like to be rich
and cor
To have abundance
man ?
"
of pleasure
and
be a worse
And, apparently, when

it
Zeno
eyes were upon you,
was
difficult to
say you would.

cular instance.
Some
Stoics took a parti
When Harmodius
is
and Arisslew the
togeiton, the liberators of Athens,
tyrant Hipparchus (which
always taken as
a praiseworthy a certain
act),
the tyrant s friends seized
young
girl,
named Leaina, who was

the
the mistress of Aristogeiton, and tortured her

to
make her divulge
names
of the con
spirators.
And under
the torture the girl bit
out her tongue and died without speaking a
word.
Now,
in
her previous
life
we may
assume
gaiety.
that Leaina
had had a good deal of
Which would you sooner have as your own the early life of Leaina, which

was
full
31
of
pleasures, or
full
the last hours of
Leaina, which were
of
agony?
And
with
a Stoic s eyes upon them, as before, people
found
their
it
hard to say the
first.
They
yielded
arms and confessed that goodness, and

is
not any kind of pleasure,
the good.
But now comes an important question, and

the answer to
just
it,
will venture to suggest,
redeems Stoicism from the danger
of
becoming one of those inhuman cast-iron systems by which mankind may be brow
beaten, but against which
it
secretly rebels.
is
What
which
is
is
Goodness?
What
this
thing
the only object worth living for?

to
Zeno seems
have been a
little
impatient
;
of the question.
We
is
know quite well
every
body knows who

desire.
it.
not blinded by passion or
Still,
the school consented to analyze
And
the
profound
of
common
sense and
reasonableness
average
Greek
thought
.32

in its
expressed the answer
own
characteristic
way.
Let us see
in practice
what we mean
by
"good."
Take a good bootmaker, a good

each one of them
father, a
good musician, a good horse, a good

will find that
chisel
you
has some function to perform, some special
work
well.
to
do
and a good one does the work

is
Goodness
performing your function

"well"
well.
But when we say
we
are
still
using the idea of goodness.
What
do we
mean by doing
falls
it
"well"?
Here the Greek
back on a
scientific
conception which had
great influence in the
fifth
century
B.C.,
and,
somewhat transformed and

has regained
"Evolution."
differently
named,
call
it
it
in
our own days.

called
We
it
The Greeks
we
translate
Phusis^
a word which
by
"Nature,"
but
"or
which seems
"
to
mean more exactly "growth,

growth."*
the process of
It is
Phusis which
"
* See a paper by Professor J. L. Myres, The Back ground of Greek Science," University of California
Chronicle^ xvi,
4.

gradually shapes or
tries to
33
shape every living

It
thing into a
seed,
more
perfect form.
shapes the
into
by
;
infinite
and exact gradations,
the oak
the blind
;
puppy
into the
good hunt
ing dog
city.
the savage tribe into the civilized
If
you analyze
is
this process,
you
find
that
Phusis
shaping each thing towards

its
the fulfilment of
own
function
that
is,
towards the good.

times
fails
;
Of course Phusis some

of the blind puppies die
;
some
some
of the seeds never take root.
Again,
been
;
when
the
it
proper
is
development
has
reached,
that, too,
generally followed by decay

like a failure in the
seems
I
work of
Phusis.
will not consider these objections
now
we
they would take us too far afield, and
shall
need a word about them
later.
Let
us in the meantime accept this conception of a force
very like that which
most of us
;
assume when we speak of evolution

perhaps,
it is
especially,
like
what Bergson
calls
La
Vie
34
or
Elan
Vital at the back of
Evolution
it
Creatrice,
,
though
to
the
Greeks
;
seemed
still
more personal and vivid

all
a force which
is
present in
the live world,
and
is
always
making things grow towards the fulfilment of

their
utmost capacity.
is
;
We
see
now what
goodness
to Phusis,
effort
it
is
living or acting according

in
working with Phusis
her eternal
will
towards perfection.
You
notice,
of course, that the phrase
means a good deal more than we usually mean by living accord ing to nature." It does not mean living
"
"
simply,"
or
"living
like
the
natural
man."
It
means
living according to the spirit which
makes the world grow and progress.

This Phusis becomes
of
in
Stoicism the centre
much
speculation and
much
It
is
effort
at
imaginative understanding.
at
work
everywhere.
It is like
all
a soul, or a
life-force,
"soul"
running through
life
matter as the
all
or
It
of a
man
runs through
his limbs.

is
35
the soul of the world.
Now,
it
so happened
that in
Zeno
time the natural sciences had
made a
great advance, especially. Astronomy,
Botany, and Natural History.
This
fact
had
made people
law.
all
familiar with the notion of natural
Law was
the
"
a principle which ran through

of
movements
what they
called the
Kosmos, or
the
life
ordered
world."
Thus Phusis,
of the world,
is,
from another point

;
of view, the
Law
of Nature
it
is
the great
;
chain of causation by which

for the
all
events occur
Phusis which shapes things towards
their
end acts always by the laws of causation.

is
Phusis
not a
sort
of arbitrary personal
;
goddess, upsetting the natural order

is
Phusis
the
natural
order,
and nothing happens
without a cause.
A
alive,
natural law, yet a natural law which
is
which
is
itself life.
It
becomes
indis
tinguishable from a purpose, the purpose of

the great world-process.
It
is
like a fore-
36

fore-thinking
"
seeing,
power
"
Pronoia
is
our
Latin
common word
Providence
the
translation of this Pronoia,

its
though of course
meaning has been
rubbed
down and
cheapened
in the process of the ages.

it
As
principle of providence or forethought

to
comes
be regarded as God, the nearest approach
to a definite personal
God which
is
admitted
by the austere logic of Stoicism.

it
And, since
it
must be
in
some sense
material,
is
;
is
made
of
of the finest material there

fire,
it
is
made
not ordinary
fire,
but what they called
intellectual fire.
fire
which
is
present in a
warm,
a
fire
live
man, and not
in a cold,
dead
life,
man
and
which has consciousness and

This
fire,
is
not subject to decay.

is in all
Phusis, God,
creation.
led to a very definite
We are
and complete
Pantheism.
The
Sceptic begins to
"
make
his
usual objections.
"
God
in worms?"
beetles?"
he asks.
God
in fleas
and dung
And, as

usual, the objector
is
37
made
to feel sorry that
he spoke.
"
"Why
not?"
the Stoic answers;
cannot an earthworm serve

it
God?
Do you
who
is
suppose that
is
only a general
the
good soldier?
or
Cannot
lowest
private
camp
attendant fight his best and give his
life
for his cause ?
Happy
are
you
out
if
you are
great
serving God,
and carrying
the
purpose as truly as such-and-such an earth

worm?"
That
is
the conception.
It
is
All the
all
it.
world
is
working together.
one
living whole, with one soul through
And,
it
as a matter of
fact,
no single part of
can
rest
either rejoice or suffer without all
the
being
affected.
The man who does
not see
is
that the
good of every living creature
his
good, the hurt of every living creature his

hurt,
is
one who wilfully makes himself a

:
kind of outlaw or exile
he
is
blind, or a fool.
So we
are led
up
to the great doctrine of the
later Stoics, the Su/nrafla a
rwv oXwv, or
Sym-
38

Whole
is
;
pathy of the
truth of
a grand conception, the
which
illustrated in the ethical

in the
world
and by the feelings of good men,

of natural science
world
We
a
little
moderns may be
surprise
It is
excused
for feeling
by the
fact that the stars twinkle.
because they
are so so rry for us
as well they
is
may be
Thus Goodness
acting,
according
to
Phusis, in harmony with the will of God.
But here comes an obvious
objection.
If
God
God
is is
all,
the
;
how can any one do otherwise? omnipresent Law God is all

;
Nature
no one can help being
in
harmony
is
with him.
The answer
is
that
God
in
all
except in the doings of bad men.

is
For man
free
How
do we know that?
a
it
Why, by
katalcptike
phantasia,
comprehensive
impossible to
tell.
sense impression which

resist.
"
is
Why
it
should be so we cannot
preferred
;
God might have
chained slaves
as a matter of
for his fellow-workers
but,

fact,
39
he preferred free
men."
Man
soul,
fire,
being actually a portion of the divine

has the same freedom that
God
himself has.
He
he
can act either with
God
or against him,
though, of course, when he acts against him

will
ultimately be overwhelmed.
Thus
Stoicism grapples with a difficulty which no

religion has satisfactorily solved.
You
Stoic
will
have observed that by now we

different types of
have worked out two quite

one
who
defies the
;
world and one

and,
as
in
who
works with
tianity,
the world
Chris
both types are equally orthodox.

the scorner of
is
We
have
first
all
earthly things.
;
Nothing but goodness

badness bad.
ness,
good
nothing but
health, sick
all
Pain,
pleasure,
human
friendship and affection, are
indifferent.
The
;
truly wise
man
possesses his
soul in peace
he communes with God.

his
force,
He
always, with
all
wills the will of
40

;
God
^
thus everything that befalls him
is
fulfilment of his
own
will
and good.
A type
closely akin to the early Christian ascetic or
the Indian saint.
And
in the
second place we have the
man
who, while accepting the doctrine that only

goodness
is
good, lays stress upon the defini

It
is
tion of goodness.
acting according to
Phusis, in the spirit of that purpose or fore
thought which, though sometimes
failing, is
working always unrestingly for the good of the world, and which needs its fellow workers.
God
is
helping the whole world

fraction of
you can
world.
only help a limited
the
But you can try to work in the same spirit. There were certain old Greek myths which told how Heracles and other heroes had passed
laborious lives serving and helping humanity,
and
in the
end became gods.
The
Stoics used
such myths as allegories.

to
That was the way

at the
heaven
that
was how a man may
end

of his
life
41
become not a dead body, but a star. In the magnificent phrase which Pliny trans
lates
from a Greek Stoic,

;
God
God
is
that,
and
nothing but that

of
man
s true
is
the helping
man
Deus
est mortali iuvare
mortalem.
No wonder
all all
such
a religion appealed to
kings and statesmen and
Roman
governors.
Nearly
the successors of Alexander
we
may
say
the principal kings in existence
in the
generations following Zeno
professed
themselves Stoics.
all Stoics,
And
the most famous of

his religion
Marcus Aurelius, found
not only in meditation and religious exercises,
but in working some sixteen hours a day for

the
good
practical
government of the
Roman
Empire.
Is there
any
real contradiction or inconsis
tency between the two types of Stoic virtue?
On
the surface certainly there

felt
it,
seems
to
be
and
the school
and
tried in a very interesting

difficulty is this
:
way
to
meet
it.
The
what
42

the
is
good of working
if
for
is
the welfare of
humanity
such welfare
really worthless?
skill,
Suppose, by great labour and
you
sifc-
ceed in reducing the death-rate of a plaguestricken area

;
suppose you make a starving

;
country-side prosperous
it
what
is
the
good of
all
if
health and riches are in themselves
worthless, and not a whit better than disease
and poverty
? is
The answer
clear
is
good bootmaker
;
and uncompromising. one who makes good

is
boots
a good shepherd
;
one who keeps his

are,
sheep well
in the
less,
and even though good boots
Day-of-Judgment sense, entirely worth and fat sheep no whit better than starved
sheep, yet the good bootmaker or good shep
herd must do his work well or he will cease to be good.

function
;
To
and
be good he must perform his

in
performing that function
there are certain things that he

to others,
must
"prefer"
even though they are not really

"
43
good."
He must
prefer a healthy sheep or

It is
a well-made boot to their opposites.

that Nature,
thus
or Phusis, herself works

tree, or
when
she shapes the seed into the
the blind
puppy
into the
of the tree
good hound. The perfection or hound is in itself indifferent, a

Yet the goodness
for that perfection.
thing of no ultimate value.

of Nature lies in
working
Life becomes, as the Stoics

tell
more than once ?nce
us, like a play
which
is
acted or a
ame game
,M.
those
is
\
7
played with counters.

the
Viewed from
;
outside,
counters
in
are
valueless
their
but
to
engaged
the
game
importance
paramount.
matters
is
What
really
and
ultimately
it
that the
game
shall be played as
should be played.
God, the eternal dramatist,
has cast you for some part in his drama, and
hands you the
role.
It
may
turn out that

;
you
are cast for a triumphant king
it
may
be for
a slave
who
dies of torture.
?
matter to the good actor
What does that He can play either
44

;
part
his only business
is
to accept the role

it
given him, and to perform

life is
well.
Similarly,
is
game
it
of counters.
Your business
to play
in the right
way.
He who
set the
;
board he
may have given you many

given you few.
at
that,
counters
may have
He may
shall
have
arranged
a particular point in the
game, most of your
men
be swept
accidentally off the board.
You
will lose the
game; but why should you mind

is
that?
It
your play that matters, not the score that

to
you happen
make.
He
is
not a fool to
failure.
judge you by your mere success or

Success or failure
is
a thing
He
is
can determine
without stirring a hand.
It
hardly interests
the one thing
the
Him.
What
free
interests
Him
will.
which he cannot determine

your
action
of
and conscious
This view
at times
it
is
so sublime and so stirring that

s
almost deadens one
power of

criticism.
45
Let us see
how it works
in a parti
cular case.
or pain,
Suppose your friend is in sorrow what are you to do ? In the first place,
since
you may sympathize

all
through the universe,
sympathy runs and if the stars
sympathize surely you yourself may.

of course
And
you must
Yet,
help.
all
That
is
part of
your function.
are helping and
the time, while
you
sympathizing, are
you not
bound
to
remember
that your friend s pain or

at all ?
sorrow does not really matter

quite
He
it
is
mistaken
if
in
imagining
that
does.
is
Similarly,
a village in
your
district
threatened by a band of robbers, you will rush

off
with soldiers to save

effort,
it
you
will
if
make
neces
every
sary.
late,
you
will give
your
life
But suppose,
and
after all,
you
arrive too
find the inhabitants with their throats
cut and the village in ruins
why should you
mind ?
You know
it
does not matter a straw
whether the villagers throats are cut or not
46

;
cut
all
that matters
is
how
they behaved in
the hour of death.

of the Stoics
Mr. Bevan, whose studies

Sceptics form a rare
and
com
pound
of
delicate
learning
the
is
and
historical
imagination, says that

Stoic in
attitude
like
of the
of a
a case like this

to
that
messenger boy sent
deliver a
to
parcel to
someone, with instructions
try
various
addresses in order to find him.
The good
messenger boy
but
of
if
will
go duly
is
to all the addresses,
the addressee
not to be found at any

to the
them what does that matter
messenger
boy? He
itself
has done his duty, and the parcel
has no interest for him.

is
and say he
found
;
sorry that the

is
He may return man cannot be

It
is
but his sorrow
not heartfelt.
only a polite pretence.
The comparison
Stoics.
is
little
hard on
the
No
doubt they are embarrassed at
this point
between the claims of high logic

feeling.
and of human
But they meet the

embarrassment bravely.
your friend
s suffering,"
"
47
You
will suffer in
"
says Epictetus.
I
Of
course you will suffer.
do not say that you
must not even groan aloud.

of your being do not groan
<n-vape."
!
Yet
in the centre
/ilvrot
/xr)
"E<rw0v
It is
very like the Christian doc
trine of resignation.
for his fellow
Man
cannot but suffer

is
man
yet a Christian
told to
accept the will of

mately, in
the
God and
believe that ulti

see,
some way which he does not Judge of the World has done right.
what
Finally,
life
is
to
be the end after this
of Stoic
virtue?
Many
religions, after
basing their whole

stern
for
theory of
conduct
on
duty and
self-sacrifice
and contempt
pleasure,
lapse
into
confessing the un
reality of their professions

faithful as
by promising the
a reward that they shall be

in the
uncom
was not
monly happy
next world.
It
that they really disdained pleasure
it
was
48
only that they speculated for a higher rate of

interest at
a later date.
Notably, Islam
is
is
open
to that criticism,
and so
a great deal
is
of popular Christianity.
Stoicism
not.
It
maintains
its
ideal
unchanged.
You remember
that
we touched,
in passing,
the problem of decay.
Nature shapes things

lets
towards their perfection, but she also
them
fall
altitude.
away after reaching a certain She fails constantly, though she

In the
reaches higher and higher success.

end, said the Stoic
confidently,
and he said
it
not very a
as a suggestion the very end,
rather than
dogma
back.
in
perfection
should
be reached, and then there will be no falling

All the world will have been wrought
up
is
to the level of the divine soul.
That soul
shall all be
Fire
and
into that Fire
we
drawn, our separate existence and the dross

of our earthly
nature burnt
utterly
away.
;
Then
there will be no
more decay or growth

no pleasure, no disturbance.
It
49
may
be a
moment
matter?
of
agony, but what
does
agony
It will
its
be ecstasy and triumph, the

fiery
soul reaching
union with God.

it
The
doctrine, fine as
is,
seems always
fanciful,
to
have been regarded as partly
and
not accepted as an integral part of the Stoic

creed.
if
Indeed,
many
in
Stoics considered that

Fire should
occur,
it
this
Absorption
final.
could not be
For the essence o

to labour, to
is
ness
is
to
do something,
;
achieve
some end
and
if
Goodness
to
exist the
world process must begin again.

speak, cannot be good unless he
God, so
is
to
I
striving
and
helping.
else
Phusis
it is
must
be
moving
upward, or
not Phusis.
Thus
fulfilled
Stoicism,
the two
whatever
its
weaknesses,
that
main
:
demands
man
makes upon his religion it gave him armour when the world was predominantly evil, and
E
50

encouraged him forward when the world was
It
it
predominantly good.
afforded guidance
both for the saint and the public servant.
And
think
in
it
developing this twofold character
stancy.
was not influenced by mere incon It was trying to meet the actual
For
in
truth of the situation.

it
most systems
seems
to
be recognized that in the

is
Good
Life
there
both an element of
outward
striving
and an element of inward peace.

try to attain,
;
There are things which we must

yet
it is
it is
not really the attainment that matters
the seeking.
And, consequently,
is
in
some
sense, the real victory

best, not with the
with him
who fought
to win.
man who happened
For beyond
all
the accidents of war, beyond
the noise of armies and groans of the dying,

there
It is
is
the presence of
to
some
eternal friend.
our relation
Him
that matters.
I
Friend behind phenomena,
owe
the
phrase to Mr.
Bevan.
It
is
the assump-

tion
51
which
all
all
religions
make, and sooner
or later
philosophies.
I
The main
criti
cism
which
should
lie
be inclined to
here.
pass
on Stoicism would
Starting out,
with every intention of facing the problem of

the world by hard thought and observation,
resolutely excluding all
appeal to tradition
and mere mythology,
it
ends by making
is
this
tremendous assumption, that there

ficent
a bene
purpose in the world and that the force

is
which moves nature
akin to ourselves.
If
we once grant
system
fall
that postulate, the details of the
easily into place.
There may be
some overstatement about

of pleasure
all, if
the worthlessness
;
and worldly goods

is
though, after
there
a single great purpose in the

I
universe,
and that purpose good,

that,
in
think
it,
we
the
must admit
comparison with
happiness of any individual at this

dwindles into utter insignificance.
moment
what
The good,
is
and not any pleasure or happiness,
52

If there is
matters.
no such purpose,
all
well,
then the problem
must
be stated afresh
from the
beginning".
second
criticism,
which
is
passed by
modern psychologists on the Stoic system, is more searching but not so dangerous. The
language of Stoicism, as of
all
ancient philo
sophy, was based on a rather crude psycho-
ly- ^
too
was
over-intellectualized.
to
It
paid
much
attention
fully conscious and

little
rational processes,
and too
attention to
the enormously larger part of
human conduct
It
which
is
below the
too
level of consciousness.
saw
life
much
as a series of separate
sufficiently as
mental
acts,
and not
a con
tinuous, ever-changing stream.

little
Yet a very
is
correction
of
statement
all
that
it
needs.
Stoicism does not really

force.
o^/i//,
make reason
that
into a motive
"
It
explains
an
impulse,"
or
of physical or biological
origin rises in .the
mind prompting
to
some

action,
its
53
and then Reason gives or withholds
assent ((rvyKaraOtaig).
There
is
nothing
seriously
wrong
here.
Other
the ideal
criticisms, based
on the unreality of
acts without desire
to
Wise Man, who

errors,
and makes no
importance.
seem
me
of smaller
They depend
chiefly
on certain
idioms or habits of language, which, though

not really exact, convey a fairly correct
mean
ing to those accustomed to them.
But the assumption of the Eternal Purpose

stands
in
different
it
category.
However
much
tion.
refined away,
remains a vast assump
We may discard what Professor William

to call
"
James used
our
Monarchical Deism
"
or
own
claim to personal immortality.
We
But
may
base ourselves on Evolution, whether of
the Darwinian or the Bergsonian sort.
we do seem
to find, not
all
only
in
all
religions,
belief
but in practically
that
philosophies,
some
man
is
not quite alone in the universe,
54

is
but
met
in his
endeavours towards the good
by some external help or sympathy.

find
it
We
man.
everywhere
it
in the unsophisticated
We
find
in the
unguarded
self-revelations
of the
most severe and conscientious Atheists.

the Stoics, like
Now,
many
It
other schools of
thought, drew an argument from this con
sensus of
all
mankind.
was not an absolute
proof of the existence of the Gods or Provi

dence, but
it
was a strong
indication.
The
existence of a
common
instinctive belief in
the
mind
of
man
gives at least a presumption

for
that there
belief.
must be a good cause
that
This
is
a reasonable position.
There must
be some such cause.
But
it
does not follow

the truth of the
that the only valid cause is
content of the belief.
cannot help suspect
ing that this
is
precisely one of those points

in to
on which Stoicism,
all
company with almost

the present time, has
philosophy up

gone astray through not
its
55
sufficiently realizing
dependence on the human

biological
in
mind as a
it
natural
product.
For
is
very
the
important
this matter to
is
realize that
so-called belief
not really an
intellectual
judgment so much as a craving of the whole

nature.
It is
only of very
late
years that psycho
logists
have begun
to
realize the
in
enormous
dominion of those forces

is
man
of which he
normally unconscious.
We cannot
escape
as easily as these brave
men dreamed from

the
the grip of the blind

threshold.
powers beneath
I
Indeed, as
see philosophy after
philosophy falling into this unproven belief

in the
Friend behind phenomena, as
find
that
myself cannot, except for a

effort,
moment
and by an
refrain
it
from making the

to
same assumption,
here too
seems
me
are
that perhaps
we
are under the spell of a very old

instinct.
ineradicable
We
gregarious
56

;
animals
our ancestors have been such for
countless ages.
We
cannot help looking out

;
on the world as gregarious animals do

see
it
we
in
terms of humanity and of fellowship.
Students of animals under domestication have
shown us how
creature, taken
in a
the
habits of a gregarious
his kind, are
away from
no
shaped
thousand details by reference

is
to the lost
pack which
longer
there
the
pack
to
which a dog
all
tries to smell his

is
way back
threatens.
the time he
out walking, the pack he

It
calls to for help

is
when danger
a strange and touching thing, this eternal

for the herd
it
hunger of the gregarious animal

of friends
it
who
are not there.
And
may
be,
may
very possibly be, that,
in the
matter
of this Friend behind
phenomena, our own
yearning and our own almost ineradicable

instinctive conviction, since they are certainly
not founded on either reason or observation,

are in origin the groping of a lonely-souled

gregarious animal to find
its
57
herd or
its
herd-
leader in the great spaces between the stars.
At any
get rid
of.
rate,
it
is
a belief very
difficult to
NOTE.
Stoicism,
Without attempting a bibliography of may mention the following books as

: ;
(i) Original Stoic trans Epictetus, Discourses* etc. Marcus lated by P. E. Matheson, Oxford, 1915. Aurelius, To Himself ; translated by J. Jackson,
likely to be useful to a student
Literature.
Stoicorum Veterum Fragmenta, Oxford, 1906. collected by Von Arnim, 1903-1905. (2) Modern Roman Stoicism (Cambridge, 1911), Literature.
by E. V. Arnold a very thorough and useful piece Stoics and Sceptics, by Edwyn Bevan of work. (Oxford, 1913) slighter, but illuminating. The doctrine of the things which are preferred
; ;
"
"
(7rpo?7yp:Va),
first
though not
"good,"
was,
think,
correctly explained by H.
Gomperz, Lebens-
auffassung der Griechischen Philosophie, 1904. Professor Arnold s book contains a large biblio
graphy.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
BIOGRAPHICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES CONCERNING MONCURE DANIEL CONWAY

1832.
Born
in
Virginia.
1850.
1851.
Free Schools in Virginia. Enters Methodist Ministry.

Enters Unitarian Ministry.
Marries.
1854.
1858. 1863. 1864. 1865. 1869.
Comes
to England. Preaches at South Place Chapel.
Appointed permanent Minister.
1870.
1874.
1877.
Abandonment of prayer, followed gradual abandonment of Theism. The Earthward Pilgrimage.

The Sacred Anthology.
Idols
by
and
Ideals.
1883.
Lessons for the

edition, 1907.)
Day
(2
vols.).
(Revised
1884.
Temporarily
retires 61
from South Place.
62
A PPENDICES
Returns to South Place.
Life of
1892.
Thomas Paine.
1897.
Death of Mrs. Conway. Final retirement from South Place.

Autobiography
(2 vols.).
1904. 1906. 1907. 1909.
My Pilgrimage to
Dies
in Paris.
the Wise
Men
of the East.
Moncure D. Con-way. Addresses and Re prints. (A Memorial volume containing

a complete Bibliography.) First Memorial Lecture.
1910.
1911. 1912. 1913. 1914.

1915.
Second Memorial Lecture.

Third Memorial Lecture.
Fourth Memorial Lecture.

Fifth
Memorial Lecture.
Sixth Memorial Lecture.
APPENDIX B
THE CONWAY MEMORIAL LECTURESHIP
a general meeting of the South Place Ethical Society, held on October 22, 1908, it was resolved, after full discussion, that an effort should be made
to establish a series of lectures, to be printed
AT
and
APPENDICES
widely circulated, as a permanent Dr. Conway.
63
Memorial
to
Moncure Conway
pation of the
obsolete
s untiring- zeal for
the emanci
human mind from
the thraldom of
or waning beliefs, his sympathy with the oppressed and
pleadings
for a
for
wider and
profoimder conception of human fraternity than the world has yet reached, claim, it is urged, an offering of gratitude more permanent than the
eloquent
obituary
or
reverential
service
of
mourning.
The range
is
of the lectures (of which the sixth published herewith) must be regulated by the
financial support accorded to the

is
scheme
but
it
hoped that
sufficient
funds will be forthcoming
for the
endowment
political,
tinguished public
social,
of periodical lectures by dis men, to further the cause of
and
s
religious
which Dr. Conway

ciated.
name must
freedom, with ever be asso
The Committee, although not yet in possession of the necessary capital for the permanent endow ment of the Lectureship, thought it better to
further
inaugurate the work rather than to contributions. The funds

those
wait
in
for
hand,
together with
expected in
which may reasonably be the immediate future, will ensure the
64
APPENDICES
some years
either
to
at
delivery of an annual lecture for

least.
The Committee
until
earnestly
appeal
for
donations or subscriptions from

the
year
year
Memorial
Contributions
Treasurer.
may
permanently established. be forwarded to the Hon.

is
On
behalf of the Executive Committee

C.
W.
Hon.
COUPLAND, M.A., Chairman.

J.
(Mrs.) C. FLETCHER SMITH and E.

Secretaries.
FAIRHALL,
(Mrs.) F.
deniya,"
M. COCKBURN, Hon. Treasurer, Ashburton Road, Croydon.
"Pera-
Murray, G.
The stoic philosophy
B
528 ,M8

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CON WAY MEMORIAL LECTURE

THE STOIC HILOSOPHY

COURT, FLEKT STREET,

RGK ALLEN & LNWIN, LTD., \ HOUSE, MUSEUM STREET, W.C.

THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY

UNIFORM WITH THIS LECTURE.

THE TASK OF RATIONALISM. By JOHN PEACE AND WAR IN THE BALANCE.

THE LIFE PILGRIMAGE OF MONCURE DANIEL CON WAY. By J. M. ROBERTSON, M. P.

CONWAY MEMORIAL LECTURE

THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY

( William Archer in the Chair )

COURT, FLEET STREET,

CHAIRMAN S INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS

almost fabulous, Golden

once attended a lecture by

hope never Chairman.

think he has ever figured, or

ever will figure, on this platform.

up for the occasion and thereupon he

a most lugubrious fashion,

he had gleaned from that

pull out those plums,

lesson of that occasion

Murray need not

pour out to you the stores

erudition on the subject of the Stoics.

doubt, half an hour with the Encyclopaedia

Britannica would have supplied

anecdotes of Zeno, and Epictetus, and

conceive him, ought to emulate as

seen but not

my belief that England whom Moncure

His presence here

that that large-minded

stood and strove

ordinary progress even

slow-moving England. For Professor Murray,

not a biologist, not a

physicist, not a chemist.

has not pursued

any of those studies of cause and were supposed, in the Victorian

did, in fact, enlightenment enlightenment, whether perilous or

and two make

his life-work has

those literae humaniores which

have so often been associated,

and a very loyal son, of Oxford

absorb the best of her culture

use a somewhat discredited word

without drinking in either her prejudices or

of Oxford enlightenment in the last genera

from undervaluing his work but imagine Matthew Arnold

Pater could extract from the spiritual

sustenance offered him by Oxford

Murray, as we know, occupies one of the

eminently a scholar pre-eminently a man

show you to-night

under a glass case, but an absorbing chapter

ings for the present and for the future.

which are summed up

always with us, more or less, as we know to our cost, liable to

combating them than Professor

IN TROD UCTOR V ADDRESS