Note (return) — Chapter XIII

Diogenes Laertius tells us that the Stoics held "that there are two general principles in the universe--the passive principle (τὸ πάσχον), which is matter, an existence without any distinctive quality, and the active principle (τὸ ποιοῦν), which is the reason existing in the passive, that is to say, God. For that He, being eternal, and existing throughout all matter, makes every thing." 825 This Divine Reason, acting upon matter, originates the necessary and unchangeable laws which govern matter--laws which the Stoics called λόγοι σπερµατικοί-- generating reasons or causes of things. The laws of the world are, like eternal reason, necessary and immutable; hence the εἱµαρµένη--the Destiny of the Stoics, which is also one of the names of the Deity. 826 But by Destiny the Stoics could not understand a blind unconscious necessity; it is rather the highest reason in the universe. "Destiny (εἱµαρµένη) is a connected (εἰροµένη) cause of things, or the reason according to which the world is regulated." 827