Note 40 — Chapter X · ETHICS. THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE STOIC ETHICS. ABSTRACT THEORY OF MORALITY.

(4) Negative character of happiness. The happiness of the virtuous man—and this is a very marked feature in Stoicism—is thus more negative than positive. It consists in independence and peace of mind rather than in the enjoyment which moral conduct brings with it. In mental disquietude—says Cicero, speaking as a Stoic—consists misery; in composure, happiness. How can he be deficient in happiness, he enquires, whom courage preserves from care and fear, and self-control guards from passionate pleasure and desire?40 How can he fail to be absolutely happy who is in no way dependent on fortune, but simply and solely on himself?41 To be free from disquietude, says Seneca, is the peculiar privilege of the wise;42 the advantage which is gained from philosophy is, that of living without fear, and rising superior to the troubles of life.43 Far more emphatical than any isolated expressions is the support which this negative view of moral aims derives from the whole character of the Stoic ethics, the one doctrine of the apathy of the wise man sufficiently proving that freedom from disturbances, an unconditional assurance, and self-dependence, are the points on which these philosophers lay especial value.