Note 176 — Chapter X · ETHICS. THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE STOIC ETHICS. ABSTRACT THEORY OF MORALITY.

(3) Conversion. The two moral states being thus at opposite poles, a gradual transition from one to the other is, of course, out of the question. There may be a progress from folly and wickedness in the direction of wisdom,176 but the actual passage from one to the other must be momentary and instantaneous.177 Those who are still progressing belong, without exception, to the class of the foolish;178 and one who has lately become wise is in the first moment unconscious of his new state.179 The transition takes place so rapidly, and his former state affords so few points of contact with the one on which he has newly entered, that the mind does not keep pace with the change, and only becomes conscious of it by subsequent experience.