Note 18 — Chapter X · ETHICS. THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE STOIC ETHICS. ABSTRACT THEORY OF MORALITY.

In the second book of his work, Cicero considers the relation of interest to duty; and having proved, at length,18 that most that is advantageous and disadvantageous is brought on us by other men, he turns to the means by which we may gain the support of others, and by which affection, trust, and admiration may be secured. He reviews various kinds of services for individuals and the state, and embraces the opportunity to give expression to his abhorrence of despotism and republican servility to the people. The principles on which this review is conducted are such that objection can rarely be taken to them from the platform of modern morality. Yet the Stoic bias is unmistakeably present in the conception and support of the rules of life, and particularly in the definitions of various virtues; few of the moral judgments, however, are other than might have been expressed from the platform of the Platonic and Aristotelian ethics.19 The same remark holds good of some other recorded points by means of which the Stoics gave a further expansion to their picture of the wise man.20 Revolting as their tenets at times appear, there is yet little in their application that deviated from the moral ideas generally current.