Note 118 — Chapter XII · APPLIED MORAL SCIENCE.

The one case in which this resignation would give place to active resistance to destiny is when man is placed in circumstances calling for unworthy action or endurance.118 Strictly speaking, the first case can(2) Suicide. never arise, since, from the Stoic platform, no state of life can be imagined which might not serve as an occasion for virtuous conduct. It does, however, seem possible that even the wise man may be placed by fortune in positions which are for him unendurable; and in this case he is allowed to withdraw from them by suicide.119 The importance of this point in the Stoic ethics will become manifest from the language of Seneca, who asserts that the wise man’s independence of externals depends, among other things, on his being able to leave life at pleasure.120 To Seneca, the deed of the younger Cato appears not only praiseworthy, but the crowning act of success over destiny, the highest triumph of the human will.121 By the chief teachers of the Stoic School this doctrine was carried into practice. Zeno, in old age, hung himself, because he had broken his finger; Cleanthes, for a still less cause, continued his abstinence till he died of starvation, in order to traverse the whole way to death; and, in later times, the example of Zeno and Cleanthes was followed by Antipater.122