Note 1 — Chapter VI · THE STUDY OF NATURE. FUNDAMENTAL POSITIONS.

A. The soul. (1) Materialistic nature of the soul. The Stoic teaching becomes peculiarly interesting, when it treats of Man; and the line it here follows is decided by the tone of the whole system. On the one hand, the Stoic materialism shows itself most unmistakeably in the department of anthropology; on the other hand, the conviction that all actions must be referred to active powers, and all the several active powers to one original power, can not be held without leading to a belief in the oneness and in the regulating capacity of the soul. Not only does it follow, as a corollary from the materialistic view of the world, that the soul must be in its nature corporeal, but the Stoics took pains to uphold this view by special arguments. Whatever, they said, influences the body, and is by it influenced in turn, whatever is united with the body and again separated from it, must be corporeal. How, then, can the soul be other than corporeal?1 Whatever has extension in three dimensions is corporeal; this is the case with the soul, since it extends in three directions over the whole body.2 Thought, moreover, and motion are due to animal life.3 Animal life is nurtured and kept in health by the breath of life.4 Experience proves that mental qualities are propagated by natural generation; they must, therefore, be connected with a corporeal substratum.5 As therefore, the mind is nothing but fiery breath, so the human soul is described by the Stoics sometimes as fire, sometimes as breath, at other times, more accurately, as warm breath, diffused throughout the body, and forming a bond of union for the body,6 in the very same way that the soul of the world is diffused throughout the world, and forms a bond of union for the world.7 This warm breath was believed to be connected with the blood; and hence the soul was said to be fed by vapours from the blood, just as the stars are fed by vapours from the earth.8