Note 55 — Chapter VI · THE STUDY OF NATURE. FUNDAMENTAL POSITIONS.

(3) Deity. (a) The conception of Deity more accurately defined. The language used by the Stoics in reference to the Deity at one time gives greater prominence to the material, at another to the spiritual side of their conception of God. As a rule, both are united in expressions which only cease to be startling when taken in connection with Stoic views in general. God is spoken of as being Fire, Ether, Air, most commonly as being πνεῦμα or Atmospheric-Current, pervading everything without exception, what is most base and ugly, as well as what is most beautiful.55 He is further described56 as the Soul, the Mind, or the Reason of the world; as a united Whole, containing in Himself the germs of all things; as the Connecting element in all things; as Universal Law, Nature, Destiny, Providence; as a perfect, happy, ever kind and all-knowing Being; nor was it hard to show that no conception could be formed of God without these attributes.57 Both kinds of expression are combined in the assertion that God is the fiery Reason of the World, the Mind in Matter, the reasonable Air-Current, penetrating all things, and assuming various names according to the material in which He resides, the artistically moulding Fire, containing in Himself the germs of everything, and producing according to an unalterable law the world and all that is therein.58