History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne Volume I Part 15

180 Cicero, speaking of the wors.h.i.+p of deified men, says, "indicat omnium quidem animos immortales esse, sed fortium bonorumque divinos."-_De Leg._ ii. 11. The Roman wors.h.i.+p of the dead, which was the centre of the domestic religion, has been recently investigated with much ability by M. Coulanges (_La Cite antique_).

181 On the minute supervision exercised by the censors on all the details of domestic life, see Aul. Gell. _Noct._ ii. 24; iv. 12, 20.

182 Livy, x.x.xix. 6.

183 Vell. Paterculus, i. 11-13; Eutropius, iv. 6. Sall.u.s.t ascribed the decadence of Rome to the destruction of its rival, Carthage.

184 Plutarch, _De Adulatore et Amico_.

185 There is much curious information about the growth of Roman luxury in Pliny (_Hist. Nat._ lib. x.x.xiv.). The movement of decomposition has been lately fully traced by Mommsen (_Hist. of Rome_); Dollinger (_Jew and Gentile_); Denis (_ Hist. des Idees morales dans l'Antiquite_); Pressense (_Hist. des trois premiers Siecles_); in the histories of Champagny, and in the beautiful closing chapters of the _Apotres_ of Renan.

186 Sueton. _Aug._ xvi.

187 Ibid. _Calig._ v.

188 Persius, _Sat._ ii.; Horace, _Ep._ i. 16, vv. 57-60.

189 See, on the identification of the Greek and Egyptian myths, Plutarch's _De Iside et Osiride_. The Greek and Roman G.o.ds were habitually regarded as identical, and Caesar and Tacitus, in like manner, identified the deities of Gaul and Germany with those of their own country. See Dollinger, _Jew and Gentile_, vol. ii. pp.

160-165.

190 "Ego deum genus esse semper dixi et dicam c.l.i.tum; Sed eos non curare opinor quid agat hominum genus."

Cicero adds: "magno plausu loquitur a.s.sentiente populo."-_De Divin._ ii. 50.

191 Plutarch, _De Superst.i.tione_.

192 St. Aug. _De Civ. Dei_, vi. 6; Tertul. _Apol._ 15; Arn.o.bius, _Adv.

Gentes_, iv.

193 "Pars alia et hanc pellit, astroque suo eventus a.s.signat, nascendi legibus; semelque in omnes futuros unquam Deo decretum; in reliquum vero otium datum. Sedere cpit sententia haec pariterque et eruditum vulgus et rude in eam cursu vadit. Ecce fulgurum monitus, oraculorum praescita, aruspic.u.m praedicta, atque etiam parva dictu, in auguriis sternumenta et offensiones pedum."-_Hist. Nat._ ii. 5. Pliny himself expresses great doubt about astrology giving many examples of men with different destinies, who had been born at the same time, and therefore under the same stars (vii. 50). Tacitus expresses complete doubt about the existence of Providence. (_Ann._ vi. 22.) Tiberius is said to have been very indifferent to the G.o.ds and to the wors.h.i.+p of the temples, being wholly addicted to astrology and convinced that all things were pre-ordained. (_Suet. Tib._ lxix.)

194 Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus, xxviii.

_ 195 De Profectibus in Virt._ It was originally the custom at Roman feasts to sing to a pipe the actions and the virtues of the greatest men. (Cic. _Tusc. Quaest._ iv.)

196 E.g. Epictetus, _Ench._ lii. Seneca is full of similar exhortations.

197 According to Cicero, the first Latin work on philosophy was by the Epicurean Amafanius. (_Tusc. Quaest._ iv.)

198 See on the great perfection of the character of Epicurus his life by Diogenes Laertius, and on the purity of the philosophy he taught and the degree in which it was distorted and misrepresented by his Roman followers. Seneca _De Vita Beata_, c. xii. xiii. and _Ep._ xxi.

Ga.s.sendi, in a very interesting little work ent.i.tled _Philosophiae Epicuri Syntagma_, has abundantly proved the possibility of uniting Epicurean principles with a high code of morals. But probably the most beautiful picture of the Epicurean system is the first book of the _De Finibus_, in which Cicero endeavours to paint it as it would have been painted by its adherents. When we remember that the writer of this book was one of the most formidable and unflinching opponents of Epicureanism in all the ancient world, it must be owned that it would be impossible to find a grander example of that n.o.ble love of truth, that sublime and scrupulous justice to opponents, which was the pre-eminent glory of ancient philosophers, and which, after the destruction of philosophy, was for many centuries almost unknown in the world. It is impossible to doubt that Epicureanism was logically compatible with a very high degree of virtue. It is, I think, equally impossible to doubt that its practical tendency was towards vice.

199 Mr. Grote gives the following very clear summary of Plato's ethical theory, which he believes to be original:-"Justice is in the mind a condition a.n.a.logous to good health and strength in the body.

Injustice is a condition a.n.a.logous to sickness, corruption, impotence in the body.... To possess a healthy body is desirable for its consequences as a means towards other const.i.tuents of happiness, but it is still more desirable in itself as an essential element of happiness _per se_, i.e., the negation of sickness, which would of itself make us miserable.... In like manner, the just mind blesses the possessor twice: first and chiefly by bringing to him happiness in itself; next, also, as it leads to ulterior happy results. The unjust mind is a curse to its possessor in itself and apart from results, though it also leads to ulterior results which render it still more a curse to him."-Grote's _Plato_, vol. iii. p. 131.

According to Plutarch, Aristo of Chio defined virtue as "the health of the soul." (_De Virtute Morali._)

200 "Beata est ergo vita conveniens naturae suae; quae non aliter contingere potest quam si primum sana mens est et in perpetua possessione sanitatis suae."-Seneca, _De Vita Beata_, c. iii.

201 The famous paradox that "the sage could be happy even in the bull of Phalaris," comes from the writings not of Zeno but of Epicurus-though the Stoics adopted and greatly admired it. (Cic.

_Tusc._ ii. See Ga.s.sendi, _Philos. Epicuri Syntagma_, pars iii. c.

1.)

202 "Sed nescio quomodo dum lego a.s.sentior; c.u.m posui librum et mec.u.m ipse de immortalitate animorum cpi cogitare, a.s.sensio omnis illa elabitur."-Cic. _Tusc._ i.

203 Sall.u.s.t, _Catilina_, cap. li.

204 See that most impressive pa.s.sage (_Hist. Nat._ vii. 56). That the sleep of annihilation is the happiest end of man is a favourite thought of Lucretius. Thus:

"Nil igitur mors est, ad nos neque pertinet hilum, Quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur."-iii. 842.

This mode of thought has been recently expressed in Mr. Swinburne's very beautiful poem on _The Garden of Proserpine_.

205 Diog. Laertius. The opinion of Chrysippus seems to have prevailed, and Plutarch (_De Placit. Philos._) speaks of it as that of the school. Cicero sarcastically says, "Stoici autem usuram n.o.bis largiuntur, tanquam cornicibus: diu mansuros aiunt animos; semper, negant."-_Tusc. Disp._ i. 31.

206 It has been very frequently a.s.serted that Antigonus of Socho having taught that virtue should be practised for its own sake, his disciple, Zadok, the founder of the Sadducees, inferred the non-existence of a future world; but the evidence for this whole story is exceedingly unsatisfactory. The reader may find its history in a very remarkable article by Mr. Twisleton on _Sadducees_, in Smith's _Biblical Dictionary_.

207 On the Stoical opinions about a future life see Martin, _La Vie future_ (Paris, 1858); Courdaveaux _De l'immortalite de l'ame dans le Stocisme_ (Paris, 1857); and Alger's _Critical Hist. of the Doctrine of a Future Life_ (New York, 1866).

208 His arguments are met by Cicero in the _Tusculans_.

209 See a collection of pa.s.sages from his discourses collected by M.

Courdaveaux, in the introduction to his French translation of that book.

210 Stobaeus, _Eclog. Physic._ lib. i. cap. 52.

211 In his consolations to Marcia, he seems to incline to a belief in the immortality, or at least the future existence, of the soul. In many other pa.s.sages, however, he speaks of it as annihilated at death.

212 "Les Stociens ne faisaient aucunement dependre la morale de la perspective des peines ou de la remuneration dans une vie future....

La croyance a l'immortalite de l'ame n'appartenait donc, selon leur maniere de voir, qu'a la physique, c'est-a-dire a la psychologie."-Degerando, _Hist. de la Philos._ tome iii. p. 56.

213 "Panaetius igitur, qui sine controversia de officiis accuratissime disputavit, quemque nos, correctione quadam adhibita, potissimum secuti sumus."-_De Offic._ iii. 2.

214 Marcus Aurelius thanks Providence, as for one of the great blessings of his life, that he had been made acquainted with the writings of Epictetus. The story is well known how the old philosopher warned his master, who was beating him, that he would soon break his leg, and when the leg was broken, calmly remarked, "I told you you would do so." Celsus quoted this in opposition to the Christians, asking, "Did your leader under suffering ever say anything so n.o.ble?" Origen finely replied, "He did what was still n.o.bler-He kept silence." A Christian anchorite (some say St. Nilus, who lived in the beginning of the fifth century) was so struck with the _Enchiridion_ of Epictetus, that he adapted it to Christian use. The conversations of Epictetus, as reported by Arrian, are said to have been the favourite reading of Toussaint l'Ouverture.

215 Tacitus had used this expression before Milton: "Quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriae novissima exuitur."-_Hist._ iv. 6.

216 Two remarkable instances have come down to us of eminent writers begging historians to adorn and even exaggerate their acts. See the very curious letters of Cicero to the historian Lucceius (_Ep. ad Divers._ v. 12); and of the younger Pliny to Tacitus (_Ep._ vii.

33). Cicero has himself confessed that he was too fond of glory.

217 "Unus h.o.m.o n.o.bis cunctando rest.i.tuit rem; Non ponebat enim rumores ante salutem."-Ennius.

218 See the beautiful description of Cato's tranquillity under insults.

Seneca, _De Ira_, ii. 33; _De Const. Sap._ 1, 2.

_ 219 De Officiis_, iii. 9.

_ 220 Tusc._ ii. 26.