STOICISM 



STOKKS 



nature in the devout spirit of 'passing from nature 

 to nature's God ;' he is never weary of expressing 

 his thorough contentment with the course of natural 

 events, and his sense of the Inanities and fitness of 

 everything. Old age haa its grace, and death is 

 the becoming termination. This high strain of 

 exulting contemplation reconcilol him to that com- 

 plete submission to whatever might befall which 

 was the essential feature of the ' life according to 

 nature.' 



(4) The Stoical theory of virtue in implicated in 

 their ideas of the good. The fountain ot all virtue 

 is manifestly the life according to nature, as heing 

 the life of subordination of self to more general 

 interests to family, country, mankind, the whole 

 universe. The Stoics were the first to preach 

 what is called 'Cosmopolitanism ;' for although, 

 in their reference to the good of the whole, 

 they confounded together sentient life and in- 

 animate object* rocks, plants, &c., solicitude for 

 which was misspent labour yet they were thus 

 enabled to reach the conception of the universal 

 brotherhood of mankind, ami could not but include 

 in their regards the brute creation. They said, 

 'There is no difference between Greeks and Bar- 

 Italians ; the world is our city." Seneca urges kind- 

 ness to slaves, for ' are they not men like ourselves, 

 breathing the same air, living and dying like our- 

 selves?' The Epicureans declined, as much as pos- 

 sible, interference in public affairs, but the Stoical 

 philosophers all urged men to the duties of active 

 citizenship. Although there had been many good 

 and noble men among the pagans, yet positive 

 beneficence had not been preached as a virtue 

 before the Stoics. They adopted the four cardinal 

 virtues (wisdom, or the knowledge of good and 

 evil; justice; fortitude; temperance) as part of 

 their plan of the virtuous life. Justice, as the 

 social virtue, was placed above all the rest ; but 

 most interesting to us are the indications of the 

 idea of beneficence. Epictetus is earnest in his 

 exhortations to forgiveness of injuries. Marcus 

 Aurelins often enforces the same virtue ; he eon- 

 tends as strongly as Butler and Hume for the 

 existence of a principle of pure that is, unselfish 

 benevolence in the mind. There is also in the 

 Stoical system a recognition of duties to God, 

 and of morality as based on piety. Not only are 

 we all brethren, but also the 'children of one 

 Father.' 



The extraordinary stress put upon human nature 

 by the full Stoic ideal of submerging self in the 

 larger interests of being led to various compro- 

 mises. The rigid following out of the ideal issued 

 in a aeries of the Paradoxes viz. that all the 

 actions of the wise man are equally perfect, and 

 that, short of the standard of perfection, all faults 

 and vices are equal ; that, for example, the man 

 that killed a cock without good reason was as 

 guilty as he that killed his father. The idea of 

 duty was of Stoical origin, fostered and develop.'. 1 

 by the Roman spirit and legislation. The early 

 Stoic had two different words for the 'suitable' 

 (kathikon) KnA the 'right' ( katorthoma ). It was 

 a great point with the Stoic to !* conscious of 

 'advance,' or improvement. By self-examination 

 he kept himself constantly acquainted with his 

 moral state, and it was both his duty and his 

 satisfaction to be approaching to the ideal of the 

 perfect man. The Stoical system has largely tine 

 tared modern ages, in spite of i i - severity. It has 

 always had a charm as an ideal, even when men 

 were conscious of not realising it. The limitation 

 of wants, the practice of contentment, the striv- 

 ing after equanimity, the hardening of one's self 

 against the blows of fortune are all fundamental 

 ni:t\iins with the moralist* of later ages; and a 

 qualified form of the subordination of self to the 



general welfare is an essential part of most modern 

 theories of virtue. 



The chief ancient authorities on the .Stoic* are the 

 writing* of Epiotetui, Marcus Aim-hug, and Seneca, 

 themMlres Stoic philosophers, together with notice* 

 occurring in Cicero, Plntarch, Sextus Empirical, Din- 

 giMm Laertiun, and Stobeus. The coinplcteot modem 

 account of the system occurs in Zellera .Stoic*, Epi- 

 furtant, and Sceptic* (Eng. trans. 1870). See alto Sir 

 Alexander Grant in the Oxford Kuai/i for 1868 ; Farrar'* 

 Setken after God (1868; 3d ed. 1891); Rev. W. W. 

 Capes, Stoieitm( 1880); J. Jordan, Stoie Moraliiti ( 1880); 

 Ogereau, Le SyiUme det Stoicient ( 1885 ) ; A. C. Pearson. 

 The Fragment* of Zrno and Cltmlket ( 1891 ) ; and work.' 

 cited at AuRKLius, EpiCTiTUs, SENECA. 



Stoke-PoROS a village of Hiickinghamshire, 2 

 miles N. of Slough station. Gray's mother settled 

 here in 1742 ; the beautiful churchyard is the scene 

 of his Elegy, and in that churchyard he is buried. 

 Pop. of parish, 2150. 



Stokes. Siu CKORGB GABRIEL, mathematician 

 and natural philosopher, was born August 13, 1819, 

 in Skreen, County Sligo. He entered Pembroke 

 College, Cambridge, in 1837, graduated in 1841 as 

 senior wrangler and first Smith's pri/.enmn. and 

 in 1849 was appointed Luca-sian professor of Mathe- 

 matics. In 1852, the year after his election as a 

 Fellow of the lioyal Society, he was awarded the 

 Kumford medal ; in 1854 he became secretary, a 

 position which he held till 1885, when he was ni.-i.l.- 

 president for the succeeding quinquennial period. 

 From 1886 he represented Cambridge in parlia- 

 ment, and in 1889 was created a baronet. His 

 papers deal with Home of the most abstruse prob- 

 lems of mathematical physics, and are character- 

 ised by a remarkable lucidity of treatment and an 

 unerring sagacity of attack. In several of these 

 lie has, by opening new ground, given direction 

 to later investigations by ot hers. Two subjects have 

 mainly engaged his attention. The one is Hydro- 

 dynamics, of which he wrote a valuable Report for 

 the British Association in 1846, and in which hi~ 

 own contributions rank amongst the most import- 

 ant of the day. Specially may be noted his investi- 

 gations on waves and on the effect of fluid friction 

 on solids moving through fluids. Then to the 

 theory of light he has made contributions of great 

 value, his profound paper on the dynamical theory 

 of diffraction (1849) being amongst the most im- 

 portant. He first gave a satisfactory theory of 

 fluorescence and phosphorescence, and as early as 

 1852 he pointed out clearly the physical basis of 

 Spectrum-analysis (q.v.). In 1884-86 he delivered 

 in Aberdeen the Burnett Lectures on ' Light ' ( 3 vols. 

 1887), an admirable elementary treatise for non- 

 mathematical readers. His influence in the develop- 

 ment of the Cambridge school of mathematical 

 physics can hardly be overestimated. The leaders 

 of the British school of natural philosophy all look 

 to Stokes as their master and model. 



See his reprint of Mathematical and Phvtical Papert 

 (vol. i. 1880; vol. ii. 1883). He was Gifford Lecturer 

 on Natural Theology at Edinburgh in 1891-02. 



Slokrs. Wil.LIAM (1804-77), physician, studied 

 at Kdiiilmrjrh, and in 1845 became regius professor 

 of Medicine in Dublin I'liiversitv. He wrote lectures 

 on t he Theory and Practice of Medicine ( 1837 ), and 

 works on the diseases of the chest and of the heart 

 and on continued fevers. His eldest son, \\ n 1 1 i.i.v 

 STOKKS, horn at Dublin in 1K30, studied law at 

 Trinity College, went to India in 1863, and after 

 holding a series of important legal appointments 

 was in 1877-82 president of the Indian law-com- 

 mission and draughtsman of the present civil and 

 criminal codes. He has written many legal works, 

 including The Anglo-Indian Codes (1887-91 ), and 

 edited a large number of Irish ami other Celtic 

 texts. He is LL.D.. D.C.L., c.s.l., c.l.K. 



