SENECA. THE STOICS. 251 



according to their own notions. It is not likely, for instance, that one, 

 who had himself been a pupil of Socrates, and who was certainly a 

 man of sense as well as humour, should have treated Diogenes, when 

 he expressed himself willing to come under his tuition, as if he already 

 had been really a dog ; and should have done his best to beat him 

 away with his large staff, and that the novice only prevailed by his 

 resolute perseverance and endurance of honest blows. 1 



Diogenes, as has been the case with many others, rushed from the Diogenes, 

 one extreme of licentiousness to the contrary one of asceticism, and B ' * 

 sought to retrieve the dissoluteness of his youth, by the mortification 

 and moroseness of his later years. His temperament is represented 

 by all writers, as fervid and enthusiastic; his humour was coarse, 

 homely, and caustic ; and the specimens of it which have been pre- 

 served, exhibit a tartness in which it is difficult to say whether the 

 character of sagacity or of scurrility most predominates. His prede- 

 cessor was, by constitution, hardy and temperate ; and observation of 

 the world had confirmed him in his opinion of the dangerous nature 

 of the passions. His lectures, therefore, and declamations against 

 pleasure, were those of a humane, though an austere and rugged 

 monitor. Diogenes, on the contrary, was of a nature altogether 

 impetuous and excitable ; his humour of restraint had as little relation 

 to any rational purpose as his previous indulgences. He did not 

 attempt to instruct, but professed to reprove others. He gave no 

 lessons of prudence or severity ; but disgorged his spleen, or envy, 

 in bitter and insolent contumelies. His own uncomfortable feelings 

 found vent in his taunts on all around him ; and, by assuming a sort 

 of misanthropy on principle he furnished abundant exercise to all the 

 malignity of his wit. Such satirists and ribalds, by profession, are 

 perhaps necessary characters in the great theatre of the world, and 

 may serve well as the antidotes to parasites and sycophants, but they 

 have little claim to be canonized amongst philosophers and moralists. 



The following are, perhaps, amongst the happiest of the recorded 

 sarcasms uttered by this accredited scoffer : 



" He often found it necessary in life," he said, " to have ready an 

 answer or a rope." 



He was indignant at people for praying to the gods for health, and 

 at the same time doing what they could to destroy it by feasting. 



Calling out once, " Men, come hither ;" and numbers flocking about 

 him, he beat them all away with a stick, saying, " I called for men, 

 and not varlets." 



Dining one day at a common eating-house, he saw Demosthenes 

 pass by, and invited him in. Demosthenes refusing, " What," said 

 Diogenes, " should you be ashamed to dine here, when your master 

 does so every day ?" 



" Against fortune," said he, " we must oppose courage ; against 

 nature, law ; against passion, reason." 



1 Hieron. adv. Jovin. 



