256 



GREEK PHILOSOPHY. 



Supreme 

 Being. 



the variations of the seasons to the approach or remoteness of the sun. 

 The rainbow they considered as a reflection of the sun's rays from a 

 humid cloud. 



The following were the principal arguments advanced by the Stoics, 

 in proof of the existence of the Supreme Being. 1 



If anything exists in nature which it would surpass the ingenuity, 

 the wisdom, and the capacity of man to produce, the power which 

 did produce such things must surpass the nature of man. But man 

 could not form and arrange the heavenly bodies and the mighty 

 system of the universe. The Being, therefore, who produced these 

 must be something superior to human intelligence or power; and 

 what can we term such a superior Being, otherwise than a Divinity ? 



Everything in nature seems to admit of gradations. In the parts 

 of creation which appear inanimate, there are different degrees of 

 utility, of completeness, and of beauty ; there are greater or lesser 

 approaches towards perfection. In the animated world there are all 

 the varieties of susceptibility ; rising from the merest torpor to the 

 most exquisite sensation, and to the most lively and accurate instinct. 

 But in reason, man stands alone ; and is it to be supposed that this 

 intelligence, which in his nature is coupled with a frame so full of 

 impressions and infirmities, should not exist in some higher degree, 

 and be able to exercise its operations in some nobler mould, in some 

 form less fettered by incumbrance, and less exposed to casualty ? It 

 is probable, surely, that man, high as he stands, and far transcending 

 all mere animals, may yet be but the lowest and most imperfect of 

 rational and intelligent beings. 



The universe is not a confused mass of unconnected and isolated 

 materials. It is coherent. It is organized. It is a system. In 

 every system there is some pre-eminent point, some spring of nourish- 

 ment, some centre of vitality, in dependence upon which all the other 

 parts exercise their functions, and in reference to which they act. 

 From this all the supplies of the machinery are drawn, to this they 

 all 'seem to revert. In the vegetable kingdom, the roots are con- 

 sidered the grand and primary organs ; in the animal, the heart or 

 the brain. Can such an anomaly then be supposed, as that the 

 system of the universe itself is without a centre of life, and motion, 

 and intelligence ? Must it not be inferred, that there is some 

 sovereign principle or sensorium of the universe, from the ocean of 

 whose beauty all the energies of nature are derived, and into which, 

 after having refreshed every part of the system with their tides of 

 health and beauty, they will eventually be reabsorbed ? The Stoics, 

 however, at the same time that they maintained the unity of the 

 pervading principle, accommodated themselves to the prevailing 

 Polytheism, superstitions, by adopting them in a modified sense. They con- 

 sidered the popular divinities as figurative representations of the 

 various powers of nature ; and all the idle fables connected with the 

 1 Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 6, 12, and 13 ; 7, 38, 45, and 46. 



