WERE THE STOICS UTILITARIANS? 195 



ment of human happiness is the realization of all our finest im- 

 pulses, clearest wishes and highest hopes. 



Ancient philosophers, however, were so blinded by this illusion, 

 as well as so ignorant of the real value of pleasure, that perhaps 

 none of them can, in strictness, be called utilitarian, and it is 

 scarcely worth our while to consider whether the title of founder 

 of the greatest happiness theory should be given, on acount of pri- 

 ority of time, to Aristotle, rather than to either Epicurus or Zeno, 

 or whether his claim also should yield to that of Socrates, whose 

 regard for utility appears in many passages of the Memorabilia. 



It is enough to say that the Stoics, despite their noble inconsist- 

 ences, maintained the most important principles of Utilitarianism 

 in such purity and power, that they must hold the highest place 

 among its forerunners, if not among its originators. Recognition 

 of this fact would not only encourage the use of their writings as 

 introductions, and even in some respects as supplements to those 

 of Mill and Spencer, but would help us value justly die system of 

 philanthropic Utilitarianism by showing how much was done for 

 moral culture by one of its rudimentary forms. 



