William Atkinson - The Complete Works of William Walker Atkinson

The concluding portions of the above quotation are interesting, when considered in the light of certain tendencies of modern philosophical thought. In spite of Prof. James’s adverse comment, it is true that there is an increase of this spirit of the mental “shutting out” of unpleasant and unavoidable things and persons. In certain phases of the New Thought and similar movements we find the teaching of the “denial in consciousness” of undesirable circumstances and persons. Prof. James has stated but one side of the question—the latter-day Stoic insists upon the virtue of the opposite side.

Perhaps one of the most characteristic expressions of this latter-day Stoic spirit is found in that splendid poem of Henley, which has given courage and strength to so many in their hours of trial. I think it well to reproduce it at this point, in connection with this consideration of the spirit of the Stoic philosophy:

INVICTUS

By W. E. Henley.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods there be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced or cried aloud;

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head Is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this vale of doubt and fears

Looms but the terror of the Shade,

And yet the passing of the years

Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how straight the gate.

How charged with punishments the scroll;

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

To those who have thought of Stoicism only in its phase of self-mastery and self-control, I would suggest a consideration, of the beautiful devotional “Hymn to Zeus” by Cleanthes, who lived about 250 b.c. The legends relate that Cleanthes was a reformed pugilist, who for seventeen years attended the lectures of Zeno during the day, earning his livelihood by manual labor at night. He afterward succeeded to the leadership of the school. His celebrated hymn is regarded as a classic. The following is according to the translation of Dr. James Adams:

CLEANTHES’ “HYMN TO ZEUS.”

O God most glorious, called by many a name,

Nature’s great king, through endless years the same;

Omnipotence, who by thy just decree

Controllest all, hail, Zeus, for unto thee

Behoves thy creatures in all lands to call.

We are thy children, we alone of all

On earth’s broad ways that wander to and fro,

Bearing thine image wheresoe’er we go.

Wherefore with songs of praise thy power I will forth show

Lo! yonder heaven, that round the earth is wheeled,

Follows thy guidance, still to thee doth yield

Glad homage; thine unconquerable hand

Such flaming minister, the levin-brand,

Wieldeth, a sword two-edged, whose deathless might

Pulsates through all that Nature brings to light; Vehicle of the universal Word, that flows

Through all, and in the light celestial glows

Of stars both great and small. O King of Kings

Through ceaseless ages, God, whose purpose brings

To birth, whate’er on land or in the sea

Is wrought, or in high heaven’s immensity;

Save what the sinner works infatuate.

Nay, but thou knowest to make crooked straight:

Chaos to thee is order: in thine eyes

The unloved is lovely, who did’st harmonize

Things evil with things good, that there should be

One Word through all things everlastingly.

One Word—whose voice alas! the wicked spurn;

Insatiate for the good their spirits yearn:

Yet seeing see not, neither hearing hear

God’s universal law, which those revere,

By reason guided, happiness who win.

The rest, unreasoning, diverse shapes of sin

Self-prompted follow: for an idle name

Vainly they wrestle in the lists of fame:

Others inordinately Riches woo,

Or dissolute, the joys of flesh pursue.

Now here, now there they wander, fruitless still,

For ever seeking good and finding ill.

Zeus the all-bountiful, whom darkness shrouds,

Whose lightning lightens in the thunder clouds;

Thy children save from error’s deadly sway:

Turn thou the darkness from their souls away:

Vouchsafe that unto knowledge they attain;

For thou by knowledge art made strong to reign

O’er all, and all things rulest righteously.

So by the honored, we will honor thee,

Praising thy works continually with songs,

As mortals should; nor higher meed belongs

E’en to the gods, that justly do adore

The universal Law for evermore.

To many good orthodox folk this beautiful hymn, coming from such a decidedly “heathen” source, will be a revelation of the fact that the spirit of worship does not belong to any particular age or especial creed, and that, as the ancient Hindu sage has said: “The Truth is one—though men call it by many names.”

EPICUREANISM

The great school of the Epicureans was founded in Athens, about 300 b.c., by Epicurus, a celebrated philosopher of Samos, of whom an authority says:

“He taught that the true end of existence is a species of quietism, in which the philosopher holds himself open to all the pleasurable sensations which the temperate indulgence of his ordinary appetites, and the recollection of past, with the anticipation of future enjoyments, are sufficiently abundant to supply.…Owing to a misrepresentation, he is generally held to have taught gross sensualism, and his name is applied to the idea of sensual enjoyments, particularly those of the table.”

Another authority says:

“The system of Epicurus and his tenets and teachings have been the subjects of gross misrepresentation and dense misunderstanding. To the popular mind the system has become the archetype of gross sensualism. In truth, Epicurus’ cardinal doctrine was that the chief end of man was to be happy. And in the pursuit of that happiness all means of pleasure or enjoyment were to be allowed. Thus, if it gave pleasure to an ascetic to starve himself and to scourge his flesh, it was as much allowable for him to pursue these methods of attaining happiness, pleasure, or peace of mind, as was the eating or drinking of the voluptuary. No matter what the choice of instruments, the end to be attained was pleasure. If one man found pleasure in books, he was as much an Epicurean, if he sought his favorite enjoyment, as was the sleek, lazy Sybarite, who passed his existence in pandering his grosser nature. Epicureanism may be briefly defined as a supreme effort at enjoyment.”

Epicurus taught a philosophy which was, in the end, rather a method of life than a search for ultimate truth—a moral philosophy, rather than a natural philosophy or a metaphysic. He, however, laid a basis of natural philosophy upon which to erect his philosophy of living. He favored Democritus’ theory of a material universe composed of atoms, the play, action and reaction, of the latter accounting for the phenomenal world. His idea came very close to that of the materialists of the nineteenth century. He believed in the gods of the Greeks, but held that they dwelt apart and separate from man, having no concern with or interest in the universe of men and things, and were therefore not to be feared. In fact, he held that the great evil of life was fear, particularly the fear of the gods and of death. The fear of the gods he disposes of as above stated; the fear of death he brushed away by the teaching that death is nothing, for when we are living and knowing, death is not; and when death is, we are not living and knowing ; and, likewise: “Where we are, death is not—where death is, we are not.” He said: “Good and evil are only where they are felt, and death is the absence of all feeling.” He held that health of body, accompanied by tranquillity of mind, represent the requisites for happiness. Pleasure, he held, is the first and great good, but he recognized pain as necessary as a background and revealer of pleasure. He also taught that many forms of pleasure were to be avoided, as they brought greater pain in their train. There was even a trace of the opposing Stoic philosophy in certain of his teachings regarding happiness and pleasure, for he said: “If thou wilt make a man happy, add not to his riches, but rather take away from his desires.” He also held that the greatest happiness and pleasure arise from a compliance with virtue and honor, saying: “We cannot live a life of pleasure which is not also a life of prudence, honor, and justice; nor lead a life of prudence, honor and justice which is not also a life of pleasure.”