[172] Cic. Fin. iii 14, 45; and see above, § [322].
[173] ‘ut qui demersi sunt in aqua, nihilo magis respirare possunt, si non longe absunt a summo, ut iam iamque possint emergere, quam si etiam tum essent in profundo; nec catulus ille, qui iam appropinquat ut videat, plus cernit quam is qui modo est natus; item, qui processit aliquantum ad virtutis aditum, nihilominus in miseria est, quam ille qui nihil processit’ Cic. Fin. iii 14, 48.
[174] As to the man who is ‘wise without knowing it’ (διαλεληθὼς σοφός) see Arnim iii 539 to 542, and Plut. Sto. rep. 19, 3 and 4.
[175] ‘iam non consilio bonus, sed more eo perductus, ut non tantum recte facere posset, sed nisi recte facere non posset’ Sen. Ep. 120, 10.
[176] Written in 1805.
CHAPTER XIV.
SIN AND WEAKNESS.
Sin.
360. The Stoic view of the universe is coloured by optimism. All comes from God, all works towards good. None the less the Stoic morals are stern. Men in the mass are both foolish and wicked; they defy God’s will and thwart his purpose. The world is full of sin, and all sins (to use the Socratic paradox) are equal. What then is sin? It is a missing of the mark at which virtue aims (ἁμάρτημα); it is a stumbling on the road (peccatum); it is a transgressing of the boundary line[1]. It is the child of ignorance, the outward expression of ill health of the soul. Everywhere and in every man it weakens, hampers, and delays the work of virtue. It cannot however finally triumph, for it is at war with itself. The Persians were wrong when they conceived an Evil Power, a concentration of all the powers of mischief in one personality. This cannot be, for sin lacks essential unity. It destroys but does not build; it scatters but it does not sow. It is an earth-born giant, whose unwieldy limbs will in the end be prostrated by a combatant, small to the outward view, but inspired with divine forcefulness. If we understand what sin is, we shall see its repulsiveness; if we learn how it spreads, we shall seek protection against its infecting poison; if we attack it in detail, in individual men and in their daily acts, we shall in the end lay it low. Philosophy then proceeds to arm itself for its task.