St. George Stock (modern guide) · 1850–1922
A Guide to Stoicism 5 ¶27 — St. George Stock (modern guide)
From “Physic”
Original English text (1908)
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 5 ¶27
To us who have been taught to pant for progress, this seems a dreary prospect. But the Stoics were consistent Optimists, and did not ask for a change in what was best. They were content that the one drama of existence should enjoy a perpetual run without perhaps too nice a consideration for the actors. Death intermitted life, but did not end it. For the candle of life, which was extinguished now, would be kindled again hereafter. Being and not being came round in endless succession for all save him, into whom all being was resolved, and out of whom it emerged again, as from the vortex of some aeonian Maelstrom.
Cite this passage
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 5 ¶27 (1908)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/a-guide-to-stoicism/5.27
St. George Stock, Stoicism (1908), text of the Haldeman-Julius reprint “A Guide to Stoicism”. Text: Project Gutenberg #7514. Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesTo modern readers an endlessly repeating universe seems dreary, but the Stoics were thorough optimists who saw no reason to change what was already best. In their picture death only pauses life, like a candle put out and lit again, in a never-ending cycle.
Older wording
- “intermitted”
- — paused or interrupted
- “aeonian”
- — lasting for ages
- “Maelstrom”
- — a great whirlpool
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Change and impermanence
- Acceptance and fate
- Nature and the cosmos
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