=296.= The language in which Virgil first describes the creation and life of the universe closely resembles that of Stoicism; the phrases ‘elemental seed,’ ‘fiery force,’ ‘heavenly being’ might be used by any Stoic teacher. The conception of the body as a ‘prison-house,’ even though it does not express the most scientific aspect of Stoic physics, was nevertheless, as we have seen, familiar to Stoics of the later centuries. The ethical conception, again, of the doctrine of purgatory is exactly that of which the Stoics felt a need in order to reconcile the dualism of good and evil souls with the ultimate prevalence of the divine will. Again, we can have no difficulty in supposing that Virgil drew his material from Stoic sources, seeing that he was characteristically a learned poet, and reflects Stoic sentiment in many other passages of his works[151]. We have also more direct evidence. The Church Father whom we have already quoted not only ascribes to the Stoics in another passage the doctrine of purgatory, but expressly quotes this passage from Virgil as an exposition of Stoic teaching. And here he is supported to some extent by Tertullian, who says that the Stoics held that the souls of the foolish after death receive instruction from the souls of the good[152]. Finally, we have the doctrine definitely accepted by Seneca[153]. [Sidenote: Views of Greek Stoics.] =297.= We may now consider more particularly the views and feelings of individual Stoic teachers. It appears to us accordingly that Zeno left his followers room for considerable diversity of opinion, and quoted the Persian doctrine because of its suggestiveness rather than for its literal truth. Of Cleanthes we are told that he held that all souls survived till the conflagration, whilst Chrysippus believed this only of the souls of the wise[154]. Panaetius, although a great admirer of Plato, is nevertheless so strongly impressed by the scientific principle that ‘all which is born must die,’ that he is here again inclined to break away from Stoicism, and to suspend his judgment altogether as to the future existence of the soul[155]; the belief in a limited future existence was meaningless to a philosopher who disbelieved in the conflagration. Of the views of Posidonius we have the definite hint, that he taught that the ‘air is full of immortal souls[156]’; and this is in such harmony with the devout temper of this teacher that we may readily believe that he enriched the somewhat bare speculations of his predecessors by the help of an Oriental imagination, and that he introduced into Stoicism not only the doctrine of daemons but also that of purgatory, holding that souls were both pre-existent and post-existent. [Sidenote: View of Seneca.]