Zeno was born at Cittium, a small city in the island of Cyprus, founded by Phœnicians, but inhabited by Greeks. His father, who was a merchant, finding his son attracted to the study of philosophy, allowed him to follow his bent. From Athens, whither he had often occasion to go for commercial purposes, the father frequently brought home for his son many writings of the Socratic school of philosophers. Zeno read these with great eagerness and was enchanted with the views which they unfolded. When he was about thirty years of age he made a voyage, probably of business and pleasure combined, to the city which was at once the home of the philosophers who had so delighted him by their works, and a great centre of trade. The story goes that he was shipwrecked on the coast and lost a valuable cargo of Phœnician purple which he had brought with him. Others say he did not lose his property when he first came to Athens, but was, on the contrary, abounding with wealth. The former version of the story would account to those who questioned the disinterestedness of his conduct, for his having attached himself to a sect that professed to despise riches. On his first arrival, having read, at a bookseller’s stall, a few pages of Xenophon’s _Memorabilia_, he formed a high opinion of the author of a work which so pleased him, and asked the bookseller where such men were to be found. Crates, the Cynic, happened to pass at the time, and the bookseller replied, “Follow that man.” Zeno acted on the advice, placed himself under the Cynic philosopher’s instruction, and enrolled himself among his disciples; but he did not long remain so. He became disgusted with the manner of the sect, which he found too gross and unrefined for his taste; though at the same time he highly admired their general principles and spirit. Besides, the activity of his mind forbad him to abstain from all scientific enquiry, and indifference to science was a marked characteristic of the Cynics. He became a disciple of the Megaric doctrine, and thought to learn the nature and causes of things. He attended the school of Stilpo, the chief teacher of practical philosophy among the Megaric succession, who declared that the sovereign good was impassivity (ἀπάθεια). Zeno was pleased with the teaching of this school. To Crates, his former master, who, being angry at his desertion, endeavoured to draw him by force from his new teacher, he exclaimed, “You may seize my body, but Stilpo has laid hold of my soul.” Becoming tired of this teacher after some years, he turned to Diodorus Cronus, who taught him Dialectics, and to Philo; both of these being contemporary Megarics with Stilpo. He also studied under Xenocrates and Polemo, who were expositors of Platonic philosophy; and from the Academics he learnt much, for we can perceive a germ of Stoicism in the Platonic philosophy. But he found much in their teaching also contradictory to his own theories. When he came to Polemo, that