Every rational theory respecting the universe admits of an Absolute Being of some sort. The difference begins, when the relation of the universe with the Absolute Infinite is explained and unfolded. One theory would distinguish the Infinite from the universe, but make him act from a kind of necessity. A second theory would allow him to act with perfect freedom of will. A third theory would make the universe itself to be the Absolute Infinite; and a fourth would insist that the Infinite Being is matter, of which the universe is only a modification. Zeno seems to have taught the third of these theories; though in after writers we see traces of the first. According to him, there existed from all eternity a chaos, a confused mass, ὕλη πρώτη, which contained the germ of all future things. Gradually, order supervened and creation assumed forms of various kinds, resulting in the universe as it is now. The universe is one whole, which comprises all things; yet contains a passive principle, matter, τὸ πάσχον, and an active principle, τὸ ποιοῦν, which is reason, or GOD. The soul of man is part of this divine nature, and will be reabsorbed into it and lose its individual existence. The Deity in action, if we may so speak, is a certain active æther, or fire, possessed of intelligence. This first gave form to the original chaos, and, being an essential part of the universe, sustains it in order. The overruling power, which seems sometimes in idea to have been separated from the Absolute Being, was εἱμαρμένη, fate, or absolute necessity. To this the universe is subject, both in its material and divine nature. Men return to life totally oblivious of the past, and by the decrees of fate are possessed of a renovated existence, but still in imperfection and subject to sorrow as before. The tenets of the later Stoics may have been tinged with Christian truth on this point, as on others; but they had none of the noble hope of the Christian ἀνάστασις. Indeed, respecting their dogma, Seneca said, “This renewal of life many would reject, were it not that their restored existence is accompanied with utter forgetfulness of the past.”