of use in the new career on which the Greek mind was about to enter. [(2) Its onesidedness.] It was the fault of the age that it could no longer come up to the many-sidedness of an Aristotle or a Plato. Stoicism, it is true, approximates thereto more nearly than any other of the post-Aristotelian systems. But in its practical view of philosophy, in its materialistic appeal to the senses, in its theoretical self-sufficiency, setting up the wise man as superior to the weaknesses and wants of human nature; in its citizenship of the world, throwing political interests into the background; and in so many other traits it is the fit exponent of an epoch in which the taste for purely scientific research and the delight in ethical speculation were at an end, whilst out of the overthrow of states, and the growth of freedom, the idea of humanity was coming to the fore. Stoicism represented most powerfully the moral and religious convictions of such an age, yet not without onesidedness and exaggeration. By exercise of the will and by rational understanding, man is to become free and happy. This aim is, however, pursued so persistently that the natural conditions of human existence and the claims of individuality are ignored. To man, regarded as the exponent of universal law, as little freedom of will is allowed by the Stoic natural science in face of the inexorable course of nature as freedom of action is allowed by the Stoic ethics in face of the demands of duty. The universal claims of morality are alone acknowledged; the right of the individual to act according to his peculiar character, and to develop that character, is almost ignored. The individual, as such, dwindles into obscurity, whilst a high place in the world is assigned to mankind collectively. The individual is subordinated to the law of the whole; but by regarding nature as a system of means and ends, and introducing the belief in Providence and Prophecy, the universe is again subordinated to the interests of man—a view against which a more careful research has many objections to urge. In both respects Epicureanism is in decided contrast to Stoicism, though agreeing with it in the general tone of its practical philosophy and in its aim to make man independent of the outer world and happy in himself. PART III. THE EPICUREANS. CHAPTER XV. EPICURUS AND THE EPICUREAN SCHOOL. [1049] [A. Epicurus.]