Thus there is little of original thought in the moral theories of Cicero, which are the result of observation rather than of any philosophical principle.  We might enumerate his various opinions, and show what an enlightened mind he possessed; but this would not be the development of philosophy.  His views, interesting as they are, and generally wise and lofty, do not indicate any progress of the science.  He merely repeats earlier doctrines.  These were not without their utility, since they had great influence on the Latin fathers of the Christian Church.  He was esteemed for his general enlightenment.  He softened down the extreme views of the great thinkers before his day, and clearly unfolded what had become obscured.  He was a critic of philosophy, an expositor whom we can scarcely spare.

If anybody advanced philosophy among the Romans it was Epictetus, and even he only in the realm of ethics.  Quintius Sextius, in the time of Augustus, had revived the Pythagorean doctrines.  Seneca had recommended the severe morality of the Stoics, but added nothing that was not previously known.

The greatest light among the Romans was the Phrygian slave Epictetus, who was born about fifty years after the birth of Jesus Christ, and taught in the time of the Emperor Domitian.  Though he did not leave any written treatises, his doctrines were preserved and handed down by his disciple Arrian, who had for him the reverence that Plato had for Socrates.  The loftiness of his recorded views has made some to think that he must have been indebted to Christianity, for no one before him revealed precepts so much in accordance with its spirit.  He was a Stoic, but he held in the highest estimation Socrates and Plato.  It is not for the solution of metaphysical questions that he was remarkable.  He was not a dialectician, but a moralist, and as such takes the highest ground of all the old inquirers after truth.  With him, as to Cicero and Seneca, philosophy is the wisdom of life.  He sets no value on logic, nor much on physics; but he reveals sentiments of great simplicity and grandeur.  His great idea is the purification of the soul.  He believes in the severest self-denial; he would guard against the siren spells of pleasure; he would make men feel that in order to be good they must first feel that they are evil.  He condemns suicide, although it had been defended by the Stoics.  He would complain of no one, not even as to injustice; he would not injure his enemies; he would pardon all offences; he would feel universal compassion, since men sin from ignorance; he would not easily blame, since we have none to condemn but ourselves.  He would not strive after honor or office, since we put ourselves in subjection to that we seek or prize; he would constantly bear in mind that all things are transitory, and that they are not our own.  He would bear evils with patience, even as he would practise self-denial of pleasure.  He would, in short, be calm, free, keep in subjection his passions, avoid