St. George Stock (modern guide) · 1850–1922
A Guide to Stoicism 4 ¶54 — St. George Stock (modern guide)
From “Ethic”
Original English text (1908)
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 4 ¶54
As the Stoics had their analogue to the tenet of final assurance, so had they also to that of sudden conversion. They held that a man might become a sage without being at first aware of it. The abruptness of the transition from folly to wisdom was in keeping with their principle that there was no medium between the two, but it was naturally a point which attracted the strictures of their opponents. That a man should be at one moment stupid and ignorant and unjust and intemperate, a slave and poor, and destitute, at the next a king, rich, and prosperous, temperate, and just, secure in his judgements and exempt from error, was a transformation, they declared, which smacked more of the fairy tales of the nursery than of the doctrines of a sober philosophy.
Cite this passage
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 4 ¶54 (1908)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/a-guide-to-stoicism/4.54
St. George Stock, Stoicism (1908), text of the Haldeman-Julius reprint “A Guide to Stoicism”. Text: Project Gutenberg #7514. Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesStoics held that someone could become wise suddenly, without realising it, since there is no middle ground between folly and wisdom. Opponents mocked this as a fairy-tale change from ignorant, unjust and destitute to a rich and flawless king in a single moment.
Older wording
- “strictures”
- — harsh criticisms
- “tenet”
- — a core belief
- “smacked”
- — had the flavour of
Themes and situations
- Learning and progress
- Virtue and character
- Judgements and impressions
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