St. George Stock (modern guide) · 1850–1922
A Guide to Stoicism 5 ¶25 — St. George Stock (modern guide)
From “Physic”
Original English text (1908)
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 5 ¶25
In this theory of the contraction of the universe out of an ethereal state and ultimate return to the same condition one sees a resemblance to the modern scientific hypothesis of the origin of our planetary system out of the solar nebula, and its predestined end in the same. Especially is this the case with the form in which the theory was held by Cleanthes, who pictured the heavenly bodies as hastening to their own destruction by dashing themselves, like so many gigantic moths, into the sun. Cleanthes however did not conceive mere mechanical force to be at work in this matter. The grand apotheosis of suicide which he foresaw was a voluntary act; for the heavenly bodies were Gods and were willing to lose their own in a larger life.
Cite this passage
St. George Stock (modern guide), A Guide to Stoicism 5 ¶25 (1908)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/a-guide-to-stoicism/5.25
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 notesThe cycle of a universe shrinking from a fiery state and returning to it resembles the modern nebular theory of the solar system. Cleanthes imagined the heavenly bodies flying into the sun like moths, not by blind force but willingly, because they were gods ready to be absorbed into a larger life.
Older wording
- “apotheosis”
- — glorification or elevation to the status of a god
- “solar nebula”
- — the cloud of gas and dust from which the solar system formed
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
- Change and impermanence