it? Or must we say that reason is itself a principle of action? Here
Plutarch comes to our aid, who tells us on the authority of
Chrysippus in his work on Law that impulse is 'the reason of man
commanding him to act,' and similarly that repulsion is 'prohibitive
reason.' This renders the Stoic position unmistakable, and we must
accomodate our minds to it in spite of its difficulties. Just as we
have seen already that reason is not something radically different
from sense, so now it appears that reason is not different from
impulse, but itself the perfected form of impulse. Whenever impulse
is not identical with reason--at least in a rational being--it is not
truly impulse, but passion.

The Stoics, it will be observed, were Evolutionists in their
psychology. But, like many Evolutionists at the present day, they did
not believe in the origin of mind out of matter. In all living things
there existed already what they called 'seminal reasons,' which
accounted for the intelligence displayed by plants as well as by
animals. As there were four cardinal virtues, so there were four
primary passions. These were delight, grief, desire and fear. All of
them were excited by the presence or the prospect of fancied good or
ill. What prompted desire by its prospect caused delight by its
presence, and what prompted fear by its prospect caused grief by its
presence. Thus two of the primary passions had to do with good and
two with evil. All were furies which infested the life of fools,
rendering it bitter and grievous to them; and it was the business of
philosophy to fight against them. Nor was this strife a hopeless one,
since the passions were not grounded in nature, but were due to false
opinion. They originated in voluntary judgements, and owed their
birth to a lack of mental sobriety. If men wished to live the span of
life that was allotted to them in quietness and peace, they must by