18. About the Stoics

The Stoics themselves also added to philosophy by the increased use of syllogisms, and included it nearly all in definitions, Chrysippus and Zeno being here agreed in opinion. Who also supposed that God was the beginning of all things, and was the purest body, and that His providence extends through all things. They say positively, however, that existence is everywhere according to destiny using some such simile as this: viz. that, as a dog tied to a cart, if he wishes to follow it, is both drawn along by it and follows of his own accord, doing at the same time what he wills and what he must by a compulsion like that of destiny. But if he does not wish to follow he is wholly compelled. And they say that it is the same indeed with men. For even if they do not wish to follow, they will be wholly compelled to come to what has been foredoomed. And they say that the soul remains after death, and that it is a body and is born from the cooling of the air of the ambient, whence it is called Psyche. But they admit that there is a change of bodies for Souls which have been marked out for it. And they expect that there will be a conflagration and purification of this cosmos, some saying that it will be total but others partial, and that it will be purified part by part. And they call this approximate destruction and the birth of another cosmos therefrom, catharsis. And they suppose that all things are bodies, and that one body passes through another; but that there is a resurrection and that all things are filled full and that there is no void. Thus also the Stoics.