Passion and reason
were not two things which could be kept separate in which case it
might be hoped that reason would control passion, but were two states
of the same thing--a worse and a better.
The unperturbed intellect was the legitimate monarch in the kingdom
of man. Hence the Stoics commonly spoke of it as the leading
principle. This was the part of the soul which received phantasies
and it was also that in which impulses were generated with which we
have now more particularly to do.
Impulse or appetition was the principle in the soul which impelled to
action. In an unperverted state it was directed only to things in
accordance with nature. The negative form of this principle or the
avoidance of things as being contrary to nature, we shall call
repulsion.
Notwithstanding the sublime heights to which Stoic morality rose. It
was professedly based on self-love, wherein the Stoics were at one
with the other schools of thought in the ancient world.
The earliest impulse that appeared in a newly born animal was to
protect itself and its own constitution which were conciliated to it
by nature.
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