Principles of western civilisation

VII THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE 215

which has taken place in this respect.t. For “no philosopher of antiquity ever questioned that a good man reviewing his life might look upon it without shame and even with positive complacency.”? But all this has been changed. The antithesis between the individual and the world around him, and, it is important to note, between the individual and his own nature, has become one of the most striking spectacles in the history of the human mind. The conception of virtue as conformity to nature has absolutely vanished. “Oh the abyss of man’s conscience,” says St. Augustine, “ . my groaning beareth witness... 1 am ashamed of myself and renounce myself.” °

Even where we see the adherents of the new movement prepared to meet destiny with all the outward serenity which Stoicism endeavoured to supply, we may perceive how entirely altered has become the stand-point of the individual mind. “What,” asks Marcus Aurelius, ‘if people will not let you live as you would? Why, then leave life, but by no means make a misfortune Olmitshas is the haughty reply of the Stoic. ‘Let your tormenting irons harrow our flesh,” says Tertullian ; “let your gibbets exalt us, or your fires lick up our bodies . . . We are in position of defence against all the evils you can crowd upon us.”° The standpoint outwardly is the same; but a world of difference between the two is revealed when we reach the consciousness beneath from which the action in each case is proceeding. The attempt of the

1 History of European Morals, by W. E. H. Lecky, vol. i. p. 207. 2 [bid. p. 207. ® Confessions, b. x. 4 Meditations, v. 5 Apology, CXxx.