here being at least so much truth as this
involves in the theological maxim, that the reception of this or that
speculative conclusion is really a matter of will. The persuasion that
all is vanity, with this happily constituted Greek, who had been a
genuine disciple of Socrates and reflected, presumably, something of
his blitheness in the face of the world, his happy way of taking all
chances, generated neither frivolity nor sourness, but induced, rather,
an impression, just serious enough, of the call upon men's attention of
the crisis in which they find themselves. It became the stimulus
towards every kind of activity, and prompted a perpetual,
inextinguishable thirst after experience.

With Marius, then, the influence of the philosopher of pleasure
depended on this, that in him an abstract doctrine, originally somewhat
acrid, had fallen upon a rich and genial nature, well fitted to
transform it into a theory of practice, of considerable stimulative
power towards a fair life. What Marius saw in him was the spectacle of
one of the happiest temperaments coming, so to speak, to an
understanding with the most depressing of theories; accepting the [137]
results of a metaphysical system which seemed to concentrate into
itself all the weakening trains of thought in earlier Greek
speculation, and making the best of it; turning its hard, bare truths,
with wonderful tact, into precepts of grace, and delicate wisdom, and a
delicate sense of honour. Given the hardest terms, supposing our days
are indeed but a shadow, even so, we may well adorn and beautify, in
scrupulous self-respect, our souls, and whatever our souls touch
upon--these wonderful bodies, these material dwelling-places through
which the shadows pass together for a while, the very raiment we wear,
our very pastimes and the intercourse of society. The most discerning
judges saw in him something like the graceful "humanities" of the later
Roman, and our modern "culture," as it is termed; while Horace recalled
his sayings as expressing best his own consummate amenity in the
reception of life.

In this way, for Marius, under the guidance of that old master of
decorous living, those eternal doubts as to the criteria of truth
reduced themselves to a scepticism almost drily practical, a scepticism
which developed the opposition between things as they are and our
impressions and thoughts concerning them--the possibility, if an
outward world does really exist, of some