EDUCATION: GREEK INFLUENCE 51 Even from the passages quoted, it is clearly evident that the ethical philosophy of Seneca (as of the later Stoics in general) was based on a religious interpretation of the world. The early Stoic con- ception of a World-Spirit which was at once dynamic and material, was deepened in the direction of an ethical monotheism. Just as men had learned to prize goodness of will in human character more than mere force, just as in earthly rulers men had come to look on power as morally ennobled only by gentle- ness and benevolence, so it was natural that in the character of the Deity they should place the goodness and wisdom of its administrative providence above mere efficient force. Along with this ethicising of the idea of God the religious sentiment acquired a more inward character than it had had before; mere resignation to the necessity of fate became free obedience, trust, reverence, and love. What repre- sentations people might form to themselves of the character of God, whether they called the cause and tuler of the whole Fate or Providence or Nature or World, whether they thought of Him as incorporeal Intelligence or as all-penetrating Spirit (Breath), or as the power of Fate which holds all things together (Nat. Quest., ii. 45; ad Helv., viii.), is of less moment. The main thing, for Seneca, is the pious belief in a Providence which guides all in our best interest, and the ratification of this belief by moral obedience to the Divine will. “Between the good man and God there subsists a friendship founded on virtue; nay, more than a friendship, a relationship and likeness, since indeed the good man, differing from God only in regard to time (as being non-eternal)