The treatise that I herewith submit to the public is an old piece 
of work and was originally intended as part of a comprehensive 
exposition of Epicurean, Stoic, and Sceptic philosophy.* At pres- 
ent, however, political and philosophical arrangements of an 
entirely different kind prevent me from bringing such a task to 
completion. ° 

Only now the time has come in which the systems of the 
Epicureans, Stoics and Sceptics can be understood. They are the 


pioneer: of self-consciousness. These lines will at any rate show 
ow little has so far been achieved towards solving this problem.