among the Ancient Philosophers, implied an utter privation of passion, and an insensibility of pain. The word is compounded of α, priv., and ἀπάθεια, affection. The Stoics affected an entire apathy: they considered it as the highest wisdom to enjoy a perfect calmness or tranquillity of mind, incapable of being ruffled by either pleasure or pain. In the first ages of the church the Christians adopted the term apathy to express a contempt for all earthly concerns, a state of mortification such as the gospel prescribes. Clemens Alexandrinus, in particular, brought it greatly into use; thinking thereby to draw to Christianity the philosophers who aspired after such a sublime pitch of virtue.