To subsist upon the narrowest means; to acquire indifference to pain, by a discipline of endurance; to despise all the ordinary pursuits of wealth and pleasure,--were Sokratic peculiarities, and were the _beau ideal_ of Cynicism.
The Cynic succession of philosophers were, (1) ANTISTHENES, one of the most constant friends and companions of Sokrates; (2) DIOGENES of Sinope, the pupil of Antisthenes, and the best known type of the sect.
(His disciple Krates, a Theban, was the master of Zeno, the first Stoic.) (3) STILPON of Megara, (4) MENEDEMUS of Eretria, (5) MONIMUS of Syracuse, (6) KRATES.
The two first heads of the Ethical scheme, so meagrely filled up by the ancient systems generally, are almost a total blank as regards both Cynics and Cyrenaics.
I .-- As regards a Standard of right and wrong, moral good or evil, they recognized nothing but obedience to the laws and customs of society.
II .-- They had no Psychology of a moral faculty, of the will, or of benevolent sentiment.

The Cyrenaic Aristippus had a Psychology of Pleasure and Pain.
The Cynics, instead of discussing Will, exercised it, in one of its most prominent forms,--self-control and endurance.
Disinterested conduct was no part of their scheme, although the ascetic discipline necessarily promotes abstinence from sins against property, and from all the vices of public ambition.
III .-- The proper description of both systems comes under the Summum Bonum, or the Art of Living.
The Cynic Ideal was the minimum of wants, the habituation to pain, together with indifference to the common enjoyments.

The compensating reward was exemption from fear, anxiety, and disappointment; also, the pride of superiority to fellow-beings and of approximation to the gods.

Looking at the great predominance of misery in human life, they believed the problem of living to consist in a mastery over all the forms of pain; until this was first secured, there was to be a total sacrifice of pleasure.
The Cynics were mostly, like Sokrates, men of robust health, and if they put their physical constitution to a severe test by poor living and exposure to wind and weather, they also saved it from the wear and tear of steady industry and toil.

Exercise of body and of mind, with a view to strength and endurance, was enjoined; but it was the drill of the soldier rather than the drudgery of the artisan.
In the eyes of the public, the prominent feature of the Cynic was his contemptuous jeering, and sarcastic abuse of everybody around.