The Stoic idea of solitude shows how it is impossible to be a hermit in this tradition. One is a recluse, which is different. A hermit “professes” his solitude, while the Stoic resents it as the product of circumstances, and ends by embracing it as his duty. Seneca and Montaigne are representative of this former case; Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius represent the latter. I count Montaigne a fideist, Marcus a true Cynic (in the classical Greek sense, I mean.)
journal of reflections by the resident of the Hermitary