================================= Who was Seneca? One of the most eminent writers of Silver Age Latin, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, was born in Córdoba Spain, the son of the Roman rhetorician Marcus (Lucius) Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Elder. Seneca was a Roman Stoic. A Stoic was calm, strong; nothing could move him. The Stoic's philosophy was similar to what we see in the Serenity Prayer of today. He also believed that trials only made one stronger. Although Seneca was not a Christian, some of his proverbs display the wisdom that comes from God. Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart? Job 38:36 Study He that is well employed in his study, though he may seem to do nothing at all, does the greatest things yet of all others, in affairs both human and divine. Integrity I will govern my life, and my thoughts, as if the whole world were to see the one, and to read the other; for what does it signify to make anything a secret to my neighbor, when to God (who is the searcher of our hearts) all our privacies are open? Kindness Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness. Anger It indulges its own impulses, is capricious in judgment, refuses to listen to evidence, grants no opportunity for defense, maintains whatever position it has seized, and is never willing to surrender its judgment even if it is wrong. Friendship Friendship creates a community of interest between us in everything. We have neither successes nor setbacks as individuals; our lives have a common end. No one can lead a happy life if he thinks only of himself and turns everything to his own purposes. You should live for the other person if you wish to live for yourself. Nature and God Have you ever come upon a grove thick with venerable trees which tower above the ordinary height and by their layers of intertwined branches dim the light of heaven? The height of the forest, its quiet seclusion, the marvel of thick and unbroken shade in the untrammeled space, will impart a conviction of deity. A cavern formed by deep erosion of rocks holds a mountain above it, a spacious void produced not by man's handiwork but by natural causes: your soul will be stirred by religious awe. Union with God A soul which is of superior stature and well governed, which deflates the imposing by passing it by and laughs at all our fears and prayers, is impelled by a celestial force. So great a thing cannot stand without a buttress of divinity. Its larger portion therefore abides at its source. Just as the rays of the sun do indeed warm the earth but remain at the source of their radiation, so a great and holy soul is lowered to earth to give us nearer knowledge of the divine; but though it is in intercourse with us, it cleaves to its source; it is tied to it, it looks toward it, it seeks to rejoin it, and its concern with our affairs is superior and detached. Trusting Others Some people give casual acquaintances full accounts of what ought to be confided only to friends and unload whatever is on their minds into any ears at all. Some, on the other hand, shrink from the privity of their dearest friends; they would not even trust themselves, if that were possible, but suppress their every confidence deep within them. Neither course is correct. Trusting everyone and trusting no one are both wrong, though I might say the one wrong is an excess of frankness and the other an excess of security. Prudence "There is no man," in fine, "so miserable as he that is at a loss how to spend his time." He is restless in his thoughts, unsteady in his counsels, dissatisfied with the present, solicitous for the future; whereas he that prudently computes his hours and his business, does not only fortify himself against the common accidents of life, but improves the most rigorous dispensations of Providence to his comfort, and stands firm under all trials of human weakness. Wasting Time In the distribution of human life, we find that a great part of it passes away in evil doing; a greater yet in doing just nothing at all; and effectually the whole in doing things beside our business. Some hours we bestow upon ceremony and servile attendances; some upon our pleasures, and the remainder runs at waste. What a deal of time is it that we spend in hopes and fears, love and revenge, in balls, treats, making of interests, suing for offices, soliciting of causes, and slavish flatteries. The shortness of life, I know, in the time we have were not sufficient for our duties. But it is with our lives as with our estates, a good husband makes a little go a great way; whereas, let the revenue of a prince fall into the hands of a prodigal, it is gone in a moment. So that the time allotted us, if it were well employed, were abundantly enough to answer all the ends and purposes of mankind. But we squander it away in avarice, drink, sleep, luxury, ambition, fawning addresses, envy, rambling, voyages, impertinent studies, change of councils, and the like; and when our portion is spent, we find the want of it, though we gave no heed to it in the passage: insomuch, that we have rather made our life short than found it so. You shall have some people perpetually playing with their fingers, whistling, humming, and talking to themselves; and others consume their days in the composing, hearing, or reciting of songs and lampoons. How many precious mornings do we spend in consultation with barbers, tailors, and tire-women, patching and painting, betwixt the comb and the glass? A council must be called upon every hair we cut; and one curl amiss is as much as a body's life is worth. The truth is, we are more solicitous about our dress than our manners, and about the order of our perriwigs than that of the government. At this rate, let us but discount, out of a life of a hundred years, that time which has been spent upon popular negotiations, frivolous amours, domestic brawls, sauntering up and down to no purpose, diseases that we have brought upon ourselves, and this large extent of life will not amount perhaps to the minority of another man. It is a long being, but perchance a short life. And what is the reason of thought of human frailty, when yet the very moment we bestow upon this man or thing, may, peradventure, be our last. But the greatest loss of time is delay and expectation, which depends upon the future. We let go the present, which we have in our power; we look forward to that which depends upon Fortune; and so quit a certainty for an uncertainty. We should do by time as we do by a torrent, make use of it while we may have it, for it will not last always. ----------------------------------------- I turned in to the games one mid-day hoping
for a little wit and humor there. I was bitterly disappointed.
It was really mere butchery. The morning's show was merciful
compared to it. Then men were thrown to lions and to bears: but
at midday to the audience. There was no escape for them. The
slayer was kept fighting until he could be slain. "Kill
him! flog him! burn him alive" was the cry: "Why is
he such a coward? Why won't he rush on the steel? Why does he
fall so meekly? Why won't he die willingly?" Unhappy that
I am, how have I deserved that I must look on such a scene as
this? Do not, my Lucilius, attend the games, I pray you. Either
you will be corrupted by the multitude, or, if you show disgust,
be hated by them. So stay away.
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