Seneca: Of Tranquillity of Mind - Audiobook

the ninth book of the dialogues of Lucius Aeneas Seneca addressed to Serena's of tranquility of mind translated by Aubrey Stewart and narrated by Robin homer one from Serena's when I examine myself Seneca some vices appear on the surface so that I can lay my hands upon them while others are less distinct and harder to reach and some are not always present but recur at intervals and these I should call the most troublesome being like a roving enemy that assails one when he sees his opportunity and who will neither let one stand on one's guard as in war nor yet take one's rest without fear as in peace the position in which I find myself more especially for why should I not tell you the truth as I would to a physician is that of being neither thoroughly set free from the vices which I fear and hate nor yet quite in bondage to them my state of mind though not the worst possible is a particularly discontented and sulky one I am neither ill nor well it is of no use for you to tell me that all virtues are weakly at the outset and that they acquire strength and solidity by time for I am well aware that even those which do but help our outward show such as grandeur a reputation for eloquence and everything that appeals to others gained power by time both those which afford us real strength and those which do but trick us out in a more attractive form require long years before they gradually are adapted to us by time but I fear that custom which confirms most things implants this vice more and more deeply in me long acquaintance with both good and bad people leads one to esteem them all alike what this state of weakness really is when the mind halts between two opinions without any strong inclination towards either good or evil I shall better be able to show you piecemeal then all at once I will tell you what befalls me you must find out the name of the disease I have to confess the greatest possible love of thrift I do not care for a bed with gorgeous hangings nor for clothes brought out of a chest or pressed under weights and made glossy by frequent mangling --zz but for common and cheap ones that require no care either to keep them or to put them on for food I do not want what needs whole troupes of servants to prepare it and admire it nor what is ordered many days before and served up by many hands but something handy and easily come out with nothing far-fetched or costly about it to be had in every part of the world burdensome neither to one's fortune nor one's body not likely to go out of the body by the same path by which it came in I like a rough and unpolished homebred servants I like my servant born in my house I like my country bred fathers heavy silver plate stamped with no makers name I do not want a table that is beauteous with dappled spots or known to all the town by the number of fashionable people to whom it has successively belonged but one which stands merely for use and which causes no guests I to dwell upon it with pleasure water Kindle at it with envy while I am well satisfied with this I am reminded of the clothes of a certain schoolboy dressed with no ordinary care and splendor of slaves be decked with gold and a whole regiment of glittering attendants I think of houses to wear one treads on precious stones and where valuables lie about in every corner where the very roof is brilliantly painted and a whole nation attends and accompanies and inheritance on the road to ruin what shall I say of waters transparent to the very bottom which flow round the guests and banquets worthy of the theatre in which they take place coming as I do from a long course of dull thrift I find myself surrounded by the most brilliant luxury which echoes round me on every side my sight becomes a little dazzled by it I can lift up my heart against it more easily than my eyes when I return from seeing it I am sad though not a worse man I cannot walk amid my own paltry possessions with so loftiest step as before and silently there steals over me a feeling of vexation and a doubt whether that way of life may not be better than mine none of these things alter my principles yet all of them disturb me at one time I would obey the Maxim's of our school and plunge into public life I would obtain office and become consul not because the purple robe and lictors axes attract me but in order that I may be able to be of use to my friends my relatives to all my countrymen and indeed to all mankind ready and determined I follow the advice of Zeno clay Anthes and cruciferous all of whom bid one take part in public affairs though none of them ever did so himself and then as soon as something disturbs my mind which is not used to receiving shocks as soon as something occurs which is either disgraceful such as often occurs in all men's lives or which does not proceed quite easily nor when subjects of very little importance require me to devote a great deal of time to them I go back to my life of leisure and just as Eventide cattle go faster when they are going home I wish to retire and pass my life within the walls of my house no one I say that will give me no compensation worth such a loss shall ever rob me of a day let my mind be contained within itself and improve itself let it take no part with other men's affairs and do nothing which depends on the approval of others let me enjoy a tranquility undisturbed by either public or private troubles but whenever my spirit is roused by reading some brave words or some noble example Spurs me into action I want to rush into the law courts to place my voice at one man's disposal my services at another and to try to help him even though I may not succeed or to quell the pride of some lawyer who is puffed up by ill deserved success but I think by Hercules that in philosophical speculation it is better to view things as they are and to speak of them on their own account and as for words to trust a things for them and to let one speech simply follow whither they lead why do you want to construct a fabric that will endure for ages do you not wish to do this in order that posterity may talk of you yet you are born to die and a silent death is the least wretched write something therefore in a simple style merely to pass the time for your own use and not for publication less labor is needed when one does not look beyond the present then again when the mind is elevated by the greatness of its thoughts it becomes ostentatious in its use of words the loftier its aspirations the more loft early it desires to express them and its speech rises to the dignity of its subject at such times I forget my mild and moderate determination and saw higher than is my wants using language that is not my own not to multiply examples I am in all things attended by this weakness of a well-meaning mind to whose level I fear that I shall be gradually brought down or what is even more worrying that I may always hang as they're about to fall and that there may be more than matter with me than I myself perceive for we take a friendly view of our own private affairs and partiality always obscures our judgment I fancy that many men would have arrived at wisdom had they not believed themselves to have arrived there already had they not purposely deceived themselves as to some parts of their character and passed by others with their eyes shut for you have no grounds for supposing that other people's flattery is more ruinous to us than our own who dares to tell himself the truth who is thereby however large a troop of caressing courtiers he may be surrounded who in spite of them is not his own greatest flatterer I beg you therefore if you have any remedy by which you could stop this vacillation of mine to deem me worthy - oh my peace of mind to you I am well aware that these oscillations of mind are not perilous and that they threaten me with no serious disorder to express what I complain of by an exact simile I am NOT suffering from a storm but from seasickness take from me then this evil whatever it may be and help one who is in distress within sight of land - from Seneca I have long been silently asking myself my friend serenus - what I should liken such a condition of mind and I find that nothing more closely resembles it than the conduct of those who after having recovered from a long and serious illness occasionally experience slight touches and twinges and although they have passed through the final stages of a disease yet have suspicions that it has not left them and though in perfect health yet hold out their poles to be felt by the physician and whenever they feel warned suspect that the fever is returning such men Serena's are not unhealthy but they are not accustomed to being healthy just as even a quiet sea or lake nevertheless displays a certain amount of ripple when its waters are subsiding after a storm what you need therefore is not any of those harsher remedies to which illusion has been made not that you should in some cases check yourself in others be angry with yourself in others sternly reproach yourself but then you should adopt that which comes last in the list have confidence in yourself and believe that you are proceeding on the right path without being led assigned by the numerous divergent tracks of Wanderers which cross it in every direction some of them circling about the right path itself what you desire to be undisturbed is a great thing nay the greatest thing of all and one which raises a man almost to the level of a god the Greeks call this calm steadiness of mind youth amia and democritus's treatise upon it is excellently written I call it peace of mind for there is no necessity for translating so exactly as to copy the words of the Greek idiom the essential point is to mark the matter under discussion by a name which ought to have the same meaning as its Greek name though perhaps not the same form what we are seeking then is how the mind may always pursue a steady unruffled course may be pleased with itself and look with pleasure upon its surroundings and experience no interruptions of this joy but abide in a peaceful condition without being ever either elated or depressed this will be peace of mind let us now consider in a general way how it may be attained then you may apply as much as you choose of the general remedy to your own case meanwhile we must drag to light the entire disease and then each one will recognize his own part of it at the same time you will understand how much less you suffer by your own self depreciation than those who are bound by some showy declaration which they have made and are oppressed by some grand title of honor so that shame rather than their own free will forces them to keep up the pretense the same thing applies both to those who suffer from fickleness and continual changes of purpose who always are fondest of what they have given up and those who merely yawn and dawdle add to these those who like bad sleepers turn from side to side and settle themselves first in one manner and then in another until at last they find rest through sheer weariness in forming the habits of their lives they often end up adopting some to which they are not kept by any dislike of change but in the practice of which old age which is slow to alter has caught them living and also those who are by no means fickle yet you must thank their dullness not their consistency for being so and who go on living not in the way they wish but in the way they have begun to live there are other special forms of this disease without number but it has but one effect that of making people dissatisfied with themselves this arises from a distemper of mind and from desires which one is afraid to express or unable to fulfill when men either dare not attempt as much as they wish to do or fail in their efforts and depend entirely upon hope such people are always fickle and changeable which is a necessary consequence of living in a state of suspense they take any way to arrive at their ends and teach and force themselves to use both dishonorable and difficult means to do so so that when their toil has been in vain they are made wretched by the disgrace of failure and do not regret having longed for what was wrong but having longed for it in vayne they then begin to feel sorry for what they have done and afraid to begin again and their mind folds by degrees into a state of endless vacillation because they can either command nor obey their passions of hesitation because their life cannot properly develop itself and of decay as the mind becomes stupefied by disappointments all these symptoms become aggravated when their dislike of a laborious misery has driven them to idleness and to secret studies which are unendurable to a mind eager to take part in public affairs desirous of action and naturally Restless because of course it finds too few resources within itself when therefore it loses the amusement which business itself affords to busy men it cannot in your home loneliness or the walls of a room and regards itself with dislike when left to itself hence arises that weariness and dissatisfaction with oneself that tossing to and fro of a mind which can nowhere find rest that unhappy and unwilling endurance of enforced leisure in all cases where one feels ashamed to confess the real cause of one suffering and where modesty leads one to drive one suffering inwards the desires pent up in a little space without any vent choke one another hence comes melancholy and drooping of spirits and a thousand wavering zuv the unsteady fast mind which is held in suspense by unfulfilled hopes and saddened by disappointed ones hence comes the State of Mind of those who loathe their idleness complain that they have nothing to do and view the progress of others with the bitterest jealousy for an unhappy sloth favours the growth of envy and men who cannot succeed themselves wish everyone else to be ruined the dislike of other men's progress and despair of one's own produces a mind angered against fortune addicted to complaining of the age in which it lives to retiring into corners and brooding over its misery until it becomes sick and weary of itself for the human mind is naturally nimble and apt at movement it delights in every opportunity of excitement and forgetfulness of itself and the worse a man's disposition the more he delights in this because he likes to wear himself out with busy action just as some soars long for the hands that injured him and delight in being touched and the foul it enjoys anything that scratches it similarly I assure you that these Minds over which desires have spread like evil ulcers take pleasure in toils and troubles for there are some things which please our body while at the same time they give it a certain amount of pain such as turning oneself over and changing one side before it is wearied or cooling oneself in one position after another it is like homers achilles lying first upon its face then upon its back placing itself in various attitudes and as sick people are want enduring none of them for long and using changes as though they were remedies hence men undertake aimless wanderings travel a long distance shores and at one time at sea at another by land try to soothe that fickleness of disposition which always is dissatisfied with the present now let us make for Campania now I am sick of rich cultivation let us see wild regions let us thread the passes of bruty I and Lucania yet amid this wilderness one wants something of beauty to relieve our pampered eyes after so long dwelling on savage wastes let us seek to Wrentham with its famous harbour its mild winter climate and its district rich enough to support even the great hordes of ancient times and let us now return to town our ears have too long missed it shouts and noise it would be pleasant also to enjoy the sight of human bloodshed thus one journey succeeds another and one sight is changed for another as Lucretia says thus every mortal from himself doth flee but what does he gain from doing so if he does not escape from himself he follows himself and weighs himself down by his own most burdens and companionship we must understand therefore then what we suffer from is not the fault of the places but of ourselves we are weak when there is anything to be injured and cannot support either labour or pleasure either one's own business or anyone else's for long this has driven some men to death because by frequently altering their purpose they were always brought back to the same point and had left themselves no room for anything new they had become sick of life and of the world itself and as old indulgences polled upon them they began to ask themselves the question how long are we to go on doing the same thing three you ask me what I think we had better make use of to help us support this ennui the best thing as Athena dora says is to occupy oneself with business with the management of affairs of state and the duties of a citizen for has some passed the day and exercising themselves in the Sun and in taking care of their bodily health and athletes find it most useful to spend the greater part of their time in feeding up the muscles and strength to whose cultivation they have devoted their lives so too for you who are training your mind to take part in the struggles of political life it is far more honorable to be thus at work than to be idle he whose object is to be of service to his countrymen and to all mortals exercises himself and as good at the same time when he is engrossed in business and is working to the best of his ability both in the interests of the public and of private men Bart continues II because innocence is hardly safe among such furious ambitions and so many men who turn one aside from the right path and it is always sure to meet with more hindrance than help we ought to withdraw ourselves from the forum and from public life and a great mind even in a private station can find room wherein to expand freely confinement in dens restrains the springs of lines and wild creatures but this does not apply to human beings who often affect the most important works in retirement let a man however withdraw himself only in such a fashion that wherever he spends his leisure his wish may still be to benefit individual men and mankind alike both with his intellect his voice and his advice the man that does good service to the state tis not only he who brings forward candidates for public office defends accused persons and gives his vote on questions of peace and war but he who encourages young men in well-doing who supplies the present death of good teachers by instilling into their minds the principles of virtue who seizes and holds back those who are rushing wildly in pursuit of riches and luxury and if he does nothing else at least checks their cause such a man does service to the public though in a private station which does the most good he who decides between foreigners and citizens as praetor peregrinus or as praetor Urbanus pronounces sentence to the suitors in his court at his assistants dictation or he who shows them what is meant by justice filial feeling endurance courage contempt of death and knowledge of the gods and how much a man is helped by a good conscience then you transfer to philosophy the time which you take away from the public service you will not be a deserter or have refused to perform your proper task a soldier is not merely one who stands in the ranks and defends the right or the left wing of the army but he also who guards the gates a service which though less dangerous is no sign acure who keeps watch and takes charge of the Arsenal though all these are bloodless duties yet they count as military service as soon as you have devoted yourself to philosophy you will have overcome all disgust at life you will not wish for darkness because you are weary of the light nor will you be a trouble to yourself and useless to others you will acquire many friends and all the best men will be attracted towards you for virtue in however obscure a position cannot be hidden that gives signs of its presence anyone who is worthy will trace it out by its footsteps but if we give up all society turn our backs upon the whole human race and live communing with ourselves alone this solitude without any interesting occupation will lead to a want of something to do we shall begin to build up and to pull down to damn out the sea to cause water to flow through natural obstacles and generally to make a bad disposal of the time which Nature has given us to spend some of us use it grudgingly now there's wastefully some of us spend it so that we can show a profit and loss account others so that they have no assets remaining than which nothing can be more shameful often a man who is very old in years has nothing beyond his age by which he can prove that he has lived a long time for to me my dearest serenus ethany doris seems to have yielded to completely to the times two have fled too soon I will not deny that sometimes one must retire but one ought to retire slowly at a foot space without losing ones n signs or one's honor as a soldier those who make terms with arms in their hands are more respected by their enemies and more safe in their hands this is what I think ought to be done by virtue and by one who practices virtue if fortune get the upper hand and deprived him of the power of action let him not straightway turn his back to the enemy throw away his arms and run away seeking for a hiding place as if there were any place with a fortune could not pursue him but let him be more sparing in his acceptance of public office and after due deliberation discover some means by which he can be of use to the states he is not able to serve in the army then let him become a candidate for civic honors must he live in a private station then let him be an advocate is he condemned to keep silence then let him help his countrymen with silence counsel is it dangerous for him even to enter the forum then let him prove himself a good comrade a faithful friend a sober guest in people's houses and public shows and that wine parties suppose that he has lost the status of a citizen then let him exercise that of a man our reason for magnanimously refusing to confine ourselves within the walls of one city for having gone forth to enjoy intercourse with all lands and for professing ourselves to be citizens of the world is that we may thus obtain a wider theatre on which to display our virtue is the bench of judges closed you are you forbidden to address the people from the hustings or to be a candidate at elections then turn your eyes away from Rome and see what a wide extent of territory what a number of nations present themselves before thus it is never possible for so many outlets to be closed against your ambition then more will not remain open to it but see whether the whole prohibition does not arise from your own fault you do not choose to direct the affairs of the state to accept as console or prett anise or medics or Sufis what should we say if you refuse to serve in the army save as general or military Tribune even though others may form the first line and your lot may have placed you among the veterans of the third do your duty there with your voice encouragement example and spirit even though a man's hands may be cut off he may find some means to help his side in a battle if he stands his ground and cheers on his comrades do something of that sort yourself if fortune removes you from the front rank stand your grounds nevertheless and cheer on your comrades and if somebody stops your mouth stand nevertheless and help your side in silence the services of a good citizen are never thrown away he does good by being heard and seen by his expression his gestures his silent determination and his very walk as some remedies benefit us by their smell as well as by their taste and touch so virtue even when concealed and at a distance sheds usefulness around whether she moves at her ease and enjoys her just rights or can only appear abroad on sufferance and is forced to shorten sail to The Tempest whether it be unemployed silent and pent up in a narrow lodging or openly displayed in whatever guys she may appear she always does good what do you think that the example of one who can rest nobly has no value it is by far the best plan therefore to mingle leisure with business whenever chance impediments all the states of Affairs forbids one leading an active life for one is never so cut off from all pursuits has to find no room left for honorable action five could you anywhere find a more miserable City than that of Athens when it was being torn to pieces by the thirty tyrants they slew thirteen hundred citizens all the best men and did not leave off because they had done so their cruelty became stimulated by exercise in the city which possessed that most reverent tribunal the court of Areopagus which possessed a Senate and a popular assembly which was like a Senate there met daily a wretched crew of butchers and the unhappy Senate house was crowded with tyrants a state in which there were so many tyrants that there would have been enough to form a bodyguard for one might surely have rested from the struggle it seemed impossible for men's minds even to conceive hopes of recovering their Liberty nor could they see any room for a remedy for such a mass of evil for whence could the unhappy state obtain all the harm odious as it would need to slay so many tyrants yet Socrates was in the midst of the city and consoled its mourning fathers encourage those who despaired of the Republic by his reproaches brought rich men who feared that their wealth would be their ruin to a tardy repentance of their avarice and moved about as a great example to those who wish to imitate him because he walked a free man in the midst of 30 masters however Athens herself put him to death in prison and freedom herself could not enjoy the freedom of one who had treated a whole band of tyrants with scorn you may know therefore that even in an oppressed state a wise man can find an opportunity for bringing himself to the front and that in a prosperous and flourishing one want an insulin jealousy and a thousand other cowardly vices Bess way we ought therefore to expand or contract ourselves according as the state presents itself to us or as fortune offers us opportunities but in any case we ought to move and not become frozen still by fear nay he is the best man who though peril menaces him on every side and arms and chains beset his path nevertheless neither impairs nor conceals his virtue for to keep oneself safe does not mean to bury oneself I think that curious dentata spoke truly when he said that he would rather be dead than alive the worst evil of all is to leave the ranks of the living before one dies yet it is your duty if you happen to live in an age when it is not easy to serve the state to devote more time to leisure and to literature thus just as though you are making a perilous voyage you may from time to time put into harbour and set yourself free from public business without waiting for it to do so 6 we ought however first to examine our own selves next the business which we propose to transact next those for whose sake or in whose company we transact it it is above all things necessary to form a true estimate of oneself because as a rule we think that we can do more than we are able one man has led too far through confidence in his own eloquence another demands more from his estates than it can produce another burdens a weekly body with some toilsome duty some men are to shamefacedly conduct of public affairs which require a nun blushing front some men's obstinate pride renders them unfit for courts some cannot control their anger and break into unguarded language on the slightest provocation some cannot rein in their wit or resist making risky jokes for all these men leisure is better than employments a bold haughty and impatient nature ought to avoid anything that may lead it to use a freedom of speech which will bring it to ruin next we must form an estimate of the matter which we mean to deal with and compare our strength with the deed we are about to attempt for the bearer ought always to be more powerful than his load indeed loads which are too heavy for the bearer must of necessity crush him some affairs also are not so important in themselves as they are prolific and lead to much more business which employments as they involve us in new and various forms of work ought to be refused neither should you engage in everything from which you are not free to retreat apply yourself to something which you can finish or at any rate can hope to finish you had better not meddle with those operations which grow in importance while they are being transacted and which will not stop where you intended them to stop 7 in all cases one should be careful in one's choice of men and see whether they be worthy of our bestowing a part of our life upon them or whether we shall waste our time and there's also for some even consider us to be in their debts because of our services to them as an odorous said that he would not so much as dine with a man who would not be grateful to him for doing so meaning I imagined that much less would he go to dinner with those who recompense the services of their friends by their table and regard courses of dishes as donut is as if they over ate themselves to do honour to others take away from these men their witnesses and spectators they will take no pleasure in solitary gluttony you must decide whether your disposition is better suited for vigorous action or for tranquil speculation and contemplation and you must adopt whichever the bents of your genius inclines you form I Socrates laid hands upon a forests and led him away from the forum thinking that he would be more usefully employed in compiling Chronicles for no good is done by forcing one's mind to engage in uncongenial work it is vain to struggle against nature yet nothing delights the mind so much as faithful and pleasant friendship what a blessing it is when there is one whose breast is ready to receive all your secrets with safety whose knowledge of your actions you fear less than your own conscience whose conversation removes your anxieties whose advice assists your plans whose cheerfulness dispels your gloom who's very cites delights you we should choose for our friends men who are as far as possible free from strong desires for vices are contagious and pass from a man to his neighbor and injure those who touch them as therefore in times of pestilence we have to be careful not to sit near people who are infected and in whom the disease is raging because by doing so we shall run into danger and catch the plague from their very breath so too in choosing our friends dispositions we must take care to select those who are as far as maybe unspotted by the world for the way to breed disease is to mix what is sound with what is rotten yet I do not advise you to follow after or draw to yourself no one except a wise man for where will you find him whom for so many centuries we have sought in vain in the place of the best possible man take him who is least bad you would hardly find any time that would have enabled you to make a happier choice than if you could have sought for a good man from among the Plato's and Xenophon's and the rest of the produce of the brood Socrates or if you had been permitted to choose one from the age of Cato an age which bore many men worthy to be born in Cato's time just as it also bore many men worse than were ever known before planners of the blackest crimes for it needed both classes in order to make Cato understood it wanted both good men that he might win their approbation and bad men against whom he could prove his strength but at the present day when there is such a dog man you must be less squeamish in your choice above all however avoid dismal men who grumble at whatever happens and find something to complain of in everything though he may continue loyal and friendly towards you still ones peace of mind is destroyed by a comrade whose mind is soured and who meets every incident with a groan eight let us now pass on to the consideration of property that most fertile source of human sorrows for if you compare all the other ills from which we suffer deaths sickness fears regrets endurance of pains and Labor's with those miseries which our money inflicts upon us the latter will far outweigh all the others reflect then how much lesser grief it is never to have had any money than to have lost it we shall thus understand that the less poverty has to lose the less torment it has with which to afflict us for you are mistaken if you suppose that the rich bear their losses with greater spirits than the poor a wound causes the same amount of pain to the greatest and the smallest body it was a neat saying of buy-ins that it hurts bold men as much as hairy men to have their hairs pulled out you may be assured that the same thing is true of rich and poor people that their suffering is equal for their money to both classes and cannot be torn away without their feeling it yet it is more endurable as I have said and easier not to gain property than to lose it and therefore you will find that those upon whom fortune has never smiled are more cheerful than those whom she has deserted Diogenes a man of infinite spirit perceived this and made it impossible that anything should be taken from him call this security from loss poverty wants necessity or any contemptuous name you please I shall consider such a man to be happy unless you find me another who can lose nothing if I am not mistaken it is a royal attribute among so many misers sharpers and robbers to be the one man who cannot be injured if anyone doubts the happiness of Diogenes he would doubt whether the position of the immortal gods was one of sufficient happiness because they have no farms or gardens no valuable estates led to strange tenants and no large loans in the money markets are you not ashamed of yourself you who gaze upon riches with astonishment look upon the universe you will see the gods quite bare of property and possessing nothing though they give everything do you think that this man who has stripped himself of all fortuitous accessories is a pauper or one like to the immortal gods do you call Demetrius pompez's Freedman a happier man he who was not ashamed to be richer than pompeius who was daily furnished with a list of the number of his slaves as a general is with that of his army though he had long deserved that all his riches should consist of a pair of underlings and a Rumia cell than the other slaves but Diogenes his only slave ran away from him and when he was pointed out to Diogenes he did not think him worth fetching back it is a shame he say that man is should be able to live without Diogenes and that Diogenes should not be able to live without Manas he seems to me to have said fortune mind your own business Diogenes has nothing left that belongs to you did my slave run away nay he went away from me as a free man and household of slaves requires food and clothing the bellies of so many hungry creatures have to be filled we must buy raiment for them we must watch their most thievish hands and we must make use of the services of people who weep and execrate us how far happier is he who is indebted to no man for anything except for what he can deprive himself of with the greatest ease since we however have not such strength of mind as this we ought at any rate to diminish the extent of our property in order to be less exposed to the assaults of fortune those men whose bodies can be within the shelter of their Armour are more fitted for war than those whose huge size everywhere extends beyond it and exposes them to wounds the best amount of property to have is that which is enough to keep us from poverty and which yet is not far removed from it 9 we shall be pleased with this measure of wealth if we have previously taken pleasure in thrift without which no riches are sufficient and with which none are insufficient especially as the remedy is always at hand and poverty itself by calling in the aid of thrift can convert itself into riches let us accustom ourselves to set aside mere outward show and to measure things by their uses not by their ornamental trappings let our hunger be tamed by food our thirst quenched by drinking our lust confined within needful bounds let us learn to use our limbs and to arrange our dress sandé way of life according to what was approved of by our ancestors not in imitation of newfangled models let us learn to increase our countenance to repress luxury to set bounds to our pride to ass wage our anger to look upon poverty without prejudice to practice thrift I'll be at many are ashamed to do so to apply cheap remedies to the wants of nature to keep all undisciplined hopes and aspirations as it were under lock and key and to make it our business to get our riches from ourselves and not from fortune we never can so thoroughly defeat the vast diversity and malignity of misfortune with which we are threatened as not to feel the weight of many gusts if we offer a large spread of canvas to the winds we must draw our affairs into a small compass to make the darts of fortune of no avail for this reason sometimes slight mishaps have turned into remedies and more serious disorders have been healed by slighter ones when the minds pays no attention to good advice and cannot be brought to its senses by milder measures why should we not think that his interests are being served by poverty disgrace or financial ruin being applied to it one evil is balanced by another let us then teach ourselves to be able to dine without all Rome to look on to be the slaves of fewer slaves to get clothes which fulfill their original purpose and to live in a smaller house the inner curve is the one to take not only in running races and in the contests of the circus but also in the race of life even literary pursuits the most becoming thing for a gentleman to spend money upon are only justifiable as long as they are kept within bounds what is the use of possessing numberless books and libraries whose titles their owner can hardly read through in a lifetime a student is overwhelmed by such a mass not instructed and it is much better to devote yourself to a few writers than to skim through many 40,000 books were burned as Alexandria some would have praised this library as a most noble memorial of royal wealth like Titus Livius who says that it was a splendid result of the taste and attentive care of the Kings it had nothing to do with taste or care but was a piece of learned luxury nay not even learned since they amassed it not for the sake of learning but to make a show like many men who know less about letters than a slave is expected to know and who uses his books not to help him in his studies butter ornament his dining room let a man then obtain as many books as he wants but none for show it is more respectable say you to spend ones money on such books then on vases of Corinthian brass and paintings not so everything that is carried to excess is wrong what excuses can you find for a man who is eager to buy bookcases of ivory and citrus wood to collect the works of unknown or discredited authors and who sits yawning amid so many thousands of books whose backs and titles please him more than any other part of them thus in the houses of the laziest of men you will see the works of all the irate errs and historians stacked upon bookshelves reaching right up to the ceiling at the present day a library has become as necessary an appendage to a house as a hot and cold bath I would excuse him straightway if they were really carried away by an excessive zeal for literature but as it is these costly works of sacred genius with all the illustrations that adorn them are merely bought for display and to serve as wall furniture ten suppose however that your life has become full of trouble and that without knowing what you were doing you have fallen into some snare which either public or private fortune has set for you and that you can neither untie it nor break it then remember that fettered men suffer much at first from the burdens and clogs upon their legs afterwards when they have made up their minds not to fret themselves about them but to endure them necessity teaches them to bear them bravely and habit to bear them easily in every station of life you will find amusements relaxations and enjoyments that is provided you be willing to make light of evils rather than to hate them knowing to what sorrows we were born there is nothing for which nature more deserves our thanks than for having invented habit as an alleviation of misfortune which soon accustoms us to the severus evils no one could hold out against misfortune if it permanently exercised the same force as at its first onset we are all chained to fortune some men's chain is loose and made of gold that of others is tight and of meaner metal but what difference does this make we are all included in the same captivity and even those who have bound us are bound themselves unless you think that a chain on the left side is lighter to bear one man may be bound by public office another by wealth some have to bear the weight of the illustrious some of humble birth some are subject to the commands of others some only to their own some are kept in one place by being banished differ others by being elected to the priesthood all life is slavery let each man therefore reconcile himself to his lot complain of it as little as possible and lay hold of whatever good lies within his reach condition can be so wretched that an impartial minds can find no compensations in it small sites if ingeniously divided may be made use of for many different purposes and arrangement will render even so narrow a room habitable coal good sense to your aid against difficulties it is possible to soften what is harsh to widen what is narrow and to make heavy burdens press less severely upon one who bears them skillfully moreover we ought not to allow our desires to wander far afield but we must make them confine themselves to our immediate neighbourhood since they will not endure to be altogether locked up we must leave alone things which either cannot come to pass or can only be affected with difficulty and follow after such things as are near at hand and within reach of our hopes always remembering that all things are equally unimportant and that though they have a different outward appearance they are all alike empty within neither let us envy those who are in high places the heights which look lofty to us are steep and rugged again those whom unkind fate has placed in critical situations will be safer if they show as little pride in their proud positions as may be and do all they are able to bring down their fortunes to the level of other men's there are many who must needs cling to their high pinnacle of power because they cannot descend from it save by falling headlong yet they assure us that their greatest burden is being obliged to be burdensome to others and that they are nailed to their lofty post rather than raised to it let them then by dispensing justice clemency and kindness with an open and liberal hand provide themselves with assistance to break their fall and looking forward to this maintain their position more hopefully yet nothing sets us free from these alternations of hope and fear so well as always fixing some limit to our successes and not allowing fortune to choose when to stop our career but a halt of our own accord long before we apparently need do so by acting thus certain desires will rouse up our spirits and yet being confined within bounds will not lead us to embark on vast and vague enterprises 11 these remarks of mine apply only to imperfect commonplace and unsound nature's not to the wise man who needs not to walk with timid and cautious gates for he has such confidence in himself that he does not hesitate to go directly in the teeth of fortune and never will give way to her nor indeed has he any reason for fearing her for he counts not only chattels property and high office but even his body his eyes his hands and everything whose use makes life dearer to us nay even his very self to be things whose possession is uncertain he lives as though he had borrowed them and is ready to return them cheerfully whenever they are claimed yet he does not hold himself cheap because he knows that he is not his own but performs all his duties as carefully and prudently as a pious and scrupulous man would take care of a property left in his charge as trustee when he is bidden to give them up he will not complain a fortune but will say I thank you for what I have had possession of I have managed your property so as largely to increase it but since you order me I give it back to you and return it willingly and thankfully if you still wish me to own anything of yours I will keep it for you if you have other views I restore it into your hands and make restitution of all my wrought and coin silver my house and my household should nature recall what she previously entrusted us with let us say to her take back my spirit which is better than when you gave it to me I do not shuffle or hang back of my own free will I am ready to return what you gave me before I could think take me away what hardship can there be in returning to the place from whence one came a man cannot live well if he knows not how to die well we must therefore take away from this commodity its original value and count the breath of life as a cheap matter we dislike gladiators says Cicero if they are eager to save their lives by any means whatever but we look favorably upon them if they are openly reckless of them you may be sure that the same thing occurs with us we often die because we are afraid of death fortune which regards our lives as a show in the arena for her own enjoyment says why should I spare you base and cowardly creature that you are you will be pierced and hacked with all the more wounds because you know not how to offer your throat to the knife whereas you who receive the stroke without drawing away your neck or putting up your hands to stop it shall both live longer and die more quickly he who fears death will never act as becomes a living man but he who knows that this fate was laid upon him as soon as he was conceived will live according to it and by this strength of mind will gain this further advantage that nothing can befall him unexpectedly for by looking forward to everything which can happen as though it would happen to him he takes the sting out of all evils which can make no difference to those who expect it and are prepared to meet its evil only comes hard upon those who have lived without giving it a thought and whose attention has been exclusively directed to happiness disease captivity disaster conflagration ah none of them onyx affected I always knew with what disorderly company nature had associated me the dead have often been wailed for in my neighborhood the torch and tapir have often been borne past my door before the bier of one has died before his time the crash of falling buildings has often resounded by my side night has snatched away many of those with whom I have become intimate in the forum the Senate house and in society and has sundered the hands which were joined in friendship or tie to be surprised if the dangers which have always been circling around me at last assail me how large a part of mankind's never think of storms when about to set sail I shall never be ashamed to quote two good saying because it comes from a bad author publilius who was a more powerful writer than any of our other playwrights where the comic or tragic whenever he chose to rise above farcical absurdities and speeches address to the gallery among many other verses to noble even for tragedy let alone for comedy has this one what one hath suffered may befall us all if a man takes this into his inmost hearts and looks upon all the misfortunes of other men of which there is always a great plenty in this spirit remembering that there is nothing to prevent their coming upon him also he will arm himself against them long before they attack him it is too late to school the minds to endurance of peril after peril has done I did not think this would happen and would you have ever believed that this would have happened say you but why should it not where are the riches after which once hunger and beggary do not follow what office is there whose purple robe augers staff and patrician reigns have not as their accompaniment rags and banishment the brand of infamy a thousand disgraces and utter reprobation what Kingdom is there for which ruin trampling underfoot a tyrant and a butcher are not ready at hand nor are these matters divided by long periods of time but there is but the space of an hour between sitting on the throne ourselves and clasping the knees of someone else as suppliants know then that every station of life is transitory and that whatever has happened to anybody may happen to you also you are wealthy are you wealthier than Pompeius yet when Gaius his old relative and new host open caesar's house to him in order that he may close his own he lacks both bread and water though he owns so many rivers which both rose and discharged themselves within his dominions yet he had to beg for drops of water he perished of hunger and thirst in the palace of his relative while his air was contracting for a public funeral for one who was in want of food you have filled public offices where they either as important as unlooked-for or as all-embracing as those of siege earnest yet on the day on which the Senate disgraced him the people tore him to pieces the executioner could find no part left large enough to drag to the Tiber of one upon whom gods and men had showered all that could be given to man you are a king I will not bid you to go to Croesus for an example he who while yet alive saw his funeral pyre both lighted and extinguished being made to outlive not only his kingdom but even his own death nor to juditha whom the people of Rome beheld as a captive within the year in which they had feared him we have seen / ptolemaeus king of africa and mithra Dottie's king of armenia under the charge of gases guards the former was sent into exile the latter chose it in order to make his exile more honorable among such continual topsy-turvy changes unless you expect that whatever can happen will happen to you you give adversity power against you a power which can be destroyed by anyone who looks at it beforehand 12 the next point of these will be to take care that we do not labor for what is vain or labor in vain that is to say neither to desire what we are not able to obtain nor yet having obtained our desire to late and after much toil to discover the folly of our wishes in other words that our labor may not be without result and that the result may not be unworthy of our labor for as a rule sadness arises from one of these two things either from want of success or from being ashamed of having succeeded we must limit the running to and fro which most men practice rambling about houses theatres and market places they mind other men's business and always seem as though they themselves had something to do if you ask one of them as he comes out of his own door whither are you going he will answer by Hercules I do not know but I shall see some people and do something they wander purposelessly seeking for something to do and do not what they have made up their minds to do but what has casually fallen in their way they move uselessly and without any plan just like ants crawling over bushes which creep up to the top and then down to the bottom again without gaining anything many men spend their lives in exactly the same fashion which one may call a state of restless indolence you would pity some of them when you see them running as if their house was on fire they actually jostle all whom they meet and hurry along themselves and others with them though all the while they are going to salute someone who not return their greeting or to attend the funeral of someone whom they did not know they are going to hear the verdict on one who often goes to law or to see the wedding of one who often gets married they will follow a man's litter and in some places will even carry it afterwards returning home weary with idleness they swear that they themselves do not know why they went out or where they have been and on the following day they will wander through the same round again let all your work therefore have some purpose and keep some object in view these restless people are not made Restless by labour but are driven out of their minds by mistaken ideas for even they do not put themselves in motion without any hope they are excited by the outward appearance of something and their crazy mind cannot see its futility in the same way every one of those who walk out to swell the crowd in the streets is led round the city by worthless and empty reasons the dawn drives him forth although he has nothing to do and after he has pushed his way into many men's doors and saluted their new mentors one after the other and been turned away from many others he finds that the most difficult person of all to find at home is himself from this evil habit comes that worst of all vices tail bearing and prying into public and private secrets and the knowledge of many things which it is neither safe to tell nor safe to listen to 13 it was I imagine following out this principle that Democritus taught that he who would live at peace must not do much business either public or private referring of course to unnecessary business for if there be any necessity for it we ought to transact not only much but endless business both public and private in cases however where no stolen duty invites us to act we had better keep ourselves quiet for he who does many things often puts himself in fortunes power and it is safest not to tempt her often but always to remember her existence and never to promise oneself anything on her security I will set sail unless anything happens to prevent me I will be prey at all if nothing hinders me my financial operations will succeed unless anything goes wrong with them this is why we say that nothing befall the wise man which he did not expect we do not make him exempt from the chances of human life but from its mistakes nor does everything happen to him as he wished it would but as he thought it would now his first thought was that his purpose might meet with some resistance and the pain of disappointed wishes must affect a man's mind less severely if he has not been at all events confident of success 14 moreover we ought to cultivate an easy temper and not become over fond of the lot which fate has assigned to us but transfer ourselves to whatever condition chance may lead us to and fear no alteration either in our purposes or our position in life provided that we do not become subject to Caprice which of all vices is the most hostile to repose for obstinacy from which fortune rings some concession must needs be anxious and unhappy but Caprice which can never restrain itself must be more so both of these qualities both that of altering nothing and that of being dissatisfied with everything our enemies to repose the mind Hort in all cases to be called away from the contemplation of external things to that of itself let it confide in itself rejoice in its admire its own works avoid as far as maybe those of others and devote itself to itself let it not feel losses and put a good construction even upon misfortunes Zeno the chief of our school when he heard the news of a shipwreck in which all his property had been lost remarked fortune bids me follow philosophy in lighter marching order a tyrant threatened Theodorus with death and even with want of burial you are able to please yourself he answered my half pint of blood is in your power for as for burial what a fool you must be if you suppose that I care whether I rot above ground or under it julius canis a man of peculiar greatness whom even the fact of his having been born in this century does not prevent our admiring had a long dispute with gaius and when he was going away that phalaris of a man said to him that you may not delude yourself with any foolish hopes I have ordered you to be executed he answered I thank you most excellent Prince I am not sure what he meant for many ways of explaining his conduct occur to me did he wish to be reproachful and to show how great his cruelty must be if death became a kindness or did he upbraid him with his accustomed insanity for even those whose children were put to death and whose goods were confiscated used to thank him or was it that he willingly received death regarding it as a freedom whatever he meant it was a magnanimous answer someone may say after this Gaius might have let him live kennis had no fear of this the good faith with which Gaius carried out such orders as these was well known will you believe that he passed the ten intervening days before his execution without the slightest despondency it is marvellous how that man spoke and acted and how peaceful he was he was playing at drafts when the Centurion in charge of a number of those who were going to be executed bade him join them on the summons he counted his men and said to his companion mind you do not tell a lie after my death and say that you won then turning to the Centurion he said you will bear witness that I am one man ahead of him do you think that ken has played upon that draft board nay he played with it his friends were sad at being about to lose so great a man why asked he are you sorrowful you are inquiring whether our souls are immortal but I shall presently know nor did he up to the very end cease his search after truth and raised arguments upon the subject of his own death his own teacher of philosophy accompanied him and they were not far from the hill on which the daily sacrifice to Caesar our God was offered when he said what are you thinking of now canis or what are your ideas I have decided answered canis at that most swiftly passing moment of all to watch whether the spirit will be conscious of the act of leaving the body he promised to that if he made any discoveries he would come round to his friends and tell them what the condition of the souls of the departed might be here was peace in the very midst of the storm here was a soul worthy of eternal life which used its own fate as a proof of truth which when at the last step of life experimented upon his fleeting breath and did not merely continue to learn until he died but learn something even from death itself no man has carried the life of a philosopher further I will not hastily leave the subject of a great man and one who deserves to be spoken of with respect I will handy down to all posterity thou most noble heart chief among the many Victor of gayest 15 yet we gain nothing by getting rid of all personal causes of sadness for sometimes we are possessed by hatred of the human race when you reflect how rare simplicity is how unknown innocence how seldom faith is kept unless it be to our advantage when you remember such numbers of successful crimes so many equally hateful losses and gains of lust and ambition so impatient even of its own natural limits that it is willing to purchase distinction by baseness the mind seems as it were cast into darkness and shadows rise before it as though the virtues were all overthrown and were no longer allowed to hope to possess them or benefited by their possession we ought therefore to bring ourselves into such a state of mind that all the vices of the vulgar may not appear hateful to us but merely ridiculous and we should imitate Democritus rather than Heraclitus the latter of these whenever he appeared in public used to weep the former to laugh the one thought all human doings to be follies the other thought them to be miseries we must take a higher view of all things and bear with them more easily it better becomes a man to scoff at life than to lament over it add to this that he who laughs at the human race deserves better of it than he who mourns for it for the former leaves it some good hopes of improvement while the latter stupidly weeps over what he has given up all hopes of mending he who after surveying the universe cannot control his laughter chose to a greater mind than he who cannot restrain his tears because his mind is only affected in the slightest possible degree and he does not think that any part of all this apparatus is either important or serious or unhappy as for the several causes which render us peor sorrowful let everyone describe them for himself and learn the truth of byeon saying that all the doings of men were very like what he began with and that there is nothing in their lives which is more holy or decent than their conception yet it is better to accept public morals and human vices calmly without bursting into either laughter or tears for to be hurt by the sufferings of others is to be forever miserable while to enjoy the sufferings of others is an inhuman pleasure just as it is a useless piece of humanity to weep and pull a long face because someone is burying his son in one's own misfortunes also one ought so to conduct oneself as to bestow upon them just as much sorrow as reason not as much as custom requires for many shed tears in order to show them and whenever no one is looking at them their eyes are dry but they think it disgraceful not to weep when everyone else does so so deeply has this evil of being guided by the opinion of others has taken root in us that even grief the simplest of all emotions begins to be counterfeited sixteen there comes now a part of our subject which is once with good cause to make one sad and anxious I mean when good men come to bad ends when Socrates is forced to die in prison rout Ilyas to live in exile Pompeius and Cicero to offer their necks to the swords of their own followers when the great Cato that living image of virtue falls upon his sword and rips up both himself and the Republic one cannot help being grieved that fortune should bestow her gift so unjustly what too can a good man hope to obtain when he sees the best of men meeting the worst of fates well but see how each of them endured his fate and if they endured it bravely in your heart for courage as great as theirs if they died in a womanish and cowardly manner nothing was lost either they deserved that you should admire their courage or else they did not deserve that you should wish to imitate their cowardice for what can be more shameful than the greatest of men should die so bravely as to make people cowards let us praise one who deserves such constant praises and say the braver you are the happier you are you have escaped from all accidents jealousies diseases you have escaped from prison the gods have not thought you were thee of ill fortune but have thought that fortune no longer deserve to have any power over you but when anyone shrinks back in the hour of death and looks longingly at life we must lay hands upon him I will never weep for a man who dies cheerfully nor for one who dies weeping the former wipes away my tears the latter by his tears makes himself unworthy that any should be shed for him shall I weep for Hercules because he was burned alive or for Regulus because he was pierced by so many nails or for Kato because he tore open his wounds a second time all these men discovered how at the cost of a small portion of time they might obtain immortality and by their deaths gained eternal life seventeen it also proves a fertile source of troubles if you take pains to conceal your feelings and never show yourself to anyone undisguised but as many men do live an artificial life in order to impose upon others for the constant watching of himself becomes a torment to a man and he dreads being caught doing something at variance with his usual habits and indeed we can never be at our ease if we imagine that everyone who looks at us is weighing our real you for many things occur which strip people of their disguise however reluctantly they may part with it and even if all this trouble about oneself is successful still life is neither happy nor safe when one always has to wear a mask but what pleasure there is in that honest straightforwardness which is its own ornament and which conceals no part of its character yet even this life which hides nothing from anyone runs some risk of being despised for there are people who disdain whatever they come close to but there is no danger of virtues becoming contemptible when she is brought near our eyes and it is better to be scorned for one simplicity than to bear the burden of unceasing hypocrisy still we must observe moderation in this matter for there is a great difference between living simply and living slovenly moreover we ought to retire a great deal into ourselves for association with persons unlike ourselves upsets all that we had arranged rouses the passions which were at rest and rubs into a sore any weak or imperfectly healed place in our minds nevertheless we ought to mix up these two things and pass our lives alternately in solitude and among throngs of people for the former will make us long for the Society of mankind the latter for that of ourselves and the one will counteract the other solitude will cure us when we are sick of crowds and crowds will cure us when we are sick of solitude neither ought we always to keep the mind strained to the same pitch but it ought sometimes to be relaxed by amusement Socrates did not blush to play with little boys Cato used to refresh his mind with wine after he had wearied it with application to affairs of state and skippy Oh would move his triumphal and soldierly limbs to the sound of music not with a feeble and holding gates as is the fashion nowadays when we sway in our very walk with more than womanly weakness but dancing as men were want in the days of old on sportive and festal occasions with manly bounds thinking it no harm to be seen so doing even by their enemies men's minds ought to have relaxation they rise up better and more vigorous after rest we must not force crops from rich fields for an unbroken course of heavy crops will soon exhaust their fertility and so also the liveliness of our minds will be destroyed by unceasing labor but they will recover their strength after a short period of rest and relief for continuous toil produces a sort of numbness and sluggishness men would not be so eager for this if play and amusement did not possess natural attractions for them although constant indulgence in them takes away all gravity and all strength from the mind for sleep also is necessary for our refreshment yet if you prolong it for days and nights together it will become death there is a great difference between slackening your hold of a thing and letting it go the founders of our laws appointed festivals in order that men might be publicly encouraged to be cheerful and they thought it necessary to vary our labors with amusements and as I said before some great men have been want to give themselves a certain number of holidays in every month and son divided every day into play time and work time thus I remember that great orator a sinuous Palio would not attend to any business after the tenth hour he would not even read letters after that time for fear some new trouble should arise but in those two hours used to get rid of all the weariness which he had contracted during the whole day some rest in the middle of the day and reserved some light occupation for the afternoon our ancestors too forbade any new motion to be made in the Senate after the 10th our soldiers divided their watches and those who have just returned from actives Pervis are allowed to sleep the whole night undisturbed we must humor our minds and grant them rest from time to time which acts upon them like food and restores their strength it does good also to take walks out of doors that our spirits may be raised and refreshed by the open air and fresh breeze sometimes we gain strength by driving in a carriage by travel by change of air or by social meals and a more generous allowance of wine at times we ought to drink even to intoxication not so as to drown but merely to dip ourselves in wine for wine washes away troubles and dislodges them from the depths of the mind and acts as a remedy to sorrow as it does to some diseases the inventor of wine is called liver not from the license which he gives to our tongues but because he liberates the mind from the bondage of cares and emancipates it animates it and renders it more daring in all that it attempts yet moderation is wholesome both in freedom and in wine it is believed that Solon and our seselis used to drink deep Kato is reproached with drunkenness but whoever casts this in his teeth will find it easier to turn his reproach into a commendation than to prove that Cato did anything wrong however we ought not to do it often for fear the mind should contract evil habits though it ought sometimes to be forced into frolic and frankness and to cast off dull sobriety for a while if we believe the Greek poet it is sometimes pleasant to be mad again Plato always knocked in vain at the door of poetry when he was sober or if we trust Aristotle no great genius has ever been without a touch of insanity the minds cannot use lofty language above that of the common herd unless it be excited when it has spurned aside the commonplace environments of custom and Rises sublime instincts with sacred fire then alone can it chant a song too grand for mortal lips as long as it continues to dwell within itself it cannot rise to any pitch of splendour it must break away from the beaten track and lash itself to frenzy till it gnaws the curb and rushes away bearing up its rider to heights whether it would fear to climb when alone I have now my beloved serenus given you an account of what things can preserve peace of mind what things can restore it to us what can arrest the vices which secretly undermine it yet be assured that none of these is strong enough to enable us to retain so fleeting a blessing unless we watch over our facilitating minds with intense and unremitting care you

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Keywords: Seneca, Senica, Stoicism, stoical, stoic, Letters from a stoic, tim ferriss, morality, on the shortness of life, philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Lucilius, Letters to Lucilius, Tao of Seneca, Tao, Of Peace of Mind, Of Tranquility of Mind, of piece of mind, seneca of peave of mind, dialogues of seneca, seneca dialogues, seneca dialogs, dialogs of seneca, peace of mind, how to live, stoicism philosophy, stoic philosophy, stoicism audiobook, stoic audiobook, stoic audio, stoicism audio

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Length: 90min 0sec (5400 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 09 2019