SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXIV.
spread, governing kingdoms, cities, and provinces,
creating laws, developing friendships, and regulating
the duties that hold good between relatives and
children ;
at other times it is limited by the narrow
bounds of poverty, exile, or bereavement. But it is
no smaller when it is reduced from prouder heights
to a private station, from a royal palace to a humble
dwelling, or when from a general and broad jurisdiction
it is
gathered into the narrow limits of a private
house or a tiny corner. Virtue is just as great, even
when it has retreated within itself and is shut in on
all sides. For its spirit
is no less great and upright,
its sagacity no less complete, its justice no less inflexible.
It is, therefore, equally happy. For happiness
has its abode in one place only, namely, in the
mind itself, and is noble, steadfast, and calm ;
and
this state cannot be attained without a knowledge
of things divine and human.
The other answer, which I
promised a to make to
your objection, follows from this reasoning. The
wise man is not distressed by the loss of children or
of friends. For he endures their death in the same
spirit in which he awaits his own. And he fears the
one as little as he grieves for the other. For the
underlying principle of virtue is conformity; 6 all the
works of virtue are in harmony and agreement with
virtue itself. But this harmony is lost if the soul,
which ought to be uplifted, is cast down by grief
or
a sense of loss. It is ever a dishonour for a man
to be troubled and fretted, to be numbed when
there is
any call for activity. For that which is
honourable is free from care and untrammelled, is
unafraid, and stands girt
for action. "What," you
ask,
" will the wise man experience no emotion like
disturbance of spirit
? Will not his features change
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