SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXVII.
multitudes who will go with !
you You would die
more bravely, I suppose, in the company of many
thousands ;
and yet there are many thousands, both
of men and of animals, who at this very moment,
while you are irresolute about death, are breathing
their last, in their several ways. But you, did you
believe that you would not some day reach the goal
towards which you have always been travelling
?
No journey but has its end.
You think, I suppose, that it is now in order for
me to cite some examples of great men. No, I shall
cite rather the case of a boy. The story of the
Spartan lad has been preserved taken :
captive while
still a stripling, he kept crying in his Doric dialect,
" " I will not be a slave ! and he made good his word ;
for the very
first time he was ordered to perform a
menial and degrading service, and the command
was to fetch a chamber-pot, he dashed out his
brains against the wall. a So near at hand is freedom,
and is
anyone still a slave Would ? you not rather
have your own son die thus than reach old age by
weakly yielding ? Why therefore are you distressed,
when even a boy can die so bravely ? Suppose that
you refuse to follow him ;
you will be led. Take
into your own control that which is now under the
control of another. Will you not borrow that boy's
courage, and " "
say I am no slave : ! ?
Unhappy
fellow, you are a slave to men, you are a slave to
your business, you are a slave to life. For life, if
courage to die be lacking, is slavery.
Have you anything worth waiting for ? Your
very pleasures, which cause you to tarry and hold
you back, have already been exhausted by you.
None of them is a novelty to you, and there is none
that has not already become hateful because you are
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