SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXVI1I.
and that drives their imprint still deeper. a Nevertheless
there have been men who have not uttered
a moan amid these tortures.
" "
More yet
!
says the
torturer ;
but the victim has not begged
for release.
"
'
More yet
! he says again but no answer has
;
come. " '
More yet
!
heartily, too.
the victim has smiled, and
Can you not bring yourself,
after an
example like this, to make a mock at pain
?
"But," you object, "my illness does not allow
me to be doing anything
it has withdrawn me from
;
all
my duties." It is your body that is hampered by
ill-health, and not your soul as well. It is for this
reason that it clogs the feet of the runner and will
hinder the handiwork of the cobbler or the artisan ;
but if your soul be habitually in practice, you will
plead and teach, listen and learn, investigate and
meditate. What more is necessary Do ? you think
that you are doing nothing if you possess selfcontrol
in your illness You ? will be showing that
a disease can be overcome, or at any rate endured.
There is, I assure you, a place for virtue even upon
a bed of sickness. It is not only the sword and the
battle-line that prove the soul alert and unconquered
by fear a man can
; display bravery even when
wrapped in his bed-clothes. You have something to
do : wrestle bravely with disease. If it shall compel
you to nothing, beguile you to it is
nothing, a
example that you display.
O what ample
matter were there for renown, if we could have
spectators of our sickness ! Be your own spectator;
seek your own applause.
Again, there are two kinds of pleasures. Disease
checks the pleasures of the body, but does not do
away with them. if
Nay, the truth is to be considered,
it serves to excite them ;
for the thirstier
VOL. ii G 2 195