SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXXII.
for there are implanted in us love of self, a desire for
existence and self-preservation, and also an abhorrence
of dissolution, because death seems to rob us of many
Offoods and to withdraw us from the abundance to
which we have become accustomed. And there is
another element which estranges us from death : we
are already familiar with the present, but are ignorant
of the future into which we shall transfer ourselves,
and we shrink from the unknown. Moreover, it is
natural to fear the world of shades, whither death is
supposed to lead. Therefore, although death is
something indifferent, it is nevertheless not a thing
which we can easily ignore. The soul must be
hardened by long practice, so that it may learn to
endure the sight and the approach of death.
Death ought to be despised more than it is wont
to be despised. For we believe too many of the
stories about death. Many thinkers have striven
hard to increase its ill
repute they have portrayed
;
the prison in the world below and the land overwhelmed
by everlasting night, where
Within his blood-stained cave Hell's warder huge
Doth sprawl his ug'ly length on half-crunched bones,
And terrifies the disembodied ghosts
With never-ceasing bark. a
Even if you can win your point and prove that these
are mere stories and that nothing is left for the dead
to fear, another fear steals upon you. For the fear
of going to the underworld is equalled by the fear
of going nowhere.
In the face of these notions, which long-standing
opinion has dinned in our ears, how can brave endurance
of death be anything else than glorious, and
fit to rank among the greatest accomplishments of the
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