SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXXIV.
another the baritone. There are women,, too, as
well as men, and the flute is mingled with them.
In that chorus the voices of the individual singers
are hidden ;
what we hear is the voices of all together.
To be sure, I am referring to the chorus which the
old - time philosophers
knew ;
in our present - day
exhibitions a we have a larger number of singers than
there used to be spectators in the theatres of old.
All the aisles are filled with rows of singers brass
;
instruments surround the auditorium ;
the stage
resounds with flutes and instruments of every
description and ; yet from the discordant sounds a
harmony is produced.
I would have my mind of such a quality as this ;
it should be equipped with many arts, many precepts,
and patterns
of conduct taken from many epochs of
history but all should blend harmoniously into one.
" How," ;
you ask, " '
can this be accomplished? By
constant and effort, by doing nothing without the
approval of reason. And if you are willing to hear
her voice, she will say to you " Abandon those
:
pursuits which heretofore have caused you to run
hither and thither. Abandon riches, which are
either a danger or a burden to the possessor.
Abandon the pleasures of the body and of the mind ;
they only soften and weaken you. Abandon your
quest for office it is a
; swollen, idle, and empty
thing, a thing that has no goal, as anxious to see
no one outstrip it as to see no one at its heels. It
is afflicted with envy, and in truth with a twofold
envy and you see how wretched a man's plight is if
;
he who is the object of envy feels envy also."
Do you behold yonder homes of the great, yonder
thresholds uproarious with the brawling of those
who would pay their respects? They have many
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