SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXXV.
source of this error : men do not understand that
the happy life is a unit for it
;
is its essence, and not
its extent, that establishes such a life on the noblest
plane. Hence there is
complete equality between
the life that is
long and the life that is short, between
that which is
spread out and that which is confined,
between that whose influence is felt in many places
and in
many directions, and that which is restricted
to one interest. Those who reckon life
by number,
or by measure, or by parts, rob it of its distinctive
quality. Now, in the happy life, what is the distinctive
quality
? It is its fulness. a Satiety, I think,
is the limit to our eating or drinking. A eats more
and B eats less ;
what difference does it make ?
Each is now sated. Or A drinks more and B
drinks less ;
what difference does it make ? Each is
no longer thirsty. Again, A lives for many years
and B for fewer ;
no matter, if only A's many years
have brought as much happiness as B's few years.
He whom you maintain to be "less is
happy" not
happy the word admits of no diminution.
"
He ;
who is brave is fearless ;
he who is fearless
is free from sadness ;
he who is free from sadness is
happy." It is our own school which has framed this
syllogism ; they attempt to refute it by this answer,
namely, that we Stoics are assuming as admitted
a premiss which is false and distinctly controverted,
that the brave man is fearless. " '
What !
they
say,
will the brave man have no fear of evils that
threaten him ? That would be the condition of a
madman, a lunatic, rather than of a brave man.
The brave man will, it is true, feel fear in only a
very slight degree ; but he is not absolutely free
from fear." Now those who assert this are doubling
back to their
old argument, in that they regard
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