SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXXV.
squalls, inasmuch as he cannot carry out his purpose
and hold to his course ;
as far as his art is concerned,
he becomes no worse a pilot, but in his work he
does become worse." To this the Peripatetics retort :
" Therefore, poverty will make even the wise man
worse, and so will pain, and so will anything else ol
that sort. For although those things will not rob
him of his virtue, yet they will hinder the work of
virtue." This would be a correct statement, were
it not for the fact that the pilot and the wise man
are two different kinds of person. The wise man's
purpose in conducting his life is not to accomplish
at all hazards what he tries, but to do all things
rightly the ; pilot's purpose, however, is to bring his
ship into port at all hazards. The arts are handmaids
a
;
they must accomplish what they promise to
do. But wisdom is mistress and ruler. The arts
render a slave's service to life ;
wisdom issues the
commands.
For myself, I maintain that a different answer
should be given
: that the pilot's art is never made
worse by the storm, nor the application of his art
either. The pilot has promised you, not a prosperous
voyage, but a serviceable performance of his task
that is, an expert knowledge of steering a ship.
And the more he is
hampered by the stress of
fortune, so much the more does his knowledge
become apparent. He who has been able to say,
" Neptune, you shall never sink this ship except on
an even b
keel," has fulfilled the requirements of his
art ;
the storm does not interfere with the pilot's
work, but only with his success.
" What then,"
you " say, is not a pilot harmed by any circumstance
which does not permit him to make port, frustrates
all his efforts, and either carries him out to sea, or
305