SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXXXV.
thing which engages his attention prevents him
from attending to other things. He is ready for
either outcome : if it brings goods, he controls
them if ; evils, he conquers them. So thoroughly,
I mean, has he schooled himself that he makes
manifest his virtue in prosperity as well as in
adversity, and keeps his eyes on virtue itself, not on
the objects with which virtue deals. Hence neither
poverty, nor pain, nor anything else that deflects
the inexperienced and drives them headlong, restrains
him from his course. Do you suppose that he is
weighed down by
evils ? He makes use of them.
It was not of ivory only that Phidias knew how to
make statues ;
he also made statues of bronze. If
you had given him marble, or a still meaner material,
he would have made of it the best statue that the
material would permit. So the wise man will develop
virtue, if he may, in the midst of wealth, or, if
not, in poverty ; if possible, in his own country if
not, in exile if
; possible, as a commander if not, as
a common soldier; if possible, in sound health if
not, enfeebled. Whatever fortune he finds, he will
accomplish therefrom something noteworthy.
Animal-tamers are unerring they take the most
;
savage animals, which may well terrify those who
encounter them, and subdue them to the will of
man ;
not content with having driven out their
ferocity, they even tame them so that they dwell
in the same abode. The trainer puts his hand
into the lion's mouth a the
; tiger is kissed by
his keeper. The tiny Aethiopian orders the
elephant to sink down on its knees, or to walk
&
the rope. Similarly, the wise man is a skilled
hand at taming evils. Pain, want, disgrace, imprisonment,
exile, these are universally to be
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