SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXVI.
but a good itself never is contrary, since no good is
without reason, and reason is in accordance with
nature.
"What, then," you ask, "is reason?" It is
copying nature.* " And
" what," you say, is the
greatest good that man can possess?' It is to
conduct oneself according to what nature wills.
" There is no doubt," says the
" objector, that peace
affords more happiness when it has not been assailed
than when it has been recovered at the cost of great
slaughter." "There is no doubt also," he continues,
" that health which has not been impaired affords
more happiness than health which has been restored
to soundness by means of force, as it were, and by
endurance of suffering, after serious illnesses that
threaten life itself. And similarly there will be no
doubt that joy is a greater good than a soul's struggle
to endure to the bitter end the torments of wounds
or burning at the stake." By no means. For things
that result from hazard admit of w r ide distinctions,
since they are rated according to their usefulness in
the eyes of those who experience them ;
but with
regard to goods, the only point to be considered is
that they are in agreement with nature ;
and this is
equal in the case of all goods. When at a meeting
of the Senate we vote in favour of someone's motion,
it cannot be said,
" A. is more in accord with the
motion than B." All alike vote for the same
motion. I make the same statement with regard to
virtues, they are all in accord with nature ;
and I
make it with regard to goods also, they are all in
accord with nature. One man dies young, another
in old age, and still another in infancy, having
enjoyed nothing more than a mere glimpse out into
life.
They have all been equally subject to death,
VOL. II B 27