SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXVI.
even though death has permitted the one to proceed
farther along the pathway of life, has cut off the life
of the second in his flower, and has broken off the
life of the third at its very beginning. Some get
their release at the dinner -table. Others extend
their sleep into the sleep of death. Some are
blotted out during dissipation. Now contrast with
these persons individuals who have been pierced by
the sword, or bitten to death by snakes, or crushed
in ruins, or tortured piecemeal out of existence by
the prolonged twisting of their sinews. Some of
these departures may be regarded as better, some
as worse ;
but the act of dying is equal in all. The
methods of ending life are different but the end is
;
one and the same. Death has no degrees of greater
or less ;
for it has the same limit in all instances,
the finishing of life.
The same thing holds true, I assure you, concerning
goods you will find one amid circumstances of
;
pure pleasure, another amid sorrow and bitterness.
The one controls the favours of fortune ;
the other
overcomes her onslaughts. Each is equally a good,
although the one travels a level and easy road, and the
other a rough road. And the end of them all is the
same :
they are goods, they are worthy of praise,
they accompany virtue and reason. Virtue makes all
the things that it
acknowledges equal to one another.
You need not wonder that this is one of our principles;
we find mentioned in the works of Epicurus a two
goods, of which his Supreme Good, or blessedness, is
composed, namely, a body free from pain and a soul
free from disturbance. These goods, if they are
complete, do not increase ;
for how can that which
is
complete increase ? The body is, let us suppose,
free from pain ;
what increase can there be to this
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