SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE XC.
cliff or by the trunk of a hollow tree, it was philosophy
that taught them to build houses." But I, for my
part, do not hold that philosophy devised these
shrewdly - contrived dwellings of ours which rise
story upon story, where city crowds against city,
any more than that she invented the fish-preserves,
which are enclosed for the purpose of saving men's
gluttony from having to run the risk of storms, and
in order that, no matter how wildly the sea is raging,
luxury may have its safe harbours in which to fatten
fancy breeds of fish. What ! Was it
philosophy
that taught the use of keys and bolts? Nay,
what was that except giving a hint to avarice ?
Was it
philosophy that erected all these towering
tenements, so dangerous to the persons who dwell
in them ? Was it not enough for man to provide
himself a roof of any chance covering, and to contrive
for himself some natural retreat without the help of
art and without trouble ? Believe me, that was a
happy age, before the days of architects, before the
days of builders All this sort of thing was born
!
when luxury was being born, this matter of cutting
timbers square and cleaving a beam with unerring
hand as the saw made its
way over the marked-out
line.
The primal man with wedges split his wood."
For they were not preparing a roof for a future
banquet-hall for no such use did they ;
carry the pinetrees
or the firs
along the trembling streets 6 with a
long row of drays merely to fasten thereon panelled
ceilings heavy with gold. Forked poles erected at
either end propped up their houses. With closepacked
branches and with leaves heaped up and laid
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