SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE XC.
all, and obtainable for trifling pains. For the limit
everywhere corresponded to the need ;
it is we that
have made all those things valuable,, we that have
made them admired, we that have caused them to
be sought for by extensive and manifold devices.
Nature suffices for what she demands. Luxury has
turned her back upon nature each ; day she expands
herself, in all the ages she has been gathering
strength, and by her wit promoting the vices. At
first, luxury began to lust for what nature regarded
as superfluous, then for that which was contrary to
nature ;
and finally she made the soul a bondsman to
the body, and bade it be an utter slave to the body's
lusts. All these crafts by which the city is patrolled
or shall I say kept in uproar are but engaged in
the body's business ;
time was when all things were
offered to the body as to a slave, but now they are
made ready for it as for a master. Accordingly,
hence have come the workshops of the weavers
and the carpenters ;
hence the savoury smells of the
professional cooks hence the wantonness of those
;
who teach wanton postures, and wanton and affected
singing. For that moderation which nature prescribes,
which limits our desires by resources restricted
to our needs, has abandoned the field ;
it has now
come to this that to want only what is
enough is a
sign both of boorishness and of utter destitution.
It is hard to believe, my dear Lucilius, how easily
the charm of eloquence wins even great men away
from the truth. Take, for example, Posidonius
who, in my estimation, is of the number of those
who have contributed most to philosophy when he
wishes to describe the art of weaving. He tells
how, first, some threads are twisted and some drawn
out from the soft, loose mass of wool ; next, how the
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