SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

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EPISTLE XC.
marks whereby truth is known, inquiring next how
that which is equivocal can be distinguished from
the truth, whether in life or in language for
;
in
both are elements of the false mingled with the
true.
It is my opinion that the wise man has not withdrawn
himself, as Posidonius thinks, from those arts
which we were discussing, but that he never took
them up at all. a For he would have judged that
nothing was worth discovering that he would not
judge to be worth using always. He
would not take up things which would have to be
laid aside.
" But Anacharsis," says Posidonius,
" invented
the potter's wheel, whose whirling gives shape to
vessels." 6 Then because the potter's wheel is
mentioned in Homer, people prefer to believe that
Homer's verses are false rather than the story
of Posidonius ! But I maintain that Anacharsis
was not the creator of this wheel ;
and even if
he was, although he was a wise man when he
invented it, yet he did not invent it qua " wise
man' just as there are a great many things which
wise men do as men, not as wise men. Suppose,
for example, that a wise man is exceedingly fleet
of foot ;
he will outstrip all the runners in the race
by virtue of being fleet, not by virtue of his wisdom.
I should like to show Posidonius some glass-blower
who by his breath moulds the glass into manifold
shapes which could scarcely be fashioned by the
most skilful hand. Nay, these discoveries have
been made since we men have ceased to discover
wisdom.
known in pre-Mycenean times, and was a very ancient
invention to the oldest Epic poets." Seneca is right.
VOL. ii o 2