SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE XCI.
and should fortify our minds against the evils which
may possibly come. Exile, the torture of disease,
wars, shipwreck, we must think on these. a Chance
may tear you from your country or your country
from you, or may banish you to the desert this
;
very place, where throngs are stifling, may become
a desert. Let us place before our eyes in its
entirety the nature of man's lot, and if we would
not be overwhelmed, or even dazed, by those unwonted
evils, as if they were novel, let us summon
to our minds beforehand, not as great an evil as
oftentimes happens, but the very greatest evil that
possibly can happen.
We must reflect upon fortune
fully and completely.
How often have cities in Asia, how often in
Achaia, been laid low by a single shock of earthquake
How many towns in how Syria, many in
!
Macedonia, have been swallowed !
up How often
has this kind of devastation laid Cyprus b in ruins !
How often has Paphos collapsed Not !
infrequently
are tidings brought to us of the utter destruction of
entire cities ; yet how small a part of the world are
we, to whom such tidings often come !
Let us rise, therefore, to confront the operations
of Fortune, and whatever happens, let us have the
assurance that it is not so great as rumour advertises
it to be. A rich city has been laid in ashes, the
jewel of the provinces, counted as one of them and
yet not included with them c rich ;
though it was,
nevertheless it was set upon a single hill, d and that
three Gallic provinces ; it was a free town, belonging to
none and yet their capital, much like the city of Washington
in relation to the United States.
d A fact mentioned merely to suggest Rome with her
seven hills.
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