SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE XCII.
serious, that he is
completely happy. And yet,
if
virtue can keep a man from being wretched, it will
be an easier task for it to render him completely
happy. For the difference between happiness and
is
complete happiness less than that between
wretchedness and happiness. Can it be possible
that a thing which is so powerful as to snatch a man
from disaster, and place him among the happy,
cannot also accomplish what remains, and render
him supremely happy
? Does its strength fail at
the very top of the climb ? There are in life things
which are advantageous and disadvantageous, both
beyond our control. If a good man, in spite of
being weighed down by all kinds of disadvantages,
is not wretched, how is he not supremely happy, no
matter if he does lack certain ?
advantages For as
he is not weighted down to wretchedness by his
burden of disadvantages, so he is not withdrawn
from supreme happiness through lack of any
advantages nay, he is just as supremely happy
;
without the advantages as he is free from wretchedness
though under the load of his disadvantages.
Otherwise, if his good can be impaired, it can be
snatched from him altogether.
A short space above, a I remarked that a tiny
fire
does not add to the sun's For light. by reason of
the sun's brightness any light that shines apart from
the sunlight is blotted out. "But," one may say,
"there are certain objects that stand in the way
even of the sunlight."
The sun, however, is unimpaired
even in the midst of obstacles, and, though
an object may intervene and cut off our view thereof,
the sun sticks to his work and goes on his course.
Whenever he shines forth from amid the clouds, he
is no smaller, nor less punctual either, than when
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