SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

EPISTLE LXVII.
desirable which come to us amid pleasure and ease,
and which we bedeck our doors to welcome a ?
There are certain goods whose features are forbidding.
There are certain prayers which are offered by a
throng, not of men who rejoice, but of men who bow
down reverently and worship. Was it not in this
fashion, think you, that Regulus prayed that he
might reach Carthage ? Clothe yourself with a
hero's courage, and withdraw for a little space from
the opinions of the common man. Form a proper
conception of the image of virtue, a thing of exceeding
beauty and grandeur this image
is not to be
;
but with
worshipped by us with incense or garlands,
sweat and blood. Behold Marcus Cato, laying upon
that hallowed breast his unspotted hands, and
tearing apart the wounds which had not gone deep
enough to kill him !
Which, pray, shall you say
to him "
: I
hope all will be as you wish," and " I
am grieved," or shall it be " Good fortune
"
in your
?
undertaking !
In this connexion I think of our friend Demetrius,
who calls an easy existence, untroubled by the
attacks of Fortune, a " Dead Sea." b If you have
nothing to stir you up and rouse you to action,
nothing which will test your resolution by its threats
and hostilities ;
if
you recline in unshaken comfort,
it is not tranquillity it is
; merely a flat calm. The
Stoic Attalus was wont to
"
say
: I should prefer that
Fortune keep me in her camp rather than in the lap
of luxury. If I am tortured, but bear it bravely, all
is well; if I die, but die bravely, it is also well."
Listen to Epicurus he will tell you that it is actually
;
pleasant. I
myself shall never apply an effeminate
word to an act so honourable^ and austere. If I
go
c
Of. Ep. Ixvi. 18. 43