SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

He
EPISTLE LXX.
departure, nothing stands in his way. It is an open
space in which Nature guards us. When our plight
is such as to permit it, we may look about us for an
easy exit. If you have many opportunities ready to
hand, by means of which YOU rnav liberate
'
J vyourself,
you may make a selection and think over the best
way of gaining freedom ;
but if a chance is hard to
find, instead of the best, snatch the next best, even
though it be something unheard of, something new.
If you do not lack the courage, you will not lack
the cleverness, to die. See how even the lowest
class of slave, when suffering goads him on, is aroused
and discovers a way to deceive even the most watch-
ful '.
guards
/
is truly great who not only has
given himself the order to die, but has also found
the means.
I have promised vou, however, some more illustrations
drawn from the same games. During the
second event in a sham sea-fight one of the barbarians
sank deep into his own throat a spear which
had been given him for use against his foe. ''Why,
e:
oh why," he said, have I not long ago escaped from
all this torture and all this mockery ?
Why should
I be armed and yet wait for death to come ?" This
exhibition was all the more striking because of the
lesson men learn from it that is
dying more honourable
than killing.
What, then : If such a spirit
is
possessed by
abandoned and dangerous men, shall it not be
possessed also by those who have trained themselves
to meet such contingencies by long meditation, and
by reason, the mistress of all :
things It is reason
which teaches us that fate has various ways of
approach, but the same end, and that it makes no
difference at \ihat point the inevitable event begins.
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