Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

SENECA IN RETIREMENT 135'Palpitantibus praecordiis vivitur.' The mission ofSeneca was to give courage to the despairing, toteach them to meet death with fortitude, and toconvince them that no man need be a slave, sincethe liberty to die could not be taken from him.Thus the great refuge from tyranny was selfdestruction,the right to which he asserts time'and again with terrible earnestness. There areprofessors of wisdom,' he writes, 'to whom it isanathema to offer violence to our own persons orcut short our own lives. We must wait till Naturereleases us. Those who say this do not see thatthey are barring the way to liberty. The eternallaw contains nothing better than this, that ithasgiven us only one entrance into life but manyexits.' 'No one is justified in complaining of life,for no one is obliged to live. Are you content ?Then live. Not contf^^-n^ ? You may return whenceyou came. ' ^ 'And later in the same letter, The wayto that great liberty isopened with a bodkin : oursafety is contained in a prick.' ^And again in the'De Ira : Wherever you cast your eyes youwill find the end of your Do ills. you see thatprecipice ? It is the descent to liberty. That sea ?that river ? that well ? Beneath their waters libertylies concealed. Do you see that little misshapentree ?There hangs liberty.'^*Ep. 68 : Hoc est unum, cur de vita non possumus queri;'neminem tenet. . . . Placet ? vive. Non placet? licet eo revertiunde venisti.'' ' Scalpello aperitur ad illam magnam libertatem via : etpuncto securitas constat.' Cp. Hamlet, 'When he himself mayquietus make with a bare bodkin.'3De Ira, ii.15.