Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

170 SENECAwill you feel no veneration for him ? Will you notg,say, Here issomething so great and so sublime that itis incredible he should resemble the Httle body in whichhe dwells ? . . .Just as the rays of the sun reach indeedthe earth yet are still in the place whence they are transmitted: so a great and sacred soul sent down to theearth, that we might have closer knowledge of divinethings, holds intercourse indeed with us but cleaves toits own origin.^At the same time Seneca was no believer inextreme asceticism— a practice which he regardedas a confusion of means with end. The bodyisnot to be indulged, lest like an overfed horse itshould get out of hand ;but since it is our instrumentof action, our only means of communicationwith the outside world, since through it we enterinto relations with the external things that formthe materials on which, and the medium throughwhich, our choice can be exercised, we are to regardit as a useful servant, and to clothe, clean, protect,and maintain it in a manner suitable to its natureand with a view to its highest efficiency. It is atool which we are to keep in good condition,a house to be kept in repair ;but we must everbe careful not to confound the tool with the workman,the house with its inhabitant.Seneca held, as we have seen, that man'scharacteristic excellence and peculiar attributeis his reason, which is nothing but a part of thedivine nature sunk in a human body.^ Thereforeto follow reason is to act according to his nature ;just as for other animals to follow the lead oftheir bodies is to act after their kind. It is^Ep. 41.*Ep. 64.