Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

EXILE IN CORSICA 43in the treatise so characteristic of Seneca, bothin manner and in matter, that they may seem toreaders famihar with his other writings almostthe skill of an imitator.^beyondIn the last chapter, after exhorting Polybiusto distract his mind from his sorrow by plungingmore deeply than ever into his learned studies,the writer, by a sudden and characteristic turn,admits that to root it out altogether wouldneither be possible nor even desirable.Let your tears flow [he says] as nature will ;neithercheck nor encourage them. But do not hug your sorrow,or think that by so doing you honour the dead. Letyour lost brother be often in your thoughts, talk naturallyabout him, meditate on his excellent qualities anddescribe them to others ;tell them all that he mighthave been had he lived. You will forget him and ceaseto honour his memory if you associate it with sadness,for the soul naturally turns away from what is painful.These very arguments in the same sequencebut in different words, this very advice and consolation,Seneca many years later addressed toanother friend who had lost a little son.^ The^E.g. in chap, xxviii. 'Si velis credere altius veritatem:intuentibus, omnis vita supplicium est. In hoc profunduminquietumque projecti mare, alternis aestibus reciprocum, etmodo allevans nos subitis incrementis. modo majoribus damnisdeferens, assidueque jactans, nunquam stabili consistimus loco :pendemus et fluctuamur, et alter in alterum illidiniur, et aliquandonaujragium Jacimus, semper timemus.'*Ep. 99. Cp. especially the reflection in the ' Consolation,''Naturale est enim, ut semper animus ab eo refugiat ad quod'cum tristitia revertitur,' with that in the letter, Nemo enimlibenter tristi conversatur, nedum tristitiae ' ; and the advicein the former, Omnia 'dicta ejus ac facta et aliis expone, ettibimet ipse commemora,' with that of the latter, 'De illo frequenterloquere, et memoriam ejus quantum potes celebra.'