The Moral Letters provide an education in how to live wisely, by seeing beyond the value mistakenly invested in external goods such as wealth and reputation by the majority of people. Instead, the Stoic Sage lives in accord with virtue, which he views as its own reward. Even though Seneca may have failed to embody this philosophy in practice, it is nevertheless the type of person he clearly wished he could have been, and perhaps wanted to become until the end.
FURTHER READING
1 Bartsch, S., & Schiesaro, A. (2018). The Cambridge Companion to Seneca. New York: Cambridge University Press.
2 Griffin, M. T. (2003). Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics. Oxford: Clarendon.
3 Griffin, M. T. (2016). Nero: The End of a Dynasty. London & New York: Routledge.
4 Inwood, B. (2009). Reading Seneca: Stoic Philosophy at Rome. Oxford: Clarendon.
5 Romm, J. S. (2014). Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
6 Star, C. (2019). Understanding Classics: Seneca. London: Bloomsbury.
7 Wilson, E. (2018). The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
NOTE ON THE TEXT
This Capstone edition, Letters from a Stoic, is based on Richard Mott Gummere's 1917 translation of the Moral Letters to Lucilius. Gummere's footnotes are retained where they help to explain terms, phrases, and people that may be foreign to the contemporary reader. A few additional footnotes have been added for the same reasons. Gummere also includes sources for quotations or texts that Seneca himself includes or mentions.
ABOUT DONALD ROBERTSON
Donald Robertson is a writer, trainer, and cognitive behavioural psychotherapist. He specializes in the relationship between ancient philosophy and modern evidence-based psychological therapy. Donald is the author of six books on philosophy and psychotherapy, including Stoicism and the Art of Happiness (2013) and How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius (2019). He provided the Introduction for the Capstone edition of the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius.
ABOUT TOM BUTLER-BOWDON
Tom Butler-Bowdon is the author of the bestselling 50 Classics series, which brings the ideas of important books to a wider audience. Titles include 50 Philosophy Classics, 50 Psychology Classics, 50 Politics Classics, 50 Self-Help Classics, and 50 Economics Classics. As series editor for the Capstone Classics series, Tom has written Introductions to Plato's The Republic, Machiavelli's The Prince, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, and Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. Tom is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Sydney. www.Butler-Bowdon.com
CHAPTER ONE ON THE USE OF TIME
From Seneca to his friend Lucilius.
Continue to act thus, my dear Lucilius – set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which till lately has been forced from you, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands. Make yourself believe the truth of my words – that certain moments are torn from us, that some are gently removed, and that others glide beyond our reach. The most disgraceful kind of loss, however, is that due to carelessness. Furthermore, if you will pay close heed to the problem, you will find that the largest portion of our life passes while we are doing ill, a goodly share while we are doing nothing, and the whole while we are doing that which is not to the purpose. What man can you show me who places any value on his time, who reckons the worth of each day, who understands that he is dying daily? For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; the major portion of death has already passed. Whatever years lie behind us are in death's hands.
Therefore, Lucilius, do as you write me that you are doing: hold every hour in your grasp. Lay hold of today's task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow's. While we are postponing, life speeds by. Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time. We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession. What fools these mortals be! They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity – time! And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay.
You may desire to know how I, who preach to you so freely, am practising. I confess frankly: my expense account balances, as you would expect from one who is free-handed but careful. I cannot boast that I waste nothing, but I can at least tell you what I am wasting, and the cause and manner of the loss; I can give you the reasons why I am a poor man. My situation, however, is the same as that of many who are reduced to slender means through no fault of their own: every one forgives them, but no one comes to their rescue.
What is the state of things, then? It is this: I do not regard a man as poor, if the little which remains is enough for him. I advise you, however, to keep what is really yours; and you cannot begin too early. For, as our ancestors believed, it is too late to spare when you reach the dregs of the cask. Of that which remains at the bottom, the amount is slight, and the quality is vile. Farewell.
CHAPTER TWO ON DISCURSIVENESS IN READING
Judging by what you write me, and by what I hear, I am forming a good opinion regarding your future. You do not run hither and thither and distract yourself by changing your abode; for such restlessness is the sign of a disordered spirit. The primary indication, to my thinking, of a well-ordered mind is a man's ability to remain in one place and linger in his own company. Be careful, however, lest this reading of many authors and books of every sort may tend to make you discursive and unsteady. You must linger among a limited number of master-thinkers, and digest their works, if you would derive ideas which shall win firm hold in your mind. Everywhere means nowhere. When a person spends all his time in foreign travel, he ends by having many acquaintances, but no friends. And the same thing must hold true of men who seek intimate acquaintance with no single author, but visit them all in a hasty and hurried manner. Food does no good and is not assimilated into the body if it leaves the stomach as soon as it is eaten; nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent change of medicine; no wound will heal when one salve is tried after another; a plant which is often moved can never grow strong. There is nothing so efficacious that it can be helpful while it is being shifted about. And in reading of many books is distraction.
Accordingly, since you cannot read all the books which you may possess, it is enough to possess only as many books as you can read. ‘But', you reply, ‘I wish to dip first into one book and then into another.' I tell you that it is the sign of an overnice appetite to toy with many dishes; for when they are manifold and varied, they cloy but do not nourish. So you should always read standard authors; and when you crave a change, fall back upon those whom you read before. Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well; and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day. This is my own custom; from the many things which I have read, I claim some one part for myself.
The thought for today is one which I discovered in Epicurus;1 for I am wont to cross over even into the enemy's camp – not as a deserter, but as a scout. He