Letter 68
I fall in with your plan; retire and
conceal yourself in repose. But at the same time conceal your retirement
also. In doing this, you may be sure that you will be following the
example of the Stoics, if not their precept. But you will be acting
according to their precept also; you will thus satisfy both yourself and
any Stoic you please. We Stoics a do not urge men to take up public
life in every case, or at all times, or without any qualification.
Besides, when we have assigned to our wise man that field of public life
which is worthy of him, - in other words, the universe, - he is then not
apart from public life, even if he withdraws; nay, perhaps be has abandoned
only one little corner thereof and has passed over into greater and wider
regions; and when he has been set in the heavens, he understands how lowly
was the place in which he sat when he mounted the curule chair or the judgment-seat.
Lay this to heart, that the wise man is never more active in affairs than
when things divine as well as things human have come within his ken.
I now return to the advice which I set
out to give
<Ep2-45>
you, - that you keep your retirement in the background. There
is no need to fasten a placard upon yourself with the words: "Philosopher
and Quietist." Give your purpose some other name; call it ill-health and
bodily weakness, or mere laziness. To boast of our retirement is
but idle self-seeking. Certain animals hide themselves from discovery by
confusing the marks of their foot-prints in the neighbourhood of their
lairs. You should do the same. Otherwise, there will always
be someone dogging your footsteps. Many men pass by that which is
visible, and peer after things hidden and concealed; a locked room invites
the thief. Things which lie in the open appear cheap; the house-
breaker passes by that which is exposed to view. This is the way
of the world, and the way of all ignorant men: they crave to burst in upon
hidden things. It is therefore best not to vaunt one's retirement.
It is, however, a sort of vaunting to make too much of one's concealment
and of one's withdrawal from the sight of men. So-and-so has gone
into his retreat at Tarentum; that other man has shut himself up at Naples;
this third person. for many years has not crossed the threshold of his
own house. To advertise one's retirement is to collect a crowd.
When you withdraw from the world your business is to talk with yourself,
not to have men talk about you. But what shall you talk about?
Do just what people are fond of doing when they talk about their neighbours,
- speak ill of yourself when by yourself; then you will become accustomed
both to speak and to hear the truth.
Above all, however, ponder that which you come to feel is your greatest
weakness. Each man knows best the defects of his own body.
And so one relieves his stomach by vomiting, another props it up by frequent
eating,
<Ep2-47>
another drains and purges his body by periodic fasting. Those
whose feet are visited by pain abstain either from wine or from the bath.
In general, men who are careless in other respects go out of their way
to relieve the disease which frequently afflicts them. So it is with
our souls; there are in them certain parts which are, so to speak, on the
sick-list, and to these parts the cure must be applied.
What, then, am I myself doing with my
leisure? I am trying to cure my own sores. If I were to show
you a swollen foot, or an inflamed hand, or some shrivelled sinews in a
withered leg, you would permit me to lie quiet in one place and to apply
lotions to the diseased member. But my trouble is greater than any of
these, and I cannot show it to you. The abscess, or ulcer, is deep
within my breast. Pray, pray, do not commend me, do not say:
"What a great man! He has learned to despise all things; condemning
the madnesses of man's life, he has made his escape!" I have condemned
nothing except myself.
There is no reason why you should desire to come to me for the sake of
making progress. You are mistaken if you think that you will get
any assistance from this quarter; it is not a physician that dwells here,
but a sick man. I would rather have you say, on leaving my presence:
"I used to think him a happy man and a learned one, and I had pricked up
my ears to hear him; but I have been defrauded. I have seen nothing,
heard nothing which I craved and which I came back to hear." If you feel
thus, and speak thus, some progress has been made. I prefer you to
pardon rather than envy my retirement.
Then you say: "Is it retirement,
Seneca, that you are recommending to me? You will soon be
<Ep2-49>
falling back upon the maxims of Epicurus!" I do recommend retirement
to you, but only that you may use it for greater and more beautiful activities
than those which you have resigned; to knock at the haughty doors of the
influential, to make alphabetical lists of childless old men, to wield
the highest authority in public life, - this kind of power exposes you
to hatred, is short-lived, and, if you rate it at its true value, is tawdry.
One man shall be far ahead of me as regards his influence in public life,
another in salary as an army officer and in the position which results
from this, another in the throng of his clients; but it is worth while
to be outdone by all tlhese men, provided that I myself can outdo Fortune.
And I am no match for her in the throng; she has the greater backing.
Would that in earlier days you had been minded to follow this purpose!
Would that we were not discussing the happy life in plain view of death!
But even now let us have no delay. For now we can take the word of
experience, which tells us that there are many superfluous and hostile
things; for this we should long since have taken the word of reason.
Let us do what men are wont to do when they are late in setting forth,
and wish to make up for lost time by increasing their speed - let us ply
the spur. Our time of life is the best possible for these pursuits;
for the period of boiling and foaming is now past. The faults that were
uncontrolled in the first fierce heat of youth are now weakened, and but
little further effort is needed to extinguish them.
" "And when," you ask, "will that profit you
which you do not learn until your departure, and how will it profit you?"
Precisely in this way, that I shall depart a better man. You need
not think,
------------------
d Cf. De Ira, ii. 20 ut nimius ille fervor despumet.
<Ep2-51>
Latin / Greek Original
[1] Consilio tuo accedo: absconde te in otio, sed et ipsum otium absconde. Hoc te facturum Stoicorum etiam si non praecepto, at exemplo licet scias; sed ex praecepto quoque facies: et tibi et cui voles approbaris. [2] Nec ad omnem rem publicam mittimus nec semper nec sine ullo fine; praeterea, cum sapienti rem publicam ipso dignam dedimus, id est mundum, non est extra rem publicam etiam si recesserit, immo fortasse relicto uno angulo in maiora atque ampliora transit et caelo impositus intellegit, cum sellam aut tribunal ascenderet, quam humili loco sederit. Depone hoc apud te, numquam plus agere sapientem quam cum in conspectum eius divina atque humana venerunt.
[3] Nunc ad illud revertor quod suadere tibi coeperam, ut otium tuum ignotum sit. Non est quod inscribas tibi philosophiam ac quietem: aliud proposito tuo nomen impone, valetudinem et imbecillitatem vocato et desidiam. Gloriari otio iners ambitio est. [4] Animalia quaedam, ne inveniri possint, vestigia sua circa ipsum cubile confundunt: idem tibi faciendum est, alioqui non deerunt qui persequantur. Multi aperta transeunt, condita et abstrusa rimantur; furem signata sollicitant. Vile videtur quidquid patet; aperta effractarius praeterit. Hos mores habet populus, hos imperitissimus quisque: in secreta irrumpere cupit. [5] Optimum itaque est non iactare otium suum; iactandi autem genus est nimis latere et a conspectu hominum secedere. Ille Tarentum se abdidit, ille Neapoli inclusus est, ille multis annis non transit domus suae limen: convocat turbam quisquis otio suo aliquam fabulam imposuit.
[6] Cum secesseris, non est hoc agendum, ut de te homines loquantur, sed ut ipse tecum loquaris. Quid autem loqueris? quod homines de aliis libentissime faciunt, de te apud te male existima: assuesces et dicere verum et audire. Id autem maxime tracta quod in te esse infirmissimum senties. [7] Nota habet sui quisque corporis vitia. Itaque alius vomitu levat stomachum, alius frequenti cibo fulcit, alius interposito ieiunio corpus exhaurit et purgat; ii quorum pedes dolor repetit aut vino aut balineo abstinent: in cetera neglegentes huic a quo saepe infestantur occurrunt. Sic in animo nostro sunt quaedam quasi causariae partes quibus adhibenda curatio est. [8] Quid in otio facio? ulcus meum curo. Si ostenderem tibi pedem turgidum, lividam manum, aut contracti cruris aridos nervos, permitteres mihi uno loco iacere et fovere morbum meum: maius malum est hoc, quod non possum tibi ostendere: in pectore ipso collectio et vomica est. Nolo nolo laudes, nolo dicas, 'o magnum virum! contempsit omnia et damnatis humanae vitae furoribus fugit'. Nihil damnavi nisi me. [9] Non est quod proficiendi causa venire ad me velis. Erras, qui hinc aliquid auxili speras: non medicus sed aeger hic habitat. Malo illa, cum discesseris, dicas: 'ego istum beatum hominem putabam et eruditum, erexeram aures: destitutus sum, nihil vidi, nihil audivi quod concupiscerem, ad quod reverterer'. Si hoc sentis, si hoc loqueris, aliquid profectum est: malo ignoscas otio meo quam invideas.
[10] 'Otium' inquis 'Seneca, commendas mihi? ad Epicureas voces delaberis?' Otium tibi commendo, in quo maiora agas et pulchriora quam quae reliquisti: pulsare superbas potentiorum fores, digerere in litteram senes orbos, plurimum in foro posse invidiosa potentia ac brevis est et, si verum aestimes, sordida. [11] Ille me gratia forensi longe antecedet, ille stipendiis militaribus et quaesita per hoc dignitate, ille clientium turba. [cui in turba] Par esse non possum, plus habent gratiae: est tanti ab omnibus vinci, dum a me fortuna vincatur. [12] Utinam quidem hoc propositum sequi olim fuisset animus tibi! utinam de vita beata non in conspectu mortis ageremus! Sed nunc quoque non moramur; multa enim quae supervacua esse et inimica credituri fuimus rationi, nunc experientiae credimus. [13] Quod facere solent qui serius exierunt et volunt tempus celeritate reparare, calcar addamus. Haec aetas optime facit ad haec studia: iam despumavit, iam vitia primo fervore adulescentiae indomita lassavit; non multum superest ut exstinguat. [14] 'Et quando' inquis 'tibi proderit istud quod in exitu discis, aut in quam rem?' In hanc, ut exeam melior. Non est tamen quod existimes ullam aetatem aptiorem esse ad bonam mentem quam quae se multis experimentis, longa ac frequenti rerum paenitentia domuit, quae ad salutaria mitigatis affectibus venit. Hoc est huius boni tempus: quisquis senex ad sapientiam pervenit, annis pervenit. Vale.