L. ANNAEI SENECAE AD LUCILIUM EPISTULAE

XCIII.

1 In the letter where you were lamenting the death of the philosopher Metronax, as if he could have and ought to have lived longer, I missed the fairness that remains with you in every person and every business, but is missing in this one thing, in which it is missing for everyone. I have found many who are fair toward men, but none who are fair toward the gods. We rail against fate every day: "Why was that man snatched away in the middle of his course? Why is that man not snatched away? Why does he prolong a life that is a burden to himself and to others?"

2 I ask you, do you judge it fairer for you to obey nature, or for nature to obey you? And what difference does it make how soon you leave a place from which you must surely leave? We should not be concerned that we live long, but that we live enough; for to live long, you need fate, but to live enough, you need the soul. Life is long,