The Epistles of Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"See, thou doest this no more, Seneca; and for this time I pardon thee." Can the study of wisdom display itself in a better or clearer light?

Lastly, how manifest is his piety and submission towards God! "If you believe me," says he (Epistle 96), "I will lay open to you my inmost thoughts and affections: thus then, when anything seems adverse or hard to me, do I behave myself; I obey not God forcibly, but willingly; I follow him not of necessity, but with all my mind and all my soul: nothing can befall me that I will receive either with a heavy heart or sorrowful countenance: I will pay no tribute grudgingly." Many the like observations, says Lipsius, have I collected in my Manuduction and Physiology; and some indeed of such unstained piety as would do honor to the Christian p. In short, so great an opinion was held of these his eminent virtues that "there was a design," says Tacitus, "of transferring the empire to Seneca, as one exempt from all reproach, and only for the fame and resplendency of his virtues preferred to the supreme dignity." O Rome, so great happiness was denied thee by the will of Providence! Or,

Whoever doubts the reality of his virtues, let him look upon Seneca in his death and observe how slightly he esteemed all earthly things and with what zeal and ardor he devoted himself to heaven!

(p) "Next to the gospel itself," says Sir R. L'Estrange, "I do look upon the works of Seneca as the most sovereign remedy against the miseries of human nature. Happy am I that, by the blessing of God, I cannot join with him in the following; and I have ever found it so, in all the injuries and distresses of an unfortunate life: For, old as I am, I never knew an injury that was not easily to be forgiven, nor a distress but what was tolerable; and, as the world goes, rather required a contemptuous smile than a tear." M.