Philosophical Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Vol. 1

they are hardly to be counted among their number: since we read of no one among them, except Caecina, being called to participate in these questions. The rest, therefore, either only set forth or touched upon certain matters, drawing from Greek sources whose clarity and abundance Seneca is to be thought to have preferred to use. Unless, therefore, Seneca was the first of the Romans—which I am inclined to suspect is not far from the truth—to institute the arrangement of each exposition in its own order and place concerning the nature of things and its effects, as far as the series of his own questions required, he is certainly to be considered among the first who collected the discoveries of the Greeks and submitted them to accurate examination.

For these were the first of all, as far as we know, to be the authors of this discipline: for, as each was most prompt in intellect and most desirous of perceiving nature and truth—which was always the divinely given disposition and fortune of this most excellent nation—so, at almost every time, they most sagaciously and learnedly turned their minds to uncovering the secrets of nature and placing them in the clearest light. Moreover, history teaches that from the earliest times, when the Greeks began to philosophize, the study and knowledge of nature held first place among them, although the founders of philosophy among them allowed themselves to be led into the error of preferring, upon entering this study, to dispute about the universe, to treat of numbers and motions, and [to ask] whence all things arose and whither they would return, rather than to inquire into individual things and the effects of nature, by applying experiments, observations, and suitable instruments. Such was the beginning and progress of that Ionic philosophy, into whose society and, as it were, communion of this endeavor it is established that the rest of the philosophers also came, until Socrates, having wisely perceived their empty study, recalled philosophy—to use the clear words of Cicero—from heaven, and placed it in cities, and introduced it even into homes, and forced men to inquire about life and morals, and good and evil things. But that we should not believe that Thales and his disciples and successors had no regard for the study of the individual parts of which physics is composed, is prevented both by the nature of the inquiry and the study itself, and by the fragments of studies that have been transmitted to us, and by Seneca himself; for he often turned his eyes toward those who were most worthy of praise among the authors of the older, nay, of the entire, philosophy, and he made excellent use of their treasures to enrich his own work.