Philosophical Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Vol. 2

...diligently collecting those [remains] that were commended, though sometimes rather slight in light of our own times, and, as suited the reasoning of my plan, aptly joining them with my own; lest we be despoiled of this part of human immortality—that our good deeds or words might be eternalized even if our name is not recorded—or be buried in oblivion, or overwhelmed by envy. Nevertheless, I have very often named them also for the sake of honor, those by whom I understood myself to have been assisted in expounding the Philosopher. For the same reasons, I have used their help in completing the arguments, especially Lipsius. I then added to these a certain sketching of the literature or sources from which Seneca may be seen to have drawn either the occasion for writing, or one or another of the passages discussed. In this, however, I did not think it necessary to act in such a way that, as if by turning over the material with dust, I should affect an abundance and richness, but rather, by placing only the principal works that have become known to us on the same subject up to Seneca, I might show the traces and outlines which, if anyone has the leisure, it will be useful to compare, and furthermore to bring forward and embellish. For it does not escape me that many things can still be added: for instance, for the Consolations, works from Cicero, to whom that famous letter of Servius Sulpicius pertains, in Ad Familiares IV, 5; for the book On the Happy Life, the books of the same title by Augustine, Ambrose, and Lactantius: although these additions pertain to times after Seneca, and are therefore alien to our design.

» I seem to myself to have brought a no-lesser convenience to those who may wish to use Seneca either by reading or by citing him, by marking the text with distinctions which they call paragraphs, placed in the margin. »

To these we shall subjoin a few things from the preface of the fourth volume (in which the books...