Philosophical Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Vol. 4

best of men. For the nature of things does not allow good to ever harm the good. Between good men and God there is friendship, reconciled by virtue. Do I say friendship? Indeed, it is even a kinship and resemblance: since a good man differs from God only in time, he is His pupil, His emulator, and His true offspring, whom that magnificent parent—no lenient taskmaster of virtues—rears more harshly, just as stern fathers do. Therefore, when you see good men, acceptable to the Gods, laboring, sweating, ascending by a steep path 1, while the wicked revel and flow in pleasures, consider that we are delighted by the modesty of our children, but by the license of our slaves: the former are held back by stricter discipline, the latter’s audacity is encouraged. Let the same be clear to you regarding God. He does not hold a good man in delights: He tests him, hardens him, and prepares him for Himself.

II.
Why do many adverse things happen to good men? No evil can happen to a good man; opposites do not mix. Just as so many rivers, such a force of rains cast down from above, and such a power of subterranean springs do not change the taste of the sea, nor even slacken it 2: so the impetus of adverse things does not overturn the mind of a brave man. He remains in his state, and draws whatever happens into his own color. For he is more powerful than all external things; and I do not mean this: he does not feel them, but he overcomes them, and otherwise quiet and calm, he rises up against things that rush upon him.