Philosophical Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Vol. 4

strength 1." They languish through inactivity, fattened, and they will fail not only from labor but from movement 2, and from the very weight of themselves. Unharmed happiness does not bear any blow: but where there has been a constant struggle with its own inconveniences, it develops a callus through injuries, and yields to no evil; but even if it falls, it fights from its knee 3. Do you wonder if that God, the most loving of good men, who wishes them to be as excellent and distinguished as possible, assigns to them a fortune with which they may be exercised 4? I, for one, do not wonder. If the Gods ever take an impulse to watch 5 great men struggling with some calamity. We sometimes find pleasure if a youth of constant mind receives an attacking wild beast with a hunting spear, if he has endured the onrush of a lion without fear 6: and with such a spectacle...