Philosophical Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Vol. 4

CHAPTER III.

But I shall show, as the discourse proceeds, that things which seem evil are not so. For now I say this: those things which you call harsh, adverse, and abominable, are, first of all, for the benefit of those to whom they happen; secondly, for the benefit of the whole, of which the Gods have greater care than of individuals; following this, they happen to those who are willing, and they would be worthy of evil if they were unwilling. To these I shall add that these things occur by fate, and that they happen to good men by the same law by which they are good: I will therefore persuade you never to pity a good man; for he can be called miserable, but he cannot be. It seems the most difficult of all things that I have proposed: that those things which we dread and tremble at are for the benefit of those to whom they happen. "Is it for their benefit,"