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CLASSICAL ESSAY |
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by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
All men wish to live happily, but are dull at perceiving exactly what it is that makes life happy: and so far is it from being easy to attain to happiness that the more eagerly a man struggles to reach it the further he departs from it, if he takes the wrong road. Let us not therefore decide whither we must tend, and by what path, without the advice of some experienced person who has explored the region which we are about to enter, because this journey is not subject to the same conditions as others. True happiness consists in not departing from nature and in molding our conduct according to her laws and model. A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature, and cannot be brought about unless in the first place the mind be sound and vigorous, enduring all things with most admirable courage suited to the times in which it lives, and must be able to enjoy the bounty of Fortune without becoming her slave. A happy life consists in a mind which is free, upright, undaunted and steadfast beyond the influence of fear or desire. A man must be accompanied by a continual cheerfulness, a high happiness, which comes indeed from on high because he delights in what he has. If we attain to this, then there will dawn upon us those invaluable blessings, The repose of a mind that is at rest in a safe haven, its lofty imaginings, its great and steady delight at casting out errors and learning to know the truth, its courtesy and its cheerfulness, in all of which we shall take delight. Virtue is a lofty quality, sublime, royal, unconquerable, untiring. You will meet virtue in the temple, the marketplace, the senate-house, manning the walls, covered with dust, sunburnt, horny-handed; you will find pleasure sulking out of sight, seeking for shady nooks. The highest good is immortal. It knows no ending, and does not admit of either satiety or regret; for a right-thinking mind never alters or becomes hateful to itself, nor do the best things ever undergo any change. But pleasure dies at the very moment when it charms us most. It has no great scope, and therefore it soon cloys and wearies us, and fades away as soon as its first impulse is over. Indeed, we cannot depend upon anything whose nature is to change. A man should be unbiased and ought not to be conquered by external things. He ought to feel confidence in his own spirit, and so order his life as to be ready alike for good or bad fortune. But let not his confidence be without knowledge, nor his knowledge without steadfastness. Let him abide by what he has determined, and let there be no erasure in his doctrine. Let reason be encouraged by the senses to seek for the truth, and draw its first principles from thence. Indeed, it has no other base of operations or place from which to start in pursuit of truth: it must fall back upon itself. Even the all-embracing universe and God who is its guide extends Himself forth into outward things, and yet altogether returns from all sides back to Himself. Let our mind do the same thing. By this means we shall obtain a strength and an ability which are united; we shall derive from it that reason which never halts between two opinions, not is dull in forming its perceptions, beliefs or convictions. Such a mind, when it has ranged itself in order, made its various parts agree together, and, if I may so express myself, harmonized them, has attained to the highest good. For it has nothing evil or hazardous remaining, nothing to shake it or make it stumble. It will do everything under the guidance of its own will, and nothing unexpected will befall it, but whatever may be done by it will turn out well, and that, too, readily and easily, without the doer having recourse to any underhand devices. You may, then, boldly declare that the highest good is singleness of mind, for where agreement and unity are, there must the virtues be. It is the vices that are at war with one another.
Excerpted from Essays, by Lucius Annaeus Seneca |
Stoic Philosophy of Seneca Essays and Letters, by Seneca Seneca: Moral and Political Essays
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