Lucius Annaeus Seneca→Lucilius Junior|c. 63 AD|Seneca the Younger|From Southern Italy (regional)|To Sicily (regional)|AI-assisted
You want these letters too, like the earlier ones, to have appended to them some sayings of the leaders of our school. But they did not busy themselves with little flowers of rhetoric: their whole fabric is manly throughout. You should understand that unevenness exists wherever the things that stand out are conspicuous: a single tree does not excite admiration where the entire forest has risen to the same height.
Poems are stuffed full of sayings of this sort, and so are histories. So I do not want you to think these belong to Epicurus: they are common property, and most of all they are ours; but in him they are more remarked upon, because they crop up only rarely, because they are unexpected, because it is astonishing that anything brave should be said by a man who professed softness. For that is how most people judge: in my view Epicurus is brave too, even though he wears long sleeves [a mark of effeminacy in Roman eyes]. Bravery and energy and a mind ready for war fall to the lot of the Persians just as much as to men girt up high [i.e. those dressed for vigorous action].
So there is no reason for you to demand excerpts and repeated quotations: with our school, whatever is excerpted from others runs on unbroken. We therefore do not have those eye-catching display pieces, nor do we cheat the buyer, who will find nothing once he comes in except what is hung up at the front of the shop: we let people take their sample from wherever they like. Now suppose we wanted to separate out individual maxims from the crowd: to whom shall we assign them? To Zeno, or Cleanthes, or Chrysippus, or Panaetius, or Posidonius? We are not under a king: each man claims himself for himself. Among the Epicureans, whatever Hermarchus said, whatever Metrodorus said, is referred to one man; everything that anyone spoke in that company was uttered under the guidance and auspices of a single person. We cannot, I tell you, even if we try, draw anything out of so great a multitude of things all equal:
Wherever you cast your eye, that will meet you which could stand out, were it not read among its equals.
For this reason, set aside that hope of being able to taste superficially the genius of the greatest men: they must be inspected whole, handled whole. The thing is carried out by continuity, and the work of genius is woven together through its own outlines, from which nothing can be subtracted without ruin. Nor do I object to your considering the individual limbs, provided you consider them within the man himself: she is not beautiful whose calf or arm is praised, but she whose whole appearance has stolen admiration away from the single parts.
If, however, you insist, I will not deal with you so stingily, but it will be done with a full hand; there is a huge crowd of them lying about everywhere; they will have to be picked up, not gathered. For they do not drop out one by one but flow; they are continuous and woven together with one another. And I do not doubt that they confer much benefit on those still untrained and listening from outside; for individual sayings settle in more easily when they are circumscribed and enclosed in the manner of a line of verse. That is why we give boys maxims to learn by heart, and those things the Greeks call chriae [pithy moral anecdotes attributed to a famous person], because the boyish mind can take them in, since it does not yet hold more. But for a man of settled progress it is shameful to snatch at little flowers and to prop himself up with the best-known and fewest sayings and to stand by his memory: let him now lean on himself. Let him say such things, not merely hold them; for it is shameful for an old man, or one looking ahead to old age, to be wise out of a notebook. "This Zeno said": what about you? "This Cleanthes said": what about you? How long will you act under another's command? Take charge and say something to be handed down to memory, and bring forth something of your own as well.
And so all those men, never authors, always interpreters, hiding under another's shadow, I judge to have nothing noble in them, since they never dared at some point to do what they had so long been learning. They have exercised their memory on other men's material; but it is one thing to remember, another to know. To remember is to keep safe a thing entrusted to memory; to know, by contrast, is also to make each thing your own and not to hang upon a model and look back so often to a master.
"This Zeno said, this Cleanthes." Let there be some difference between you and a book. How long will you learn? Now also teach. Why should I listen to what I can read? "The living voice," he says, "does much." Not, indeed, this voice that lends itself to another's words and serves in the place of a clerk reading aloud.
Add now this point: those men who never come into their own guardianship, in the first place follow their predecessors in a matter where everyone has broken away from his predecessor; and then they follow them in a matter that is still under investigation. But it will never be discovered, if we are content with what has been discovered. Besides, the man who follows another finds nothing-indeed, he does not even search. What then? Shall I not walk in the footsteps of those before me? I will indeed use the old road, but if I find a nearer and more level one, I will pave this. Those who set these matters in motion before us are not our masters but our guides. Truth lies open to all; it has not yet been monopolized; much of it has been left even for those still to come. Farewell.
You wish me to close these letters also, as I closed my former letters, with certain utterances taken from the chiefs of our school. But they did not interest themselves in choice extracts; the whole texture of their work is full of strength. There is unevenness, you know, when some objects rise conspicuous above others. A single tree is not remarkable if the whole forest rises to the same height. Poetry is crammed with utterances of this sort, and so is history. For this reason I would not have you think that these utterances belong to Epicurus: they are common property and are emphatically our own. They are, however, more noteworthy in Epicurus, because they appear at infrequent intervals and when you do not expect them, and because it is surprising that brave words should be spoken at any time by a man who made a practice of being effeminate. For that is what most persons maintain. In my own opinion, however, Epicurus is really a brave man, even though he did wear long sleeves. Fortitude, energy, and readiness for battle are to be found among the Persians, just as much as among men who have girded themselves up high.
Therefore, you need not call upon me for extracts and quotations; such thoughts as one may extract here and there in the works of other philosophers run through the whole body of our writings. Hence we have no “show-window goods,” nor do we deceive the purchaser in such a way that, if he enters our shop, he will find nothing except that which is displayed in the window. We allow the purchasers themselves to get their samples from anywhere they please. Suppose we should desire to sort out each separate motto from the general stock; to whom shall we credit them? To Zeno, Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Panaetius, or Posidonius? We Stoics are not subjects of a despot: each of us lays claim to his own freedom. With them, on the other hand, whatever Hermarchus says, or Metrodorus, is ascribed to one source. In that brotherhood, everything that any man utters is spoken under the leadership and commanding authority of one alone. We cannot, I maintain, no matter how we try, pick out anything from so great a multitude of things equally good.
Only the poor man counts his flock.
Wherever you direct your gaze, you will meet with something that might stand out from the rest, if the context in which you read it were not equally notable.
For this reason, give over hoping that you can skim, by means of epitomes, the wisdom of distinguished men. Look into their wisdom as a whole; study it as a whole. They are working out a plan and weaving together, line upon line, a masterpiece, from which nothing can be taken away without injury to the whole. Examine the separate parts, if you like, provided you examine them as parts of the man himself. She is not a beautiful woman whose ankle or arm is praised, but she whose general appearance makes you forget to admire her single attributes.
If you insist, however, I shall not be niggardly with you, but lavish; for there is a huge multitude of these passages; they are scattered about in profusion,—they do not need to be gathered together, but merely to be picked up. They do not drip forth occasionally; they flow continuously. They are unbroken and are closely connected. Doubtless they would be of much benefit to those who are still novices and worshipping outside the shrine; for single maxims sink in more easily when they are marked off and bounded like a line of verse. That is why we give to children a proverb, or that which the Greeks call Chria, to be learned by heart; that sort of thing can be comprehended by the young mind, which cannot as yet hold more. For a man, however, whose progress is definite, to chase after choice extracts and to prop his weakness by the best known and the briefest sayings and to depend upon his memory, is disgraceful; it is time for him to lean on himself. He should make such maxims and not memorize them. For it is disgraceful even for an old man, or one who has sighted old age, to have a note-book knowledge. “This is what Zeno said.” But what have you yourself said? “This is the opinion of Cleanthes.” But what is your own opinion? How long shall you march under another man’s orders? Take command, and utter some word which posterity will remember. Put forth something from your own stock. For this reason I hold that there is nothing of eminence in all such men as these, who never create anything themselves, but always lurk in the shadow of others, playing the rôle of interpreters, never daring to put once into practice what they have been so long in learning. They have exercised their memories on other men’s material. But it is one thing to remember, another to know. Remembering is merely safeguarding something entrusted to the memory; knowing, however, means making everything your own; it means not depending upon the copy and not all the time glancing back at the master. “Thus said Zeno, thus said Cleanthes, indeed!” Let there be a difference between yourself and your book! How long shall you be a learner? From now on be a teacher as well! “But why,” one asks, “should I have to continue hearing lectures on what I can read?” “The living voice,” one replies, “is a great help.” Perhaps, but not the voice which merely makes itself the mouthpiece of another’s words, and only performs the duty of a reporter.
Consider this fact also. Those who have never attained their mental independence begin, in the first place, by following the leader in cases where everyone has deserted the leader; then, in the second place, they follow him in matters where the truth is still being investigated. However, the truth will never be discovered if we rest contented with discoveries already made. Besides, he who follows another not only discovers nothing but is not even investigating. What then? Shall I not follow in the footsteps of my predecessors? I shall indeed use the old road, but if I find one that makes a shorter cut and is smoother to travel, I shall open the new road. Men who have made these discoveries before us are not our masters, but our guides. Truth lies open for all; it has not yet been monopolized. And there is plenty of it left even for posterity to discover. Farewell.
[1] Desideras his quoque epistulis sicut prioribus adscribi aliquas voces nostrorum procerum. Non fuerunt circa flosculos occupati: totus contextus illorum virilis est. Inaequalitatem scias esse ubi quae eminent notabilia sunt: non est admirationi una arbor ubi in eandem altitudinem tota silva surrexit. [2] Eiusmodi vocibus referta sunt carmina, refertae historiae. Itaque nolo illas Epicuri existimes esse: publicae sunt et maxime nostrae, sed <in> illo magis adnotantur quia rarae interim interveniunt, quia inexspectatae, quia mirum est fortiter aliquid dici ab homine mollitiam professo. Ita enim plerique iudicant: apud me Epicurus est et fortis, licet manuleatus sit; fortitudo et industria et ad bellum prompta mens tam in Persas quam in alte cinctos cadit. [3] Non est ergo quod exigas excerpta et repetita: continuum est apud nostros quidquid apud alios excerpitur. Non habemus itaque ista ocliferia nec emptorem decipimus nihil inventurum cum intraverit praeter illa quae in fronte suspensa sunt: ipsis permittimus unde velint sumere exemplar. [4] Iam puta nos velle singulares sententias ex turba separare: cui illas assignabimus? Zenoni an Cleanthi an Chrysippo an Panaetio an Posidonio? Non sumus sub rege: sibi quisque se vindicat. Apud istos quidquid Hermarchus dixit, quidquid Metrodorus, ad unum refertur; omnia quae quisquam in illo contubernio locutus est unius ductu et auspiciis dicta sunt. Non possumus, inquam, licet temptemus, educere aliquid ex tanta rerum aequalium multitudine:
Quocumque miseris oculum, id tibi occurret quod eminere posset nisi inter paria legeretur. [5] Quare depone istam spem posse te summatim degustare ingenia maximorum virorum: tota tibi inspicienda sunt, tota tractanda. <Continuando> res geritur et per lineamenta sua ingenii opus nectitur ex quo nihil subduci sine ruina potest. Nec recuso quominus singula membra, dummodo in ipso homine, consideres: non est formonsa cuius crus laudatur aut brachium, sed illa cuius universa facies admirationem partibus singulis abstulit. [6] Si tamen exegeris, non tam mendice tecum agam, sed plena manu fiet; ingens eorum turba est passim iacentium; sumenda erunt, non colligenda. Non enim excidunt sed fluunt; perpetua et inter se contexta sunt. Nec dubito quin multum conferant rudibus adhuc et extrinsecus auscultantibus; facilius enim singula insidunt circumscripta et carminis modo inclusa. [7] Ideo pueris et sententias ediscendas damus et has quas Graeci chrias vocant, quia complecti illas puerilis animus potest, qui plus adhuc non capit. Certi profectus viro captare flosculos turpe est et fulcire se notissimis ac paucissimis vocibus et memoria stare: sibi iam innitatur. Dicat ista, non teneat; turpe est enim seni aut prospicienti senectutem ex commentario sapere. 'Hoc Zenon dixit': tu quid? 'Hoc Cleanthes': tu quid? Quousque sub alio moveris? impera et dic quod memoriae tradatur, aliquid et de tuo profer. [8] Omnes itaque istos, numquam auctores, semper interpretes, sub aliena umbra latentes, nihil existimo habere generosi, numquam ausos aliquando facere quod diu didicerant. Memoriam in alienis exercuerunt; aliud autem est meminisse, aliud scire. Meminisse est rem commissam memoriae custodire; at contra scire est et sua facere quaeque nec ad exemplar pendere et totiens respicere ad magistrum. [9] 'Hoc dixit Zenon, hoc Cleanthes.' Aliquid inter te intersit et librum. Quousque disces? iam et praecipe. Quid est quare audiam quod legere possum? 'Multum' inquit 'viva vox facit.' Non quidem haec quae alienis verbis commodatur et actuari vice fungitur. [10] Adice nunc quod isti qui numquam tutelae suae fiunt primum in ea re sequuntur priores in qua nemo non a priore descivit; deinde in ea re sequuntur quae adhuc quaeritur. Numquam autem invenietur, si contenti fuerimus inventis. Praeterea qui alium sequitur nihil invenit, immo nec quaerit. [11] Quid ergo? non ibo per priorum vestigia? ego vero utar via vetere, sed si propiorem planioremque invenero, hanc muniam. Qui ante nos ista moverunt non domini nostri sed duces sunt. Patet omnibus veritas; nondum est occupata; multum ex illa etiam futuris relictum est. Vale.
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You want these letters too, like the earlier ones, to have appended to them some sayings of the leaders of our school. But they did not busy themselves with little flowers of rhetoric: their whole fabric is manly throughout. You should understand that unevenness exists wherever the things that stand out are conspicuous: a single tree does not excite admiration where the entire forest has risen to the same height.
Poems are stuffed full of sayings of this sort, and so are histories. So I do not want you to think these belong to Epicurus: they are common property, and most of all they are ours; but in him they are more remarked upon, because they crop up only rarely, because they are unexpected, because it is astonishing that anything brave should be said by a man who professed softness. For that is how most people judge: in my view Epicurus is brave too, even though he wears long sleeves [a mark of effeminacy in Roman eyes]. Bravery and energy and a mind ready for war fall to the lot of the Persians just as much as to men girt up high [i.e. those dressed for vigorous action].
So there is no reason for you to demand excerpts and repeated quotations: with our school, whatever is excerpted from others runs on unbroken. We therefore do not have those eye-catching display pieces, nor do we cheat the buyer, who will find nothing once he comes in except what is hung up at the front of the shop: we let people take their sample from wherever they like. Now suppose we wanted to separate out individual maxims from the crowd: to whom shall we assign them? To Zeno, or Cleanthes, or Chrysippus, or Panaetius, or Posidonius? We are not under a king: each man claims himself for himself. Among the Epicureans, whatever Hermarchus said, whatever Metrodorus said, is referred to one man; everything that anyone spoke in that company was uttered under the guidance and auspices of a single person. We cannot, I tell you, even if we try, draw anything out of so great a multitude of things all equal:
Wherever you cast your eye, that will meet you which could stand out, were it not read among its equals.
For this reason, set aside that hope of being able to taste superficially the genius of the greatest men: they must be inspected whole, handled whole. The thing is carried out by continuity, and the work of genius is woven together through its own outlines, from which nothing can be subtracted without ruin. Nor do I object to your considering the individual limbs, provided you consider them within the man himself: she is not beautiful whose calf or arm is praised, but she whose whole appearance has stolen admiration away from the single parts.
If, however, you insist, I will not deal with you so stingily, but it will be done with a full hand; there is a huge crowd of them lying about everywhere; they will have to be picked up, not gathered. For they do not drop out one by one but flow; they are continuous and woven together with one another. And I do not doubt that they confer much benefit on those still untrained and listening from outside; for individual sayings settle in more easily when they are circumscribed and enclosed in the manner of a line of verse. That is why we give boys maxims to learn by heart, and those things the Greeks call chriae [pithy moral anecdotes attributed to a famous person], because the boyish mind can take them in, since it does not yet hold more. But for a man of settled progress it is shameful to snatch at little flowers and to prop himself up with the best-known and fewest sayings and to stand by his memory: let him now lean on himself. Let him say such things, not merely hold them; for it is shameful for an old man, or one looking ahead to old age, to be wise out of a notebook. "This Zeno said": what about you? "This Cleanthes said": what about you? How long will you act under another's command? Take charge and say something to be handed down to memory, and bring forth something of your own as well.
And so all those men, never authors, always interpreters, hiding under another's shadow, I judge to have nothing noble in them, since they never dared at some point to do what they had so long been learning. They have exercised their memory on other men's material; but it is one thing to remember, another to know. To remember is to keep safe a thing entrusted to memory; to know, by contrast, is also to make each thing your own and not to hang upon a model and look back so often to a master.
"This Zeno said, this Cleanthes." Let there be some difference between you and a book. How long will you learn? Now also teach. Why should I listen to what I can read? "The living voice," he says, "does much." Not, indeed, this voice that lends itself to another's words and serves in the place of a clerk reading aloud.
Add now this point: those men who never come into their own guardianship, in the first place follow their predecessors in a matter where everyone has broken away from his predecessor; and then they follow them in a matter that is still under investigation. But it will never be discovered, if we are content with what has been discovered. Besides, the man who follows another finds nothing-indeed, he does not even search. What then? Shall I not walk in the footsteps of those before me? I will indeed use the old road, but if I find a nearer and more level one, I will pave this. Those who set these matters in motion before us are not our masters but our guides. Truth lies open to all; it has not yet been monopolized; much of it has been left even for those still to come. Farewell.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
[1] Desideras his quoque epistulis sicut prioribus adscribi aliquas voces nostrorum procerum. Non fuerunt circa flosculos occupati: totus contextus illorum virilis est. Inaequalitatem scias esse ubi quae eminent notabilia sunt: non est admirationi una arbor ubi in eandem altitudinem tota silva surrexit. [2] Eiusmodi vocibus referta sunt carmina, refertae historiae. Itaque nolo illas Epicuri existimes esse: publicae sunt et maxime nostrae, sed <in> illo magis adnotantur quia rarae interim interveniunt, quia inexspectatae, quia mirum est fortiter aliquid dici ab homine mollitiam professo. Ita enim plerique iudicant: apud me Epicurus est et fortis, licet manuleatus sit; fortitudo et industria et ad bellum prompta mens tam in Persas quam in alte cinctos cadit. [3] Non est ergo quod exigas excerpta et repetita: continuum est apud nostros quidquid apud alios excerpitur. Non habemus itaque ista ocliferia nec emptorem decipimus nihil inventurum cum intraverit praeter illa quae in fronte suspensa sunt: ipsis permittimus unde velint sumere exemplar. [4] Iam puta nos velle singulares sententias ex turba separare: cui illas assignabimus? Zenoni an Cleanthi an Chrysippo an Panaetio an Posidonio? Non sumus sub rege: sibi quisque se vindicat. Apud istos quidquid Hermarchus dixit, quidquid Metrodorus, ad unum refertur; omnia quae quisquam in illo contubernio locutus est unius ductu et auspiciis dicta sunt. Non possumus, inquam, licet temptemus, educere aliquid ex tanta rerum aequalium multitudine:
Quocumque miseris oculum, id tibi occurret quod eminere posset nisi inter paria legeretur. [5] Quare depone istam spem posse te summatim degustare ingenia maximorum virorum: tota tibi inspicienda sunt, tota tractanda. <Continuando> res geritur et per lineamenta sua ingenii opus nectitur ex quo nihil subduci sine ruina potest. Nec recuso quominus singula membra, dummodo in ipso homine, consideres: non est formonsa cuius crus laudatur aut brachium, sed illa cuius universa facies admirationem partibus singulis abstulit. [6] Si tamen exegeris, non tam mendice tecum agam, sed plena manu fiet; ingens eorum turba est passim iacentium; sumenda erunt, non colligenda. Non enim excidunt sed fluunt; perpetua et inter se contexta sunt. Nec dubito quin multum conferant rudibus adhuc et extrinsecus auscultantibus; facilius enim singula insidunt circumscripta et carminis modo inclusa. [7] Ideo pueris et sententias ediscendas damus et has quas Graeci chrias vocant, quia complecti illas puerilis animus potest, qui plus adhuc non capit. Certi profectus viro captare flosculos turpe est et fulcire se notissimis ac paucissimis vocibus et memoria stare: sibi iam innitatur. Dicat ista, non teneat; turpe est enim seni aut prospicienti senectutem ex commentario sapere. 'Hoc Zenon dixit': tu quid? 'Hoc Cleanthes': tu quid? Quousque sub alio moveris? impera et dic quod memoriae tradatur, aliquid et de tuo profer. [8] Omnes itaque istos, numquam auctores, semper interpretes, sub aliena umbra latentes, nihil existimo habere generosi, numquam ausos aliquando facere quod diu didicerant. Memoriam in alienis exercuerunt; aliud autem est meminisse, aliud scire. Meminisse est rem commissam memoriae custodire; at contra scire est et sua facere quaeque nec ad exemplar pendere et totiens respicere ad magistrum. [9] 'Hoc dixit Zenon, hoc Cleanthes.' Aliquid inter te intersit et librum. Quousque disces? iam et praecipe. Quid est quare audiam quod legere possum? 'Multum' inquit 'viva vox facit.' Non quidem haec quae alienis verbis commodatur et actuari vice fungitur. [10] Adice nunc quod isti qui numquam tutelae suae fiunt primum in ea re sequuntur priores in qua nemo non a priore descivit; deinde in ea re sequuntur quae adhuc quaeritur. Numquam autem invenietur, si contenti fuerimus inventis. Praeterea qui alium sequitur nihil invenit, immo nec quaerit. [11] Quid ergo? non ibo per priorum vestigia? ego vero utar via vetere, sed si propiorem planioremque invenero, hanc muniam. Qui ante nos ista moverunt non domini nostri sed duces sunt. Patet omnibus veritas; nondum est occupata; multum ex illa etiam futuris relictum est. Vale.