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| Lucius Annaeus Seneca On the Shortness of Life IntraText CT - Text |
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| XIX. Do you retire to
these quieter, safer, greater things! Think you that it is just the same
whether you are concerned in having corn from oversea poured into the
granaries, unhurt either by the dishonesty or the neglect of those who
transport it, in seeing that it does not become heated and spoiled by
collecting moisture and tallies in weight and measure, or whether you enter
upon these sacred and lofty studies with the purpose of discovering what
substance, what pleasure, what mode of life, what shape God has; what fate
awaits your soul; where Nature lays us to rest When we are freed from the body;
what the principle is that upholds all the heaviest matter in the centre of
this world, suspends the light on high, carries fire to the topmost part,
summons the stars to their proper changes—and ether matters, in turn, full of
mighty wonders? You really must leave the ground and turn your mind's eye upon
these things! Now while the blood is hot, we must enter with brisk step upon
the better course. In this kind of life there awaits much that is good to
know—the love and practice of the virtues, forgetfulness of the passions,
knowledge of living and dying, and a life of deep repose. The condition of all who are engrossed is wretched, but most wretched is the condition of those who labour at engrossments that are not even their own, who regulate their sleep by that of another, their walk by the pace of another, who are under orders in case of the freest things in the world—loving and hating. If these wish to know how short their life is, let them reflect how small a part of it is their own. |
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