Pray for health. Seneca, Epistles 1.10.1-4
Seneca
writes a short letter to Lucilius immediately after the long. My
favorite image in this passage from it occurs when Seneca praises
Lucilius for choosing words carefully: these words rest upon a
foundation, he says, instead of falling haphazardly from great
heights, the way the rhetoric of the mob does, and they look toward
health. Seneca seems to take it for granted that sober public
discourse is essentially impossible. The public will not allow it, in
his mind, being too uncouth by its very nature to talk about anything
approaching health. Judging from this passage, Seneca would warn us
against taking unguarded advice from anyone, but especially strangers
and ourselves. You want friends like Lucilius to give you advice that
is based: close enough to you to be meaningful, but not so close as
to be solipsistically imprudent or impudent. <Latin>.
Sic
est, non muto sententiam: fuge multitudinem, fuge paucitatem, fuge
etiam unum. Non habeo cum quo te communicatum velim. Et vide quod
iudicium meum habeas: audeo te tibi credere. Crates, ut aiunt, huius
ipsius Stilbonis auditor, cuius mentionem priore epistula feci, cum
vidisset adulescentulum secreto ambulantem, interrogavit quid illic
solus faceret. Mecum inquit loquor. Cui
Crates cave inquit rogo et diligenter
attende: cum homine malo loqueris. Lugentem timentemque
custodire solemus, ne solitudine male utatur. Nemo est ex
imprudentibus qui relinqui sibi debeat; tunc mala consilia agitant,
tunc aut aliis aut ipsis futura pericula struunt, tunc cupiditates
improbas ordinant; tunc quidquid aut metu aut pudore celabat animus
exponit, tunc audaciam acuit, libidinem irritat, iracundiam instigat.
Denique quod unum solitudo habet commodum, nihil ulli committere, non
timere indicem, perit stulto: ipse se prodit. Vide itaque
quid de te sperem, immo quid spondeam mihi—spes enim incerti boni
nomen est—: non invenio cum quo te malim esse quam tecum. Repeto
memoria quam magno animo quaedam verba proieceris, quanti roboris
plena: gratulatus sum protinus mihi et dixi, non a summis labris ista
venerunt, habent hae voces fundamentum; iste homo non est unus e
populo, ad salutem spectat. Sic loquere, sic vive; vide ne te ulla
res deprimat. Votorum tuorum veterum licet deis gratiam facias, alia
de integro suscipe: roga bonam mentem, bonam valetudinem animi,
deinde tunc corporis. Quidni tu ista vota saepe facias? Audacter deum
roga: nihil illum de alieno rogaturus es.
This
is my instruction, and I do not change it: flee the multitude; flee
the club; flee even one person. There is no one I would have you
share everything with. Make sure you take my meaning properly: I bet
you make the mistake of trusting yourself. Folk tell a tale of Crates
(†), one of Stilbon's pupils, the same Stilbon whom I mentioned in
my earlier epistle (‡). When he saw a young man walking furtively,
Crates asked him what he was doing alone. “I am talking to myself,”
he said. “Careful!” Crates says to him. “I beg you, watch
yourself closely, for you are speaking with a bad person.” We are
used to watching the fearful and the sad, lest they do themselves
harm in solitude. But no imprudent person should be left on his own,
either. That is when bad plans stir him up, preparing future perils
for him, and for others, by giving form to wicked desires. Then the
mind reveals whatever it has concealed in the past out of fear or
shame, sharpening its audacity, stirring its lust, stoking its anger.
In the end our fool loses the one real benefit solitude offers, the
fact that it avoids commitment to others, that it fears no informer.
For he betrays himself. Behold, then, what I hope from you, or at
least what I pray for myself, as hope is the name of
goods we cannot guarantee: that I find no other person with whom I
would prefer to be, apart from yourself. The other day I was
repeating from memory some of the words that you sent me, such spirit and strength do they contain. The moment I had done, I rejoiced and said to
myself, “These words have not come hurtling down at random from
distant lips; they have a solid foundation. This man is not one of
the mob; he has a regard for health.” Keep speaking and living in
this way. See that nothing puts you down. May the gods grant that you
fulfill the prayers of your ancestors, and be sure to offer some
prayers of your own. Ask for a good mind, a healthy understanding,
and then for bodily health. Why wouldn't you offer this prayer
constantly? Approach the god boldly: you shall not ask for anything
beyond his ability to grant.
---
(†)
Crates of Thebes (c. 365-285 BCE), the Cynic philosopher famous for
his marriage to Hipparchia, who renounced her wealth to join him in
the streets of Athens, and for his relationship with Zeno of Citium,
who studied with him before creating the philosophy known as
Stoicism.
(‡)
Stilbon, as Seneca calls him, is also known as Stilpo or Stilpon (c.
360-280 BCE). He came from Megara, professing the philosophy
associated there with students of Euclides, who emphasized
propositional logic and dialectic (cf. Diogenes Laertius, 2.106-120).
So skillful was Stilbon with rhetoric, Diogenes Laertius recalls,
that he drew almost all Greece into the Megarian school (τοσοῦτον
δ᾽ εὑρεσιλογίᾳ καὶ σοφιστείᾳ προῆγε
τοὺς ἄλλους, ὥστε μικροῦ δεῆσαι πᾶσαν
τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἀφορῶσαν εἰς αὐτὸν
μεγαρίσαι: 2.113). Seneca was certainly impressed by his
encounter with Demetrius the Besieger.