Poverty, Philosophy's Best Friend. Seneca, Epistles 2.17.1-5
Seneca urges Lucilius to embrace poverty as the best way to philosophy. The life of the mind requires us to avoid piling up material things. A university can be rich or wise, not both, for they are mutually exclusive. We are always careless of the mortality we cannot see.
Proice omnia ista, si sapis, immo ut sapias, et ad bonam mentem magno cursu ac totis viribus tende; si quid est quo teneris, aut expedi aut incide. Moratur inquis me res familiaris; sic illam disponere volo ut sufficere nihil agenti possit, ne aut paupertas mihi oneri sit aut ego alicui. Cum hoc dicis, non videris vim ac potentiam eius de quo cogitas boni nosse; et summam quidem rei pervides, quantum philosophia prosit, partes autem nondum satis subtiliter dispicis, necdum scis quantum ubique nos adiuvet, quemadmodum et in maximis, ut Ciceronis utar verbo, opituletur et in minima descendat. Mihi crede, advoca illam in consilium: suadebit tibi ne ad calculos sedeas.
Nempe hoc quaeris et hoc ista dilatione vis consequi, ne tibi paupertas timenda sit: quid si appetenda est? Multis ad philosophandum obstitere divitiae: paupertas expedita est, secura est. Cum classicum cecinit, scit non se peti; cum aliqua conclamata (†) est, quomodo exeat, non quid efferat, quaerit; ut si navigandum est, non strepunt portus nec unius comitatu inquieta sunt litora; non circumstat illam turba servorum, ad quos pascendos transmarinarum regionum est optanda fertilitas. Facile est pascere paucos ventres et bene institutos et nihil aliud desiderantes quam impleri: parvo fames constat, magno fastidium. Paupertas contenta est desideriis instantibus satis facere: quid est ergo quare hanc recuses contubernalem cuius mores sanus dives imitatur? Si vis vacare animo, aut pauper sis oportet aut pauperi similis. Non potest studium salutare fieri sine frugalitatis cura; frugalitas autem paupertas voluntaria est. Tolle itaque istas excusationes: nondum habeo quantum sat est; si ad illam summam pervenero, tunc me totum philosophiae dabo. Atqui nihil prius quam hoc parandum est quod tu differs et post cetera paras; ab hoc incipiendum est. Parare inquis unde vivam volo. Simul et parare (‡) disce: si quid te vetat bene vivere, bene mori non vetat.
If you are wise, cast away all distractions. If you are not, cast them off anyway, that you may become wise, and take the quickest road to a sound mind with all your strength. If there is any business holding you back, wrap it up or cut it off. “Family matters detain me,” you say. “I desire to arrange things so that my income is secure, though I do nothing, so that my poverty may not become a burden to me, or to anyone else.” When you say this, you seem not yet to grasp the force and power of that which you contemplate. Though you survey from a distance what advantages philosophy offers, still you do not discern her parts with sufficient subtility, nor are you as yet aware how much she helps us in every moment—how she succours us in the greatest tasks, as Cicero would say, and goes down with us into the pettiest. Trust me, and summon her to your counsel. She will convince you not to waste time making accounts.
Your purpose, the end you desire to achieve by this delay, is that poverty cease to scare you. What if finding poverty is the best way to lose that fear? Wealth has turned many away from philosophy: poverty offers you an open, sure way to her friend. When the signal for battle resounds, poverty knows it is not for her. When tumults rise, she looks for an exit rather than a profit. If she must take ship, her ports are calm, nor do any shores trouble themselves at the approach of a single person. She has no crowd of servants to feed, no need to draw imports from rich lands overseas. It is easy to feed a few mouths, especially when they are properly educated and desire nothing except to be filled: hunger is satisfied with little; taste demands a lot. Poverty is content to manage the desires that press her immediately. Why then would you refuse her company, when she offers a model of behavior that even the rich will imitate, if they are healthy? If you want freedom for your mind, you must either be poor, or live like a pauper. No healthy course of study can omit an active interest in frugality, and frugality is just voluntary poverty. Throw away your excuses, then! “I don't yet have enough; once I do, then I will give myself entirely to philosophy.” There is nothing for you to prepare before this one thing, which you are deliberately postponing: abandoning wealth is the start of your journey, not the end. “I want to prepare some means of living,” you say. Learn that lesson here and now: if there is anything that prevents your living well, it certainly won't keep you from dying well.
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(†) I prefer the reading of the MSS to the aqua conclamata of Gertz and Bücheler.
(‡) Again I prefer the MSS (parare) to para et (Madvig) and et te parare (Haase).