Moral good requires choice. Seneca, Epistles 2.20.9-11
What
we choose makes us good. Not what we happen to have, by accident or
fortune.
Invideas
licet, etiam nunc libenter pro me dependet Epicurus. Magnificentior,
mihi crede, sermo tuus in grabatto videbitur et in panno; non enim
dicentur tantum illa sed probabuntur. Ego certe aliter audio quae
dicit Demetrius noster, cum illum vidi nudum, quanto minus quam in
stramentis incubantem: non praeceptor veri sed testis est.
Quid ergo? non licet divitias in sinu positas contemnere? Quidni
liceat? Et ille ingentis animi est qui illas circumfusas sibi,
multum diuque miratus quod ad se venerint, ridet suasque audit magis
esse quam sentit. Multum est non corrumpi divitiarum contubernio;
magnus ille qui in divitiis pauper est.
Nescio
inquis quomodo paupertatem iste laturus sit, si in illam
inciderit. Nec ego, Epicure, an tuus si
(‡) iste pauper contempturus sit divitias, si in illas
inciderit; itaque in utroque mens aestimanda est inspiciendumque an
ille paupertati indulgeat, an hic divitiis non indulgeat. Alioquin
leve argumentum est bonae voluntatis grabattus aut pannus, nisi
apparuit aliquem illa non necessitate pati sed malle.
You
may object, but even so Epicurus is again going to pick up my tab.
"Your fine speeches will sound better, believe me, when you
deliver them from a cot and clothe yourself in rags. Then they shall
be not merely uttered, but proven, demonstrated in your deeds."
Certainly, for my part, I hear the words of our own Demetrius (†)
differently after seeing him naked, or reclining in rough straw. He
is a witness of truth rather than just a teacher. "What then? Is
it really possible to disdain riches that you actually possess?"
Why shouldn't it be? Even so, the man with a great mind sees wealth
piled around him and marvels that it should fall to him, laughing at
it, and hearing rather than believing that it is his. It is a great
thing not to be corrupted by close association with wealth. Mighty
the man who remains poor in the midst of a material fortune!
"But
wait!" you say. "I am not sure how this fellow would bear
actual poverty, if he fell into it." Nor, my dear Epicurus, do I
know that your pauper would despise wealth, if he should stumble into
it. And so in either case we must judge the man by his mind, watching
each closely to observe how the pauper enjoys his poverty and the
rich man refrains from becoming attached to his wealth. Simple
bedding and pauper's clothes are no serious proof of noble
sentiments, until it becomes apparent that they are chosen rather
than imposed by necessity.
---
(‡)
The emendation an tuus si comes
from P. Thomas; the MSS have angulus si / an gulus si.
(†)
A Cynic philosopher who left his hometown of Corinth to live in Rome,
where he remained from the time of Caligula to that of Vespasian,
surviving the downfall of Nero (unlike Seneca!). Seneca knew him
personally, and writes about him with approval. The last book of
Seneca's treatise On Benefits recounts
an anecdote of the
philosopher's encounter with
Caligula, who tried in vain
to offer him 200,000 sesterces
(De beneficiis 7.11),
echoing the failure of Alexander the Great to give
alms to Diogenes of Sinope.