The lesson of history. Seneca, Epistles 3.24.1-3
What
do we learn from history? How to die well, despising the worst that
fortune might do to us.
Sollicitum
esse te scribis de iudici eventu quod tibi furor inimici denuntiat;
existimas me suasurum ut meliora tibi ipse proponas et acquiescas
spei blandae. Quid enim necesse est mala accersere, satis cito
patienda cum venerint praesumere, ac praesens tempus futuri metu
perdere? Est sine dubio stultum, quia quandoque sis futurus miser,
esse iam miserum. Sed ego alia te ad securitatem via ducam: si vis
omnem sollicitudinem exuere, quidquid vereris ne eveniat eventurum
utique propone, et quodcumque est illud malum, tecum ipse metire ac
timorem tuum taxa: intelleges profecto aut non magnum aut non longum
esse quod metuis. Nec diu exempla quibus confirmeris colligenda sunt:
omnis illa aetas tulit. In quamcumque partem rerum vel civilium vel
externarum memoriam miseris, occurrent tibi ingenia aut profectus aut
impetus magni. Numquid accidere tibi, si damnaris, potest durius quam
ut mittaris in exilium, ut ducaris in carcerem? Numquid ultra
quicquam ulli timendum est quam ut uratur, quam ut pereat? Singula
ista constitue et contemptores eorum cita, qui non quaerendi sed
eligendi sunt.
You
write that you are worried about the outcome of the court-case that a
raging enemy brings against you. You suppose that I will urge you to
imagine better futures, to rest in the bosom of sweet hope. Why summon
ills when they presume to come upon us swiftly enough unsought,
demanding our patience? Why ruin the present moment with fear of what
is yet to come? It is certainly stupid to be miserable already,
merely because you might be so in future. But this time I will lead
you to safety by another road. If you would shed all anxiety, imagine
that an event you fear is certain to happen. Take the evil you dread
and measure yourself against it, testing the bounds of your terror
rigorously: you will soon understand that the thing terrifying you is
neither great nor enduring. Nor do you have far to look for examples
that will fortify your position: every past age provides them. No
matter what part of human affairs you send your memory to
engage—civil business at home or military matters abroad—you will
meet characters marked by great achievement or expression. If you are
damned, beaten down in the war with fortune, what worse could befall
you than that you be banished into exile, or led off to prison? What
is there for you to fear beyond being burned, or done to death? List
the awful fates you dread one by one, and summon the crowds who
despised them: your problem will not be any lack of examples; you
will have more than enough to choose from.