Not bitter, but empty. Seneca, Epistles 3.24.22-26
Seneca
tells Lucilius to avoid despising life too much. As we can desire
life more than we should, more than is naturally virtuous, so we can
despise her, and desire death, more than we should. We must walk
carefully between these overweening emotions, lust and loathing,
giving way to neither. That is the path of sages, the narrow road of
true philosophy.
Video
quo spectes: quaeris quid huic epistulae infulserim, quod dictum
alicuius animosum, quod praeceptum utile. Ex hac ipsa materia quae in
manibus fuit mittetur aliquid. Obiurgat Epicurus non minus eos qui
mortem concupiscunt quam eos qui timent, et ait: ridiculum est
currere ad mortem taedio vitae, cum genere vitae ut currendum ad
mortem esset effeceris. Item alio loco dicit: quid tam
ridiculum quam appetere mortem, cum vitam inquietam tibi feceris metu
mortis? His adicias et illud eiusdem notae licet, tantam hominum
imprudentiam esse, immo dementiam, ut quidam timore mortis cogantur
ad mortem. Quidquid horum tractaveris, confirmabis animum vel
ad mortis vel ad vitae patientiam; aut in utrumque enim
monendi ac firmandi sumus, et ne nimis amemus vitam et ne nimis
oderimus.
Etiam
cum ratio suadet finire se, non temere nec cum procursu capiendus est
impetus. Vir fortis ac sapiens non fugere debet e vita sed exire; et
ante omnia ille quoque vitetur affectus qui multos occupavit, libido
moriendi. Est enim, mi Lucili, ut ad alia, sic etiam ad moriendum
inconsulta animi inclinatio, quae saepe generosos atque acerrimae
indolis viros corripit, saepe ignavos iacentesque: illi contemnunt
vitam, hi gravantur. Quosdam subit eadem faciendi videndique satietas
et vitae non odium sed fastidium, in quod prolabimur ipsa impellente
philosophia, dum dicimus quousque eadem? nempe expergiscar
dormiam, edam esuriam (†), algebo aestuabo. Nullius rei finis est,
sed in orbem nexa sunt omnia, fugiunt ac sequuntur; diem nox premit,
dies noctem, aestas in autumnum desinit, autumno hiemps instat, quae
vere compescitur; omnia sic transeunt ut revertantur. Nihil novi
facio, nihil novi video: fit aliquando et huius rei nausia. Multi
sunt qui non acerbum iudicent vivere sed supervacuum. Vale.
I
see what you're looking for. You wonder what I've packed into this
letter, what spirited saying or useful precept I've lifted from
another for you. Your search will be rewarded with more of the same
stuff you just touched. Epicurus upbraids those who desire death no
less than those who fear it. Quoth he: “It's ridiculous to run for
death on the grounds that life is dull, since it is merely the manner
of your living that makes it so.” He makes the same point in
another passage: “What is more ludicrous than to desire death, when
you have already spoiled the tranquility of your life by fearing it?”
To these observations you should add his conclusion from the same
letter: that humanity is so imprudent, so insane, that some of us
drive ourselves to death because we fear it. Any of these sayings is
sufficient to reward your attention, strengthening your mind to
suffer death or life in good shape. We require warning and warding
for both possibilities, lest our love for life or our hatred of it
prove excessive.
Even
when reason announces that it is time to end ourselves, we should not
fall to our doom capriciously or hastily. A man strong and wise
should not flee from life, but depart, in good order. He should above
all else avoid the lust for death, an emotional affect that has
waylaid many. Our mind carries an untutored fixation with dying,
Lucilius, as with doing other things, and this often seizes men of
generous and passionate character, as well as knaves and bums. Heroes
despise life; losers are overwhelmed by it. Some grow weary of doing
and seeing the same things over and over, succumbing to disgust with
life rather than hatred of it. This is the trap we fall into with
philosophy's help, when we ask questions: “How long shall these
cycles endure unchanging? How long shall I awaken only to fall again
asleep? How long shall I eat only to feel hunger? How long shall I
freeze only to overheat? Nothing is ever finished; instead,
everything is bound fast on an endless wheel, fleeing and chasing.
Night hunts day, and day chases night. Winter attacks the autumn,
only to find herself besieged in turn. All things pass by and are
overturned. I do nothing new, see nothing new: now I'm sick of it.”
Many there are who find life not bitter, but empty. Farewell.
---
(†)
In Latin, this sentence is an explanation of the preceding question
(rather than a continuation of it, as I have translated it into
English). It illustrates the iterative cycle of mortal, animal life
with pairs of future indicative verbs, dramatizing actions that
defeat each other. I accept the emendation that restores a suitable
verb (cf. edam) in the second
pairing, which the MSS have handed down to us as the single verb
esuriam.