Tao Of Seneca Letter 14 - On The Reasons For Withdrawing From The World

► Tao Of Seneca Letter 14 - On The Reasons For Withdrawing From The World ◄

"I confess that we all have an inborn affection for our body; I confess
that we are entrusted with its guardianship. I do not maintain
that the body is not to be indulged at all; but I maintain that we
must not be slaves to it. He will have many masters who makes
his body his master, who is over-fearful in its behalf, who judges
everything according to the body.

We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the
body, but as if we could not live without it. Our too great love for
it makes us restless with fears, burdens us with cares, and exposes
us to insults. Virtue is held too cheap by the man who counts his
body too dear. We should cherish the body with the greatest care;
but we should also be prepared, when reason, self-respect, and
duty demand the sacrifice, to deliver it even to the flames.

Let us, however, in so far as we can, avoid discomforts as well
as dangers, and withdraw to safe ground, by thinking continually
how we may repel all objects of fear. If I am not mistaken, there
are three main classes of these: we fear want, we fear sickness, and
we fear the troubles which result from the violence of the stronger.

Picture to yourself under this head the prison, the cross, the
rack, the hook, and the stake which they drive straight through
a man until it protrudes from his throat. Think of human limbs
torn apart by chariots driven in opposite directions, of the terrible
shirt smeared and interwoven with inflammable materials, and of
all the other contrivances devised by cruelty, in addition to those
which I have mentioned!

It is not surprising, then, if our greatest terror is of such a fate;
for it comes in many shapes and its paraphernalia are terrifying.
For just as the torturer accomplishes more in proportion to
the number of instruments which he displays—indeed, the
spectacle overcomes those who would have patiently withstood
the suffering—similarly, of all the agencies which coerce and
master our minds, the most effective are those which can make a
display. Those other troubles are of course not less serious; I mean
hunger, thirst, ulcers of the stomach, and fever that parches our
very bowels. They are, however, secret; they have no bluster and
no heralding; but these, like huge arrays of war, prevail by virtue
of their display and their equipment."

Today we are going to talk about withdrawing from the world.

Seneca wrote this letter to Lucilius to talk about his reasons for withdrawing from the world.

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