Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

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Seneca: His Character and Environment mid reciprocally exclusive, they unhesitatingly gave up the latter. Seneca can always admire high ideals, but he cannot always imitate them. He is fascinated when he gazes on the lofty heights to which virtue had sometimes attained, and he often makes heroic efforts to follow after; but he is only now and then successful. It is no wonder, then, that Socrates had even in his lifetime many ardent admirers and enthusiastic disciples that remained true to his mem ory, while Seneca had none. Canon Farrar is mistaken when he calls Seneca a "seeker after God." God was in no man s thoughts oftener than in his. Nor lias any uninspired writer given utterance to a larger number of noble senti ments and lofty precepts than he. It is easy to ex tract from his writings a complete code of morals, a breviary of human conduct, that would differ but lit tle from that contained in the New Testament. He is a conspicuous example of the heathen of whom Paul says, they are without excuse. But while Seneca is not a seeker after God he can with justice be called a seeker after Christ. He is an earnest inquirer after the peace that passeth understanding; after that se rene confidence that sustained the greatest and the least of the Apostles, and the noble army of martyrs no less. He lacks that Christian enthusiasm that comes only through faith in a living Christ and in His atonement. Seneca now and then caught a glimpse of that uni versal kingdom which the company of believers ex-
" No Seneca: His Character and Environment pected would one day be established upon the earth. He says, one can lead a happy life who thinks only of himself and turns everything to his own use. If you would live for yourself, you must live for others. This bond of fellowship must be diligently and sacredly guarded, the bond that unites us all to all and shows to us that there is a right common to all nations which ought to be the more sacredly cher ished because it leads to that intimate friendship of which we were speaking." It is hard to see how he could write the following striking passage without thinking of himself; for, though guiltless of some of the vices he condemns, there are others of which he cannot be acquitted. After defining philosophy as nothing else than the right way of living, or the science of living honor ably, or the art of passing a good life, and denounc ing the fraudalent professors of it, he proceeds: "Many of the philosophers are of this description, eloquent to their own condemnation; for if you hear them arguing against avarice, against lust and ambi tion, you would think they were making a public dis closure of their own character, so entirely do the cen sures which they utter in public flow back upon themselves; so that it is right to regard them in no other light than as physicians whose advertisements contain medicine, but their inedicine=chests, poison. Some are not ashamed of their vices; but they invent defenses for their own baseness, so that they may even appear to siri with honor." 25
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Page 7 and 8: Between Heathenism and Christianity
Page 9 and 10: " PREFACE. It is admitted by s
Page 11 and 12: Preface In the following pages I ha
Page 13 and 14: CONTENTS, ....... PAGE. PBEFAOE ...
Page 15 and 16: SENECA: HIS CHARACTER AND ENVIRONME
Page 17 and 18: " " Seneca: His Character
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Page 47 and 48: " The Seneca: His Character an
Page 67 and 68: SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF SEN
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Selections from the Writings of Sen
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Selections from the Writings of Sen
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De Providentia untouched, I shall u
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" Why De Providentia gence and
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De Providentia may gain real streng
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De Providentia enough for the immor
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De Providentia down his arms forthw
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De Providentia well-known exemplar
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De Providentia prove by these thing
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De Provldenda to thee when thou wer
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<J5 De Providentia ingly the
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De Providentia V. Add, now, that it
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De Providentia nor am I God s slave
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" " Good De Providentia I
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" " count what others lon
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" For De Providentia found in
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De Providentia "The first whic
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Plutarch and the Greece of His Age
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" Plutarch and the Greece of H
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eformer. Plutarch and the Greece of
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" " The Delay of the Deit
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" To The Delay of the Deity wi
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The Delay of the Deity vices, He ad
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The Delay of the Deity nature, to h
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The Delay of the Deity may turn to
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" " " The Delay of t
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The Delay of the Deity Sikyonians a
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" We The Delay of the Deity ag
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The Delay of the Deity are allowed
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The Delay of the Deity 11. If then
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The Delay of the Deity wished might
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The Delay of the Deity to what is p
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The Delay of the Deity son from his
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" You " Do " "
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The Delay of the Deity conjured up
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Pindar says? 197 The Delay of the D
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The Delay of the Deity to be a vill
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The Delay of the Deity distances fr
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The Delay of the Deity the souls of
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The Delay of the Deity cation and p
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The Delay of the Deity the white. H
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The Delay of the Deity offer suppli
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The Delay of the Deityfalling into
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The Delay of the Deity is intrinsic
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Appendix VOLUME III. De E apud Delp
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Appendix cited by their Latin title
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Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

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