Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

"
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