Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

Seneca: His Character and Environment
mind in his defense of riches. He can see no harm
in large possessions when they have been honestly, or
at least lawfully, acquired and are properly
used. It
may help us to understand his attitude in this matter
if we compare
it with that of some of the ministers
of our own day, and with some of the ecclesiastical
dignitaries of the past,
Seneca s philosophy
did not
come to him as a divine command. It was the fruit
of his own cogitation in the search for the supreme
good. But there are men in our day, as there have
always been, who are not only members of the church
but preachers of the Gospel, who are both rich
themselves and apologists of the rich. Yet they pro
fess to be followers of the Son of God; of Him who
taught that it is exceedingly difficult for a rich man
to enter the kingdom of heaven. Seneca did not
profess to seek this kingdom. His search was after
the kingdom of earthly felicity, and he could not see
why riches should be an obstacle to his entering it.
Seneca was a good exemplar of the truth of a say
ing quoted by Xenophon in his Memorabilia of So
crates to the effect that even an upright man is some
times good, sometimes bad.
His writings convey the
impression that their author is always under stress.
The philosophical composure of which he has much to
say, is an aspiration and a hope, not a fruition. When
he speaks of the passions he sees them in their intensi
ty.
He seems to regard all men as either very good or
very bad, and finds the latter class to include the great
body
of mankind. He fails to realize that the ma
ss