Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

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DE PROVIDENTIA SIVE QUARE ALIQUA IN- COMMODA BONIS VIRIS ACCIDANT CUM PROVIDENTIA SIT. NOTE: This monograph is addressed to the same Lucilius, procurator of Sicily, to whom Seneca also dedicates his letters and his Problems in Physics. The date of composition is not known, but it probably belongs to the later years of the author s life. The opening sentences seem to make it a part of a larger work on ethics, or rather of a theodicy, which was either never completed or has not come down to us. This is a serious loss both to us and to Seneca: to us, because such a work would doubtless have placed before us a complete theory of human conduct as conceived by a man who was thoroughly conver sant with the motives that dominate men; to Seneca, because it would in all probability have explained if not justified some of the inconsistencies that have so sadly marred his career. In deed the fundamental proposition of the essay is inconsistent, since the conclusion does not follow from the premises. For if the patient endurance of tribulation is the supreme test of a good man, how is he justified in avoiding that test, as our author proposes, by taking hie own life? I. You have asked me, Lucilius, why it is, if the world is governed by a Providence, that so many mis fortunes befall good men. To this an answer would more properly be given in a work in which I should undertake to prove that a Providence presides over the affairs of men, and that God dwells among us. But since you deem it best to take a small portion of the whole subject, and to settle this single disputed question, the main proposition meanwhile being left 78
De Providentia untouched, I shall undertake a case of little difficulty : I shall plead the cause of the gods. 2. It is superfluous to show at the present time that so great a work does not stand fast and firm without an overseer; that the regular course of the heavenly bodies is not a fortuitous concourse of atoms; that those objects which chance puts in motion are subject to frequent disturbances and sudden col lisions; that this harmonious velocity is under the sway of an eternal law governing everything on land and sea, no less than the brilliant luminaries which shine according to a prearranged plan; that this order is not the result of elements moving about at ran dom, neither can fortuitous aggregations of matter cohere with such art that the immense mass of the earth remains motionless while beholding the rapid gyrations of the heavenly bodies about itself; that the seas poured into the valleys to fructify the soil or that enor never feel any increase from rivers; mous vegetation grows from the minutest seeds. 3. Not even those things that appear to be uncer I mean rains and clouds tain and without regularity and the bolts of lightning darting from the clouds, and fires poured from the cleft summits of mountains, and the quakings of the tottering ground, and such other disturbances of the earth about us are with out a rational explanation, unforeseen though they be. These things, too, have their causes, not less those which, when they appear in unexpected places, are regarded as prodigies, such as warm springs among 79
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Between Heathenism and Christianity
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" PREFACE. It is admitted by s
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Preface In the following pages I ha
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CONTENTS, ....... PAGE. PBEFAOE ...
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SENECA: HIS CHARACTER AND ENVIRONME
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" " Seneca: His Character
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Seneca: His Character and Environme
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" No Seneca: His Character and
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Page 47 and 48: " The Seneca: His Character an
Page 67 and 68: SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF SEN
Page 69 and 70: Selections from the Writings of Sen
Page 81: Selections from the Writings of Sen
Page 85 and 86: " Why De Providentia gence and
Page 87 and 88: De Providentia may gain real streng
Page 89 and 90: De Providentia enough for the immor
Page 91 and 92: De Providentia down his arms forthw
Page 93 and 94: De Providentia well-known exemplar
Page 95 and 96: De Providentia prove by these thing
Page 97 and 98: De Provldenda to thee when thou wer
Page 99 and 100: <J5 De Providentia ingly the
Page 101 and 102: De Providentia V. Add, now, that it
Page 103 and 104: De Providentia nor am I God s slave
Page 105 and 106: " " Good De Providentia I
Page 107 and 108: " " count what others lon
Page 109 and 110: " For De Providentia found in
Page 111 and 112: De Providentia "The first whic
Page 113 and 114: Plutarch and the Greece of His Age
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Page 129 and 130: eformer. Plutarch and the Greece of
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Plutarch and the Greece of His Age
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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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