A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

782 SENECA. SENECA.
for the wits of that day to sport with. (Dion Cass. did. We cannot suppose that his conscience
lx. 35, and the notes of Reimarrus.) always approved of his acts. A practical philo15. Quacestionum Naturaliusn Libri septera, ad- sopher, who has lived in the world, must often have
dressed to Lucilius Junior, is one of the few done that which he would wish undone; and the
Roman works in which physical matters are treated contradiction which appears between a man's acts
of. It is not a systematic work, but a collection of and his principles will appear in his writings.
natural facts from various writers, Greek and Roman, Ritter remarks that he has treated of the doctrines
many of which are curious. The first book treats of Seneca at some length, because they show how
of meteors, the second of thunder and lightning, little talent the Romans had for philosophy. Pelthe third of water, the fourth of hail, snow, and haps the historian of Philosophy may provoke a
ice, the fifth of winds, the sixth of earthquakes and like remark by his criticisms. Seneca applied himthe sources of the Nile, and the seventh of comets. self chiefly to Ethic, which in its wide sense is the
Moral remarks are scattered through the work; art of living happily, without which philosophy has
and indeed the design of the whole appears to be no value. To Physic he paid some attention, and
to find a foundation for ethic, the chief part of he does not undervalue it as an instrument towards
philosophy, in the knowledge of nature (Physic). an end. Of the other division of philosophy,
He says (book vii. c. 30),-" How many things Logic, he knew little and cared nothing; and it is
are there besides comets that pass in secret, and of no value except so far as it may be an aid to
never discover themselves to men's eyes? For God Physic and Ethic. Ritter says: " his zeal to
hath not made all things subject to human sight. establish a science which shall be simple and
How little see we of that which is enclosed in so merely adapted for the practical purpose of purity
great an orb? Even he who manageth these of morals, carries him so far, that he declares even
things, who hath created them, who hath founded the liberal sciences and philosophical Physic to be
the world, and hath inclosed it about himself, and useless, so fiar as they are not capable of application
is the greater and better part of this his work, is to Ethic. This zeal leads him to expressions which
not subject to our eyes, but is to be visited by our are scarcely reconcileable with a philosophical style
thoughts." This is the man whom some have of thinking. To wish to know no more than is
called an Atheist. necessary is a kind of intemperance; such a knowThe judgments on Seneca's writings have been ledge makes us only proud: he considers it as a
as various as the opinions about his character; and sample of the prevailing luxury." The passages
both in extremes. It has been said of him that he to which Ritter refers are in the Epistolae (Ep. 88,
looks best in quotations; but this is an admission 106). The latter contains the striking passage:
that there is something worth quoting, which " sed nos ut caetera in supervacuum diffundimus,
cannot be said of all writers. That Seneca pos- ita philosophiam ipsam. Quemadmodum omniunm
sessed great mental powers cannot be doubted. He rerum, sic litterarum quoque intemperantia labohad seen much of human life, and he knew well ramus; Iron vitae, sed schola e discinmus." Which is
what man was. His philosophy, so far as he the wiser, Seneca or his critic, let every man judge
adopted a system, was the stoical, but it was for himself. There is enough in Ethic, or the
rather an eclecticism of stoicism than pure stoicism. practical application of knowledge to life, to employ
His style is antithetical, and apparently laboured; us all. Those who have no taste for Ethic, as thus
and when there is much labour, there is generally understood, may indulge, if they have money and
affectation. Yet his language is clear and forcible; leisure, in the " intemperaintia litterarum," of which
it is not mere words: there is thought always. It kind of intemperance a large part of all literature
would not be easy to name any modern writer who is an example.
has treated on morality, and has said so much that Seneca, like other educated Romans, rejected
is practically good and true, or has treated the the superstition of his country: he looked upon
matter in so attractive a way. the ceremonials of religion as a matter of custom
People will judge of Seneca, as they do of most and fashion, and nothing more. His religion is
moral writers, by the measure of their own opinions. simple Deism: the Deity acts in man and in all
The less a man cares for the practical, the real, the things; which is the same thing that Paul said
less will he value Seneca. The more -a man en- when he addressed the Athenians, "for in him
velops himself in words and ideas without exact (God) we live and move and have our being" (Acts,
meaning, the less will he comprehend a writer who xvii. 28). Indeed there have been persons who,
does not merely deal in words, but has ideas with with the help of an active imagination, have made
something to correspond to them. Montaigne (De- Seneca a Christian, and to have been acquainted
fence of Seneca and Plutarch) says: " the fami- with Paul, which is a possible thing, but cannot be
liarity I have had with these two authors, and the proved. The resemblance between many passages
assistance they have lent to my age and to my in Seneca and passages in the New Testament
book, which is wholly compiled of what I have is merely an accidental circumstance. Similar reborrowed from them, obliges me to stand up for semblances occur in the Meditations of the Emperor
their honour." In another place (Essay of Books) Marcus Antoninus. The fourteen letters of Seneca
he compares Seneca and Plutarch in his usual to Paul, which are printed in the old editions of
lively way: his opinion of the philosophical works Seneca, are apocryphal.
of Cicero is not so favourable as of Seneca's; and Seneca wrote other works which are no longer
herein many people will agree with him. The judg- extant, though the titles of some of them are
ment of Ritter (Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. iv. known. Quintilian (Inst. Or. x. I. ~ 128) says,
p. 189) is a curious specimen of criticism. If Dide- " he treated also on almost every subject of study;
rot is extravagant in his praise of Seneca, Ritter for both orations of his, and poems, and epistles,
and others are equally extravagant in their censure. and dialogues, are extant." The fragments of the
Ritter finds contradictions in Seneca; and such we lost works are contained in the complete editions
may expect in a man who lived the life that he of Seneca. Niebuhr discovered the fragment of a