Seneca, On Peace of Mind 17.3

Moreover, we ought to retire a great deal into ourselves: for association with persons unlike ourselves upsets all that we had arranged, rouses the passions which were at rest, and rubs into a sore any weak or imperfectly healed place in our minds.

Nevertheless, we ought to mix up these two things, and to pass our lives alternately in solitude and among throngs of people; for the former will make us long for the society of mankind, the latter for that of ourselves, and the one will counteract the other.

Solitude will cure us when we are sick of crowds, and crowds will cure us when we are sick of solitude.

Only prudence can be my guide in finding a balance, in discovering the mean between too much and too little of anything. In order to avoid a downward spiral of relativism, where I frantically swing from one side to another based merely on the immediate feelings of the moment, I need a stable point of reference.

That measure must be the measure of my own nature, as an expression of the whole of Nature. Given a mind, I am made to be aware. Given a will, I am made to love; all the rest revolves around that. If I fulfill those callings from within myself, I am also doing my part in the service of all things. That is being at peace, and that is happiness.

By relying upon my own inner character, I can also view all external circumstances in their proper place, and I can consider them to be good or bad only by the standard of virtue.

Should I, for example, spend more time alone or with other people? I will know the answer to that question if I begin with the state of my own soul.

Will being in the presence of greedy and shifty folks encourage me to be a better or a worse man? Will being in the presence of caring and honest folks encourage me to be a better or a worse man?

Now the point isn’t whether the company I choose will make me richer, or more gratified, or more recognized. The simplicity of moral serenity is that it avoids all these distractions, and it does not confuse principles with preferences.

Wherever I can do my best, and however I can most fully exercise understanding, conviction, self-control, and justice, is what should guide me in exactly what I need to pursue.

Sometimes I will be called to be alone, and sometimes I will be called into the crowd. Each will serve its rightful purpose. The nurturing of a caring and healthy soul will be the constant.

Written in 1/2012

IMAGE: from The Crowd, dir. King Vidor (1928)