We are weak, watery beings standing in the midst of unrealities; therefore, let us turn our minds to the things that are everlasting. Let us look up to the ideal outlines of all things, that flit about on high, and to the God who moves among them and plans how he may defend from death that which he could not make imperishable because its substance forbade, and so by reason may overcome the defects of the body.
For all things abide, not because they are everlasting, but because they are protected by the care of him who governs all things; but that which was imperishable would need no guardian. The Master Builder keeps them safe, overcoming the weakness of their fabric by his own power.
Let us despise everything that is so little an object of value that it makes us doubt whether it exists at all. Let us at the same time reflect, seeing that Providence rescues from its perils the world itself, which is no less mortal than we ourselves, that to some extent our petty bodies can be made to tarry longer upon earth by our own providence, if only we acquire the ability to control and check those pleasures whereby the greater portion of mankind perishes.
Plato himself, by taking pains, advanced to old age. To be sure, he was the fortunate possessor of a strong and sound body (his very name was given him because of his broad chest); but his strength was much impaired by sea voyages and desperate adventures. Nevertheless, by frugal living, by setting a limit upon all that rouses the appetites, and by painstaking attention to himself, he reached that advanced age in spite of many hindrances.
You know, I am sure, that Plato had the good fortune, thanks to his careful living, to die on his birthday, after exactly completing his eighty-first year. For this reason, wise men of the East, who happened to be in Athens at that time, sacrificed to him after his death, believing that his length of days was too full for a mortal man, since he had rounded out the perfect number of nine times nine. I do not doubt that he would have been quite willing to forgo a few days from this total, as well as the sacrifice.
For all things abide, not because they are everlasting, but because they are protected by the care of him who governs all things; but that which was imperishable would need no guardian. The Master Builder keeps them safe, overcoming the weakness of their fabric by his own power.
Let us despise everything that is so little an object of value that it makes us doubt whether it exists at all. Let us at the same time reflect, seeing that Providence rescues from its perils the world itself, which is no less mortal than we ourselves, that to some extent our petty bodies can be made to tarry longer upon earth by our own providence, if only we acquire the ability to control and check those pleasures whereby the greater portion of mankind perishes.
Plato himself, by taking pains, advanced to old age. To be sure, he was the fortunate possessor of a strong and sound body (his very name was given him because of his broad chest); but his strength was much impaired by sea voyages and desperate adventures. Nevertheless, by frugal living, by setting a limit upon all that rouses the appetites, and by painstaking attention to himself, he reached that advanced age in spite of many hindrances.
You know, I am sure, that Plato had the good fortune, thanks to his careful living, to die on his birthday, after exactly completing his eighty-first year. For this reason, wise men of the East, who happened to be in Athens at that time, sacrificed to him after his death, believing that his length of days was too full for a mortal man, since he had rounded out the perfect number of nine times nine. I do not doubt that he would have been quite willing to forgo a few days from this total, as well as the sacrifice.
—from Seneca, Moral Letters 58
Now they may tell me that an expression like “First things first!” is a tautology, though what they are missing is the subtle yet critical distinction between grasping a priority before acting on a priority. To do what is more important first requires understanding what is more important.
So, if I think that indulging the appetites matters the most, I will end up very different from the man who thinks that informing his conscience matters the most.
What I call the Stoic Turn, a reevaluation of the greater and the lesser, is really just a hallmark of any genuine philosophy, which begins to recognize why things aren’t always as they initially appear.
The realm of sensible matter feels the most immediate, while upon deliberate reflection I discover the realm of intelligible principles providing the order and purpose to the breadth of my impressions. What is absolute and unchanging is the source and measure of what is relative and unchanging. Let me look to the eternal over the ephemeral.
I do not need to take Plato’s model as dividing one world into two worlds, but I can rather discern how the deeper level is a foundation for the appearances on the surface. Upon learning this, why would I wish to ground my life in what is shallow and fleeting? The state of my body is subject to the laws of the soul.
While it once sounded strange to me, I now more fully comprehend why the lover of God is so profoundly affected by his quest for the transcendent. The troubles of daily life, so overwhelming to most of us, seem like nothing to him, and he interprets any and every event through the glory of a Grand Design.
What the man of the flesh calls insanity, the man of the spirit considers a blessing.
I will certainly not live forever, and yet for what little time I do exist, it remains within my power to live according to what is Timeless. God is not up there, somewhere far away in the sky—God is right here, the very bedrock of all being.
While I wouldn’t wish to claim that good men live longer, for that is hardly the point of choosing to be good, I do know that good men live better, and that is where the rubber meets the road.
If Plato did indeed survive for eighty years on account of his temperance and frugality, it was merely an additional benefit of his character. With Seneca, I imagine he would have preferred us to note the quality of his virtues over the quantity of his years.
Now they may tell me that an expression like “First things first!” is a tautology, though what they are missing is the subtle yet critical distinction between grasping a priority before acting on a priority. To do what is more important first requires understanding what is more important.
So, if I think that indulging the appetites matters the most, I will end up very different from the man who thinks that informing his conscience matters the most.
What I call the Stoic Turn, a reevaluation of the greater and the lesser, is really just a hallmark of any genuine philosophy, which begins to recognize why things aren’t always as they initially appear.
The realm of sensible matter feels the most immediate, while upon deliberate reflection I discover the realm of intelligible principles providing the order and purpose to the breadth of my impressions. What is absolute and unchanging is the source and measure of what is relative and unchanging. Let me look to the eternal over the ephemeral.
I do not need to take Plato’s model as dividing one world into two worlds, but I can rather discern how the deeper level is a foundation for the appearances on the surface. Upon learning this, why would I wish to ground my life in what is shallow and fleeting? The state of my body is subject to the laws of the soul.
While it once sounded strange to me, I now more fully comprehend why the lover of God is so profoundly affected by his quest for the transcendent. The troubles of daily life, so overwhelming to most of us, seem like nothing to him, and he interprets any and every event through the glory of a Grand Design.
What the man of the flesh calls insanity, the man of the spirit considers a blessing.
I will certainly not live forever, and yet for what little time I do exist, it remains within my power to live according to what is Timeless. God is not up there, somewhere far away in the sky—God is right here, the very bedrock of all being.
While I wouldn’t wish to claim that good men live longer, for that is hardly the point of choosing to be good, I do know that good men live better, and that is where the rubber meets the road.
If Plato did indeed survive for eighty years on account of his temperance and frugality, it was merely an additional benefit of his character. With Seneca, I imagine he would have preferred us to note the quality of his virtues over the quantity of his years.
—Reflection written in 5/2013
IMAGE: Jacques de Rousseau, Old Man in Prayer Contemplating a Skull (c. 1635)
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