The matter can be imparted quickly and in very few words:
"Virtue is the only good; at any rate there is no good without virtue; and virtue itself is situated in our nobler part, that is, the rational part."
And what will this virtue be? A true and never-swerving judgment. For therefrom will spring all mental impulses, and by its agency every external appearance that stirs our impulses will be clarified.
It will be in keeping with this judgment to judge all things that have been colored by virtue as goods, and as equal goods.
Bodily goods are, to be sure, good for the body; but they are not absolutely good. There will indeed be some value in them; but they will possess no genuine merit, for they will differ greatly; some will be less, others greater.
And we are constrained to acknowledge that there are great differences among the very followers of wisdom.
One man has already made so much progress that he dares to raise his eyes and look Fortune in the face, but not persistently, for his eyes soon drop, dazzled by her overwhelming splendor; another has made so much progress that he is able to match glances with her—that is, unless he has already reached the summit and is full of confidence.
"Virtue is the only good; at any rate there is no good without virtue; and virtue itself is situated in our nobler part, that is, the rational part."
And what will this virtue be? A true and never-swerving judgment. For therefrom will spring all mental impulses, and by its agency every external appearance that stirs our impulses will be clarified.
It will be in keeping with this judgment to judge all things that have been colored by virtue as goods, and as equal goods.
Bodily goods are, to be sure, good for the body; but they are not absolutely good. There will indeed be some value in them; but they will possess no genuine merit, for they will differ greatly; some will be less, others greater.
And we are constrained to acknowledge that there are great differences among the very followers of wisdom.
One man has already made so much progress that he dares to raise his eyes and look Fortune in the face, but not persistently, for his eyes soon drop, dazzled by her overwhelming splendor; another has made so much progress that he is able to match glances with her—that is, unless he has already reached the summit and is full of confidence.
—from Seneca, Moral Letters 71
“But what about making money? Don’t I need to do that?”
You may stumble across a heap of cash, or you may spend your entire life begging on the street corner. In either case, it will have nothing to do with you, and everything to do with your circumstances. In either case, the value of whatever you happen to receive is measured by the content of your character.
“But it will be okay if other people like me, right?”
Perhaps you will be praised, and perhaps you will be scorned. Some of the worst people will die surrounded by a crowd of adoring fans, and some of the best people will die completely alone. How you choose to face such possibilities will determine your worth. In any event, none of it will matter one bit once you’re gone.
“Come on now, you have to be more realistic!”
What do you take to be most “real” in this world? There’s the rub! The greater things will give meaning and purpose to the lesser things. The Stoic looks at life from the top down, while the lemming looks at life from the bottom up. One man seeks on the inside, while another man grasps at the outside.
It pains me to admit it, but I have not had a single problem that couldn’t have been addressed immediately by modifying my judgments about benefit and harm. What held me back, each and every time, was a failure to connect what I knew in theory to how I felt in practice, and a desperate hope that I could cling to the gratifying thing without doing the right thing. Virtue makes everything else better, while vice makes everything worse: the quicker I learn this basic rule, the closer I will come to peace of mind.
Even as the pleasures of the body will increase or decrease, and I will always be apprehensive about losing them, the goods of the soul are already complete in their integrity, and they can never be taken away from me, as long as I choose to retain them. The grand deeds of the rich man are no greater than the humble deeds of the poor man, for total human excellence admit of no further improvement.
Nevertheless, we approach this perfection in stages, such that some are more skilled than others at confronting the whims of Fortune with the constancy of their own virtues. I have now gained more practice in looking away, though I still struggle greatly with looking her directly in the face for more than a moment. I feel dizzy as she spins her wheel, but I am learning to keep my head.
“But what about making money? Don’t I need to do that?”
You may stumble across a heap of cash, or you may spend your entire life begging on the street corner. In either case, it will have nothing to do with you, and everything to do with your circumstances. In either case, the value of whatever you happen to receive is measured by the content of your character.
“But it will be okay if other people like me, right?”
Perhaps you will be praised, and perhaps you will be scorned. Some of the worst people will die surrounded by a crowd of adoring fans, and some of the best people will die completely alone. How you choose to face such possibilities will determine your worth. In any event, none of it will matter one bit once you’re gone.
“Come on now, you have to be more realistic!”
What do you take to be most “real” in this world? There’s the rub! The greater things will give meaning and purpose to the lesser things. The Stoic looks at life from the top down, while the lemming looks at life from the bottom up. One man seeks on the inside, while another man grasps at the outside.
It pains me to admit it, but I have not had a single problem that couldn’t have been addressed immediately by modifying my judgments about benefit and harm. What held me back, each and every time, was a failure to connect what I knew in theory to how I felt in practice, and a desperate hope that I could cling to the gratifying thing without doing the right thing. Virtue makes everything else better, while vice makes everything worse: the quicker I learn this basic rule, the closer I will come to peace of mind.
Even as the pleasures of the body will increase or decrease, and I will always be apprehensive about losing them, the goods of the soul are already complete in their integrity, and they can never be taken away from me, as long as I choose to retain them. The grand deeds of the rich man are no greater than the humble deeds of the poor man, for total human excellence admit of no further improvement.
Nevertheless, we approach this perfection in stages, such that some are more skilled than others at confronting the whims of Fortune with the constancy of their own virtues. I have now gained more practice in looking away, though I still struggle greatly with looking her directly in the face for more than a moment. I feel dizzy as she spins her wheel, but I am learning to keep my head.
—Reflection written in 9/2013
IMAGE: Hans Sebald Beham, Fortuna (c. 1641)
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