petebatur: produci enim illi et temptari expedit; nec ulli magis intellegunt, quanta sit, quam qui vires eius lacessendo senserunt. Duritia silicis nullis magis quam ferientibus nota est. Praebeo me non aliter quam rupes aliqua in vadoso mari destituta, quam fluctus non desinunt, undecumque moti sunt verberare: nec ideo aut loco eam movent aut per tot aetates crebro incursu suo consumunt. 4. Adsilite, facite inpetum: ferendo vos vincam. In ea, quae firma et inexsuperabilia sunt, quicquid incurrit, malo suo vim suam exercet. Proinde quaerite mollem cedentemque materiam, in qua tela vestra figantur. Vobis autem vacat, aliena scrutari mala et sententias ferre de quoquam? Quare hic philosophus laxius habitat, quare hic lautius coenat? Papulas observatis alienas, obsiti plurimis ulceribus? 5. Hoc tale est quale si quis pulcherrimorum corporum naevos aut verrucas derideat, quem fera scabies depascitur. Obicite Platoni, quod petierit pecuniam, Aristoteli, quod acceperit, Democrito, quod neglexerit, Epicuro, quod consumpserit: mihi ipsi Alcibiadem et Phaedrum obiectate. 6. O vos usu maxime felices, cum primum vobis imitari vitia nostra contigerit! Quin potius mala vestra circumspicitis, quae vos ab omni parte confodiunt, alia grassantia extrinsecus, alia in visceribus ipsis ardentia? Non eo loco res humanae sunt etiam si statum vestrum parum nostis, vo- ut bis tantum otii supersit, ut in probra meliorum agitare linguam vacet XXVIII. Hoc vos non intellegitis et alienum fortunae vestrae voltum geritis; sicut plurimi, quibus in circo aut theatro desidentibus iam funesta domus est nec adnuntiatum malum. At ego ex alto prospiciens video, quae tempestates aut inmineant vobis, paulo tardius rupturae nimbum suum, aut iam vicinae, vos ac vestra rapturae propius accesserint. Quid porro? nonne nunc quoque, etiam si parum sentitis, turbo quidam animos vestros rotat et involvit, fugientes petentesque eadem et nunc in sublime adlevatos nunc in infima adlisos? * * * * * * The teaching of Seneca, which drew all its interest from Greek philosophy, was alien from the old Roman sentiments. His doctrines were essentially cosmopolite. He sought to refer questions of honor and justice to general and eternal principles, rather than to solve them by the tests of precedents and political traditions. The educated men of the later Republic, as well as of the early Empire, had opened their arms wide to embrace these foreign speculations; and whether they had resigned themselves to Epicurism, as was the fashion under Julius and Augustus, or had cultivated Stoicism, which was now more generally in vogue, they equally abandoned the ground of their unpolished fathers, which asserted the pre-eminence of patriotism above all the virtues, the subordination of every claim of right and duty to national interest and honor. . . . As yet, Stoicism, in the ranks of Roman society, was merely a speculative creed; and the habit now prevalent there, of speculating on the unity of mankind, the equality of races, the universality of justice, the subjection of prince and people, of masters and slaves, of conqueror and conquered, to one rule of Right, tended undoubtedly to sap the exclusive and selfish spirit of Roman antiquity. MERIVALE. |