pale for the few years she survived, and during which she held her husband in honourable memory.*

Hitherto we have considered Seneca only as a public

The record we have been able to make of him, as such, is far from being what we should like. But in forming a final judgment of him, different circumstances are to be taken into account. We are bound to remember that even when a mere boy his acquirements and talents were of a character to excite envy; it is certain that when eighteen, few if any Romans of the same age were equally brilliant and learned. He also laboured under the disadvantage of being a foreigner at Rome. It is very true that none were more liberal in this respect than the Romans; they were far more cosmopolitan than the Greeks, or indeed any other people. Still they had their prejudices; they were quite willing to allow foreigners equal rights with themselves; but they regarded it as humiliating to acknowledge even Athenian philosophers as their superiors in learning and genius. And we have seen that the philosopher was not the only member of the Seneca family who was distinguished by superior intellectual endowments; there was not a member of it who did not possess intellectual capacity of a high order. There have been few families of any age that have produced within the same generation three such authors and thinkers as Seneca, the philosopher, Marcus Annæus his father, and Lucan his nephew, all Iberians, born at Corduba, for which they secured a universal recognition as the modern Athens.

Corduba præstantum genetrix fœcunda virorum.†

The Pharsalia of Lucan, written when he was a mere youth, has been ranked with the noblest epics. It has been compared by eminent critics to the Iliad and the Eneid. This, indeed, is exaggerated praise; it is far inferior to either, but it contains passages scarcely excelled in spirit, or sublimity, by any similar passages in Homer, or Virgil. Lucan was the author of several other works, including a poem on the burning of Troy, entitled Catacausmas iliacus. Thus while Seneca discoursed eloquently on philosophy and morals, Lucan wrote poems marked with epic grandeur. As already remarked, the Seneca family belonged to the equestrian order and possessed wealth. None of this character could well

avoid holding office at Rome even in Nero's time; nor did Lucan form an exception. Nero thought so highly of the young man that he condescended to vie with him in the public games; the judges chosen to decide the relative merits of the rivals awarded the palm to Lucan, which as many anticipated at the time proved equivalent to the death-warrant of the poet. The tyrant first showed his spite by forbidding Lucan from publishing his poem on the burning of Troy, under pain of immediate banishment. Soon after the conspiracy of Piso was brought to light, Lucan, as well as Seneca, was accused as an accomplice; and the poet as well as the philosopher was doomed to die. Lucan also caused his veins to be opened; and Tacitus informs us that while he felt the chill of death extending to his arms and feet, he recited verses in which he had described a wounded soldier dying of the same death. Such was the fate of the nephew of Seneca, in his twenty-seventh year, while he was consul elect for the following year.

Men of this class have always enemies. Young as Lucan was, his character was also assailed with the greatest bitterness. Notwithstanding the heroic manner in which he died, he was accused of the basest cowardice. It was said of him, that in order to evade the charge of treason made against him, he denounced his own mother Acilia. A still worse course, if such was possible, was pursued against Seneca. That the philosopher was guilty of many errors cannot be denied; but it is certain that many were attributed to him which he never committed, and that the faults of which he was really guilty were grossly exaggerated. Had it been otherwise the severest and most impartial of the Roman satirists would have spoken of him in very different language from that which he applies to him in several of his satires. But there is not a word in Juvenal which implies that the poet regarded the philosopher as a bad man. Alluding to the rumour that the conspirators, headed by Piso, were to have made Seneca emperor, Juvenal maintains in his eighth satire that if the people had been allowed the uncontrolled exercise of their votes, none would have been found so abandoned as not to have preferred Seneca to Nero.

Libera si dentur populo suffragia, quis tam
Perditus, ut dubitet Senecam preferre Neroni.

Even Quintilian, one of the most impartial of all the Roman writers whose works have reached us, was un

doubtedly jealous of his glory; this we will show in the proper place, but it will be seen at the same time that, however unfriendly the feelings of the critic may be, he cannot deny that the works of the philosopher possessed the elements of true greatness.

*

Before entering into any discussion of the philosophy or ethics of Seneca, it may be well to take a cursory glance at such of his works as have come down to us. The one generally supposed to have been first written is that on Anger. If this opinion be correct, the work was produced in the time of Caligula, when the author was young and inexperienced; whereas it is one of the best written of all his productions, and it is inferior to none in its reasoning. The letters of "Consolation," addressed to Polybius, to Marcia, and to Helvia, his mother, have already been alluded to, and compared with each other. The communications to the two ladies, especially that to the author's mother, are highly creditable in every sense. Both are at once eloquent and touching, and such is the piety with which they are imbued, that they might well be mistaken for some of the epistles of the early Christians. Those who read them would find it difficult to believe that the Consolation to Polybius could possibly have emanated from the same mind, were it not that the evidence of their common paternity is unfortunately but too clear. The work "On Providence" is but fragmentary. It is not a regular treatise, but it is much more valuable than many such. The object of it is to justify Providence against the cavils and murmurs of those who complain that the good often suffer more in this world than the wicked. The reasoning of the philosopher in vindication of Divine justice is clear and convincing. Pope has borrowed from it some of the finest thoughts in his "Essay on Man ;" nor is this the only work of Seneca from which the same poet and many other modern moralists have drawn inspiration. But De Providentia" has one serious fault; it concludes by recommending suicide to the unfortunate as their surest refuge from worldly ills, as if the author wished to show that, notwithstanding the truly Christian spirit of his precepts, he is not a disciple of Christ. In several of his works we find similar inconsistencies and contrasts; through several pages he reasons like a pious and orthodox Christian, but he too frequently

* De Ira.

66

De Providentia, sive quare bonis viris mala accidant, cum sit Providentia. VOL. XVII.--NO. XXXIII. 2

concludes like a Pagan. In his essay on "Tranquillity of Mind,"* Seneca shows his friend Annæus Serenus how he is to cure himself of the disquietude and disgust of life of which he complains.

There is scarcely one of the philosophical sects of his time whose precepts are not adopted by Seneca, according as he thinks they are good and useful to society; but, as we have already remarked, his chief leaning is towards the Stoics. This is fully illustrated in his dissertation "On the Firmness of the Sage; or, Proof that the wise man can suffer no injury." When the author was in exile, and on many other occasions, it was sufficiently evident that he suffered injury; it was because he felt injured that he had his enemy and traducer, Suilius, sent into exile; but perhaps the philosopher did not claim to be wise at this time.

The treatise "On Clemency," addressed to Nero, contains some excellent passages, but also some contradictions. It shows that while the author wished to give his pupil good advice, he deemed it prudent, at the same time, to flatter his vanity; its main object, however, is to show that princes should govern with mildness and moderation. Because a considerable part of the work is lost, some of those who are disposed to accept the statements of the author's enemies, allege that Macchiavelli borrowed some of the odious maxims of his "Prince" from this work; but whatever objections may be made to certain passages in the part which remains, it will be seen that it contains sufficient to prove that the philosopher could have given no bad advice in it without stultifying himself.

Another good essay is that "On the Shortness of Life." It is addressed to Paulinus, the father of his second wife, the beautiful and heroic Paulina, whose noble conduct at the death of her husband we have described above. In this we have another of the contradictions of Seneca; for although he advises Serenus to seek public employments as a means of rendering life attractive to him instead of being a burden, he recommends Paulinus to retire from public life, resigning his position as Præfectus Annonæ for the same purpose.

Seneca has been much censured for inconsistencies of this kind, but without sufficient reason. Why should not

* De Animi tranquilitate.

De Constantia sapientis, sive quod in sapientem non cadit injuria. § De Brevitate Vitæ.

De Clementia.

philosophers have the privilege of changing their minds as well as meaner mortals? What do they study for? Is it not to become wiser from day to day? If they do become wiser, why should they not be permitted to alter their views when they find that their first impressions were erroneous? What would be said of the astronomer, who, having once mistaken a comet for a planet, must needs adhere to his old theory lest he might be accused of inconsistency or blundering, although his improved optical instruments, aided by more accurate calculations, convince him that his former theory was wrong? Seneca was a severe student through life; when he was most occupied at the court of Nero; while those who were obnoxious to the tyrant were falling almost daily by poison or the dagger, the philosopher was adding more or less to his stock of knowledge; and, in proportion as he did so, he changed his mind."

The essay "On a Happy Life," is addressed to the author's brother, Gallio, who was proconsul of Achia, and behaved with such enlightened liberality when St. Paul was accused before him at Corinth. We may remark, in passing, that the strong attachment of Seneca to his friends, was a striking trait in his character. Even his enemies cannot say that he ever treated a true friend otherwise than fairly. It is true that Agrippina and Claudius loaded him with honours; it is also true that he is charged with ingratitude for his treatment to both when they were no longer able to serve or to injure him. But he never considered either as a true friend. His impression to the last was that it was with the view of forwarding their own designs, and not for any love of him, that each conferred honours on him; and none acquainted with their history will be disposed to deny the fact.

But to all his relatives the philosopher had the kindness of a father. When his nephew, Lucan, was accused of treason by Nero, Seneca was more uneasy about his fate than his own; and that his affection was fully reciprocated by his friends, we have abundant evidence. His father doated on him as long as he lived; his brothers, nephews, and nieces were warmly attached to him; and what wife could have evinced more devotion for her husband than the young and beautiful Paulina did for the aged Seneca. His letters to Lucilius, of which one hundred and twentyfour are extant, would have proved by themselves that

*De Vita Beata.