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THE

NATIONAL QUARTERLY REVIEW.

No. XXXIII.

JUNE, 1868.

ART. I.-1. Annai Seneca, tum Rhetoris, tum Philosophi, Opera omnia, ab ANDREA SCHOTTO. Geneva, 1625.

2. Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. DION CASSIUS.

3. De Seneca, Vita et Scriptis. REINHART. Jena, 1817. 4. Abrégé de la vie et des œuvres de Sénèque. Paris, 1812.

5. De la Morale Pratique dans les Lettres de Sénèque. Par MARTHA. Strasbourg, 1854.

6. Etude Critique sur les rapports supposés entre Sénèque et Saint Paul. Par AUBERTIN. Paris, 1857.

It is no mere poetical adage that "the proper study of mankind is man ;" no study is more useful or more interesting. There are but few men, however, who will reward our toil; the shallow and thoughtless yield us as little as the barren heath. In order that we may learn from man, he must possess some element of greatness; he must be a thinker before he can teach us to think. In proportion as he possesses thoughts and has the faculty to communicate them, he exercises an influence upon us for good or evil according to the nature of those thoughts. Fortunately it is but rarely the higher class of minds attempt to inculcate evil; men of true genius generally encourage virtue, even when their own practices are vicious.

In order to appreciate this to its full extent, it is necessary to bear in mind that the greatest thinkers are frequently guilty of the gravest errors; and that there is scarcely one of the most illustrious benefactors of mankind whose character would prove entirely faultless on a close examination. It is only the thoughtless, therefore,

VOL. XVII.-NO. XXXIII. 1

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who expect any one to be perfect; men of sense admire and value what is good, and attribute the evil which accompanies it to human frailty. Those who pursue the opposite course do justice to none; nor are any more ready to pass a severe judgment on the errors of others than those who commit the gravest errors themselves.

These thoughts have been suggested to us by an examination of the life and writings of Seneca, the Roman philosopher and moralist, than whom none among the illustrious dead has been more rudely assailed by a certain class of modern writers. That the tutor of Nero was guilty of serious errors far be it from us to deny. We have no intention of eulogizing his moral character; nor shall we seek to justify a single fault that may be regarded as proved against him. Our main object, in the present article, is to show that, assuming the worst accusations made against Seneca, by his enemies, to be true, the good he has done by his writings not only entitles him to acquittal at the hands of posterity, but also to a high rank among the instructors of mankind.

There is no period in the life of Lucius Annæus Seneca which does not possess a peculiar interest; born in the second or third year of the Christian era, there are few heroes of romance whose story is more chequered. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors were distinguished for superior intellect and intelligence. His father, Marcus Annæus, as well as himself, was a native of Corduba, in Spain. The former took no part in politics. Belonging, as he did, to the equestrian order, and possessing an ample fortune, he could easily have secured a prominent position in the State, but he preferred to devote his life to literature and oratory. With this view he visited Rome when about the age of twenty, B. c. 41. His first care was to place himself under the tuition of Marillius, the most eminent rhetorician of his time; and he also availed himself of the instructions of Porsius Latro, another rhetorician who disputed the palm of excellence with Marillius. Having studied some three years under these teachers, he returned to Corduba, and married a Spanish lady named Helvia, who was generally admired for her beauty, virtue, and accomplishments.

Marcus Annæus had three sons by this marriage, each of whom became illustrious. The first was Marcus Novatus, the proconsul of Achia, before whom St. Paul was accused of corrupting the religion of the State, and whose enlightened liberality protected the apostle from

the vindictive bigotry of his enemies;* the second as the philosopher, the subject of the present article; the third, Lucius Annæus Mela, whose greatest honour, according to Tacitus, was to be the father of the poet Lucan, author of the Pharsalia, who was also born in Spain.

Marcus Annæus was the author of several works, but only two are extant; one, Controversiarum, lib. X.; the other Suasorarum liber. Even these have reached our time only in a mutilated state. As the father and son were warmly attached to each other in life, so their works are now generally found in the same volumes. In the edition now before us, the fragments of the elder Seneca begin the first volume; although none of them are equal to any of the works of the philosopher. The younger Seneca never forgot that his best instructions were those he received from his father, who, although he could well afford to employ the most eminent tutors, preferred to be his first teacher himself; and in order to present him an additional incentive to study, he received other young lads into his family to be instructed with him.

We shall see as we proceed how grateful the philosopher was for this affectionate solicitude. When a child, Seneca was so delicate and feeble that few believed he could live, but the assiduous care of his mother and paternal aunt saved him. Nor did he merely owe the preservation of his life to these good women; he always admitted that he was indebted to them for the best precepts to be found in his ethics. He also tells us, that when in adversity, he was often prevented from committing suicide, by his affection for his parents, knowing that his death would overwhelm them with grief. But thoroughly educated as Marcus Annæus was, he would not allow his son to rely on his instructions alone; he placed him, in turn, under the tuition of Sextius and Attalus; the philosopher himself bears interesting testimony to the fact. While I was yet a child," he says,

"I sat at the school of Sotion."

Seneca confined himself to no sect in philosophy, but studied the doctrines of all, although he always avowed a preference for those of the Stoics. His favourite studies were the works of Metronax, Fabianus Papirius, and Demetrius, the cynic. Scarcely any writers or thinkers differed more from each other than these; but Seneca took delight in comparing their precepts and dogmas, adopting such

* Etude critique sur les rapports supposés entre Sénèque et St. Paul.

as he approved, and rejecting such as seemed absurd or chimerical, and whatever may be said of his conduct in after life, and especially when he was the tutor and adviser of Nero, it is certain that in his youth his practices were in accordance with his precepts. He tells us that he had not heard the lectures of Sotion, the Pythagorean, more than two or three times, before he determined to discontinue the use of animal food. We are not informed whether he experienced any diminution of physical strength from the change; but he writes on the subject to his friend Lucilius: "My soul has become lighter and more agile.

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That his body became somewhat lighter, also, we may infer from the course pursued by his father, who blamed him severely for adopting extreme views, and reminded him of many illustrious men who were not the less wise, or the less virtuous, for having used animal food in moderation. In order to strengthen this argument, Marcus Annæus reminded his son of the edict recently issued by Tiberius, expelling the Jews and Egyptians from Rome on account of their religion, one of the chief characteristics of which was abstinence from certain kinds of animal food. Young Seneca had at this time, become so much attached to Rome, that the idea of having to leave it frightened him. He resumed the use of animal food; but it is certain that he retained a dislike to it until the day of his death. Even when he had more wealth than perhaps any other private citizen, it is admitted by his enemies that he was always frugal in his mode of living.

His father was not willing that he should devote himself wholly to philosophy; he told him that it was not for this purpose he had taken so much pains in having him instructed in oratory. Upon the other hand young Seneca yearned to be a philosopher of the first rank; but he finally yielded to the wishes of his father, and studied law. He soon became distinguished as an advocate; although we have no reason to believe that he was an orator of the first class, many facts related by his contemporaries show that few of his time excelled him in eloquence. It is well known that Caligula had great pretensions to the persuasive art, and that none pleased him better than those who compared him to Cicero. None deny that the tyrant was a fluent and elegant speaker;

*Ep. ad Lucil. cviii.

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