4.
Do you ask who are my pacemakers?
One is enough for me,—the slave Pharius, a pleasant fellow, as you know; but I shall exchange him for another.
At my time of life I need one who is of still more tender years.
Pharius, at any rate, says that he and I are at the same period of life; for we are both losing our teeth.
Yet even now I can scarcely follow his pace as he runs, and within a very short time I shall not be able to follow him at all; so you see what profit we get from daily exercise.
Very soon does a wide interval open between two persons who travel different ways.
My slave is climbing up at the very moment when I am coming down, and you surely know how much quicker the latter is.
Nay, I was wrong; for now my life is not coming down; it is falling outright.
Book: Moral Letters Vol II
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On drunkenness
Location: Chapter 83, Section 4
Content:
4.
Do you ask who are my pacemakers?
One is enough for me,—the slave Pharius, a pleasant fellow, as you know; but I shall exchange him for another.
At my time of life I need one who is of still more tender years.
Pharius, at any rate, says that he and I are at the same period of life; for we are both losing our teeth.
Yet even now I can scarcely follow his pace as he runs, and within a very short time I shall not be able to follow him at all; so you see what profit we get from daily exercise.
Very soon does a wide interval open between two persons who travel different ways.
My slave is climbing up at the very moment when I am coming down, and you surely know how much quicker the latter is.
Nay, I was wrong; for now my life is not coming down; it is falling outright.