16.
Those were wise men, or at any rate like the wise, who found the care of the body a problem easy to solve.
The things that are indispensable require no elaborate pains for their acquisition; it is only the luxuries that call for labour.
Follow nature, and you will need no skilled craftsmen.
Nature did not wish us to be harassed.
For whatever she forced upon us, she equipped us. “But cold cannot be endured by the naked body.” What then?
Are there not the skins of wild beasts and other animals, which can protect us well enough, and more than enough, from the cold?
Do not many tribes cover their bodies with the bark of trees?
Are not the feathers of birds sewn together to serve for clothing?
Even at the present day does not a large portion of the Scythian tribe garb itself in the skins of foxes and mice, soft to the touch and impervious to the winds?
Book: Moral Letters Vol II
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On the part played by philosophy in the progress of man
Location: Chapter 90, Section 16
Content:
16.
Those were wise men, or at any rate like the wise, who found the care of the body a problem easy to solve.
The things that are indispensable require no elaborate pains for their acquisition; it is only the luxuries that call for labour.
Follow nature, and you will need no skilled craftsmen.
Nature did not wish us to be harassed.
For whatever she forced upon us, she equipped us. “But cold cannot be endured by the naked body.” What then?
Are there not the skins of wild beasts and other animals, which can protect us well enough, and more than enough, from the cold?
Do not many tribes cover their bodies with the bark of trees?
Are not the feathers of birds sewn together to serve for clothing?
Even at the present day does not a large portion of the Scythian tribe garb itself in the skins of foxes and mice, soft to the touch and impervious to the winds?