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Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 6

On the intimations of our immortality

102:6

Book Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.

Book Description: The final volume of Seneca's moral letters. Common Stoic themes emerge again and again: the unreliability of fortune, the ability to form Stoic resolve, and the importance of virtue.

6.

Unless, however, I make a preliminary remark, it will be impossible to understand my rebuttals.

And what is that preliminary remark?

Simply this: there are certain continuous bodies, such as a man; there are certain composite bodies,—as ships, houses, and everything which is the result of joining separate parts into one sum total: there are certain others made up of things that are distinct, each member remaining separate—like an army, a populace, or a senate.

For the persons who go to make up such bodies are united by virtue of law or function; but by their nature they are distinct and individual.

Well, what further prefatory remarks do I still wish to make?