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Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 28

On care of health and peace of mind

104:28

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.

28.

The war lasted for twenty-seven years; then the state became the victim of the Thirty Tyrants, of whom many were his personal enemies.

At the last came that climax of condemnation under the gravest of charges: they accused him of disturbing the state religion and corrupting the youth, for they declared that he had influenced the youth to defy the gods, to defy the council, and to defy the state in general.

Next came the prison, and the cup of poison.

But all these measures changed the soul of Socrates so little that they did not even change his features.

What wonderful and rare distinction!

He maintained this attitude up to the very end, and no man ever saw Socrates too much elated or too much depressed.

Amid all the disturbance of Fortune, he was undisturbed.