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Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 13

On instinct in animals

121:13

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.

13.

Everyone of us understands that there is something which stirs his impulses, but he does not know what it is.

He knows that he has a sense of striving, although he does not know what it is or its source.

Thus even children and animals have a consciousness of their primary element, but it is not very clearly outlined or portrayed.