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Moral Letters Vol III

Seneca

§ Section 16

On the usefulness of basic principles

95:16

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.

16.

Thence come paleness, and a trembling of wine-sodden muscles, and a repulsive thinness, due rather to indigestion than to hunger.

Thence weak tottering steps, and a reeling gait just like that of drunkenness.

Thence dropsy, spreading under the entire skin, and the belly growing to a paunch through an ill habit of taking more than it can hold.

Thence yellow jaundice, discoloured countenances, and bodies that rot inwardly, and fingers that grow knotty when the joints stiffen, and muscles that are numbed and without power of feeling, and palpitation of the heart with its ceaseless pounding.