27.
That which we Stoics advise, is honourable; when emotion has prompted a moderate flow of tears, and has, so to speak, ceased to effervesce, the soul should not be surrendered to grief.
But what do you mean, Metrodorus, by saying that with our very grief there should be a blending of pleasure?
That is the sweetmeat method of pacifying children; that is the way we still the cries of infants, by pouring milk down their throats! “Even at the moment when your son’s body is on the pyre, or your friend breathing his last, will you not suffer your pleasure to cease, rather than tickle your very grief with pleasure?
Which is the more honourable—to remove grief from your soul, or to admit pleasure even into the company of grief?
Did I say ‘admit’?
Nay, I mean ‘chase after,’ and from the hands, too, of grief itself.
Book: Moral Letters Vol III
Subtitle: Seneca's timeless letters of advice and wisdom.
Author: Seneca
Chapter: On consolation to the bereaved
Location: Chapter 99, Section 27
Content:
27.
That which we Stoics advise, is honourable; when emotion has prompted a moderate flow of tears, and has, so to speak, ceased to effervesce, the soul should not be surrendered to grief.
But what do you mean, Metrodorus, by saying that with our very grief there should be a blending of pleasure?
That is the sweetmeat method of pacifying children; that is the way we still the cries of infants, by pouring milk down their throats! “Even at the moment when your son’s body is on the pyre, or your friend breathing his last, will you not suffer your pleasure to cease, rather than tickle your very grief with pleasure?
Which is the more honourable—to remove grief from your soul, or to admit pleasure even into the company of grief?
Did I say ‘admit’?
Nay, I mean ‘chase after,’ and from the hands, too, of grief itself.