On the Terrors of Death
De terroribus mortis
Riassunto
Seneca encourages continuous moral progress toward wisdom, which brings unmixed joy. He advises meditation on death as the path to true freedom, arguing that one who has learned to die is beyond the power of any external force.
Translated by Richard M. Gummere, 1917
Keep on as you have begun, and make all possible haste, so that you may have longer enjoyment of an improved mind, one that is at peace with itself.
You will indeed have joy in that improved mind, and will find such delight in it, even when the blessings that men consider great slip away from you or fail to reach you, such that nothing, yes nothing, will be able to prevent you from enjoying yourself.
But your joy will be unmixed only when you have become wise; for the true joy comes from wisdom, unalloyed by any sort of sorrow. That kind of joy never ceases nor changes into its opposite.
Until you reach this point, your condition will be unstable, even though you should seem to yourself to have advanced far. The majority of mankind alternate between joy and sorrow, often in a single day.
There is need, therefore, of constant progress, and you should never flag in your efforts. There is much still before you, and your own activity and effort are required. You cannot learn this from another.
But I can advise you of one thing: meditate upon death. He who has learned to die has unlearned slavery. He is above all external power, and certainly beyond it.
What are prisons, guards, or bars to him? His exit is free. There is only one chain that holds us fast, and that is our love of life; and while we ought not to reject this love altogether, we should moderate it so that, if circumstances ever require, we may be ready to leave at once without hesitation.
Farewell.