L. Annaeus Seneca on Benefits
been wrung from him against his will. As for how we are to prove that
the wise man possesses all things, we shall see afterwards; for the
present we are both agreed to regard this as true; we must gather
together something to answer the question before us, which is, how any
means remain of acting generously towards one who already possesses all
things? All things that a son has belong to his father, yet who does not
know that in spite of this a son can make presents to his father? All
things belong to the gods; yet we make presents and bestow alms even
upon the gods. What I have is not necessarily not mine because it
belongs to you; for the same thing may belong both to me and to you.
"He to whom courtezans belong," argues our adversary, "must be
a procurer: now courtezans are included in all things, therefore
courtezans belong to the wise man. But he to whom courtezans belong is
a procurer; therefore the wise man is a procurer." Yes! by the same
reasoning, our opponents would forbid him to buy anything, arguing, "No
man buys his own property. Now all things are the property of the wise
man; therefore the wise man buys nothing." By the same reasoning they
object to his borrowing, because no one pays interest for the use of
his own money. They raise endless quibbles, although they perfectly well
understand what we say.
V. For, when I say that the wise man possesses everything, I mean that
he does so without thereby impairing each man's individual rights in
his own property, in the same way as in a country ruled by a good king,
everything belongs to the king, by the right of his authority, and to
the people by their several rights of ownership. This I shall prove
in its proper place; in the mean time it is a sufficient answer to the
question to declare that I am able to give to the wise man that which is
in one way mine, and in another way his. Nor is it strange that I should
be able to give anything to one who possesses everything. Suppose I have
hired a house from you: some part of that house is mine, some is yours;
the house itself is yours, the use of your house belongs to me. Crops
may ripen upon your land, but you cannot touch them against the will of
your tenant; and if corn be dear, or at famine price, you will
"In vain another's mighty store behold,"
grown upon your land, lying upon your land, and to be deposited in
your own barns. Though you be the landlord, you must not enter my hired
house, nor may you take away your own slave from me if I have contracted
for his services; nay, if I hire a carriage from you, I bestow a benefit
by allowing you to take your seat in it, although it is your own. You
see, therefore, that it is possible for a man to receive a present by
accepting what is his own.
VI. In all the cases which I have mentioned, each party is the owner of
the same thing. How is this? It is because the one owns the thing, the
other owns the use of the thing. We speak of the books of Cicero. Dorus,
the bookseller, calls these same books his own; the one claims them
because he wrote them, the other because he bought them; so that they
may quite correctly be spoken of as belonging to either of the two, for
they do belong to each, though in a different manner. Thus Titus Livius
may receive as a present, or may buy his own books from Dorus.
Although the wise man possesses everything, yet I can give him what I
individually possess; for though, king-like, he in his mind possesses
everything, yet the ownership of all things is divided among various
individuals, so that he can both receive a present and owe one; can
buy, or hire things. Everything belongs to Caesar; yet he has no private
property beyond his own privy purse; as Emperor all things are his,
but nothing is his own except what he inherits. It is possible, without
treason, to discuss what is and what is not his; for even what the court
may decide not to be his, from another point of view is his. In the same
way the wise man in his mind possesses everything, in actual right and
ownership he possesses only his own property.
VII. Bion is able to prove by argument at one time that everyone is
sacrilegious, at another that no one is. When he is in a mood for
casting all men down the Tarpeian rock, he says, "Whosoever touches that
which belongs to the gods, and consumes it or converts it to his own
uses, is sacrilegious; but all things belong to the gods, so that
whatever thing any one touches belongs to them to whom all belongs;
whoever, therefore, touches anything is sacrilegious." Again, when he
bids men break open temples and pillage the Capitol without fear of the
wrath of heaven, he declares that no one can be sacrilegious; because,
whatever a man takes away, he takes from one place which belongs to the
gods into another place which belongs to the gods. The answer to this
is that all places do indeed belong to the gods, but all are not
consecrated to them, and that sacrilege can only be done in places
solemnly dedicated to heaven. Thus, also, the whole world is a temple of
the immortal gods, and, indeed, the only one worthy of their greatness
and splendour, and yet there is a distinction between things sacred and
profane; all things which it is lawful to do under the sky and the stars
are not lawful to do within consecrated walls. The sacrilegious man
cannot do God any harm, for He is placed beyond his reach by His divine
nature; yet he is punished because he seems to have done Him harm: his
punishment is demanded by our feeling on the matter, and even by his
own. In the same way, therefore, as he who carries off any sacred
things is regarded as sacrilegious, although that which he stole is
nevertheless within the limits of the world, so it is possible to steal
from a wise man: for in that case it will be some, not of that universe
which he possesses, but some of those things of which he is the
acknowledged owner, and which are severally his own property, which will
be stolen from him. The former of these possessions he will recognize as
his own, the latter he will be unwilling, even if he be able to possess;
he will say, as that Roman commander said, when, to reward his courage
and good service to the state, he was assigned as much land as he could
inclose in one day's ploughing. "You do not," said he, "want a citizen
who wants more than is enough for one citizen." Do you not think that it
required a much greater man to refuse this reward than to earn it? for
many have taken away the landmarks of other men's property, but no one
sets up limits to his own.
VIII. When, then, we consider that the mind of the truly wise man has
power over all things and pervades all things, we cannot help declaring
that everything is his, although, in the estimation of our common law,
it may chance that he may be rated as possessing no property whatever.
It makes a great difference whether we estimate what he owns by the
greatness of his mind, or by the public register. He would pray to be
delivered from that possession of everything of which you speak. I will
not remind you of Socrates, Chrysippus, Zeno, and other great men, all
the greater, however, because envy prevents no one from praising the
ancients. But a short time ago I mentioned Demetrius, who seems to have
been placed by nature in our times that he might prove that we could
neither corrupt him nor be corrected by him; a man of consummate wisdom,
though he himself disclaimed it, constant to the principles which he
professed, of an eloquence worthy to deal with the mightiest subjects,
scorning mere prettinesses and verbal niceties, but expressing with
infinite spirit, the ideas which inspired it. I doubt not that he was
endowed by divine providence with so pure a life and such power of
speech in order that our age might neither be without a model nor a
reproach. Had some god wished to give all our wealth to Demetrius on the
fixed condition that he should not be permitted to give it away, I am
sure that he would have refused to accept it, and would have said,
IX. "I do not intend to fasten upon my back a burden like this, of which
I never can rid myself, nor do I, nimble and lightly equipped as I am,
mean to hinder my progress by plunging into the deep morass of business
transactions. Why do you offer to me what is the bane of all nations?
I would not accept it even if I meant to give it away, for I see many
things which it would not become me to give. I should like to place
before my eyes the things which fascinate both kings and peoples, I wish
to behold the price of your blood and your lives. First bring before
me the trophies of Luxury, exhibiting them as you please, either in
succession, or, which is better, in one mass. I see the shell of
the tortoise, a foul and slothful brute, bought for immense sums and
ornamented with the most elaborate care, the contrast of colours which
is admired in it being obtained by the use of dyes resembling the
natural tints. I see tables and pieces of wood valued at the price of
a senator's estate, which are all the more precious, the more knots
the tree has been twisted into by disease. I see crystal vessels, whose
price is enhanced by their fragility, for among the ignorant the risk of
losing things increases their value instead of lowering it, as it ought.
I see murrhine cups, for luxury would be too cheap if men did not drink
to one another out of hollow gems the wine to be afterwards thrown up
again. I see more than one large pearl placed in each ear; for now our
ears are trained to carry burdens, pearls are hung from them in pairs,
and each pair has other single ones fastened above it. This womanish
folly is not exaggerated enough for the men of our time, unless they
hang two or three estates upon each ear. I see ladies' silk dresses, if
those deserve to be called dresses which can neither cover their body
or their shame; when wearing which, they can scarcely with a good
conscience, swear that they are not naked. These are imported at a vast
expense from nations unknown even to trade, in order that our matrons
may show as much of their persons in public as they do to their lovers
in private."
X. What are you doing, Avarice? see how many things there are whose
price exceeds that of your beloved gold: all those which I have
mentioned are more highly esteemed and valued. I now wish to review your
wealth, those plates of gold and silver which dazzle our covetousness.
By Hercules, the very earth, while she brings forth upon the surface
every thing that is of use to us, has buried these, sunk them deep,
and rests upon them with her whole weight, regarding them as pernicious
substances, and likely to prove the ruin of mankind if brought into the
light of day. I see that iron is brought out of the same dark pits as
gold and silver, in order that we may lack neither the means nor the
reward of murder. Thus far we have dealt with actual substances; but
some forms of wealth deceive our eyes and minds alike. I see there
letters of credit, promissory notes, and bonds, empty phantoms of
property, ghosts of sick Avarice, with which she deceives our minds,
which delight in unreal fancies; for what are these things, and what are
interest, and account books, and usury, except the names of unnatural
developments of human covetousness? I might complain of nature for not
having hidden gold and silver deeper, for not having laid over it a
weight too heavy to be removed: but what are your documents, your sale
of time, your blood-sucking twelve per cent. interest? these are evils
which we owe to our own will, which flow merely from our perverted
habit, having nothing about them which can be seen or handled, mere
dreams of empty avarice. Wretched is he who can take pleasure in the
size of the audit book of his estate, in great tracts of land cultivated