Letter 15On Brawn and Brains

The letter, part by part

Seven parts, following the website’s sections. Each has a short explanation and its key line. Open “Read this part in full” for the complete text. Tap a dotted word for its meaning.

1. Part 1

   The health to cultivate first

   Romans opened their letters with “If you are well, it is well.” Seneca offers a better test: are you studying philosophy? Without it the mind is sick, and even a powerful body is strong only the way a madman is. Body-building comes second: you will never match a bull, and heavy eating crushes the spirit.

   Persons like ourselves would do well to say: “If you are studying philosophy, it is well.” For this is just what “being well” means.

   Recte nos dicimus ‘si philosopharis, bene est’. Valere enim hoc demum est.

   Health of mind takes first place

   Read this part in full

   The old Romans had a custom which survived even into my lifetime. They would add to the opening words of a letter: “If you are well, it is well; I also am well.” Persons like ourselves would do well to say: “If you are studying philosophy, it is well.” For this is just what “being well” means. Without philosophy the mind is sickly, and the body, too, though it may be very powerful, is strong only as that of a madman or a lunatic is strong.

   This, then, is the sort of health you should primarily cultivate; the other kind of health comes second, and will involve little effort, if you wish to be well physically. It is indeed foolish, my dear Lucilius, and very unsuitable for a cultivated man, to work hard over developing the muscles and broadening the shoulders and strengthening the lungs. For although your heavy feeding produce good results and your sinews grow solid, you can never be a match, either in strength or in weight, for a first-class bull. Besides, by overloading the body with food you strangle the soul and render it less active. Accordingly, limit the flesh as much as possible, and allow free play to the spirit.

2. Part 2

   What the body-obsessed put up with

   Serious body-building has its costs. The workouts drain the energy you need for hard study, and the heavy meals blunt the mind. Worse, you end up taking orders from coarse trainers whose whole day is sweating and then drinking it back.

   Drinking and sweating,—it’s the life of a dyspeptic!

   Bibere et sudare vita cardiaci est.

   Drained
   no energy left for study

   Dulled
   heavy meals blunt the mind

   Bad company
   trainers who live on oil and wine

   Read this part in full

   Many inconveniences beset those who devote themselves to such pursuits. In the first place, they have their exercises, at which they must work and waste their life-force and render it less fit to bear a strain or the severer studies. Second, their keen edge is dulled by heavy eating. Besides, they must take orders from slaves of the vilest stamp,—men who alternate between the oil-flask and the flagon, whose day passes satisfactorily if they have got up a good perspiration and quaffed, to make good what they have lost in sweat, huge draughts of liquor which will sink deeper because of their fasting. Drinking and sweating,—it’s the life of a dyspeptic!

3. Part 3

   Short exercise, then back to the mind

   Pick something quick and simple: running, swinging hand weights, jumping. Time is precious, so finish fast and get back from body to mind. The mind can train day and night, in any weather and into old age. Rest it gently: being carried in a litter, or walking, still leaves you free to read and talk.

   But whatever you do, come back soon from body to mind. … Cultivate that good which improves with the years.

   Quidquid facies, cito redi a corpore ad animum … Id bonum cura quod vetustate fit melius.

   Train the good that grows with age

   Read this part in full

   Now there are short and simple exercises which tire the body rapidly, and so save our time; and time is something of which we ought to keep strict account. These exercises are running, brandishing weights, and jumping,—high-jumping or broad-jumping, or the kind which I may call, “the Priest’s dance,” or, in slighting terms, “the clothes-cleaner’s jump.” Select for practice any one of these, and you will find it plain and easy.

   But whatever you do, come back soon from body to mind. The mind must be exercised both day and night, for it is nourished by moderate labour; and this form of exercise need not be hampered by cold or hot weather, or even by old age. Cultivate that good which improves with the years.

   Of course I do not command you to be always bending over your books and your writing materials; the mind must have a change,—but a change of such a kind that it is not unnerved, but merely unbent. Riding in a litter shakes up the body, and does not interfere with study; one may read, dictate, converse, or listen to another; nor does walking prevent any of these things.

4. Part 4

   Don’t make a fuss over the voice

   Some voice training is fine, but not drills of scales and set pitches. Next you would be taking walking lessons from hungry “experts” who will police every step and mouthful, as far as you let them. Let the voice climb by easy stages, the way an argument does, and come back down gently. The point is for the voice to exercise you, not the other way round.

   For our purpose is, not to give the voice exercise, but to make it give us exercise.

   Non enim id agimus ut exerceatur vox, sed ut exerceat.

   Rise by stages, come down gently

   Read this part in full

   You need not scorn voice-culture; but I forbid you to practise raising and lowering your voice by scales and specific intonations. What if you should next propose to take lessons in walking! If you consult the sort of person whom starvation has taught new tricks, you will have someone to regulate your steps, watch every mouthful as you eat, and go to such lengths as you yourself, by enduring him and believing in him, have encouraged his effrontery to go. “What, then?” you will ask; “is my voice to begin at the outset with shouting and straining the lungs to the utmost?” No; the natural thing is that it be aroused to such a pitch by easy stages, just as persons who are wrangling begin with ordinary conversational tones and then pass to shouting at the top of their lungs. No speaker cries “Help me, citizens!” at the outset of his speech.

   Therefore, whenever your spirit’s impulse prompts you, raise a hubbub, now in louder now in milder tones, according as your voice, as well as your spirit, shall suggest to you, when you are moved to such a performance. Then let your voice, when you rein it in and call it back to earth, come down gently, not collapse; it should trail off in tones half way between high and low, and should not abruptly drop from its raving in the uncouth manner of countrymen. For our purpose is, not to give the voice exercise, but to make it give us exercise.

5. Part 5

   The fool’s life: thankless and afraid

   Seneca throws in a free gift, a Greek saying from Epicurus: the fool’s life is ungrateful, anxious, and always aimed at the future. The fool isn’t some court jester like Baba and Isio. It is us. Blind wants push us into things that hurt us and never satisfy, and if anything could satisfy us, it would have by now.

   The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.

   Stulta vita ingrata est, trepida; tota in futurum fertur.

   Always chasing tomorrow, blind to today

   Read this part in full

   You see, I have relieved you of no slight bother; and I shall throw in a little complementary present,—it is Greek, too. Here is the proverb; it is an excellent one: “The fool’s life is empty of gratitude and full of fears; its course lies wholly toward the future.” “Who uttered these words?” you say. The same writer whom I mentioned before. And what sort of life do you think is meant by the fool’s life? That of Baba and Isio? No; he means our own, for we are plunged by our blind desires into ventures which will harm us, but certainly will never satisfy us; for if we could be satisfied with anything, we should have been satisfied long ago; nor do we reflect how pleasant it is to demand nothing, how noble it is to be contented and not to be dependent upon Fortune.

6. Part 6

   Count how far you’ve already come

   Keep reminding yourself how much you have already reached. For every person ahead of you, think how many are behind. That is how to be grateful to the gods and to your own past. Better still, drop the comparison: you have outstripped your former self.

   But what have you to do with the others? You have outstripped yourself.

   Quid tibi cum ceteris? Te ipse antecessisti.

   You have outstripped yourself

   Read this part in full

   Therefore continually remind yourself, Lucilius, how many ambitions you have attained. When you see many ahead of you, think how many are behind! If you would thank the gods, and be grateful for your past life, you should contemplate how many men you have outstripped. But what have you to do with the others? You have outstripped yourself.

7. Part 7

   Set a limit and stop chasing

   Fix a line you would not cross even if you could. The things we chase look better before we have them; if they had any substance they would satisfy us, but they only make us thirstier. Instead of asking Fortune for more, ask yourself to want less. And waste no time: today may be the last day, or close to it.

   Fix a limit which you will not even desire to pass, should you have the power.

   Finem constitue quem transire ne possis quidem si velis.

   Fix a limit you won’t cross

   Read this part in full

   Fix a limit which you will not even desire to pass, should you have the power. At last, then, away with all these treacherous goods! They look better to those who hope for them than to those who have attained them. If there were anything substantial in them, they would sooner or later satisfy you; as it is, they merely rouse the drinkers’ thirst. Away with fripperies which only serve for show! As to what the future’s uncertain lot has in store, why should I demand of Fortune that she give, rather than demand of myself that I should not crave? And why should I crave? Shall I heap up my winnings, and forget that man’s lot is unsubstantial? For what end should I toil? Lo, to-day is the last; if not, it is near the last. Farewell.

The modern take

The website breaks Letter 15 into 11 lessons for today. I’ve grouped them into 4 themes; each lesson is summarised in plain words.

Read the website’s own translation and full breakdown

Words

Harder words and names from the letter, in the order they appear.

Lucilius

Lucilius Junior, Seneca’s younger friend, then a Roman official in Sicily. All 124 letters are written to him.

cultivated man

A man of learning. Seneca’s Latin is litteratus, a man of letters.

sinews

Tendons; loosely, muscle.

vilest stamp

Of the worst sort. Trainers were often slaves, so the gentleman ends up taking orders from them.

oil-flask

Athletes were rubbed with oil before wrestling or boxing, so the oil-flask stands for the gym and the ring.

flagon

A large jug for wine.

quaffed

Drank down in big gulps.

dyspeptic

Someone with chronic indigestion. Seneca’s word is cardiacus, a stomach complaint with fever and heavy sweating.

brandishing

Waving about. Here, swinging hand weights.

the Priest’s dance

A leaping dance named after the Salii, Rome’s priests of Mars, who danced through the city in armour every March.

the clothes-cleaner’s jump

Named after the fuller, who cleaned new cloth by stamping and jumping on it in a tub.

unbent

Relaxed, like a bow with its string let off. Seneca contrasts it with “unnerved”, meaning weakened.

litter

A covered couch carried on poles by slaves. Being carried about counted as gentle exercise for wealthy Romans.

voice-culture

Voice training. Roman speakers hired voice coaches to drill their range.

effrontery

Shameless cheek.

wrangling

Arguing noisily.

“Help me, citizens!”

The Roman cry for public help in an emergency. A speaker who opens with it has nowhere left to climb.

hubbub

A loud, confused noise.

uncouth

Rough and unpolished.

complementary present

A small extra gift. Seneca ends many early letters with a free quotation, often from Epicurus.

Epicurus (“the same writer”)

Greek philosopher (341–270 BC) who founded a rival school. Seneca quotes him freely in these early letters.

Baba and Isio

Court fools or jesters of Seneca’s day; little else is known of them.

Fortune

Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck. Here, chance and everything outside our control.

outstripped

Overtaken; got ahead of.

fripperies

Showy trifles of no real use.

lot

Fate; the share that life hands you.

Lo

An old word for “look!”