Evening star., 1925-08-24
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

Americans ought to be particularly
interested in Seneca, Roman philoso-
pher, II for no other reason than that
his name has been carried in our his.
tory since the beginning.
The Seneca Indians of New York
| State played a prominent part in the
| history of the early colonizations.
Just how the Roman word Seneca"
was derived from Tsonondowaka.
meaning People Of the Great Noun
| tatns," as these Indians called them
| selves, l leave for others to figure
out.
The interesting thing to me is that
| this good American name-for so it
| seems. after all these years of use
Is the co-called last name" Of the
great Roman tutor of Nero: that i'm.
perial profiigate who fiddled while his
capital burned.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca has more
points of interest for us of today than
either of the other two Stole philoso-
pliers. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and
Epictetus, previously considered at
length in this column.
Seneca was a lawyer as well as a
philosopher. a rich man as well as a
student. an esthete who went with
writer who thousands OF years ago
| wrote with the brevity of a modern of
the moderns.
His Morals" contain more aphor-
isms to the square inch than Marcus
Aurelius and Epictetus, great in their
way, do in whole volumes. Seneca s
thought processes moved by brief
fdtches that are perhaps more accept
able to quick moving modern Amer
leans than either those of Aurelius, the
Emperor, or Epictetus, the slave.
In other words, the essays OF
Seneca, as given us in English trans.
lations, are very similar to those of
Robert Louis Stevenson. Who that
has read the immortal r. l.. S. does
| not love his witty, bright essays?
To name none other, 'Eldorado"
sparkles with quotable sentences on
every one OF it's pages. in fact in
| every paragraph the appreciative
reader finds something which he would
like TO underline, if he is given to
that habit.
1t is so with the Morals" of
| Seneca His writings are so filed
with the highest thought, yet so tenn
pered with the ways of this world
and knowledge of human nature, both
| in its good and its bad side, that the
| modern reader is constantly pausing
to re-read some felicious sentence, or
even phrase.
For Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a
born bookman. II am a bookman,"
said Lowell. thousands Of years later.
Seneca never, said II, but he was a
true Bookman. He wrote for a fash
| ionable court, and the readers of his
day read what he wrote.
His works were among the best
sellers" in the royal days of Rome.
His enunciation of the strictly ethical
principles of Stoicism were tinged with
so much common sense that his own
age recognized this high quality as
| we'll as all the ages of men that have
come after.
I realize that there are some who
maintain that such topics as he con-
sidered are commonplace today. These
say that moral considerations are we'll
left to the church. But / have always
been convinced, in my own mind, that
each person in every age must work
out his own salvation by himself, and
| the number of letters received com
mending the recent series, in this col.
umn, dealing with the writings of
| Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus, con-
| vinces me that / am right.
Because men do not commonly dis
cuss morals any more in smoking
cars and similar places in no reason
| to suppose that they are not inter
ested in them. The most sacred things
Of life are not discussed in such
places.