This is the fourth of Seneca’s discourse, On Tranquility. In this exchange with his young protege Serenus, Seneca expands on the following key ideas:

Key ideas

1. When things go against you, don’t be too quick to beat a hasty retreat.
2. Don’t let obstacles stop you. If one method of serving is denied to you, find another method to fulfill the same aim.
3. Serve in any capacity you can. If not in one country, then in another. If not in one position, then in another. There is always room for honourable action.

We should not beat a hasty retreat

Dearest Serenus, Athenodorus seems to have given up and fled too soon. I would not deny that sometimes we must retreat, but we should do so slowly, without losing honour, like a soldier. Those who come to make peacekeeping with their weapons are respected more by their enemies and safer.

Don’t let obstacles stop you

This is what I think should be done by virtue and by those who practice it. If Fortune gets the upper hand and makes you powerless to act, don’t immediately turn your back to the enemy, throw away your weapons, and run away looking for a place to hide, as if there were any place where Fortune could not find you. Instead, be more careful in applying yourself to your duties. Think about it deliberately and find some way by which you can serve.

• You can’t serve in the army? Then seek public office.
• You must live in a private capacity? Then argue cases.
• Are you condemned to observe silence? Then lend silent support to others.
• Is it dangerous for you even to enter the forum? Then prove yourself to be a good comrade, a faithful friend, and a gentle guest at public shows and wine parties.
• Have you lost your status as a citizen? Then exercise your status as a human being. This is our reason for not confining ourselves to one city, travelling to all countries, and be citizens of the world, so we may have a wider theatre for practicing virtue.
• Is the bench of judges closed to you? Are you barred from speakers’ platform and cannot be a candidate in elections? Then look at the number of spacious countries that are open to you. It is never possible for all these places to be closed against you that you won’t find even a larger place.

Make sure that it is not your fault

However, make sure that things are not closed to you because it is your own fault. Maybe you want to serve only as a consul, high official, or judge. Maybe you want to serve in the army only as a general or a tribune. Even though others are placed ahead of you while you are placed in the third line, do your duty with your voice, your encouragement, your example, and your spirit. Even if a man’s hands are cut off, he may find a way to help his side in a battle if he stands there and cheers on his comrades.

There is always room for action

Do something like that. If you are taken away from the front rank, stay put and cheer on your comrades. If someone shuts you up, continue to stand your ground and silently help your side. The services of a good citizen are never useless. You do good by being heard and seen, by your expressions, by your gestures, by your determination, and the same way you walk.

Some remedies benefit us by their smell alone without being touched or tasted. Similarly, virtue confers benefits even from a distance and even when hidden from our sight. Whether she moves at her ease and employs herself of her own right, or whether she appears in response to a request, or whether she is compelled to shorten sail to the storm or is unemployed, silent, narrowly confined, or openly revealed – in whatever form she finds herself, she confers benefits.

Do you think one who rests honourably has no value? It is by far the best plan. Therefore, whenever an active life is prevented by chance or by the state of public affairs, combine leisure with business. You are never so cut off from everything that you will find there is no room left for honourable action.

Think about this

You are never so cut off from everything that you will find there is no room left for honourable action.

 

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