Lucilius is upset because people he trusted have run off and left him in the lurch. Seneca’s reply is a bracing pep talk: life isn’t a delicate business, and slips, collisions, losses, and betrayals come with the journey. We can’t avoid hardship, but we can prepare for it and meet it with a steady heart. The letter ends with one of the most famous prayers in Stoicism, Cleanthes’ hymn: “the willing soul Fate leads, but the unwilling drags along.”
From Seneca to Lucilius
Where’s that good sense of yours? Where’s that skill at examining things? That greatness of soul? Have you really let yourself be tormented by a trifle? Your slaves saw your absorption in business as their chance to run away.
So They Ran Off
Well, if your friends had deceived you (and by all means let’s keep calling them the name we mistakenly gave them, so they’ll feel more ashamed for not living up to it), if your friends had deceived you, then everything in your life would be missing something. As it is, you’re only missing people who undermined your own efforts and made you seem a burden to your neighbors.
None of this is unusual or unexpected. It’s as silly to be upset by events like these as to complain about getting splashed in the street or muddy on a rainy day. Life works like a public bath, a crowd, or a journey: sometimes things will be thrown at you, and sometimes they’ll hit you by accident.
Life Is Not a Delicate Business
Life is not a delicate business. You’ve set out on a long journey. You’re bound to slip, collide, fall, get tired, and cry out “I wish I were dead!”, which is to say, tell lies. At one point you’ll leave a companion behind; at another you’ll bury someone; at another you’ll be afraid. It’s through stumbles like these that you have to make this rough journey.
Does someone wish to die? Let the mind be ready to meet everything. Let it know that it has climbed to the heights where the thunder plays. Let it know it has arrived where
Grief and avenging Care have made their bed,
and pale Disease lives, and grim Old Age.
These are the companions you must spend your days with. You can’t avoid them, but you can look down on them. And you will, if you think often about the future and anticipate it.
Prepare in Advance
Everyone faces a danger bravely if he has prepared himself for it long before, and even endures hardship if he has practiced meeting it. But the unprepared panic at the smallest things. We must make sure nothing takes us by surprise. And since things feel all the heavier when they’re unfamiliar, constant reflection will give you the power, whatever the trouble may be, not to act like an untrained schoolboy.
It Has Happened to Many
“My slaves have run away from me!” Yes, and other people have been robbed, blackmailed, murdered, betrayed, trampled, attacked with poison or with slander. Whatever trouble you name, it has happened to many. There are many kinds of arrows aimed at us. Some are already lodged in us, some are being drawn back and are on their way right now, and some meant for others graze us instead.
We shouldn’t be surprised by any of the conditions we’re born into. No one should complain about them, simply because they’re laid down equally for everyone. Yes, equally: a person could have suffered even the things he escaped. A fair law doesn’t mean one that everyone has experienced, but one that applies to everyone. Be sure to give your mind this sense of fairness: we should pay the tax of our mortality without complaint.
The Seasons of Life
Winter brings cold, and we must shiver. Summer returns with its heat, and we must sweat. Bad weather upsets our health, and we must fall ill. In some places we may meet wild beasts, or people more destructive than any beast. Floods or fires will cost us. We can’t change this order of things. What we can do is develop strong hearts, worthy of good people, so that we bravely endure what chance brings and bring ourselves into harmony with Nature.
And Nature governs this kingdom of the world you see through changing seasons: clear skies follow clouds; after a calm comes a storm; the winds blow in turn; day follows night; some stars rise while others set. Eternity is made of opposites.
Don’t Grumble at the Commander
Our souls must adjust themselves to this law; they must follow it and obey it. Whatever happens, assume it was bound to happen, and don’t be willing to rail against Nature. What you can’t change, it’s best to endure, and to follow without complaint the God who guides everything along. It’s a bad soldier who grumbles while following his commander.
So we should take our orders with energy and spirit, and never stop following the natural course of this most beautiful universe, into which all our future sufferings are woven.
The Hymn of Cleanthes
Let’s speak to Jupiter, the pilot of this great mass of the world, as our great Cleanthes did in his most eloquent lines, which I’ll allow myself to put into Latin, following the example of the eloquent Cicero. If you like them, make the most of them. If they displease you, you’ll know I was simply following Cicero’s practice:
Lead me, O Ruler of the high heavens,
my Father, wherever you wish.
I will not hesitate, but obey at once.
And if I am unwilling, I will still go, and suffer
in wrong and grief what I might have done
in noble virtue. Yes: the willing soul
Fate leads, but the unwilling drags along.
Let’s live this way, and speak this way. Let Fate find us ready and alert. This is a great soul: the person who has handed himself over to Fate. On the other hand, the weak and degenerate person is the one who struggles, slanders the order of the universe, and would rather reform the gods than reform himself.
Farewell.
Breaking It Down: A Modern Take on Letter 107
Letter 107 is classic Stoicism in a few pages. Something bad has happened to Lucilius, and Seneca doesn’t coddle him. Instead he reminds him that trouble is part of the deal, that preparation makes us brave, and that the wise response to what we can’t control is acceptance, not complaint. A modern reader may wince at the setting, people Lucilius enslaved running away, and it’s worth noticing that Seneca never asks why they ran. But the advice about facing life’s blows holds up remarkably well.
1. Don’t let trifles shake you
Seneca opens with a challenge: “Where’s that good sense of yours?” Sometimes the kindest thing a friend can do is remind us that we’re stronger than our current reaction suggests.
2. Nothing here is unusual
“None of this is unusual or unexpected.” Betrayal, loss, and disappointment feel personal, but they’re common. Remembering that takes away some of their sting.
3. Life is a crowded street
“Life works like a public bath, a crowd, or a journey.” In a crowd, you’ll get bumped. Some knocks are aimed at you, some are accidents. Expecting them makes them easier to shrug off.
4. Life isn’t delicate
“Life is not a delicate business.” We slip, collide, fall, grow tired, lose companions, and bury loved ones. When we say “I wish I were dead” in a hard moment, Seneca says, we’re usually not telling the truth; we’re just tired. The journey is rough, and that’s normal.
5. You can’t avoid hardship, but you can rise above it
Grief, worry, disease, and old age are our companions. “You can’t avoid them, but you can look down on them.” We don’t control what comes. We do control how much power it has over our minds.
6. Preparation is courage
“Everyone faces a danger bravely if he has prepared himself for it long before.” This is why we run drills, rehearse hard conversations, and study cases before we see them in clinic. Practice turns panic into competence.
7. Whatever it is, it has happened to many
“Whatever trouble you name, it has happened to many.” You’re not singled out. That isn’t meant to dismiss your pain, but to connect you to everyone who has carried the same weight and survived.
8. Pay the tax of mortality
“We should pay the tax of our mortality without complaint.” Illness, aging, and loss are the price of being alive. Everyone pays it. Complaining doesn’t lower the bill.
9. Change what you can; endure what you can’t
“We can’t change this order of things. What we can do is develop strong hearts.” It’s an ancient version of the Serenity Prayer: put your energy where it can make a difference.
10. Opposites make the whole
“Eternity is made of opposites.” Storm and calm, day and night, winter and summer. Hard seasons in life are part of a larger rhythm, and they pass.
11. Willing or dragged
Cleanthes’ famous line, “the willing soul Fate leads, but the unwilling drags along,” captures the Stoic idea of acceptance. What must happen will happen either way. The only choice is whether we walk with it or get dragged.
12. Reform yourself, not the gods
Seneca’s final jab is aimed at all of us: the weak person “would rather reform the gods than reform himself.” Complaining about the universe is easier than changing ourselves, but only the second actually helps.
Key Takeaways from Letter 107
- You’re stronger than a setback. Don’t be tormented by trifles.
- Trouble is normal. Nothing here is unusual or unexpected.
- Expect to get bumped. Life is a crowded street.
- Life isn’t delicate. Stumbles are part of the journey.
- Rise above what you can’t avoid. Grief and illness need not rule your mind.
- Prepare in advance. Practice turns panic into courage.
- You’re not alone. Every trouble has happened to many.
- Pay mortality’s tax gracefully. Everyone owes it.
- Endure what you can’t change. Build a strong heart.
- Hard seasons pass. Eternity is made of opposites.
- Walk willingly. Fate leads the willing and drags the unwilling.
- Reform yourself. Not the gods, not the universe.
“Let’s live this way, and speak this way. Let Fate find us ready and alert.”
— Seneca, Letter 107
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Next up: Letter 108 — On the Approaches to Philosophy
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