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be exposed to the light of reality. The poets must also be studied; an acquaintance must be formed with history; the writers and teachers in all the liberal arts and sciences must be read, and turned over, and must, for the sake of exercise, be praised, interpreted, corrected, censured, refuted; you must dispute on both sides of every question; and whatever may seem maintainable on any point must be brought forward and illustrated. The civil war must be thoroughly studied; laws in general must be understood; all antiquity must be known; the usages of the senate, the nature of our government, the rights of our allies, our treaties and conventions, and whatever concerns the interests of the state, must be learned. A certain intellectual grace must also be extracted from every kind of refinement, with which, as with salt, every oration must be seasoned. I have poured forth to you all I had to say, and perhaps any citizen whom you had laid hold of in any company whatever, would have replied to your inquiries on these subjects equally well."

V. SENECA.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Lucius Annæus Seneca was born at Corduba, Spain, in the year 3 B. C. His father, who was a teacher of rhetoric, spent some years in Rome, where he acquired an ample. property for his family. The young Seneca, after pursuing the study of eloquence, devoted himself to the Stoic philosophy under several able teachers, but subsequently, upon the urgent solicitation of his father, took up the legal profession, in which he became distinguished for his oratorical ability.

He entered public life as quæstor; but having become involved in some court intrigue, he was banished to Corsica. He remained there eight years, a period devoted to high philosophic speculation, and to fruitless appeals to the Emperor Claudius for pardon. At last he was recalled through the influence of Agrippina, whose son, afterwards the infamous Nero, became his pupil. Subsequently when Nero had become emperor, Seneca fell under suspicion, and about 63 A. D. he withdrew entirely from public life to live in retirement. Two years later he was condemned to death.

A noble spirit pervades his writings. He enjoins piety toward God, and charity toward men. Goodness seemed to him the supreme end of life; and philosophy, which teaches virtue, he regarded as the chief of liberal sciences. Beyond all other ancient writers he emphasized the moral side of education. It is unfortunate that his life did not exemplify his lofty precepts.

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Among his numerous writings may be mentioned his treatises on Anger, Consolation, Providence, Tranquillity of Mind, A Happy Life, and Benefits. The first extract that follows "On the Education of Children," is a chapter in his treatise on Anger, which was written about 50 A. D. It is here taken from the translation of Aubrey Stuart, in Bohn's Classical Library. The other extract entitled "Philosophy," is taken from "The Morals of Seneca," edited by Walter Clode in the Camelot Series.

SELECTIONS FROM SENECA.

I. ON THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN.

It is, I assure you, of the greatest service to boys that they should be soundly brought up, yet to regulate their education is difficult, because it is our duty to be careful neither to cherish a habit of anger in them, nor to blunt the edge of their spirit. This needs careful watching, for both qualities, those which are to be encouraged, and those which are to be checked, are fed by the same things; and even a careful watcher may be deceived by their likeness. A boy's spirit is increased by freedom and depressed by slavery; it rises when praised, and is led to conceive great expectations of itself; yet this same treatment produces arrogance and quickness of temper. We must, therefore, guide him between these two extremes, using the curb at one time and the spur at another. He must undergo no servile or degrading treatment ; he never must beg abjectly for anything, nor must he gain anything by begging. Let him rather receive it for his own sake, for his past good behavior, or for his promises of future good conduct.

In contests with his comrades we ought not to allow him to become sulky or fly into a passion; let us see that he be on

friendly terms with those whom he contends with, so that in the struggle itself he may learn to wish not to hurt his antagonist but to conquer him. Whenever he has gained the day or done something praiseworthy, we should allow him to enjoy the victory, but not to rush into transports of delight; for joy leads to exultation, and exultation leads to swaggering and excessive self-esteem.

We ought to allow him some relaxation, yet not yield. him up to sloth and laziness, and we ought to keep him far beyond the reach of luxury, for nothing makes children more prone to anger than a soft and fond bringing-up, so that the more children are indulged, and the more liberty is given them, the more they are corrupted. He to whom nothing is ever denied, will not be able to endure a rebuff, whose anxious mother always wipes away his tears, whose pedagogue is made to pay for his shortcomings.

Do you not observe how a man's anger becomes more violent as he rises in station? This shows itself especially in those who are rich and noble, or in great place, when the · favoring gale has roused all the most empty and trivial passions of their minds. Prosperity fosters anger, when a man's proud ears are surrounded by a mob of flatterers, saying, “That man answer you! you do not act according to your dignity, you lower yourself." And so forth, with all the language which can hardly be resisted even by healthy and originally well-principled minds. Flattery, then, must be kept well out of the way of children.

Let a child hear the truth, and sometimes fear it; let him always reverence it. Let him rise in the presence of his elders. Let him obtain nothing by flying into a passion; let him be given when he is quiet what was refused him when he cried for it. Let him behold, but not make use of his father's wealth; let him be reproved for what he does wrong.

It will be advantageous to furnish boys with even-tem

pered teachers and pedagogues; what is soft and unformed clings to what is near, and takes its shape. The habits of young men reproduce those of their nurses and pedagogues. Once a boy, who was brought up in Plato's house, went home to his parents, and, on seeing his father shouting with passion, said, "I never saw any one at Plato's house act like that." I doubt not that he learned to imitate his father sooner than he learned to imitate Plato.

Above all, let his food be scanty, his dress not costly, and of the same fashion as that of his comrades. If you begin by putting him on a level with many others, he will not be angry when some one is compared with him.

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It is of the bounty of nature that we live, but of philosophy that we live well, which is, in truth, a greater benefit than life itself. Not but that philosophy is also the gift of heaven, so far as to the faculty, but not to the science, for that must be the business of industry. No man is born wise, but wis- · dom and virtue require a tutor, though we can easily learn to be vicious without a master. It is philosophy that gives us a veneration for God, a charity for our neighbor; that teaches us our duty to heaven, and exhorts us to an agreement one with another. It unmasks things that are terrible to us, assuages our lusts, refutes our errors, restrains our luxury, reproves our avarice, and works strangely upon tender natures.

To tell you now my opinion of the liberal sciences, I have no great esteem for anything that terminates in profit or money; and yet I shall allow them to be so far beneficial, as they only prepare the understanding, without detaining it. They are but the rudiments of wisdom, and only then to be learned when the mind is capable of nothing better, and the

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