Seneca · c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
On Benefits 4.7 — Seneca
Translation by Aubrey Stewart (1887)
Seneca, On Benefits 4.7
“Nature,” says my opponent, “gives me all this.” Do you not perceive when you say this that you merely speak of God under another name? for what is nature but God and divine reason, which pervades the universe and all its parts? You may address the author of our world by as many different titles as you please; you may rightly call him Jupiter, Best and Greatest, and the Thunderer, or the Stayer, so called, not because, as the historians tell us, he stayed the flight of the Roman army in answer to the prayer of Romulus, but because all things continue in their stay through his goodness. If you were to call this same personage Fate, you would not lie; for since fate is nothing more than a connected chain of causes, he is the first cause of all upon which all the rest depend. You will also be right in applying to him any names that you please which express supernatural strength and power: he may have as many titles as he has attributes.
Cite this passage
Seneca, On Benefits 4.7, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-benefits/4.7
Seneca, Dialogues, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887–1889). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesSaying that nature provides these gifts only renames the divine power behind the universe: nature, divine reason, Jupiter and Fate are different titles for the same ordering power, the first cause in a chain of causes.
Older wording
- “Fate”
- — the connected chain of causes
- “first cause”
- — the origin on which everything else depends
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
- Acceptance and fate
- Gratitude
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