Between Heathenism and Christianity · Charles William Super
V.
6. “Whatever it be” etc. The First Cause, about which Seneca is in some doubt, whether it is personal or impersonal, material or immaterial; whether matter exists of necessity or is created. In 4 he uses _mundus_ in a personal sense. He is also inconsistent in his attitude toward suicide; for after assuring us in the strongest language, that it is every man’s duty to endure whatever Providence or Fate or Destiny or Chance sends upon him, he ends by telling him that if the service is too hard he is at perfect liberty to run away from it. Gréard rightly says, “He confuses God with the world, Providence with destiny; he admits and does not admit the immortality of the soul; he proclaims the freedom of the will, and denies it.” 8. 9. Dr. Lodge, (1614) translates the two extracts from Ovid’s Metamorphoses as follows: “The first which with unwearied steeds I clime, Is such a iourney that their ceaseless toyle Can scarcily reach before the morrowes prime; The next is highest heau’n from whence the soyle And spacious seas, I see with dreadfull eye And fearfull heart; the next whereto I hie Is steep and prone and craues a cunning guide; And then dothe Thetis shake herselfe for dread, Lest headlong I should fall and downward glide, And burie in her waues my golden head.”
“And that thou mayst continue in the way, Be carefull lest thy posting steeds doe stray; Yet shalt thou pass by Taurus, who will bend His hornes to cross thee, whither thou dost tend; Th’ Aemonian Archer and the Lion fell Shall stay thy course and fright thee where they dwell.” See also the classical dictionary under Phaethon. 6. An inclined plane down which an object may be easily started to roll. 8. The final sentence more literally translated would read, Are you not ashamed? what is so quickly done you fear so long?
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.