Seneca. On the Misfortune of Good Men. Abridgment Series

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The following text is an excerpt from On Providence by the great Seneca the Younger. This excerpt, “Why does misfortune seem to fall upon good men?,” has always been among my favorites (and note the word “seem to” in the question)! Gregg Zegarelli, Esq.

You ask, “Why do misfortunes seem to fall on good men?” It is not possible.

Evil cannot befall a good man, as opposites cannot combine.

Between good men and the gods there is a friendship that is brought about by virtue. Friendship do I say? Nay, rather relationship and likeness, being God’s pupil and offspring, whom a good man’s glorious parent trains more severely than other men, insisting sternly on virtuous conduct, just as strict fathers do.

God does not pet the good man: He tries him, hardens him, and fits him for Himself.

Just as the influx of so many streams does not change the tang of the sea, just so the assaults of adversity do not affect the spirit of the strong man. He assimilates all that falls against him into his own complexion, for he is inside more powerful than the world outside.

I do not say that a good man does not feel the assaults of adversity, but he conquers them, and on occasion calmly and tranquilly rises superior to their attacks, holding all misfortunes to be trials of his own firmness.

God’s attitude to good men is a father’s: his love for them is a manly love. “Let them,” says He, “be exercised by labors, sufferings, and losses, that so they may gather true strength.”

Pampered bodies grow sluggish through sloth; and their own weight exhausts them.

Is there any hard-working man to whom idleness is not a punishment? We see athletes, who study their bodily strength, engage in contests with the strongest of men, and insist that those who train them for the arena should put out their whole strength when practicing with them: they endure blows and maltreatment, and, if they cannot find any single person who is their match, they engage with several at once.

Without an antagonist, skill fades away.

The thing that matters is not what you bear, but how you bear it.

Good men do not shrink from hardship and difficulty, or complain of fate; they take the good part of what befalls them and turn it to their advantage.

The tender neck chafes at the yoke, and prosperity unbruised cannot endure a single blow.

But, for a man who has acquired a skin calloused by suffering;

even if he stumbles, he carries the fight, upon his knee.

—Seneca, On Providence

God does not pet the good man: He tries him, hardens him, and fits him for Himself.

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