■^26 L. ANN.'EUS SEKECA TO LUCII.KJS. Nov, 9, , 



lofc her hnppincfs when age rendered her incapable of 

 receiving and enjoying thcfe pleafures. 



« Let us then, iny dear Luciiius, preferve in ourfelves 

 the eternal and beautiful fpring of intelleclual nature, 

 by flying from the heat of paflions, from the fruits of 

 luxury, and the gloomy apathy of a wintry old age. 



Farewell." 



This cpiRle of Seneca is written more on the model 

 of antiquity than any of thofe that have hitherto feeu 

 the light. Qu^intilian, or whoever wrote the famous 

 treatiie on the decline of Roman eloquence, annexed 

 to the works of Tacitus, has defcribed the debafement 

 of the Reman tafte by the popular writers who fuc-^ 

 ceeded to the Augullan age, whofe quaint, flippant, 

 pointed manner is now imitated by our Gibbons, 

 Burkes, and Junius's of England, while Swift, Atter- 

 bury, Hume, and a few others, remain in pur age pof- 

 felTed of the chafte propriety and dignity of thofe who 

 have fet up the Greek hiftorians for their models. 



How glorious would it be for a band of fuch men to 

 alTociate in Britain for chaflifing the meretricious in^ 

 novators, who are encouraged by the taftelefs people 

 of the age, to enervate our language and our manners ! 



St. Auguiline and St. Jerome mention letters of Se-r- 

 neca to St. Paul, which are now loft ; and others, evi- 

 dently fpurious, were fubftituted in their place, by the 

 pious fraud of later Chrlftians, to fupport a caufe that 

 needs no advocates, nor any aids that are adventitious. 



For my own part, I am of opinion that Seneca did 

 aftually attend to the doftrines of the Chriftians, and 

 was moved and inclined, though fecretly, to fupport 

 their caufe j becaufe he has avoided, in the whole of 

 his voluminous writings, touching upon any points that 

 might glance at his being infcfted by their fuperftition, 

 fo dangerous, in appearance, to a jealous tyrant ; and 

 that his profound filence can hardly be accounted for 

 in any other manner. . In his xli. epiftle to Luciiius he 



