PHYSICAL SCIENCE 



trouble is aggravated when, in addition to the corre- 

 spondent, an imaginary opponent is from time to time 

 introduced and indifferently addressed in the second 

 person, or referred to in the third. To make matters 

 still worse, the author frequently conceals himself behind 

 the mask of one or other of the disputants, irrespective 

 of pronouns. Finally, he employs " we " sometimes of 

 himself and his correspondent, sometimes of his philosophic 

 sect, the Stoics, sometimes of his nation, the Romans, 

 sometimes of his kind, man in general ! 



IV. SENECA'S METHOD OF TREATMENT OF 

 SUBJECT 



In order to appreciate Seneca's treatment of his subject 

 we must understand something of his philosophical tenets. 

 He was in the main a Stoic, but with such a strong 

 tendency toward independence that he may be considered 

 an Eclectic. The Stoics, whether or not they originated, 

 at any rate recognised and adopted the threefold division 

 of philosophy Physics, Ethics, Logic * which was origin- 

 ated among the Greeks and handed down by them to 

 the Romans, who were in this department their pupils. 

 Seneca is typical of the Stoics in regarding Ethics as of 

 supreme importance. On Logic he did not apparently 

 set any great store, though he must have been a diligent 

 student of the cognate branch, Rhetoric. Physics, as we 

 have seen, did not claim much attention from him in early 

 life ; only as he approached the mature age of threescore 

 did his study of it become more detailed and systematic. 

 No clear line of demarcation existed in his mind, or for 

 the matter of that in his age, between philosophy and 



1 See Professor Davidson's The Stoic Creed, p. 42, where it is pointed out 

 that each of these may be subdivided so as to bring the number up to six 

 Physics and Theology, Ethics and Politics, Logic and Rhetoric. See also 

 Seneca, Epist. Ixxxix., where the division is discussed. For further infor- 

 mation on the subject, the article on the Stoics in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 

 and any of the histories of philosophy, e.g. Erdmann or Zeller, may be 

 consulted. 



