and brave living, and was
so far spiritual; but perhaps not much further. The best in men
reacted against the sensuality of the mid-century, and made
Stoicism strong; but this formed only a basis of moral grit for
the higher teaching; of which, while we know it was there,
there is not very much to say. I shall come to it presently;
meanwhile, to something else.--In literature, this was the cycle
of Spain: the Crest-Wave was largely there during the first
thirteen decades of the Christian era. Seneca was born in
Cordova about 3 B. C.; Hadrian, the last greatman of Spanish
birth (though probably of Italian race), died in 138. Seneca was
a Stoic: a man with many imperfections, of whom history cannot
make up its mind wholly to approve. He was Nero's tutor and
minister during the first five golden years of the reign; his
government was wise and beneficent, though, it is said, sometimes
upheld by rather doubtful means. In the growing gloom and horror
of the nightmare reign of Nero, he wrote many counsels of
perfection; his notes rise often, someone has said, to a sort of
falsetto shriek; but then, the wonder is he could sing at all in
such a hell's cacophony. A man with obvious weaknesses, perhaps;
but fighting hard to be brave and hopeful where there was nothing
in sight to encourage bravery or foster hope; when every moment
was pregnant with ghastly possibilities; when death and
abominable torture hobnobbed in the Roman streets with riots of
disgusting indulgence, abnormal lusts, filthiness parading
unabashed. He speaks of the horrors, the gruesome impalings;
deprecating them in a general way; not daring to come down to
particulars, and rebuke Nero. Well; Nero commanded the legions,
and was kittle cattle to rebuke. If sometimes you see tinsel and
tawdriness about poor Seneca, look a little deeper, and you seem
to see him writing it in agony and bloody sweat. . . . He was
among the richest men in Rome, when riches were a deadly peril:
he might even, had he been another man, have made himself
emperor; perhaps the worst thing against him is that he did
not. His counsels and aspirations were much better than his
deeds;--which is as much as to say his Higher Self than his
lower. He stood father-confessor to Roman Society: a Stoic
philosopher in high, luxurious, and most perilous places: he
cannot escape looking a little unreal. Someone in some seemingly
petty difficulties, writes asking him to sue his influen