On the Brevity of Life is a great work. I found it particularly interesting that Ferris made bold the sentences and paragraphs that he did. In particular, he seemed to avoid the advice that Seneca was giving. Seneca was not advocating idleness or balance. No, indeed he was recommending isolation, asceticism, detachment from frivolity and dissociation with business affairs so that one may focus on the pursuit of virtue through self-control by rational thought. More directly, he suggests that the best life is to study the ancient works. In his own words:
Of all men they alone are at leisure who take time for philosophy, they alone really live; for they are not content to be good guardians of their own lifetime only. They annex ever age to their own; all the years that have gone ore them are an addition to their store. Unless we are most ungrateful, all those men, glorious fashioners of holy thoughts, were born for us; for us they have prepared a way of life. By other men’s labours we are led to the sight of things most beautiful that have been wrested from darkness and brought into light; from no age are we shut out, we have access to all ages, and if it is our wish, by greatness of mind, to pass beyond the narrow limits of human weakness, there is a great stretch of time through which we may roam. We may argue with Socrates, we may doubt with Carneades, find peace with Epicurus, overcome human nature with the Stoics, exceed it with the Cynics. Since Nature allows us to enter into fellowship with every age, why should we not turn from this paltry and fleeting span of time and surrender ourselves with all our soul to the past, which is boundless, which is eternal, which we share with our betters?
I just read the whole thing. Took over 45 minutes but I was train commuting so it was worth it. I actually own a printed copy of his lectures (one of those philosophical impulse purchases near the independent bookstore's register) - but I never read it.
My biggest takeaway is that I need to live my life with more reflection (not constantly looking back in the rear-view mirror - that's more living in the past but pausing from my daily/weekly routines regularly and reflecting on life). Maybe something as simple as sitting outside on a park bench and watching people go by. Or calling up old friends and finding out what is going with them more regularly.
Reading about the old men who were Senators, those who indulged in wine/drink, those who basked in their followers' attention makes me think how far we've progressed in civilization since Roman times. Technologically, yes but philosophically and metaphorically - we'll always be human.
"Ars longa, vita brevis" is a Latin phrase, a translation (by Seneca, De Brevitate Vitae, 1.1) of an aphorism originally by the Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, and is one of the sources of the popular English aphorisms "Life is short" and "Life is short, art long."
Just printed out three copies of this post, one for myself, two for friends (to begin with). Wow. It crystallizes all the bits of Power of Now, Zen, Entrepreneurship, How to be Happy, taking risks, going for "failure" that I've been selectively grasping onto. Thank you.
"failure" in quotes because as the author of that post says:
> What a Stoic does is turn every obstacle into an opportunity.
Of all men they alone are at leisure who take time for philosophy, they alone really live; for they are not content to be good guardians of their own lifetime only. They annex ever age to their own; all the years that have gone ore them are an addition to their store. Unless we are most ungrateful, all those men, glorious fashioners of holy thoughts, were born for us; for us they have prepared a way of life. By other men’s labours we are led to the sight of things most beautiful that have been wrested from darkness and brought into light; from no age are we shut out, we have access to all ages, and if it is our wish, by greatness of mind, to pass beyond the narrow limits of human weakness, there is a great stretch of time through which we may roam. We may argue with Socrates, we may doubt with Carneades, find peace with Epicurus, overcome human nature with the Stoics, exceed it with the Cynics. Since Nature allows us to enter into fellowship with every age, why should we not turn from this paltry and fleeting span of time and surrender ourselves with all our soul to the past, which is boundless, which is eternal, which we share with our betters?
For more information on Stoicism (in the classical, not popular, sense) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism