holy Spirit which is sent down hither in order that we may learn to know the Deity better; he has intercourse with us, indeed, but retains his connection with his origin; thence is his dependence, thither he directs his gaze and his endeavour. and his endeavour. He dwells with man like a guest of higher rank. What is this guest? He is the spirit who places dependence on good that is not his own. That which is man's own

is the soul and the perfect intelligence which dwells therein; for man is essentially an intelligent being, therefore his good is complete when he has fulfilled his destiny" (Ep. xli.). (Ep. xli.). "The gods are not proud or envious; they let us approach them and they stretch forth a hand to those who are mounting up to them. Dost thou wonder that man goes to God? Why, God comes to man, yea, He comes closer still, He enters into men. No disposition is good apart from God. Seeds of the divine are planted in human bodies; if they are well tended, they germinate and grow up into likeness with That from whence they sprang" (Ep. lxxiii. 14). "Certainly, a man must so live as before the eyes of all; so think as though there was one who could see into our innermost hearts. And so it is. For what use is it that anything should remain secret from men? Nothing is hidden from God, He is present in our hearts, He enters into our inmost thoughts" (Ep. lxxxiii. 1). What use is it to hide oneself and avoid the eyes and ears of men? A good conscience challenges the verdict of men; a bad conscience is full of fears and cares even when alone. Oh unhappy man, if thou despisest this witness!" (Ep. xliii. 4).

These sayings of Seneca last quoted (Ep. xli., xliii.,

lxxiii., lxxxiii.) are of especial interest, because the same question arises here as will meet us in connection with the Pauline doctrine of Salvation: whether the principle of the good is man's own spirit, his Godrelated intellect and conscience, or whether it is a supernatural power working upon man from without, a divine spiritual being sent from above, to help him. Zeller1 understands all these sayings in the former sense only. He writes: "The statement that no one can be good without the aid of the Deity is always to be understood in Seneca in the sense of this (the Stoic) system. The divine aid for which he calls is nothing supernatural, but coincides with the use of our reason and its natural powers. This is obvious from the context of the passages in which he enunciates this thesis. The help of God consists, accordingly, in this—that in the spiritual endowment of mankind an emanation of the Deity as λóyos σTepμatikós unites itself with a human body." However accurate this may be as a logical inference from the system, yet it is difficult to rid oneself of the impression that Seneca also conceives of a supernatural divine influence coming to the support of weak human nature, when he says that the Deity gives us his aid, comes down to us and into us, especially when he sees in the truly good man a great and holy spirit who is sent down as a messenger from the higher world in order that we may learn to know the divine better, and who, still

1 Philosophie der Griechen, 2nd ed., iii. 1, 649 sq. Besides this classical work, we may refer, in connection with what is said above, to Baur's essay upon Paul and Seneca; Havet, Le Christianisme et ses Origines, ii. 249–294; Bruno Bauer, Christus und die Cäsaren, 20-60. [Add Lightfoot, Philippians, Dissertation II., St Paul and Seneca.-TRANSLATOR.]

maintaining his connection with his home, dwells in our world only as a stranger of nobler origin (Ep. xli.). Turns of thought such as this, although, doubtless, something is to be put down to Seneca's rhetorical style, nevertheless betray a certain vacillation between the philosophic rationalism of his school and the religious belief in revelation and salvation, such as was common in connection with the enthusiasm of the mystery - cults in the Orphic-Pythagorean circles of the time, and found a natural support in the widespread pessimistic sense of powerlessness and need of help. Moreover, points of contact with the philosophy of the Orphic mysteries are found elsewhere in Seneca's system of thought. His belief in immortality, his estimate of the earthly life as a mere prelude to the life beyond, his description of the day of death as the birthday of that part of us which is eternal, are not Stoic at all, but Platonic and Orphic. As the Orphics believed in divine saviours (Oeoù σwτnρes) and divinely inspired mediators of salvation who had been sent in the past, and continued to be sent in the present, to the help of mankind who stood in need of help, similarly Seneca points men who strive after ethical perfection to leaders and load-stars, with the picture of whom the struggling soul should fill itself completely. "We must," he writes, "seek out some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, in order that we may so live and act as though we were in his sight. So Epicurus prescribed, giving us in this way a guardian and guide; and not without reason. Many sins are suppressed if a witness comes on the scene before the deed is done. Our heart must have someone to honour, someone

by whose example it may consecrate its inner life. Happy is he who can find such an one to venerate that he himself becomes moulded to the image which abides in his memory! We need one by whose example our morals may be formed: without a standard, what is wrong will not be set right" (Ep. xi.). "Clothe thyself with the spirit of some great man and separate thyself from the opinions of the multitude! Grasp the image of the fairest and most exalted virtue, which is to be honoured not with garlands, but by the expenditure of sweat and blood (i.e. toilsome imitation)" (Ep. lxvii.; cf. Rom. xiii. 14; Gal. iii. 27). “If we might cast a glance into the soul of a good man, what a fair picture we should see there, how impressive in its splendour, its grandeur and its calm! There we should see in glowing colours, righteousness, courage, prudence and wisdom and over all, humanity, that rare excellence, would pour forth its brilliancy. everyone would recognise him to be worthy of love and at the same time worthy of honour. If anyone were to see this picture, nobler and more splendid than is commonly seen among men, would he not stand still as before a divinity and pray in the stillness of his heart that this vision might be granted to him continually. Then, drawn by the attractive goodness of that vision, he would fall on his knees to adore it, and after long contemplation would break out with awe and amazement into the words of Virgil, Hail to thee, whosoever thou art heal thou our grief.'1 And it will help and heal us, if we honour it, not with offerings of

6

1 "Sis felix, nostrumque leves quaecunque laborem." Aen.

i. 330.

beasts or gold or silver, but of a pious and good heart. There is none, I repeat, who would not be fired with love, if it were granted us to see an ideal picture such as that. Now, it is true, our eyes are blinded by many things; but if we would purify them and clear our vision, then we should be able to see virtue beneath the veil of the body, beneath the burden of poverty, humility and ignominy: we should see her beauty even under the most sordid vestments" (Ep. cxv. 3 f.).

It is not to be wondered at that sayings of this kind have made the impression upon many that Seneca must have known Jesus Christ and have been referring to Him when he spoke with such enthusiasm of the inspiring power of the ideal of ethical perfection embodied in a person. But this is out of the question. For the historical student, the special importance of these sayings consists precisely in the fact that they are not dependent on the Christian Gospel, and are therefore of the more significance as witnesses of a widespread ethico-religious mode of thought and feeling in the Græco-Roman world of that period, which, from its close affinity with the Christian view had, among the heathen, prepared the soil for the Gospel. There was here a morality which led a man to look into his heart and freed him from the outer world, with its allurements and its terrors; which purified his soul by demanding the mastery of the passions, especially of sensuality; which taught him to find in this inner freedom and purity the dignity of the human personality, and called into being a respect for the individual as a man; which, finally, found in the rational God