pirit, which, as it were, muffles up a good thing in its lap.
As he is capable of performing a journey upon his own feet, but yet
would prefer to mount a carriage, just so he will be capable of being
poor, yet will wish to be rich; he will own wealth, but will view it
as an uncertain possession which will some day fly away from him. He
will not allow it to be a burden either to himself or to any one else:
he will give it--why do you prick up your ears? why do you open your
pockets?--he will give it either to good men or to those whom it may
make into good men. He will give it after having taken the utmost
pains to choose those who are fittest to receive it, as becomes one
who bears in mind that he ought to give an account of what he spends
as well as of what he receives. He will give for good and commendable
reasons, for a gift ill bestowed counts as a shameful loss: he will
have an easily opened pocket, but not one with a hole in it, so that
much may be taken out of it, yet nothing may fall out of it.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 75: Seneca's influence on writers in his own day was
notable. He seems almost to have superseded Cicero as a model. Critics
of our day, while recognizing all this and the charm of his style,
have found in his philosophy a lack of sincere qualities. An old
question is that of his relations to Christianity. So much in his
writings partakes of the spirit of the Apostles that he has been
credited with having been influenced by them. It is known that his
brother Gallio met St. Paul in Corinth and that Burrus, the colleague
and intimate friend of Seneca, was the captain of the Praetorian guards
before whom St. Paul was brought in Rome. Cruttwell dismisses the
claim, believing that Seneca's philosophy was "the natural development
of the thoughts of his predecessors in a mind at once capacious and
smitten with the love of virtue." Philosophy to Seneca was "altogether
a question of practise." Like other thinkers of his day, "he cared
nothing for consistency of opinion, everything for impressiveness of
application."]

[Footnote 76: From Book II of the "Minor Essays." Translated by Aubrey
Stewart.]

[Footnote 77: Quintilius Fabius, the general, who before the battle of
Cannae commanded in Italy against Hannibal. He was famous for avoiding
pitched battles and hence the term "Fabian policy."]

[Footnote 78: From Book VI of the "Minor Essays." Translated by Aubrey
Stewart. Marcia, to whom this letter was ad