He was patient, and frugal in his household expenses; Laertius saith, he had but one servant; Seneca avers he had none. He was mean in his clothes: in his diet, by Philemon thus described:
"He water drinks, then broth and herbs doth eat; teTeaching his scholars, almost without meat."xt
His chastity was so eminent, that it became a proverb; "As chaste as Zeno." When the news of his death came to Antigonus, he broke forth into these words, "What an object have I lost!" And being asked, why he admired him so much? "Because," saith he, "though I bestowed many great things upon him, he was never therewith exalted nor dejected." The Athenians, after his death, by a public decree, erected a statue to his memorial; it runs thus: "Whereas Zeno, the son of Mnaseas, a Cittian, has professed philosophy about fifty-eight years in this city, and in all things performed the office of a good man, encouraging those young men who applied themselves to him, to the love of virtue and temperance, leading himself a life suitable to the doctrine which he professed; a pattern to the best to imitate: the people have thought fit to do honour to Zeno, and to crown him with a crown of gold, according to law, in regard of his virtue and temperance, and to build a tomb for him, publicly, in the Ceramick, &c." These two were his epitaphs, one by Antipater:
"Here Zeno lies, who tall Olympus scal'd; Not heaping Pelion on Ossa's head; Nor by Herculean labours so prevailed; But found out virtue's paths, which thither led."
The other by Xenodotus, the Stoic, thus:
"Zeno, thy years to hoary age were spent, Not with vain riches, but with self-content."
XXVII. Seneca, a great and excellent philosopher, who with Epictetus shall conclude the testimonies of the men of their character, hath so much to our purpose that his works are but a kind of continued evidence for us: he saith, "Nature was not so much an enemy, as to give an easy passage of life to all other creatures, and that man alone should not live without so many arts; she hath commanded us none of these things. We have made all things difficult to us, by disdaining things that are easy: houses, clothes, meats, and nourishment of bodies, and those things which are now the care of life, were easy to come by, freely gotten, and prepared with a light labour: for the measure of these things was necessity, not voluptuousness: but we have made them pernicious and admirable: they must be sought with art and skill. Nature sufficeth to that which she requireth.
"Appetite hath revolted from nature, which continually inciteth itself, and increaseth with the ages, helping vice by wit. First it began to desire superfluous, then contrary things: last of all, it sold the mind to the body, and commanded it to serve the lusts thereof. All these arts, wherewith the city is continually set at work, and maketh such a stir, do center in the affairs of the body, to which all things were once performed as to a servant, but now are provided as for a lord: hence the shops of engravers, perfumers, &c. Hence, of those that teach effeminate motions of the body, and vain and wanton songs: for natural behaviour is despised, which completed desires with necessary help; now it is clownishness and ill-breeding to be contented with as much as is requisite. What shall I speak of rich marbles curiously wrought, wherewith temples and houses do shine? What of stately galleries and rich furniture? these are but the devices of most vile slaves; the inventions of men, not of wise men: for wisdom sits deeper; it is the mistress of the mind. Wilt thou know what things she hath found out, what she hath made? Not unseemly motions of the body, nor variable singing by trumpet or flute; nor yet weapons of wars, or fortifications: she endeavoureth profitable things; she favours peace, and calls all mankind to agreement: she leadeth to a blessed estate; she openeth the way to it, and shows what is evil from what is good, and chaseth vanity out of the mind. She giveth solid greatness, but debaseth that which is puffed up, and would be seen of men: she bringeth forth the image of God to be seen in the souls of men: and so from corporeal, she translateth into incorporeal things." Thus in the 90th epistle to Luculius. To Gallio, he writeth thus: "All men, brother Gallio, are desirous to live happy, yet blind to the means of that blessedness. As long as we wander hither and thither, and follow not our guide, but the dissonant clamour of those that call on us to undertake different ways, our short life is wearied and worn away amongst errors, although we labour to get us a good mind: there is nothing therefore to be more avoided, than following the multitude without examination, and believing anything without judging. Let us inquire, what is best done, not what is more usually done; and what planted us in the possession of eternal felicity; not what is ordinarily allowed of by the multitude, which is the worst interpreter of truth. I call the multitude, as well those that are clothed in white, as those in other colours: for I examine not the colours of the garments, wherewith their bodies are clothed: I trust not mine eyes to inform me what a man is; I have a better and truer light, whereby I can distinguish truth from falsehood. Let the soul find out the good of the soul; if once she may have leisure to withdraw into herself, Oh! how will she confess, I wish all I have done were undone; and all I have said, when I recollect it, I am ashamed of it, when I now hear the like in others. These things below, whereat we gaze, and whereat we stay, and which one man with admiration shows unto another, do outwardly shine, but are inwardly empty. Let us seek out somewhat that is good, not in appearance, but solid, united, and best, in that which least appears: let us discover this. Neither is it far from us: we shall find it if we seek it. For it is wisdom not to wander from that immortal nature, but to form ourselves according to his law and example. Blessed is the man who judgeth rightly: blessed is he who is contented with his present condition: and blessed is he who giveth ear to that immortal principle, in the government of his life." A whole volume of these excellent things hath he written. No wonder a man of his doctrine and life escaped not the cruelty of brutish Nero, under whom he suffered death; as also did the apostle Paul, with whom, it is said Seneca had conversed. When Nero's messenger brought him the news, that he was to die; with a composed and undaunted countenance he received the errand, and presently called for pen, ink, and paper, to write his last will and testament; which the captain refusing, he turned towards his friends, and took his leave thus: "Since, my loving friends, I cannot bequeath you any other thing in acknowledgment of what I owe you, I leave you at least the richest and best portion I have, that is the image of my manners and life, which doing, you will obtain true happiness." His friends showing great trouble for the loss of him; "Where," saith he, "are those memorable precepts of philosophy? And what is become of those provisions, which for so many years together we have laid up against the brunts and afflictions of Providence? Was Nero's cruelty unknown to us? What could we expect better at his hands, that killed his brother and murdered his mother, but that he would put also his tutor and governor to death?" Then turning to his wife Pompeia Paulina, a Roman lady, young and noble, besought her for the love she bore him and his philosophy, to suffer patiently his affliction: "For," saith he, "my hour is come wherein I must show, not only by discourse but by death, the fruit I have reaped by my meditations; I embrace it without grief, wherefore do not dishonour it with thy tears. Assuage thy sorrow, and comfort thyself in the knowledge thou hast had of me, and of my actions; and lead the rest of thy life with that honest industry thou hast addicted thyself unto." And dedicating his life to God, he expired.
XXVIII. Epictetus, contemporary with Seneca, and an excellent man, thought no man worthy of the profession of philosophy, that was not purified from the errors of his nature. His morals were very excellent, which he comprised under these two words, sustaining, and abstaining; or bearing, and forbearing; to avoid evil, and patiently to suffer afflictions, which do certainly comprise the christian doctrine and life, and is the perfection of the best philosophy that was at any time taught by Egyptians, Greeks, or Romans, when it signified virtue, self-denial, and a life of religious solitude and contemplation.