For the time leading up to April, I decided to read from prominent Stoics. Today, for my first day of this unruly marathon, I chose the second letter in Seneca’s Epistulae Morales. In this epistle, Seneca mentions the importance of steadiness in terms of any sort of intellectual consumption. He opines that one should not wander about in an imaginary garden of books and authors who blossom, and taste every nectar they offer.
The epistle gives sufficient and well-meant analogies: changing one’s medicine before it takes effect, moving a plant too many times before it can grow steadily. A traveler, Seneca reminds us, who travels frequently ends up having many acquaintances but no friends. I assume, here, that the core message —the underlying intent of the writer— is to discipline Lucilius’ eagerness to read many authors and to apply the same skill of steadiness in other parts of life: depth rather than dispersion.
For me, the following sentence in the Latin original of the epistle, summarizing his stance, is the most effective reminder of it:
Nusquam est qui ubique est