Senaca Essays

LXIII On Grief for Lost Friends
The sentence that reads " Even such a man will be stung by an event like this, but it will be only a sting." I believe in this sentence he is relating to the negative visualization because if the person who lost that friend had known that people are mortal and will die one day then he would come to accept that death and it would only hurt a little. Another sentence that follows this technique to Stoicism is "Let us greedily enjoy our friends, because we do not know how long this privilege will be our." Also, this reminded me on the two fathers that Irvine compared in the book. The father that cherished the time he had with his daughter the less painful her death would be compared to the father that never thought that the last moment he had with his daughter would be his last.

LVII On Trails of Travel
This caught my attention because it as about travel and I thought it would relate to our trip to Italy. In this letter a voyage is discussed and how two problems or inconveniences occur, but then in my opinion he thinks of the positive side. Almost like fatalism and not seeing how it could be better. "The gloom, however, furnished me with some food for thought; I felt a certain mental thrill, and a transformation unaccompanied by fear, due to the novelty and the unpleasantness of an unusual occurrence." This can be related to out trip if we get stuck in traffic or it is raining.