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Open Philosophy LibraryOf A Happy Life – L’estrange’s Senecan CompilationLucius Annaeus Seneca

Of A Happy Life – L’estrange’s Senecan Compilation

By Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Of a Happy Life is Sir Roger L'Estrange's 1678 English compilation of Senecan moral teaching, arranged in twenty-five thematic chapters. Rather than directly translating the single ancient dialogue De Vita Beata, it condenses ideas from across Seneca's writings on wisdom, virtue, anger, providence, conscience, friendship, death, wealth and poverty. The work presents happiness as rational self-government and freedom from dependence upon fortune.

Translator or editor
Sir Roger L'Estrange
Publication
1678 English compilation (Senecan sources: 1st century CE)
Genre
Stoic ethical compilation; moral philosophy
Era
Ancient Philosophy

About this work

Of a Happy Life is Sir Roger L'Estrange's seventeenth-century compilation of Senecan ethics. First published in 1678 as part of Seneca's Morals by Way of Abstract, its twenty-five chapters condense and rearrange material from several of Seneca's works rather than directly translating the ancient dialogue De Vita Beata. The compilation begins by locating happiness in a stable and rational mind. Popular opinion, external success and bodily pleasure cannot provide a secure standard because each changes with circumstance. Wisdom identifies genuine good, while virtue makes that judgement visible in conduct. Later chapters address practical instruction, anger, providence, conscience and friendship. Moral principles require repeated application to particular situations. Anger must be delayed and examined; conscience cannot be escaped through secrecy; friendship should rest upon character rather than advantage. The closing chapters consider mortality, riches and poverty. Fear of death reduces freedom, while attachment to property places tranquillity under fortune's control. Moderation allows possessions to be used without becoming the foundation of identity. Because L'Estrange selects and paraphrases freely, the book should be read as a historical English reception of Stoicism. It remains a wide-ranging manual of ethical self-government, asking how philosophical principles can become settled habits of judgement and action.

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