Seneca, Moral Epistle 36.10-12
“And Death which we fear so much and deny, interrupts life, it doesn’t take it away from us. There will come a time when we return to the light of day–a fact many would refuse, if they did not return without their memories.
I want to explain to you later and more carefully that everything which appears to decay just transforms. Face it with a calm mind since you are meant to return. Note how the circuit of the universe repeats itself. You will see that nothing in the world is destroyed, but instead rises and sets in turns.
Summer is gone, but another year brings it back; winter recedes, but it comes too in the proper time. Night overshadows the sun, but day forces the night back again. The path of the stars traces whatever journey they took before. Part of heaven is always falling; part is always rising again.
I’ll stop this once I offer a final word: infants, children, and those who have lost their minds do not fear death. It is completely shameful, then, if reason cannot provide us the peace foolishness has gained for them.”
Et mors, quam pertimescimus ac recusamus, intermittit vitam, non eripit; veniet iterum, qui nos in lucem reponat dies, quem multi recusarent, nisi oblitos reduceret.
Sed postea diligentius docebo omnia, quae videntur perire, mutari. Aequo animo debet rediturus exire. Observa orbem rerum in se remeantium; videbis nihil in hoc mundo extingui, sed vicibus descendere ac surgere. Aestas abit, sed alter illam annus adducet; hiemps cecidit, referent illam sui menses; solem nox obruit, sed ipsam statim dies abiget. Stellarum iste discursus quicquid praeterit repetit; pars caeli levatur assidue, pars mergitur. Denique finem faciam, si hoc unum adiecero, nec infantes nec2 pueros nec mente lapsos timere mortem et esse turpissimum, si eam securitatem nobis ratio non praestat, ad quam stultitia perducit. Vale
