Seneca to Lucilius: 74, on virtue and what is truly good or bad in life

[image: The Good and Evil Angels by William Blake, 1795, Wikimedia]

One of the defining questions that differentiated most of the Hellenistic schools of practical philosophy was that of the relationship between virtue and “externals,” that is the sort of thing that most human beings value, including health, wealth, reputation, and so on. The 74th letter written by Seneca to his friend Lucilius explores precisely this territory and…