Seneca, On Our Blindness and Its Cure (Letter 50)

Recorded in December 2020. Seneca the Younger flourished during the first century A. D. The translation, by Richard M. Gummere, was published between 1917 and 1925.

(The picture in the thumbnail is a portrait, by Rubens, of an ancient bust once thought to be of Seneca. Rubens was very fond of Seneca, and used to have his works read out loud to him as he painted. This bust was once called "The Farnese Seneca," but is now thought to depict Hesiod. It was, however, how people envisaged Seneca for hundreds of years, from the Renaissance onward, and so I make use of its image. Its rough nobility is fitting to his character.)

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction
00:06 I received your letter many months after you had posted it
01:32 You know Harpasté, my wife's female clown
02:41 You can see clearly that that which makes us smile in the case of Harpasté happens to all the rest of us
04:29 Suppose that we have begun the cure
06:00 No, we must work
08:08 There is nothing, Lucilius, to hinder you from entertaining good hopes about us