Public domain The work and displayed translations are recorded as public domain or from an open transcription.

Seneca

Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 24

Section 633 of 2,141

Canonical reference 58.24

Latin

Perseus canonical Latin TEI

De homine dixi, fluvida materia et caduca et omnibus obnoxia causis; mundus quoque, aeterna res et invicta, mutatur nec idem manet. Quamvis enim omnia in se habeat, quae habuit, aliter habet quam habuit; ordinem mutat.

French

Baillard 1914

Ne crains donc plus, ô homme ! de subir une dernière fois ce que tu subis chaque jour. J’ai parlé de l’homme, matière corruptible et caduque, en butte à toutes les causes de mort ; et l’univers lui-même, éternel, invincible qu’il est, se modifie et ne reste jamais le même. Car bien qu’il possède toujours ses éléments primitifs, il les possède autres que primitivement : il en bouleverse la distribution.

English

Richard M. Gummere · Moral Letters to Lucilius

So much for man, - a substance that flows away and falls, exposed to every influence; but the universe, too, immortal and enduring as it is, changes and never remains the same. For though it has within itself all that it has had, it has it in a different way from that in which it has had it; it keeps changing its arrangement.

Concepts in this passage

Before reading

What you will learn

Open the full record