aim is to inquire into the natural causes of phenomena; he wants to know why things are so. He is aware that his own age has only entered the vestibule of the knowledge of natural phenomena and forces, that it has but just begun to know five of the many stars, that "there will come a time when our descendants will wonder that we were ignorant of matters so evident."[1]
One must admit, however, that along with Seneca's consciousness of the very imperfect knowledge of his own age there goes a tendency to esotericism. The following language would come fittingly from the mouth of a magician:
There are sacred things which are not revealed all at once. Eleusis reserves sights for those who revisit her. Nature does not disclose her mysteries in a moment. We think ourselves initiated; we stand but at her portal. Those secrets open not promiscuously nor to every comer. They are remote of access, enshrined in the inner sanctuary.[2]
Seneca seems to regard scientific research as a sort of religious exercise. His enthusiasm in the study of natural forces appears largely due to the fact that he believes them to be of a sublime and divine character, and above the petty affairs of men.
- ↑ "Veniet tempus, quo posteri nostri tarn aperta nos nescisse mirentur. Harum quinque stellarum . . . modo coepimus scire." Bk. vii, ch. 25.
- ↑ Bk. vii, ch. 31. "Non semel quaedam sacra traduntur. Eleusin servat quod ostendit revisentibus. Rerum natura sacra sua non simul tradit. Initiates nos credimus; in vestibule eius haeremus. Ilia arcana non promiscue nee omnibus patent; reducta et in interiore sacrario clausa sunt."
Annaei Senecae Naturalium Quaestionum Libri Scptem, bk. vi, ch. 4. The edition by G. D. Koeler, Gottingen, 1819 has convenient summaries indicating contents at the head of each book, and devotes several hundred pages to a "Disquisitio" and "Animadversiones" upon Seneca's work. In Pancoucke's Library, vol. cxxxxvii, a French translation accompanies the text.
