Lucius Annaeus Seneca
魯齊烏斯·安奈烏斯·塞內加
作者簡介
魯齊烏斯·安奈烏斯·塞內加（Lucius Annaeus Seneca，約前4—65），古羅馬政治家、哲學家、悲劇作家、雄辯家，宣揚新斯多葛倫理學，主張無條件屈從神意和不可避免的命運。他曾任羅馬帝國會計官和元老院元老以及古羅馬暴君尼祿（Nero）的家庭教師和顧問。
塞內加一生漫遊各地，勤於思考。他幾經仕途的大起大落，因此深通世事，能於平常小事中挖掘出深邃的思想。塞內加著作頗豐，著有11部戲劇、14部問答體作品、一部書信集等，西方人耳熟能詳的“塞內加說”猶如中國人常說的“子曰詩雲”。塞內加的思想對後世產生了不可磨滅的影響。
本文選自塞內加的代表作《道德書簡》（Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium）。該書為世人公認的必讀書。書中信件多以自身或他人經曆開頭，接著從哲理的角度進行嚴肅的反思和深入的分析。本文通過生動的比喻，闡述了“閱讀不可散漫，亦不可隨性”的重要性，顯示了作者獨特的智慧。
Nothing, to my way of thinking, is a better proof of a well ordered mind than a man’s ability to stop just where he is and pass some time in his own company.
我認為，能放下手中的事靜心獨處一段時間，正是一個人意誌力強的最佳證明。
Be careful, however, that there is no element of discursiveness and desultoriness about this reading you refer to, this reading of many different authors and books of every description. You should be extending your stay among writers whose genius is unquestionable, deriving constant nourishment from them if you wish to gain anything from your reading that will find a lasting place in your mind. To be everywhere is to be nowhere.
People who spend their whole life traveling abroad end up having plenty of places where they can find hospitality but no real friendships. The same must needs be the case with people who never set about acquiring an intimate acquaintanceship with any one great writer, but skip from one to another, paying flying visits to them all. Food that is vomited up as soon as it is eaten is not assimilated into the body and does not do one any good; nothing hinders a cure so much as frequent changes of treatment; a wound will not heal over if it is being made the subject of experiments with different ointments; a plant which is frequently moved never grows strong. Nothing is so useful that it can be of any service in the mere passing. A multitude of books only gets in one’s way. So if you are unable to read all the books in your possession, you have enough when you have all the books you are able to read.