Key Arguments

• He praises the work’s clarity and readability despite its bulk, indicating lucidity as a key virtue: he 'opened it on arrival without meaning to do any more than just get an idea of its contents' but 'the book itself had charmed me into a deeper reading of it there and then' and he 'found the work light reading'.
• He emphasizes sustained evenness rather than abrupt, showy forcefulness: 'I’d have said ‘forcefulness’, too, if it had been written on a quieter plane now and then and periodically raised on to a higher one; as it was there was no such forcefulness, but instead there was a sustained evenness of style.'
• He commends the language as simultaneously strong and tasteful: 'The writing was pure and virile – and yet not lacking in that occasional entertaining touch, that bit of light relief at the appropriate moment.'
• He explicitly identifies 'nobility' and 'sublimity' as positive qualities to be preserved: 'The quality of nobility, of sublimity, you have; I want you to keep it, and to carry on just the way you’re doing.'

Source Quotes

The next thing I knew the book itself had charmed me into a deeper reading of it there and then. How lucid its style is you may gather from the fact that I found the work light reading, although a first glance might well convey the impression that the writer was someone like Livy or Epicurus, its bulk being rather unlike you or me! It was so enjoyable, though, that I found myself held and drawn on until I ended up having read it right through to the end without a break.

How lucid its style is you may gather from the fact that I found the work light reading, although a first glance might well convey the impression that the writer was someone like Livy or Epicurus, its bulk being rather unlike you or me! It was so enjoyable, though, that I found myself held and drawn on until I ended up having read it right through to the end without a break. All the time the sunshine was inviting me out, hunger prompting me to eat, the weather threatening to break, but I gulped it all down in one sitting.

It was a joy, not just a pleasure, to read it. There was so much talent and spirit about it – I’d have said ‘forcefulness’, too, if it had been written on a quieter plane now and then and periodically raised on to a higher one; as it was there was no such forcefulness, but instead there was a sustained evenness of style. The writing was pure and virile – and yet not lacking in that occasional entertaining touch, that bit of light relief at the appropriate moment.

There was so much talent and spirit about it – I’d have said ‘forcefulness’, too, if it had been written on a quieter plane now and then and periodically raised on to a higher one; as it was there was no such forcefulness, but instead there was a sustained evenness of style. The writing was pure and virile – and yet not lacking in that occasional entertaining touch, that bit of light relief at the appropriate moment. The quality of nobility, of sublimity, you have; I want you to keep it, and to carry on just the way you’re doing.

The writing was pure and virile – and yet not lacking in that occasional entertaining touch, that bit of light relief at the appropriate moment. The quality of nobility, of sublimity, you have; I want you to keep it, and to carry on just the way you’re doing. Your subject, also, contributed to the result – which is a reason why you should always select a fertile one, one that will engage the mind’s attention and stimulate it.

Key Concepts

• How lucid its style is you may gather from the fact that I found the work light reading, although a first glance might well convey the impression that the writer was someone like Livy or Epicurus, its bulk being rather unlike you or me!
• It was so enjoyable, though, that I found myself held and drawn on until I ended up having read it right through to the end without a break.
• I’d have said ‘forcefulness’, too, if it had been written on a quieter plane now and then and periodically raised on to a higher one; as it was there was no such forcefulness, but instead there was a sustained evenness of style.
• The writing was pure and virile – and yet not lacking in that occasional entertaining touch, that bit of light relief at the appropriate moment.
• The quality of nobility, of sublimity, you have; I want you to keep it, and to carry on just the way you’re doing.

Context

Letter XLVI: Seneca responds to receiving Lucilius’ book, describing the stylistic virtues he admires in it and implicitly prescribing an ideal literary-philosophical style.