Key Arguments

• Seneca quotes Publilius to express the idea that chance gifts are not really ours: "a verse in which he proclaims that gifts which chance brings our way are not to be regarded as possessions: If you pray a thing may And it does come your way, ’Tis a long way from being your own."
• He reports and praises Lucilius’ formulation of the same idea: "I recall your expressing the same idea a good deal more happily and succinctly: What fortune has made yours is not your own."
• He adds yet another Lucilian variant, stressing revocability: "And I can’t pass over that even happier expression of yours: The boon that could be given can be withdrawn."
• By citing all three lines in close succession, and tying them back to his earlier warning about fortune’s ‘presents’, Seneca confirms the philosophical principle that dependence on fortune precludes true ownership.

Source Quotes

Think of the number of Publilius’ verses that really ought to be spoken by actors wearing the tragic buskins instead of barefooted pantomime actors! I’ll quote one verse of his which belongs to philosophy, and the same facet of philosophy that I was occupied with just now, a verse in which he proclaims that gifts which chance brings our way are not to be regarded as possessions: If you pray a thing may And it does come your way, ’Tis a long way from being your own. I recall your expressing the same idea a good deal more happily and succinctly: What fortune has made yours is not your own.

I’ll quote one verse of his which belongs to philosophy, and the same facet of philosophy that I was occupied with just now, a verse in which he proclaims that gifts which chance brings our way are not to be regarded as possessions: If you pray a thing may And it does come your way, ’Tis a long way from being your own. I recall your expressing the same idea a good deal more happily and succinctly: What fortune has made yours is not your own. And I can’t pass over that even happier expression of yours: The boon that could be given can be withdrawn.

I recall your expressing the same idea a good deal more happily and succinctly: What fortune has made yours is not your own. And I can’t pass over that even happier expression of yours: The boon that could be given can be withdrawn. (This being from your own stock, I’m not debiting it to your account!)

Key Concepts

• a verse in which he proclaims that gifts which chance brings our way are not to be regarded as possessions: If you pray a thing may And it does come your way, ’Tis a long way from being your own.
• I recall your expressing the same idea a good deal more happily and succinctly: What fortune has made yours is not your own.
• And I can’t pass over that even happier expression of yours: The boon that could be given can be withdrawn.

Context

Continuing the theme of fortune’s gifts in Letter VIII, Seneca quotes Publilius and then two of Lucilius’ own verses to reinforce the Stoic view that what fortune gives is not truly one’s own because it remains contingent and withdrawable.