The Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca suffered an end few of us would envy, ordered to commit suicide by a man whom he tutored in, of all things, philosophy. But then Seneca himself held a philosophy that justified suicide, so there is a certain irony here. This man who got rid of his teacher was, of course, the Emperor Nero, an unsavory character if there ever was one. Yet, if we follow Tacitus’ account, Nero seems to have been a well-rounded and educated man: he endeavored to sing, write poetry, give philosophical lectures, dance, play the lute, as well as rule the Empire. The only problem was that, once Nero entered into a contest, no one could afford to do better than he—that is, if he wanted to live long. So Nero won all the prizes while knowing that no one really opposed him. He never knew, in other words, whether he was any good or not. One could hardly think of a worse condition to be in, especially for a vain man.
Seneca, in his famous essay, “On Tranquility,” gave us one piece of advice that is useful for our topic of a liberal education: “Even in literary pursuits, where expense is in the best of taste, it is justifiable only so long as it is kept within bounds…. What point in countless books and libraries whose catalogue their owner cannot scan in a lifetime? The student is loaded down, not instructed, by the bulk; it is much better to give yourself to a few authors than to stray through many.” To give ourselves to a few good books rather than stray through many mediocre ones—that is good advice. But still something can be learned even in bad or mediocre books. If we never read a lousy book, we will hardly recognize a great one.
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