Reflections on prayer Seneca

For health of mind and body

Letters 10.4 (excerpt)

Original text

Latin

The ancient words

Votorum tuorum veterum licet dis gratiam facias, alia de integro suscipe; roga bonam mentem, bonam valitudinem animi, deinde tunc corporis. Quidni tu ista vota saepe facias? Audacter deum roga; nihil illum de alieno rogaturus es.

Modern rendering

Close to the words

Literal English · editorial draft

You may release the gods from your former vows; undertake fresh ones. Ask for a good mind, for good health of soul, and then of body. Why should you not make these prayers often? Ask God boldly: you will ask him for nothing belonging to someone else.

An editorial aid to reading, not a substitute for the original. About this rendering

Historical translation

1917 · Source edition ↗

As for your former prayers, you may dispense the gods from answering them; offer new prayers; pray for a sound mind and for good health, first of soul and then of body. And of course you should offer those prayers frequently. Call boldly upon God; you will not be asking him for that which belongs to another.

Text matched to linked transcription; typography normalized.

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Sources & notes

Historical editions may include surrounding context or use different phrasing. Parallel columns compare passages; their lines are not word-for-word alignments.

The source review is selective. Additional prototype transcriptions are preserved in the repository pending verification. Editorial method →