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I am indeed anxious that your friend be moulded and trained, according to your desire. But he has been taken in a very hardened state, or rather (and this is a more difficult problem), in a very soft state, broken down by bad and inveterate habits.\n\u003C/p>\u003Cp>I should like to give you an illustration from my own handicraft.\u003Csup data-footnote-reference=\"1\">1\u003C/sup> \u003Cstrong>2.\u003C/strong> It is not every vine that admits the grafting process; if it be old and decayed, or if it be weak and slender, the vine either will not receive the cutting, or will not nourish it and make it a part of itself, nor will it accommodate itself to the qualities and nature of the grafted part. Hence we usually cut off the vine above ground, so that if we do not get results at first, we may try a second venture, and on a second trial graft it below the ground.\n\u003C/p>\u003Cp>\u003Cstrong>3.\u003C/strong> Now this person, concerning whom you have sent me your message in writing, has no strength; for he has pampered his vices. He has at one and the same time become flabby and hardened. He cannot receive reason, nor can he nourish it. “But,” you say, “he desires reason of his own free will.” Don’t believe him. Of course I do not mean that he is lying to you; for he really thinks that he desires it. Luxury has merely upset his stomach; he will soon become reconciled to it again. \u003Cstrong>4.\u003C/strong> “But he says that he is put out with his former way of living.” Very likely. Who is not? Men love and hate their vices at the same time. It will be the proper season to pass judgment on him when he has given us a guarantee that he really hates luxury; as it is now, luxury and he are merely not on speaking terms. Farewell.\n\u003C/p>","html",[580],{"id":23,"content":581},"Seneca was an extensive and prosperous vine-grower. Compare \u003Ci>Ep.\u003C/i> civ. 6 f. for his description of his hobby at the country-place near Nomentum. There are many figures which deal with the vine scattered through the Letters.","On Reforming Hardened Sinners",[584,590,595,600,604,608,612,616,620,624,628,632,636,640],{"topicId":215,"slug":585,"name":586,"score":99,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":588,"relevanceNote":589},"desire-and-self-control","Desire & Self-Control","llm_1_5","Now this person, concerning whom you have sent me your message in writing, has no strength; for he has pampered his vices.","The central theme is the enslaving power of indulged desires (luxury, vices, pampering) and the difficulty of restraining them once habits are formed.",{"topicId":255,"slug":591,"name":592,"score":95,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":593,"relevanceNote":594},"practice-and-progress","Practice & Progress","But he has been taken in a very hardened state, or rather (and this is a more difficult problem), in a very soft state, broken down by bad and inveterate habits.","The passage is fundamentally about the difficulty of retraining someone with ingrained bad habits, using the metaphor of grafting to illustrate how character reform requires proper conditions and time.",{"topicId":175,"slug":596,"name":597,"score":95,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":598,"relevanceNote":599},"judgment-and-perception","Judgment & Perception","Of course I do not mean that he is lying to you; for he really thinks that he desires it.","The passage explicitly addresses how the mind takes in impressions and assents to them: the friend thinks he desires reason, but this is a false judgment born of his corrupted state.",{"topicId":207,"slug":601,"name":602,"score":18,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":603},"virtue-and-the-good-life","Virtue & the Good Life","The passage discusses receiving reason and overcoming vices as part of moral improvement, but is more focused on the practical difficulty of reform than on defining the good life itself.",{"topicId":231,"slug":605,"name":606,"score":55,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":607},"adversity-and-hardship","Adversity & Hardship","The difficulty of reforming a corrupted person is mentioned, but the passage does not frame hardship as training or character-building.",{"topicId":131,"slug":609,"name":610,"score":55,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":611},"control-and-acceptance","What Is in Our Control","The passage touches on accepting what is within one's power (the friend's free will to desire reason), but this is not central to the argument.",{"topicId":235,"slug":613,"name":614,"score":55,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":615},"tranquility","Tranquility & Contentment","The passage mentions that luxury upsets the stomach and discusses restlessness with one's way of living, but tranquility is not the focus.",{"topicId":239,"slug":617,"name":618,"score":55,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":619},"wealth-fame-and-ambition","Wealth, Fame & Ambition","Luxury is mentioned as a vice, but the passage is not primarily about external indifferents or ambition.",{"topicId":243,"slug":621,"name":622,"score":55,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":623},"duty-and-society","Duty, Friendship & Society","The passage is written as advice to a friend about another person, but duty and social obligations are not the main focus.",{"topicId":147,"slug":625,"name":626,"score":23,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":627},"time-and-the-present","Time & the Present","The passage is not about living in the present or managing time.",{"topicId":18,"slug":629,"name":630,"score":23,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":631},"anger","Anger & Provocation","No discussion of anger or provocation.",{"topicId":55,"slug":633,"name":634,"score":23,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":635},"fear-and-anxiety","Fear & Anxiety","Anxiety in sentence 1 is about the recipient's hope for his friend, not about fear or dread in the Stoic sense.",{"topicId":23,"slug":637,"name":638,"score":23,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":639},"death-and-mortality","Death, Grief & Impermanence","No connection to death, grief, or impermanence in this passage.",{"topicId":151,"slug":641,"name":642,"score":23,"scoreScale":587,"pullQuote":74,"relevanceNote":643},"nature-and-the-cosmos","Nature & the Cosmos","No discussion of the cosmos, nature, or divine order.",1786704325732]