On one occasion I quoted that saying of Seneca: "He is truly great who
dines off earthenware as contentedly as if it were silver; but he is
greater still who dines off silver with as much indifference as if it were
earthenware."
"The philosopher," he said, "is right in his judgment; for the first feasts
on mere fancy, leading to vanity; but the second shows that he is superior
to wealth, since he cares no more for a precious metal than for clay.
"Yet, Oh! how ridiculous; how empty is all mere human philosophy! This same
philosopher who speaks so eloquently again and again of the contempt of
riches, was all his life immersed in them; and at his death left thousands
behind him. Does it not seem to you that, this being his own case, his
talking about poverty makes him like a cleric expatiating on the art of
war? We had far better listen to St. Paul, who speaks as a past master on
the subject of poverty, since he practised it so thoroughly that he chose
rather to live on what he could earn by the labour of his hands than on
what the preaching of the Gospel might bring in to him, as to the other
Apostles. Yes, we must needs listen to and believe St. Paul when he says
that he esteems all things as dung in comparison with the service of Jesus
Christ, counting as loss what he once held as gain."[1]
[Footnote 1: Philipp. iii, 8.]