All his life long he was subject to attacks of asthma, which, after suffering every form of disease, he says that he considers to be the worst.

At one time his personal sufferings weighed so heavily on his spirits that nothing save a regard for his father's wishes prevented him from suicide: and later in life he was only withheld from seeking the deliverance of death by the tender affection of his wife Paulina.

He might have used with little alteration the words of Pope, that his various studies but served to help him "Through _this long disease, my life_." The recovery from this tedious illness is the only allusion which Seneca has made to the circumstances of his childhood.

The ancient writers, even the ancient poets, but rarely refer, even in the most cursory manner, to their early years.

The cause of this reticence offers a curious problem for our inquiry, but the fact is indisputable.