Every one else was struck dumb with amazement, and even terror, at a proceeding so unusual; but Seneca, with ready and admirable tact, suggested to Nero that he should rise and meet his mother, thus obviating a public scandal under the pretext of filial affection.
But Seneca from the very first had been guilty of a fatal error in the education of his pupil.

He had governed him throughout on the ruinous principle of _concession_.

Nero was not devoid of talent; he had a decided turn for Latin versification, and the few lines of his composition which have come down to us, _bizarre_ and effected as they are, yet display a certain sense of melody and power of language.

But his vivid imagination was accompained by a want of purpose; and Seneca, instead of trying to train him in habits of serious attention and sustained thought, suffered him to waste his best efforts in pursuits and amusements which were considered partly frivolous and partly disreputable, such as singing, painting, dancing, and driving.

Seneca might have argued that there was, at any rate, no great harm in such employments, and that they probably kept Nero out of worse mischief.