Seneca, on the other hand, held the Stoic belief in an all-wise and omnipotent Creator. In an eloquent exordium to his volume, and in a peroration near its end, he affirms his conviction that this Divine Being is all in all, at once within and without his works; He has clothed himself with creation, but is hidden from our eyes and can be perceived only by thought (3, 7, 305). Our philosopher could not conceive of anything more beautiful, more orderly, and more consistent everywhere in plan than the world around us. That such a world should have resulted from the tumult of chaos, by the mere chance collocation of atoms, appeared to him the madness of vulgar error. Yet it was only too true, though it might be thought hardly credible, that even philosophers had been tainted with this pernicious doctrine. Hence it would be in the author’s judgment a profitable task to inquire into the truth concerning these matters. To explore this world, he remarks, is far more than enough for a single lifetime. Whether what we may be led to believe regarding it shall be true must be decided by those who may attain the knowledge of the truth; we can but examine and conjecture, with no certain assurance of discovery, yet not without hope (304). It behoves us to be ever watchful against forming conclusions rashly, disrespectfully, or ignorantly, and of being knowingly untrue. In this quest after knowledge, while much may be found out which will be of practical usefulness, we are encouraged to advance, not by any hope of gain, but by the wonder with which the inquiry fills the soul. To obtain a knowledge of Nature is the highest reward to which the mind of man can aspire (230, 304). Seneca’s practical conclusion was thus much the same as that of Lucretius. He does not, however, attempt in this volume to enforce it with the solemn earnestness shown by the poet, though he loses no opportunity of inveighing against the follies and vices of his time. In discussing natural phenomena his first desire is to explain them, and in so doing to animadvert on the explanations of previous writers, with perhaps a not unnatural wish to show his own ability as a critic and expositor.