# Seneca — The Religion of Nature Delineated character guide

> Seneca in The Religion of Nature Delineated by William Wollaston.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Seneca

**First appearance:** 0005-ii-of-happiness

## Snapshot

Stoic philosopher whose vision of happiness through reason underwrites the book's promise that virtue and contentment are one pursuit.

## Who they are

He stands behind Wollaston's insistence that every being which understands happiness desires it, and that reason is the faculty by which that desire is rightly ordered. The tension is Stoic and severe: passions must be subjected, not indulged, and the man who pursues only sensual objects makes a defection to the beasts. He matters because his ethic of self-command gives the book its emotional spine — the sense that morality is a discipline, not a sentiment.

## Relationships

### [A Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_religion_of_nature_delineated_se/characters/a_man)

_professional_

A Man draws on Seneca's Stoic philosophy to support arguments about natural law and morality.

### [A Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_religion_of_nature_delineated_se/characters/a_man)

_professional_

A Man draws on Seneca's Stoic philosophy to support arguments about natural law and morality.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_religion_of_nature_delineated_se/characters/seneca
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_religion_of_nature_delineated_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_religion_of_nature_delineated_se/characters