1You do not need to uplift your hands towards heaven, or to beg the keeper of a temple to let you approach his idol’s ear, as if in this way your prayers were more likely to be heard. God is near you, He is with you, He is within you.
2This is what I mean, Lucilius: a holy spirit indwells within us, one who marks our good and bad deeds, and is our guardian.
3As we treat this spirit, so are we treated by it. Indeed, no man can be good without the help of God. Can one rise superior to fortune unless God helps him to rise?
4He it is that gives noble and upright counsel. In each good man a god doth dwell, but what god we know not.
5If you have ever come upon a grove that is full of ancient trees which have grown to an unusual height, shutting out a view of the sky by a veil of pleached and intertwining branches, the stateliness of the wood, the seclusion of the spot, will strike you with the presence of a deity.
6Or if a cave, made by the deep crumbling of the rocks, holds up a mountain on its arch, a place not built with hands but hollowed out by natural causes — your soul will be deeply moved by a certain intimation of the divine.
7We venerate the sources of mighty rivers; we erect altars at places where great streams burst suddenly from hidden sources; we adore springs of hot water as divine, and consecrate certain pools because of their dark waters or their immeasurable depth.
8If you see a man who is unterrified in the midst of dangers, untouched by desires, happy in adversity, peaceful amid the storm, who looks down upon men from a higher plane and views the gods on a footing of equality, will not a feeling of reverence for him steal over you? He is a god dwelling in the human body.
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