The Necklace

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  “SHE WAS one of those pretty, charming young ladies, born, as if through an error of destiny, into a family of clerks. She had no dowry, no hopes, no means of becoming known, appreciated, loved, and married by a man either rich or distinguished; and she allowed herself to marry a petty clerk in the office of the Board of Education. . . .  She had neither frocks nor jewels, nothing. And she loved only those things. She felt that she was made for them. She had such a desire to please, to be sought after, to be clever, and courted.” —THE NECKLACE Guy de Maupassant    France, 1884 (pic by Grok) Read this short story here:  https://americanliterature.com/author/guy-de-maupassant/short-story/the-necklace

Seneca, Moral Letter 32, “On Siren Songs”

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“. . . you need a denser stopple than that which they say Ulysses used for his comrades. . . the song, however, which you have to fear, echoes. . . from every quarter of the world.


What then is good? The knowledge of things. What is evil? The lack of knowledge of things. . . . 


And besides this, in order that virtue may be perfect, there should be an even temperament and a scheme of life that is consistent with itself throughout; and this result cannot be attained without knowledge of things, and without the art which enables us to understand things human and things divine. That is the greatest good. . . . . 


Your money, however, will not place you on a level with God; for God has no property. Your bordered robe will not do this; for God is not clad in raiment; nor will your reputation, nor a display of self, nor a knowledge of your name wide-spread throughout the world; for no one has knowledge of God . . . for this God of whom I speak, though the highest and most powerful of beings, carries all things on his own shoulders.” (Seneca, Moral Letter 31, “On Siren Songs”)

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