SenecaСенека

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 2.2–4.

Four sentences of the letter, close in sense and order. Kept: the warning that reading many authors and every kind of book has something vague and unsteady in it (Tolstoy: "vagueness and uncertainty in your head"); one must dwell on and be nourished by sure minds ("writers of undoubted worth") to draw what will stay in the mind ("something useful"); "the multitude of books distracts"; read the approved ones always, and when you wish to turn to others, return to the first. Dropped: the examples between (the traveller with many hosts and no friends, food that passes straight through, medicines changed too often, the plant often moved), and "since you cannot read all the books you have, it is enough to have as many as you read". The letter is in neither Ramage's Latin selection nor Tolstoy's Thoughts of Wise Men; no intermediary was found.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 81.19.

Seneca, on gratitude: "There is not a man who, when he has benefited his neighbour, has not benefited himself", not because the man helped will help in return, "but that the reward for all the virtues lies in the virtues themselves ... the wages of a good deed is to have done it" (recte facti fecisse merces est). Tolstoy has «делает больше всего добра самому себе» (does the most good of all to himself) for "has benefited himself", and turns the reward that lies in the deed itself into «сознание сделанного добра дает уже большую радость» (the consciousness of good done already gives great joy). Seneca's list of the ways a kindness comes back to the giver is reduced to «не в том смысле, что ему будет за это награда». The Russian intermediary was not found; the passage is not in Thoughts of Wise Men (1903). «Благочестивые мысли» § II.34, two sayings after the one Tolstoy printed on the same day (3-3.3), has the same thought in the words «делаем гораздо более для себя, чем для других».

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 95.52–53.

Close to Seneca, Letter 95.52–53, with one omission: "Let this verse be in your heart and on your lips: I am a man; and nothing in man's lot do I deem foreign to me" (Terence) is dropped. "Let us possess things in common; for birth is ours in common" becomes «Мы рождены для единения» (we are born for union). «утвердила в нас стремление к справедливости и чувство долга» (planted in us the striving for justice and the sense of duty) renders aequum iustumque composuit (she established fairness and justice), and «губить хуже, чем гибнуть» renders miserius est nocere quam laedi (it is more wretched to harm than to be harmed). The Russian intermediary was not found. On March 22 (3-22.1) Tolstoy used the same lines in other words.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 83.1.

Seneca, Letter 83.1: "we should think,—as if there were someone who could look into our inmost souls; and there is one who can so look" (sic cogitandum tamquam aliquis in pectus intimum introspicere possit: et potest). Tolstoy has «всякий» (anyone) for "someone" (aliquis) and drops "and there is one who can", by which Seneca means God ("Nothing is shut off from the sight of God" follows). The same sentence opens March 22 (3-22.1) in other words. The Russian intermediary was not found.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 83.1 and 95.52–53.

Joined from two of Seneca's letters. The first four sentences are Letter 83.1: "we should live,—as if we lived in plain sight of all men; ... we should think,—as if there were someone who could look into our inmost souls ... For what avails it that something is hidden from man? Nothing is shut off from the sight of God." Tolstoy asks «Зачем скрывать что-либо от людей?» (why hide anything from people?) and drops "and there is one who can so look" and the God who "comes into the very midst of our thoughts". The rest is Letter 95.52–53, changed: "all that you behold, that which comprises both god and man, is one" (omne hoc quod vides, quo divina atque humana conclusa sunt, unum est) becomes «Всё божеское и человеческое учение сводится к одной истине» (all divine and human teaching comes down to one truth), which then names the members of one great body; "Nature produced us related to one another" becomes «Природа соединила нас в одну семью» (nature joined us into one family); and «все мы созданы так, чтобы сообща, помогая друг другу, проживать нашу жизнь» condenses "birth is ours in common" and the stone arch. On March 10 (3-10.2) and March 20 (3-20.1) Tolstoy printed the same lines more closely; the different wording points to a different intermediary. Neither was found. Gummere's English of 95.52 is under 3-10.2.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 88.33, 35, 39, 42–43.

Joined from five places in Letter 88, on liberal studies. §33: "Wisdom is a large and spacious thing. It needs plenty of free room" (Tolstoy: «она требует всего свободного времени», all the free time). §35: whatever part of things human and divine you grasp, "you will be wearied by the vast number of things to be answered and things to be learned", and to give them room "you must remove therefrom all superfluous things" (Tolstoy: «отстранения из сознания всего излишнего для того, чтобы предоставить полный простор работе ума»). §39: "and wear my life away upon syllables?" (aetatem in syllabis conteram) becomes «Тратить ли мне свою жизнь на одни слова?» (words for syllables). §42: of the philosophers, "they know more about careful speaking than about careful living" becomes «ученые больше думают о разговорах, нежели о жизни» (the learned think more of talk than of life). §43: "what evils are due to over-nice exactness" (nimia subtilitas) becomes «чрезмерное мудрствование». Left out: Seneca's questions about time and the soul (§§33–34) and his examples of useless learning (§§36–41). The Russian intermediary was not found. Tolstoy printed the same Russian again in «Путь жизни» (1910).

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 94.42.

Seneca, answering an objector who asks what his comparison is for: "good precepts, if they are often with you (si saepe tecum sint), will profit you as much as good examples." Tolstoy keeps the precepts, the examples, and the comparison, and replaces the condition with «исходящие из сердца человека» (coming from a person's heart): Seneca speaks of precepts kept by one often, Tolstoy of precepts coming from the heart. The next sentence of the letter, on brief and weighty sayings, is quoted under 5-4.4, signed Cicero on the same day. Where Tolstoy read it was not found; Ramage's Beautiful Thoughts from Latin Authors gives another sentence of Letter 94.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 49.12.

Seneca's Latin, "veritatis simplex oratio est", as Ramage prints it under the heading "Language of Truth" with the English "The language of truth is simple", which Tolstoy's «Язык правды прост» renders word for word. Ramage's Beautiful Thoughts from Latin Authors is on Tolstoy's list of sources (Jubilee vol. 42) and gave him other Cicero and Seneca entries; its scan reads "Yeritatis". Seneca quotes the line as a tragic poet's ("ut ait ille tragicus"): it is Euripides, Phoenissae 469, "ἁπλοῦς ὁ μῦθος τῆς ἀληθείας ἔφυ". The printed editions of the Circle left the thought unsigned; the Jubilee editors signed it «Сенека» (Jubilee vol. 42, list of corrected attributions, July 19, 1), which is right for the Latin Tolstoy read through Ramage.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 3.3.

Seneca to Lucilius, on friendship: "although you should live in such a way that you trust your own self with nothing which you could not entrust even to your enemy" (ita vive ut nihil tibi committas nisi quod committere etiam inimico tuo possis), yet share all your cares and thoughts with a friend. Tolstoy keeps the rule and drops the friend it introduces. He changes "trust your own self with nothing which you could not entrust even to your enemy" (have no secret you could not let an enemy know) into «чтобы можно было злейшему врагу доверить всё, что у тебя на душе» (so that you could entrust to your worst enemy all that is in your soul), and adds «злейшему» (worst). The line is not in Ramage's Latin Authors (searched: "inimico"); Tolstoy's intermediary was not found.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 44.6.

Seneca to Lucilius, on true nobility: even a freedman "might nevertheless by your own efforts come to be the only free man amid a throng of gentlemen. 'How?' you ask. Simply by distinguishing between good and bad things without patterning your opinion from the populace" (si mala bonaque non populo auctore distinxeris; the Latin Library prints «distineris»). Tolstoy drops the freedman and the free-born and makes the question general: «Ты спросишь, каким путем достигнуть свободы?» (you will ask by what way freedom is reached) for "'Quomodo?' inquis" ("How?" you ask), which asks how to be the one free man among the free-born. He adds «научиться» (learn) and «самому» (oneself), and renders "non populo auctore" (not on the people's authority) «не по указанию толпы» (not at the crowd's direction). The line is not in Ramage's Latin Authors (searched: populo auctore, bonaque); Tolstoy's intermediary was not found.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 48.2.

A close translation of one sentence of Letter 48: "no one can live happily who has regard to himself alone and transforms everything into a question of his own utility; you must live for your neighbour, if you would live for yourself." "Alteri vivas oportet" (you must live for another) becomes «живи для других» (live for others), and the two relative clauses become «Человек, который думает только о себе и ищет во всем своей выгоды» (a man who thinks only of himself and seeks his own advantage in everything). The sentence's context, the common life of friends ("in commune vivitur"), is left out. Tolstoy printed it again in На каждый день (21 May, 4), and in Путь жизни with «для истинного своего блага» (for your true good) added. Not in Ramage's Latin Authors (searched: alteri vivas, live for another); the intermediary was not found.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 107.12.

The close of Letter 107, after Seneca's Latin of Cleanthes' hymn ("Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt"): "let Fate find us ready and alert. Here is your great soul—the man who has given himself over to Fate" (qui se ei tradidit, ei being fatum of the sentence before), "that man is a weakling and a degenerate who struggles and maligns the order of the universe and would rather reform the gods than reform himself." Tolstoy makes Fate God: «которая предается богу» (that gives itself to God) for "qui se ei tradidit"; «восстает против бога» (rises against God) for "obluctatur" (struggles); «осуждает законы, управляющие миром» (condemns the laws that govern the world) for "de ordine mundi male existimat" (thinks ill of the order of the world); and «исправлять бога, а не самое себя» (to correct God and not itself) for "emendare mavult deos quam se" (would rather correct the gods than himself). «Мелочна и развращена» (petty and corrupt) is "pusillus et degener". The Latin Library text runs words together here («degenerqui», «deosquam»), so the excerpts stop short of them. The intermediary was not found; the passage is not in Ramage's Latin Authors.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. De moribus (Proverbia Senecae), nos. 8 and 40.

Two sayings of the collection known as De moribus or Proverbia Senecae, which the Latin Library lists with Seneca's works, bracketed, and heads "Incerti auctoris liber, qui vulgo dicitur De moribus" (a book by an unknown author, commonly called On Morals): no. 8, "Non quam multis placeas, sed qualibus stude" (strive to please not many, but the right kind), and the end of no. 40, "Male de te opinantur homines, sed mali. Malis displicere est laudari" (men think ill of you, but bad men; to displease the bad is to be praised). Word for word from Thoughts of Wise Men (1903), 10 February, signed Seneca, which joins them: «Не интересуйся количеством, а качеством твоих почитателей» (care not for the number but for the quality of your admirers) and «не нравиться дурным — для человека похвально» (to displease the bad is praiseworthy for a man). Each half keeps its sense; "est laudari" (is to be praised) becomes «похвально» (praiseworthy). Ramage prints no. 8 (p. 478, "To Please") among "Publii Syri et aliorum sententiae" (Publilius Syrus and others), not under Seneca, and not no. 40, so Tolstoy took the pair from elsewhere; his source was not found. The signature follows the collection's traditional title; the saved edition calls its author unknown. In Путь жизни Tolstoy expanded the second half («бывает неприятно не нравиться добрым людям, но не нравиться дурным — всегда хорошо»).

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 14.2; 16.7–8.

Joined from two letters. Letter 14.2: "We should conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the body, but as if we could not live without it" (non tamquam propter corpus vivere debeamus, sed tamquam non possimus sine corpore); Tolstoy: «Мы должны жить не для нашего тела, но как бы поневоле считаясь с ним» (we must live not for our body but as though perforce taking account of it). Letter 16.7–8: "This also is a saying of Epicurus: 'If you live according to nature, you will never be poor; if you live according to opinion, you will never be rich.' Nature's wants are slight; the demands of opinion are boundless." Tolstoy renders "opinio" (opinion) twice as custom, «сообразно общепринятым условным обычаям» (according to generally accepted conventional customs) and «господствующие же обычаи требуют излишеств» (while the prevailing customs demand excesses), and sets Seneca's own comment after the quotation inside Epicurus's words. Ramage's Latin Authors has the Epicurus sentence alone (Ep. 16, "How to Live"); the source of the join was not found. The English excerpts are from the scan of Gummere's Loeb volume, whose OCR has slips ("livc") the excerpts avoid.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Naturales quaestiones, III, preface 5.

From the preface to Book III of the Natural Questions, where Seneca, old, turns from history to the study of nature: "Some writers have wasted their efforts in narrating the doings of foreign kings ... Surely it is wiser to try to end one's own ills than to record for a coming generation the ills of others. How much better to make one's theme the works of the gods than the robberies of Philip, or Alexander, or the other conquerors who earned their fame by the destruction of mankind! Such men were as truly scourges of humanity as a flood ... or a conflagration". Tolstoy has «искоренить зло нашей собственной эпохи» (root out the evil of our own age) for "sua mala extinguere" (to put out one's own ills); «прославлять в глазах потомства дурные дела прежних» (glorify before posterity the bad deeds of earlier men) for "aliena posteris tradere" (hand on others' ills to posterity); «восхвалять дела природы» (praise the works of nature) for "deorum opera celebrare" (celebrate the works of the gods); and «опустошительные набеги» (devastating raids) for "latrocinia" (robberies). The writers of history, to whom Seneca is answering, are left out. The intermediary was not found; the passage is not in Ramage's Latin Authors (searched: Philipp, Alexand, latrocinia).

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Troades, lines 407–408, the end of the chorus on death.

The last two lines of the chorus in Seneca's Troades that denies any life after death: "quaeris quo iaceas post obitum loco? quo non nata iacent" (you ask where you will lie after death? where the unborn lie). Miller: "Dost ask where thou shalt lie when death has claimed thee? Where they lie who were never born." Tolstoy turns the question addressed to the hearer into a general one, «Где умершие?» (where are the dead?), and answers «Там же, где нерожденные» (in the same place as the unborn), dropping the verb of lying (iacere, to lie dead). In the play the lines close an argument that "post mortem nihil est ipsaque mors nihil" (there is nothing after death, and death itself is nothing, line 397); the Circle prints them on a day whose opening thought calls death the condition of life, and so as a statement that the dead are where they were before birth. Tolstoy's intermediary was not established: the two lines stand in Ramage's Beautiful Thoughts from Latin Authors (p. 355, under Seneca, Troades), on the Jubilee list of his sources, with an English verse rendering ("Ask'st thou, whene'er thou com'st to die, Where thou shalt lie? Where lie the unborn?"), and Montaigne quotes them (Essais I.3; sources/montaigne-essays-en-cotton).

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 61.2.

A close translation of one sentence of Letter 61: "Before I became old I tried to live well; now that I am old, I shall try to die well; but dying well means dying gladly." «Хорошо умереть — значит умереть охотно» renders "bene autem mori est libenter mori" (but to die well is to die willingly), with «А» (and, but) for "autem". The letter goes on: see to it that you never do anything unwillingly. Tolstoy printed the sentence again in На каждый день (29 May, 9) and in Путь жизни (section XXIX «Смерть», ch. VI, no. 5), with «чтобы хорошо умереть, нужно умереть охотно» (to die well one must die willingly). The intermediary was not found; the sentence is not in Ramage's Latin Authors (searched: bene moriar, die well).

A likely source, not certain. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 41.1–2 and 41.5.

Probably a two-clause summary of Letter 41. Its first half, «Божественное живет в нас» (the divine lives in us), is the letter's opening: "God is near you, he is with you, he is within you. ... a holy spirit indwells within us" (sacer intra nos spiritus sedet). Its second, «и не переставая стремится к своему началу» (and ceaselessly strives toward its origin), is the soul of 41.5, which "does indeed associate with us, but still cleaves to its origin; on that source it depends, thither it turns its gaze and strives to go" (haeret origini suae; illinc pendet, illuc spectat ac nititur). Seneca's subject in 41.5 is the great soul of the good man; Tolstoy makes it the divine in all of us. Letter 92.30 says nearly the same of the man with virtue, "illo tendit originis suae memor" (mindful of his origin, he strains thither), and asks why one should not believe "something divine exists in him who is a part of God"; either letter could lie behind the thought, and no anthology giving it in Tolstoy's form was found (searched: Ramage's Latin Authors; Southgate's Many Thoughts, under Seneca). Hence candidate.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 2.6.

A close translation of one clause of Letter 2.6, where Seneca answers Epicurus's "Contented poverty is an honourable estate": "Indeed, if it be contented, it is not poverty at all. It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor." «Не тот беден, у кого мало, а тот, кто хочет большего» renders "non qui parum habet, sed qui plus cupit, pauper est" word for word; the Circle sets it in italics. The same line, signed «Сенека», stands among the spare days of the first edition (Jubilee vol. 42, «Запасные дни первого издания», I, «Богатство», no. 3). The intermediary was not established: Letter 2 is not in Ramage's Beautiful Thoughts from Latin Authors (its Seneca letters go from Letter 1 to Letter 9), nor in Southgate's two anthologies (searched: craves more, has little, desires more).

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 88.13 and 88.20.

Joined from two places in Letter 88, on the liberal studies. The first half is 88.13, Seneca's address to the geometer: "O what marvellous skill! You know how to measure the circle; you find the square of any shape which is set before you; you compute the distances between the stars; there is nothing which does not come within the scope of your calculations. But if you are a real master of your profession, measure me the mind of man! Tell me how great it is, or how puny! You know what a straight line is; but how does it benefit you if you do not know what is straight in this life of ours?" Seneca's ironic "O egregiam artem!" (O excellent art!) becomes «Благодаря твоему превосходному воспитанию» (thanks to your excellent upbringing); «Всё стало достижимо для твоей геометрии» (everything has come within reach of your geometry) renders "nihil est quod in mensuram tuam non cadat" (there is nothing that does not fall within your measuring); "si artifex es" (if you are a master of your craft) becomes «Если ты такой прекрасный механик» (if you are such a fine mechanic); and "quid in vita rectum sit" (what is straight in life) becomes «прямого пути в жизни» (the straight path in life). The second half is 88.20: «Если они и пригодны для чего другого, для добродетели они ничего не стоят» renders "Ad alia multum, ad virtutem nihil" (much for other things, nothing for virtue), and «Они не приводят ум к добродетели: они лишь расчищают путь» renders "liberales artes non perducunt animum ad virtutem sed expediunt" (the liberal arts do not lead the mind to virtue but clear the way). The sentence between them, «Все свободные науки оказываются несостоятельны для научения добродетели» (all the liberal sciences prove unable to teach virtue), states the letter's argument in Tolstoy's words. The intermediary was not established; Letter 88 is not in Ramage's Latin Authors.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. De tranquillitate animi, 9.4.

Tolstoy translates Ramage's English closely: «Большая библиотека скорее рассеевает, чем поучает читателя» is "A large library is apt to distract rather than to instruct the learner", and «Гораздо лучше ограничиться несколькими авторами, чем необдуманно читать многих» is "it is much better to confine yourself to a few authors than to wander at random over many". Ramage, on Tolstoy's list of sources (Jubilee vol. 42), prints the sentence alone under the heading "Books", with "librorum" added to Seneca's "turba"; his "a large library" for turba (the mass of books) and "distract" for onerat (burdens) are what the Russian follows. In Seneca the sentence answers his question about owners of countless books and libraries who hardly read the titles in a lifetime: "Onerat discentem turba, non instruit" (the mass burdens the learner, it does not instruct him). «Рассеевает» is the Jubilee text's spelling.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 73.15–16.

Seneca: "The gods are not disdainful or envious; they open the door to you; they lend a hand as you climb. Do you marvel that man goes to the gods? God comes to men; nay, he comes nearer, he comes into men. No mind that has not God, is good." Tolstoy turns the gods (dii) into one God, and their open door and offered hand ("admittunt et ascendentibus manum porrigunt") into «Бог притягивает тех, которые хотят подняться до него» (God draws those who wish to rise to him); Seneca's question "Miraris hominem ad deos ire?" (do you marvel that man goes to the gods?) becomes a conclusion, «И потому неудивительно, что человек стремится к богу» (and so it is no wonder that man strives toward God). The rest is close: «Бог идет к людям, входит в людей» for "Deus ad homines venit, ... in homines venit", leaving out "immo quod est propius" (nay, what is nearer), and «Нет ни одной души, которая была бы хороша без бога» for "nulla sine deo mens bona est". The printed editions of the Circle signed the thought «Цицерон»; the Jubilee editors corrected it to «Сенека» from the sources (vol. 42, list of corrected attributions, 9 October, 8), which is right. They made the same correction for 10-16.4, from Letter 41; why both were printed under Cicero's name was not found. The intermediary was not established; Letter 73 is not in Ramage's Latin Authors.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales ad Lucilium, 41.1–2.

A close translation of Letter 41.1–2 from "prope est a te deus": "God is near you, he is with you, he is within you. This is what I mean, Lucilius: a holy spirit indwells within us, one who marks our good and bad deeds, and is our guardian. As we treat this spirit, so are we treated by it. Indeed, no man can be good without the help of God." Tolstoy leaves out the address "Ita dico, Lucili" and custos (guardian), writes «Божественный дух» (divine spirit) for "sacer spiritus" (holy spirit), and puts «добрых и дурных» (good and bad) for "malorum bonorumque" (bad and good). The printed editions of the Circle signed the thought «Цицерон»; the Jubilee editors corrected it to «Сенека» from the sources (vol. 42, list of corrected attributions, 16 October, 4), which is right, as for 10-9.8. September's 9-18.3 draws on the same letter. The intermediary was not established; Letter 41 is not in Ramage's Latin Authors.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales, Ep. 95.57.

Tolstoy starts at the second link of the chain (drops 'conduct will not be right unless the will is right') and makes the 'laws of life as a whole' 'eternal'; the clauses on judgment and truth are dropped.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales, Ep. 80.6.

The single clause 'saepius pauper et fidelius ridet' (Gummere: 'the poor man smiles more often and more genuinely'), lifted out of its argument; 'fidelius' (more sincerely) becomes 'more carefree'.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales, Ep. 70.4.

Faithful to the maxim; in Seneca it justifies not clinging to life (the letter is on suicide), a context Tolstoy drops.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. De beneficiis, I.1.8.

The causal clause only, made a free-standing maxim and said twice; Seneca's point (so a benefactor must not give insultingly) is dropped.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. De ira, I.14.1-15.1.

Close, condensed paraphrase of I.14-15.1. Tolstoy drops Seneca's 'by warning and by force, gently and harshly' and the following justification of executing the incorrigible, and softens 'correction... not without chastisement' to 'serious admonitions, but without anger'; 'with love' is added.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. De vita beata, 1.4.

Faithful in sense; 'cause and author of another's error' becomes 'spreads his error among those around him'.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. Epistulae morales, Ep. 6.5.

Faithful in sense; Seneca's 'long road / short and effective' becomes 'hard / easy', and 'to lead to good' is supplied.

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. De vita beata, 24.3.

A close translation of the one sentence 'ubicumque homo est, ibi benefici locus est', taken out of its argument (a rich man's own house, slaves and freedmen included, gives room for generosity).

The words shown were found, word for word, in the saved source text. De beneficiis, VII.1.7.

Seneca, quoting the Cynic Demetrius: whatever will make us better and happier, nature 'has placed in the open or close at hand' (the subject of posuit is natura, from the clause before). Tolstoy's sentence is otherwise a close translation, but he makes the subject God ('бог поставил'), and drops the setting (we cannot complain of nature's grudging, since only discoveries whose sole reward is the discovering are hard).