56 THE APOSTLE PAUL maintaining his connection with his home, dwells in our world only as a stranger of nobler origin (Ep. xli.). Turns of thought such as this, although, doubtless, something is to be put down to Seneca’s rhetorical style, nevertheless betray a certain vacilla- tion between the philosophic rationalism of his school and the religious belief in revelation and salvation, such as was common in connection with the enthusiasm of the mystery-cults in the Orphic-Pythagorean circles of the time, and found a natural support in the widespread pessimistic sense of powerlessness and need of help. Moreover, points of contact with the philosophy of the Orphic mysteries are found else- where in Seneca’s system of thought. His belief in immortality, his estimate of the earthly life as a mere prelude to the life beyond, his description of the day of death as the birthday of that part of us which is eternal, are not Stoic at all, but Platonic and Orphic. As the Orphics believed in divine saviours (cot cwrfipes) and divinely inspired mediators of salvation who had been sent in the past, and continued to be sent in the present, to the help of mankind who stood in need of help, similarly Seneca points men who strive after ethical perfection to leaders and load-stars, with the picture of whom the struggling soul should fill itself completely. “We must,” he writes, “seek out some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, in order that we may so live and act as though we were in his sight. So Epicurus prescribed, giving us in this way a guardian and guide; and not without reason. Many sins are suppressed if a witness comes on the scene before the deed is done. Our heart must have someone to honour, someone