Letters 108.29

“Besides,” he says to himself, “think of the epithet that accompanies eld; Vergil calls it bitter,”—

Disease and bitter eld succeed.

And elsewhere Vergil says:

There dwelleth pale disease and bitter eld.

There is no reason why you should marvel that each man can collect from the same source suitable matter for his own studies; for in the same meadow the cow grazes, the dog hunts the hare, and the stork the lizard.

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 108.29, translated by Richard Mott Gummere