take myself to be tested not by Stoic gods but by the ghost of Seneca. And in a deeper sense, the ghost of Seneca does exist. Because I have read his works, Seneca haunts my intellect, occasionally offering me a compliment but much more often raising his ghostly eyebrows at me in a look of dismay. Regardless of the imaginary tester we choose, the key thing is that we assume that we are being tested for our own good.
