Seneca: EPISTULAE MORALES AD LUCILIUM

[1] Iam intellegis educendum esse te ex istis occupationibus speciosis et malis, sed quomodo id consequi possis quaeris. Quaedam non nisi a praesente monstrantur; non potest medicus per epistulas cibi aut balinei tempus eligere: vena tangenda est. Vetus proverbium est gladiatorem in harena capere consilium: aliquid adversarii vultus, aliquid manus mota, aliquid ipsa inclinatio corporis intuentem monet.

[1] Already you understand that you must be led out from those specious and bad occupations, but you ask how you can achieve that. Certain things are shown only by one who is present; a physician cannot choose by letters the time for food or for the bath: the vein must be felt. It is an old proverb: the gladiator takes counsel in the arena: something in the adversary’s face, something in the moved hand, something the very inclination of the body warns the observer.

[2] Quid fieri soleat, quid oporteat, in universum et mandari potest et scribi; tale consilium non tantum absentibus, etiam posteris datur: illud alterum, quando fieri debeat aut quemadmodum, ex longinquo nemo suadebit, cum rebus ipsis deliberandum est.

[2] What is wont to be done, what ought to be done, in general can both be prescribed and written; such counsel is given not only to the absent, but even to posterity: the other matter—when it ought to be done or in what manner—no one will advise from afar, since one must deliberate with the things themselves.

[3] Non tantum praesentis sed vigilantis est occasionem observare properantem; itaque hanc circumspice, hanc si videris prende, et toto impetu, totis viribus id age ut te istis officiis exuas. Et quidem quam sententiam feram attende: censeo aut ex ista vita tibi aut e vita exeundum. Sed idem illud existimo, leni eundum via, ut quod male implicuisti solvas potius quam abrumpas, dummodo, si alia solvendi ratio non erit, vel abrumpas.

[3] It is the part not only of one who is present but of one who is vigilant to observe the occasion as it hastens by; therefore look around for this, this—if you see it—seize it, and with full onset, with all your forces, do this: that you divest yourself of those duties. And indeed attend to the judgment I shall deliver: I am of the opinion that you must make an exit either from that way of life or from life. But I likewise think this: you should go by a gentle way, so that what you have ill entangled you may untie rather than break off, provided that, if there will be no other method of untying, you even break it off.

Nemo tam timidus est ut malit semper pendere quam semel cadere.

No one is so timid as to prefer to be always in suspense rather than to fall once.

[4] Interim, quod primum est, impedire te noli; contentus esto negotiis in quae descendisti, vel, quod videri mavis, incidisti. Non est quod ad ulteriora nitaris, aut perdes excusationem et apparebit te non incidisse. Ista enim quae dici solent falsa sunt: 'non potui aliter.

[4] Meanwhile, what is first, do not impede yourself; be content with the businesses into which you have descended, or, as you prefer to seem, into which you have fallen. There is no ground for you to strive toward further things, or you will lose your excuse and it will appear that you did not fall into it. For those sayings which are wont to be said are false: 'I could do no otherwise.

Quid si nollem? necesse erat.' Nulli necesse est felicitatem cursu sequi: est aliquid, etiam si non repugnare, subsistere nec instare fortunae ferenti.

What if I had not wanted to? 'It was necessary.' For no one is it necessary to pursue felicity at a run: it counts for something, even if not to resist, to stand still and not to press upon Fortune as she bears one along.

[5] Numquid offenderis si in consilium non venio tantum sed advoco, et quidem prudentiores quam ipse sum, ad quos soleo deferre si quid delibero? Epicuri epistulam ad hanc rem pertinentem lege, Idomeneo quae inscribitur, quem rogat ut quantum potest fugiat et properet, antequam aliqua vis maior interveniat et auferat libertatem recedendi.

[5] Would you be offended if I not only come into counsel but also call others to it, indeed men more prudent than I am, to whom I am accustomed to defer whenever I deliberate anything? Read the epistle of Epicurus pertaining to this matter, the one inscribed to Idomeneus, whom he asks to flee as much as he can and to make haste, before some greater force intervenes and takes away the liberty of withdrawing.

[6] Idem tamen subicit nihil esse temptandum nisi cum apte poterit tempestiveque temptari; sed cum illud tempus captatum diu venerit, exsiliendum ait. Dormitare de fuga cogitantem vetat et sperat salutarem etiam ex difficillimis exitum, si nec properemus ante tempus nec cessemus in tempore.

[6] The same, nevertheless, subjoins that nothing is to be attempted unless it can be attempted aptly and seasonably; but when that time, long sought, has come, he says one must spring forth. He forbids one who is thinking about flight to doze, and he hopes for a salutary exit even from the most difficult circumstances, if we neither hasten before the time nor are idle when it is time.

[7] Puto, nunc et Stoicam sententiam quaeris. Non est quod quisquam illos apud te temeritatis infamet: cautiores quam fortiores sunt. Exspectas forsitan ut tibi haec dicant: 'turpe est cedere oneri; luctare cum officio quod semel recepisti.

[7] I think, now you also seek the Stoic opinion. There is no cause for anyone to defame them before you with rashness: they are more cautious than more brave. Perhaps you expect that they say these things to you: 'it is disgraceful to yield to the burden; wrestle with the office which you once took up.

Non est vir fortis ac strenuus qui laborem fugit, nisi crescit illi animus ipsa rerum difficultate.'

He is not a brave and strenuous man who flees labor, unless his spirit grows by the very difficulty of things.'

[8] Dicentur tibi ista, si operae pretium habebit perseverantia, si nihil indignum bono viro faciendum patiendumve erit; alioqui sordido se et contumelioso labore non conteret nec in negotiis erit negotii causa. Ne illud quidem quod existimas facturum eum faciet, ut ambitiosis rebus implicitus semper aestus earum ferat; sed cum viderit gravia in quibus volutatur, incerta, ancipitia, referet pedem, non vertet terga, sed sensim recedet in tutum.

[8] These things will be said to you, if perseverance will be worth the effort, if nothing unworthy of a good man will have to be done or endured; otherwise he will not wear himself down with sordid and contumelious labor, nor will he be in businesses for the sake of business. Not even that which you suppose he will do will he do: that, entangled in ambitious affairs, he should always bear their heat; but when he has seen that the things in which he is wallowing are heavy, uncertain, perilous, he will draw back a step—he will not turn his back, but little by little will withdraw into safety.

[9] Facile est autem, mi Lucili, occupationes evadere, si occupationum pretia contempseris; illa sunt quae nos morantur et detinent. 'Quid ergo? tam magnas spes relinquam?

[9] It is easy, however, my Lucilius, to evade occupations, if you scorn the prices of occupations; those are the things which delay and detain us. 'What then? shall I abandon such great hopes?

ab ipsa messe discedam? nudum erit latus, incomitata lectica, atrium vacuum?' Ab his ergo inviti homines recedunt et mercedem miseriarum amant, ipsas exsecrantur. Sic de ambitione quo modo de amica queruntur, id est, si verum affectum eorum inspicias, non oderunt sed litigant.

“Shall I depart from the very harvest itself? Will my side be bare, my litter unaccompanied, my atrium empty?” From these, therefore, men withdraw unwillingly, and they love the wage of their miseries, while they execrate the miseries themselves. Thus about ambition they complain as about a mistress; that is, if you inspect their true affection, they do not hate but litigate.

Excute istos qui quae cupiere deplorant et de earum rerum loquuntur fuga quibus carere non possunt, videbis voluntariam esse illis in eo moram quod aegre ferre ipsos et misere loquuntur. Ita est, Lucili: paucos servitus, plures servitutem tenent. Sed si deponere illam in animo est et libertas bona fide placuit, in hoc autem unum advocationem petis, ut sine perpetua sollicitudine id tibi facere contingat, quidni tota te cohors Stoicorum probatura sit?

Shake out those who lament the very things they have desired and speak of flight from the things without which they cannot be; you will see that their delay is voluntary in the very matter which they themselves say they can hardly bear and about which they speak miserably. So it is, Lucilius: servitude holds a few, more hold on to servitude. But if it is in your mind to lay that down, and liberty has pleased you in good faith, and you ask for advocacy in this one point—that it may befall you to do this without perpetual solicitude—why should not the whole cohort of the Stoics approve you?

omnes Zenones et Chrysippi moderata, honesta, tua suadebunt. Sed si propter hoc tergiversaris, ut circumaspicias quantum feras tecum et quam magna pecunia instruas otium, numquam exitum invenies: nemo cum sarcinis enatat. Emerge ad meliorem vitam propitiis diis, sed non sic quomodo istis propitii sunt quibus bono ac benigno vultu mala magnifica tribuerunt, ob hoc unum excusati, quod ista quae urunt, quae excruciant, optantibus data sunt.

all the Zenos and Chrysippuses will urge the moderate, the honorable, what is yours. But if for this you hedge, so as to look around at how much you carry with you and with how great a sum of money you equip your leisure, you will never find an exit: no one swims out with baggage. Emerge to a better life with the gods propitious, but not in the way in which they are propitious to those to whom, with a good and benign countenance, they have bestowed magnificent evils, excused on this one ground, that these things which burn, which excruciate, were given to those who desired them.

[13] Iam imprimebam epistulae signum: resolvenda est, ut cum sollemni ad te munusculo veniat et aliquam magnificam vocem ferat secum; et occurrit mihi ecce nescio utrum verior an eloquentior. 'Cuius?' inquis. Epicuri; adhuc enim alienas +sarcinas adoro+: 'nemo non ita exit e vita tamquam modo intraverit'. Quemcumque vis occupa, adulescentem, senem, medium: invenies aeque timidum mortis, aeque inscium vitae.

[13] I was already pressing the seal upon the epistle: it must be unsealed, so that it may come to you with the customary little gift and may carry with it some magnificent utterance; and there occurs to me—behold—I know not whether truer or more eloquent. 'Whose?' you ask. Epicurus’s; for as yet I adore alien baggage: 'No one goes out of life otherwise than as if he had just entered.' Whomever you please, seize—youth, old man, man of the middle—you will find him equally timid of death, equally unknowing of life.

Nemo quicquam habet facti; in futurum enim nostra distulimus. Nihil me magis in ista voce delectat quam quod exprobratur senibus infantia. 'Nemo' inquit 'aliter quam quomodo natus est exit e vita.' Falsum est: peiores morimur quam nascimur.

No one has anything accomplished; for we have deferred our matters to the future. Nothing in that utterance pleases me more than that infancy is reproached to old men. “No one,” he says, “exits from life otherwise than as he was born.” It is false: we die worse than we are born.

Nostrum istud, non naturae vitium est. Illa nobiscum queri debet et dicere, 'quid hoc est? sine cupiditatibus vos genui, sine timoribus, sine superstitione, sine perfidia ceterisque pestibus: quales intrastis exite'. Percepit sapientiam, si quis tam securus moritur quam nascitur; nunc vero trepidamus cum periculum accessit, non animus nobis, non color constat, lacrimae nihil profuturae cadunt.

This is our fault, not nature’s vice. She ought to complain against us and say, 'What is this? I begot you without desires, without fears, without superstition, without perfidy and the other pests: go out such as you entered.' He has apprehended wisdom, if someone dies as secure as he is born; but now, indeed, we quake when danger has approached—neither our spirit nor our color stands fast—and tears fall that will be of no profit.

Quid est turpius quam in ipso limine securitatis esse sollicitum? Causa autem haec est, quod inanes omnium bonorum sumus, vitae <iactura> laboramus. Non enim apud nos pars eius ulla subsedit: transmissa est et effluxit.

What is more disgraceful than to be anxious on the very threshold of security? But the cause is this: that we are empty of all goods; we labor under the <loss> of life. For no part of it has settled with us: it has been transmitted and has flowed away.

Nemo quam bene vivat sed quam diu curat, cum omnibus possit contingere ut bene vivant, ut diu nulli. Vale.

No one is concerned with how well he lives but with how long; though it can befall all to live well, to live long to no one. Farewell.

XXIII. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM

23. SENECA TO HIS LUCILIUS, GREETINGS

[1] Putas me tibi scripturum quam humane nobiscum hiemps gerit, quae et remissa fuit et brevis, quam malignum ver sit, quam praeposterum frigus, et alias ineptias verba quaerentium? Ego vero aliquid quod et mihi et tibi prodesse possit scribam. Quid autem id erit nisi ut te exhorter ad bonam mentem?

[1] Do you think I am going to write to you how humanely winter deals with us, which has been both remiss and brief, how malign the spring is, how preposterous the cold, and other ineptitudes of those seeking words? I, for my part, will write something that can be of use both to me and to you. And what will that be, except that I exhort you to a good mind?

Huius fundamentum quod sit quaeris? ne gaudeas vanis. Fundamentum hoc esse dixi: culmen est.

You ask what the foundation of this is? Do not rejoice in vain things. I have said this to be the foundation: it is the summit.

Ad summa pervenit qui scit quo gaudeat, qui felicitatem suam in aliena potestate non posuit; sollicitus est et incertus sui quem spes aliqua proritat, licet ad manum sit, licet non ex difficili petatur, licet numquam illum sperata deceperint.

He has reached the heights who knows wherein to rejoice, who has not placed his felicity in alien power; anxious and unsure of himself is the one whom some hope goads on, although it is at hand, although it be not sought from difficulty, although the hoped-for things have never deceived him.

[3] Hoc ante omnia fac, mi Lucili: disce gaudere. Existimas nunc me detrahere tibi multas voluptates qui fortuita summoveo, qui spes, dulcissima oblectamenta, devitandas existimo? immo contra nolo tibi umquam deesse laetitiam.

[3] Do this before all things, my Lucilius: learn to rejoice. Do you suppose now that I am detracting from you many pleasures, I who remove fortuitous things, who think that hopes, the sweetest oblectations, are to be avoided? Nay rather, on the contrary, I do not want gladness ever to be lacking to you.

Volo illam tibi domi nasci: nascitur si modo intra te ipsum fit. Ceterae hilaritates non implent pectus; frontem remittunt, leves sunt, nisi forte tu iudicas eum gaudere qui ridet: animus esse debet alacer et fidens et supra omnia erectus.

I want it to be born for you at home: it is born if only it is made within yourself. The other hilarities do not fill the breast; they relax the brow, they are light, unless perhaps you judge him to rejoice who laughs: the mind ought to be brisk and confident and, above all, uplifted.

[4] Mihi crede, verum gaudium res severa est. An tu existimas quemquam soluto vultu et, ut isti delicati loquuntur, hilariculo mortem contemnere, paupertati domum aperire, voluptates tenere sub freno, meditari dolorum patientiam? Haec qui apud se versat in magno gaudio est, sed parum blando.

[4] Believe me, true joy is a severe thing. Do you think that anyone with a relaxed countenance and, as those delicate ones say, a “little hilarity,” contemns death, opens his house to poverty, holds pleasures under the bridle, meditates the patience of pains? He who turns these matters over with himself is in great joy, but not very bland.

In huius gaudii possessione esse te volo: numquam deficiet, cum semel unde petatur inveneris.

I want you to be in possession of this joy: it will never fail, once you have found whence it is to be sought.

[5] Levium metallorum fructus in summo est: illa opulentissima sunt quorum in alto latet vena assidue plenius responsura fodienti. Haec quibus delectatur vulgus tenuem habent ac perfusoriam voluptatem, et quodcumque invecticium gaudium est fundamento caret: hoc de quo loquor, ad quod te conor perducere, solidum est et quod plus pateat introrsus.

[5] The yield of shallow ores is on the surface: those are most opulent whose vein lies deep, assiduously to answer more fully to the digger. These things with which the crowd is delighted have a thin and perfusory pleasure, and whatever joy is imported lacks a foundation: this of which I speak, to which I am trying to conduct you, is solid and one that opens up more inwardly.

[6] Fac, oro te, Lucili carissime, quod unum potest praestare felicem: dissice et conculca ista quae extrinsecus splendent, quae tibi promittuntur ab alio vel ex alio; ad verum bonum specta et de tuo gaude. Quid est autem hoc 'de tuo'? te ipso et tui optima parte. Corpusculum bonum esse credideris: veri boni aviditas tuta est.

[6] Do, I beg you, dearest Lucilius, that one thing which alone can render [a man] happy: tear apart and trample underfoot those things which shine from the outside, which are promised to you by another or from another; look toward the true good and rejoice in what is your own. And what is this ‘of your own’? yourself and the best part of yourself. You may have believed the little body to be a good; the avidity for the true good is safe.

[7] Quod sit istud interrogas, aut unde subeat? Dicam: ex bona conscientia, ex honestis consiliis, ex rectis actionibus, ex contemptu fortuitorum, ex placido vitae et continuo tenore unam prementis viam. Nam illi qui ex aliis propositis in alia transiliunt aut ne transiliunt quidem sed casu quodam transmittuntur, quomodo habere quicquam certum mansurumve possunt suspensi et vagi?

[7] You ask what that is, or whence it arises? I will say: from a good conscience, from honest counsels, from right actions, from contempt of fortuitous things, from a placid and continuous tenor of life pressing a single path. For those who leap from one purpose to another, or do not even leap across but are carried across by a certain chance, how can they have anything certain or that will remain, being in suspense and wandering?

[8] Pauci sunt qui consilio se suaque disponant: ceteri, eorum more quae fluminibus innatant, non eunt sed feruntur; ex quibus alia lenior unda detinuit ac mollius vexit, alia vehementior rapuit, alia proxima ripae cursu languescente deposuit, alia torrens impetus in mare eiecit. Ideo constituendum est quid velimus et in eo perseverandum.

[8] Few there are who dispose by counsel themselves and their own; the rest, after the manner of things that float upon rivers, do not go but are borne along: of which some a gentler wave has detained and has carried more softly, others a more vehement one has snatched away, others, nearest to the bank, with the course slackening, it has set down, others a torrent-like impetus has cast into the sea. Therefore it must be determined what we wish, and in that we must persevere.

[9] Hic est locus solvendi aeris alieni. Possum enim tibi vocem Epicuri tui reddere et hanc epistulam liberare: 'molestum est semper vitam inchoare'; aut si hoc modo magis sensus potest exprimi, 'male vivunt qui semper vivere incipiunt'.

[9] Here is the place for discharging a debt. For I can render to you the voice of your Epicurus and liberate this epistle: 'it is troublesome always to begin life'; or, if the sense can be better expressed in this way, 'they live badly who are always beginning to live'.

[10] 'Quare?' inquis; desiderat enim explanationem ista vox. Quia semper illis imperfecta vita est; non potest autem stare paratus ad mortem qui modo incipit vivere. Id agendum est ut satis vixerimus: nemo hoc praestat qui orditur cum maxime vitam.

[10] 'Why?' you ask; for that utterance desires an explanation. Because their life is always imperfect; nor can he stand prepared for death who has only just begun to live. We must so act that we have lived enough: no one accomplishes this who is in the very act of commencing life.

[11] Non est quod existimes paucos.esse hos: propemodum omnes sunt. Quidam vero tunc incipiunt cum desinendum est. Si hoc iudicas mirum, adiciam quod magis admireris: quidam ante vivere desierunt quam inciperent.

[11] There is no reason for you to think these are few: almost all are. Some indeed begin then when one ought to stop. If you judge this marvelous, I will add something you might marvel at more: some ceased to live before they began.

Vale.

Farewell.

XXIV. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM

24. SENECA TO HIS LUCILIUS, GREETINGS

[1] Sollicitum esse te scribis de iudici eventu quod tibi furor inimici denuntiat; existimas me suasurum ut meliora tibi ipse proponas et acquiescas spei blandae. Quid enim necesse est mala accersere, satis cito patienda cum venerint praesumere, ac praesens tempus futuri metu perdere? Est sine dubio stultum, quia quandoque sis futurus miser, esse iam miserum.

[1] You write that you are anxious about the outcome of the judgment which the frenzy of an enemy threatens you with; you suppose I shall advise that you set better things before yourself and acquiesce in a coaxing hope. For what need is there to summon evils, to presume upon those that must be endured soon enough when they have come, and to lose the present time by fear of the future? It is without doubt foolish, because someday you will be going to be wretched, to be wretched already.

[2] Sed ego alia te ad securitatem via ducam: si vis omnem sollicitudinem exuere, quidquid vereris ne eveniat eventurum utique propone, et quodcumque est illud malum, tecum ipse metire ac timorem tuum taxa: intelleges profecto aut non magnum aut non longum esse quod metuis.

[2] But I will lead you to security by another way: if you wish to strip off all solicitude, set before yourself as sure to happen whatever you fear may happen, and whatever that evil is, measure it yourself and assess your fear; you will surely understand that what you dread is either not great or not long-lasting.

[3] Nec diu exempla quibus confirmeris colligenda sunt: omnis illa aetas tulit. In quamcumque partem rerum vel civilium vel externarum memoriam miseris, occurrent tibi ingenia aut profectus aut impetus magni. Numquid accidere tibi, si damnaris, potest durius quam ut mittaris in exilium, ut ducaris in carcerem?

[3] Nor need examples, by which you may be confirmed, be collected for long: the whole age has furnished them. Into whatever part of affairs, whether civil or external, you send your memory, there will meet you geniuses or progresses or great impetus. Can anything, if you are condemned, happen to you more harsh than to be sent into exile, to be led into prison?

Numquid ultra quicquam ulli timendum est quam ut uratur, quam ut pereat? Singula ista constitue et contemptores eorum cita, qui non quaerendi sed eligendi sunt.

Is there anything further for anyone to fear than to be burned, than to perish? Set these things out one by one, and summon their despisers, who are not to be sought but to be chosen.

[4] Damnationem suam Rutilius sic tulit tamquam nihil illi molestum aliud esset quam quod male iudicaretur. Exilium Metellus fortiter tulit, Rutilius etiam libenter; alter ut rediret rei publicae praestitit, alter reditum suum Sullae negavit, cui nihil tunc negabatur. In carcere Socrates disputavit et exire, cum essent qui promitterent fugam, noluit remansitque, ut duarum rerum gravissimarum hominibus metum demeret, mortis et carceris.

[4] Rutilius bore his damnation as if nothing else were troublesome to him than that he was judged ill. Metellus bore exile bravely, Rutilius even willingly; the former rendered service to the commonwealth in order that he might return, the latter denied his return to Sulla, to whom nothing then was denied. In prison Socrates disputed, and to go out—although there were those who promised a flight—he was unwilling, and he remained, in order to remove from men the fear of two most grave things, death and prison.

[5] Mucius ignibus manum imposuit. Acerbum est uri: quanto acerbius si id te faciente patiaris! Vides hominem non eruditum nec ullis praeceptis contra mortem aut dolorem subornatum, militari tantum robore instructum, poenas a se irriti conatus exigentem; spectator destillantis in hostili foculo dexterae stetit nec ante removit nudis ossibus fluentem manum quam ignis illi ab hoste subductus est.

[5] Mucius laid his hand upon the fires. It is bitter to be burned: how much more bitter if you suffer it with yourself doing the deed! You see a man not erudite nor equipped by any precepts against death or pain, but furnished only with military robustness, exacting penalties from himself for an abortive attempt; he stood, a spectator of his right hand dripping upon the enemy’s brazier, nor did he remove his hand, flowing down to naked bones, before the fire was withdrawn from him by the enemy.

Facere aliquid in illis castris felicius potuit, nihil fortius. Vide quanto acrior sit ad occupanda pericula virtus quam crudelitas ad irroganda: facilius Porsina Mucio ignovit quod voluerat occidere quam sibi Mucius quod non occiderat.

In that camp he could have done something more felicitously, nothing more bravely. See how much keener virtue is for seizing upon dangers than cruelty is for imposing penalties: Porsina more easily pardoned Mucius for having wished to kill him than Mucius pardoned himself for not having killed him.

[6] 'Decantatae' inquis 'in omnibus scholis fabulae istae sunt; iam mihi, cum ad contemnendam mortem ventum fuerit, Catonem narrabis.' Quidni ego narrem ultima illa nocte Platonis librum legentem posito ad caput gladio? Duo haec in rebus extremis instrumenta prospexerat, alterum ut vellet mori, alterum ut posset. Compositis ergo rebus, utcumque componi fractae atque ultimae poterant, id agendum existimavit ne cui Catonem aut occidere liceret aut servare contingeret;

[6] 'Oft-sung,' you say, 'in all the schools are these tales; now, when it comes to the point of despising death, you will be telling me Cato.' Why should I not narrate him, on that last night, reading a book of Plato with a sword placed at his head? He had provided in extreme circumstances for these two instruments: the one, that he might will to die; the other, that he might be able. Therefore, his affairs composed, so far as broken and terminal things could be composed, he judged that this must be done: that it might be permitted to no one to kill Cato, nor happen to anyone to save him.

[7] et stricto gladio quem usque in illum diem ab omni caede purum servaverat, 'nihil' inquit 'egisti, fortuna, omnibus conatibus meis obstando. Non pro mea adhuc sed pro patriae libertate pugnavi, nec agebam tanta pertinacia ut liber, sed ut inter liberos, viverem: nunc quoniam deploratae sunt res generis humani, Cato deducatur in tutum.'

[7] and, with the sword drawn, which up to that day he had kept pure from all slaughter, he said: 'You have accomplished nothing, Fortune, by opposing all my attempts. I have fought not for my own liberty up to now, but for the fatherland’s liberty, nor did I act with such pertinacity that I might live as a free man, but that I might live among free men: now, since the affairs of the human race are deplored as lost, let Cato be conducted into safety.'

[8] Impressit deinde mortiferum corpori vulnus; quo obligato a medicis cum minus sanguinis haberet, minus virium, animi idem, iam non tantum Caesari sed sibi iratus nudas in vulnus manus egit et generosum illum contemptoremque omnis potentiae spiritum non emisit sed eiecit.

[8] Then he impressed upon his body a mortal wound; which, when it had been bound up by the physicians, since he had less blood, less strength, the same spirit, now angry not only with Caesar but with himself, he drove his bare hands into the wound and that noble spirit, a contemner of all power, he did not emit but ejected.

[9] Non in hoc exempla nunc congero ut ingenium exerceam, sed ut te adversus id quod maxime terribile videtur exhorter; facilius autem exhortabor, si ostendero non fortes tantum viros hoc momentum efflandae animae contempsisse sed quosdam ad alia ignavos in hac re aequasse animum fortissimorum, sicut illum Cn. Pompei socerum Scipionem, qui contrario in Africam vento relatus cum teneri navem suam vidisset ab hostibus, ferro se transverberavit et quaerentibus ubi imperator esset, 'imperator' inquit 'se bene habet'.

[9] I am not now piling up examples for this purpose, to exercise my ingenuity, but to exhort you against that which seems most terrible; and I shall exhort more easily, if I show that not only brave men have contemned this moment of breathing out the spirit, but that certain men cowardly in other matters have in this matter matched the spirit of the very bravest, as that Scipio, father-in-law of Cn. Pompey, who, carried back to Africa by a contrary wind, when he had seen his ship being held by the enemies, pierced himself through with steel, and to those asking where the general was, said, “the general is well.”

[10] Vox haec illum parem maioribus fecit et fatalem Scipionibus in Africa gloriam non est interrumpi passa. Multum fuit Carthaginem vincere, sed amplius mortem. 'Imperator' inquit 'se bene habet': an aliter debebat imperator, et quidem Catonis, mori?

[10] This utterance made him the peer of his ancestors and did not allow the fateful glory of the Scipios in Africa to be interrupted. It was much to conquer Carthage, but more to conquer death. 'The commander,' he said, 'is doing well': should a commander—and indeed Cato’s—have died otherwise?

[11] Non revoco te ad historias nec ex omnibus saeculis contemptores mortis, qui sunt plurimi, colligo; respice ad haec nostra tempora, de quorum languore ac delicis querimur: omnis ordinis homines suggerent, omnis fortunae, omnis aetatis, qui mala sua morte praeciderint. Mihi crede, Lucili, adeo mors timenda non est ut beneficio eius nihil timendum sit.

[11] I do not summon you back to histories, nor do I compile from all the ages the despisers of death, who are very many; look to these our times, whose languor and delicacies we complain of: men of every order, every fortune, every age will furnish (them), who have cut short their evils by death. Believe me, Lucilius, death is so far from being to be feared that by its benefit nothing is to be feared.

[12] Securus itaque inimici minas audi; et quamvis conscientia tibi tua fiduciam faciat, tamen, quia multa extra causam valent, et quod aequissimum est spera et ad id te quod est iniquissimum compara. Illud autem ante omnia memento, demere rebus tumultum ac videre quid in quaque re sit: scies nihil esse in istis terribile nisi ipsum timorem.

[12] Hear, therefore, the enemy’s threats untroubled; and although your conscience gives you confidence, nevertheless, because many things outside the case have weight, both hope for what is most equitable and prepare yourself for that which is most iniquitous. But remember this before all: to remove the tumult from things and to see what there is in each matter: you will know that there is nothing terrible in these things except fear itself.

[13] Quod vides accidere pueris, hoc nobis quoque maiusculis pueris evenit: illi quos amant, quibus assueverunt, cum quibus ludunt, si personatos vident, expavescunt: non hominibus tantum sed rebus persona demenda est et reddenda facies sua.

[13] What you see happen to children, this likewise befalls us too, children of somewhat larger size: those whom they love, to whom they have become accustomed, with whom they play—if they see them masked, they are panic-stricken: not only from human beings but from things the mask must be removed, and their own face restored.

[14] Quid mihi gladios et ignes ostendis et turbam carnificum circa te frementem? Tolle istam pompam sub qua lates et stultos territas: mors es, quam nuper servus meus, quam ancilla contempsit. Quid tu rursus mihi flagella et eculeos magno apparatu explicas?

[14] Why do you show me swords and fires and a mob of executioners roaring around you? Remove that pomp under which you lie hidden and with which you terrify fools: you are death, whom recently my slave, whom a maidservant, despised. Why do you again, with great apparatus, display to me scourges and racks?

quid singulis articulis singula machinamenta quibus extorqueantur aptata et mille alia instrumenta excarnificandi particulatim hominis? Pone ista quae nos obstupefaciunt; iube conticiscere gemitus et exclamationes et vocum inter lacerationem elisarum acerbitatem: nempe dolor es, quem podagricus ille contemnit, quem stomachicus ille in ipsis delicis perfert, quem in puerperio puella perpetitur. Levis es si ferre possum; brevis es si ferre non possum.

what of the several machines, fitted to each individual joint by which they are wrenched, and a thousand other instruments for flaying a man piece by piece? Put aside those things which stupefy us; bid the groans and the exclamations and the acerbity of voices, crushed out amid the rending, to be silent: you are pain, to wit, which that gouty fellow scorns, which that dyspeptic fellow endures even in the very delights, which a girl undergoes in childbed. You are light if I can bear you; you are brief if I cannot bear you.

[15] Haec in animo voluta, quae saepe audisti, saepe dixisti; sed an vere audieris, an vere dixeris, effectu proba; hoc enim turpissimum est quod nobis obici solet, verba nos philosophiae, non opera tractare. Quid? tu nunc primum tibi mortem imminere scisti, nunc exilium, nunc dolorem?

[15] These things, turned over in your mind, which you have often heard, often said; but whether you have truly heard, truly said, prove by the effect; for this is most shameful, which is wont to be objected to us: that we handle the words of philosophy, not the works. What? Is it only now that you have learned death is impending for you—now exile, now pain?

in haec natus es; quidquid fieri potest quasi futurum cogitemus.

for these you were born; let us consider whatever can happen as if future.

[16] Quod facere te moneo scio certe fecisse: nunc admoneo ut animum tuum non mergas in istam sollicitudinem; hebetabitur enim et minus habebit vigoris cum exsurgendum erit. Abduc illum a privata causa ad publicam; dic mortale tibi et fragile corpusculum esse, cui non ex iniuria tantum aut ex potentioribus viribus denuntiabitur dolor: ipsae voluptates in tormenta vertuntur, epulae cruditatem afferunt, ebrietates nervorum torporem tremoremque, libidines pedum, manuum, articulorum omnium depravationes.

[16] What I advise you to do I know for certain you have done: now I admonish you not to plunge your spirit into that anxiety; for it will be dulled and will have less vigor when there will be need to rise up. Draw it away from the private cause to the public; say that you have a mortal and fragile little body, for which pain will be threatened not only by injury or by forces more powerful: pleasures themselves turn into torments, banquets bring indigestion, drunken bouts bring torpor and trembling of the nerves, lusts bring distortions of the feet, the hands, of all the joints.

[17] Pauper fiam: inter plures ero. Exul fiam: ibi me natum putabo quo mittar. Alligabor: quid enim?

[17] I shall become poor: I shall be among the many. I shall become an exile: there I will think myself born whither I am sent. I shall be bound: what of it?

nunc solutus sum? ad hoc me natura grave corporis mei pondus adstrinxit. Moriar: hoc dicis, desinam aegrotare posse, desinam alligari posse, desinam mori posse.

Am I now released? To this end nature has constrained me with the heavy weight of my body. I shall die: this you say—I shall cease to be able to be sick, I shall cease to be able to be bound, I shall cease to be able to die.

[18] Non sum tam ineptus ut Epicuream cantilenam hoc loco persequar et dicam vanos esse inferorum metus, nec Ixionem rota volvi nec saxum umeris Sisyphi trudi in adversum nec ullius viscera et renasci posse cotidie et carpi: nemo tam puer est ut Cerberum timeat et tenebras et larvalem habitum nudis ossibus cohaerentium. Mors nos aut consumit aut exuit; emissis meliora restant onere detracto, consumptis nihil restat, bona pariter malaque summota sunt.

[18] I am not so inept as to pursue the Epicurean refrain in this place and to say that the fears of the underworld are vain, that Ixion is not rolled by the wheel, nor the stone thrust uphill upon the shoulders of Sisyphus, nor that anyone’s entrails can both be born again daily and be torn; no one is so much a child as to fear Cerberus and the darkness and the ghostly habit adhering to bare bones. Death either consumes us or strips us; if we are released, better things remain with the burden removed; if we are consumed, nothing remains—good things and bad alike have been put away.

[19] Permitte mihi hoc loco referre versum tuum, si prius admonuero ut te iudices non aliis scripsisse ista sed etiam tibi. Turpe est aliud loqui, aliud sentire: quanto turpius aliud scribere, aliud sentire! Memini te illum locum aliquando tractasse, non repente nos in mortem incidere sed minutatim procedere.

[19] Permit me at this point to cite your verse, if first I have reminded you to judge that you wrote these things not for others but for yourself as well. It is disgraceful to speak one thing and feel another; how much more disgraceful to write one thing and feel another! I remember that you once treated that passage, that we do not fall suddenly into death but proceed to it little by little.

[20] Cotidie morimur; cotidie enim demitur aliqua pars vitae, et tunc quoque cum crescimus vita decrescit. Infantiam amisimus, deinde pueritiam, deinde adulescentiam. Usque ad hesternum quidquid trans;t temporis perit; hunc ipsum quem agimus diem cum morte dividimus.

[20] We die every day; for every day some part of life is subtracted, and even then, when we grow, life decreases. We have lost infancy, then childhood, then adolescence. Up to yesterday, whatever time has passed has perished; this very day which we are spending we divide with death.

Quemadmodum clepsydram non extremum stilicidium exhaurit sed quidquid ante defluxit, sic ultima hora qua esse desinimus non sola mortem facit sed sola consummat; tunc ad illam pervenimus, sed diu venimus.

Just as it is not the last drip that exhausts the clepsydra, but whatever has flowed off before, so the final hour in which we cease to be does not alone make death, but it alone consummates it; then we arrive at it, but we have been coming for a long time.

[21] Haec cum descripsisses quo soles ore, semper quidem magnus, numquam tamen acrior quam ubi veritati commodas verba, dixisti,

[21] When you had described these things in the manner of speaking to which you are accustomed, always indeed great, yet never keener than when you lend words to truth, you said,

mors non una venit, sed quae rapit ultima mors est.

death does not come as one, but the one that snatches is the ultimate death.

Malo te legas quam epistulam meam; apparebit enim tibi hanc quam timemus mortem extremam esse, non solam.

I would rather you read yourself than my letter; for it will appear to you that this death which we fear is the ultimate, not the sole one.

[22] Video quo spectes: quaeris quid huic epistulae infulserim, quod dictum alicuius animosum, quod praeceptum utile. Ex hac ipsa materia quae in manibus fuit mittetur aliquid. Obiurgat Epicurus non minus eos qui mortem concupiscunt quam eos qui timent, et ait: 'ridiculum est currere ad mortem taedio vitae, cum genere vitae ut currendum ad mortem esset effeceris'.

[22] I see where you aim: you ask what I have set to gleam in this epistle, what spirited saying of someone, what useful precept. From this very material which was at hand something shall be sent. Epicurus reproves no less those who long for death than those who fear it, and says: 'it is ridiculous to run to death from the tedium of life, when by your kind of life you have brought it about that there must be running to death'.

[23] Item alio loco dicit: 'quid tam ridiculum quam appetere mortem, cum vitam inquietam tibi feceris metu mortis?' His adicias et illud eiusdem notae licet, tantam hominum imprudentiam esse, immo dementiam, ut quidam timore mortis cogantur ad mortem.

[23] Likewise in another place he says: 'what is so ridiculous as to seek death, when you have made your life unquiet for yourself by fear of death?' To these you may add also that of the same mark, that the imprudence—nay, the madness—of men is so great that some are compelled to death by fear of death.

[24] Quidquid horum tractaveris, confirmabis animum vel ad mortis vel ad vitae patientiam; [at] in utrumque enim monendi ac firmandi sumus, et ne nimis amemus vitam et ne nimis oderimus. Etiam cum ratio suadet finire se, non temere nec cum procursu capiendus est impetus.

[24] Whatever of these you shall have handled, you will strengthen the mind either for endurance of death or of life; [but] in both directions we must be admonished and fortified, both not to love life too much and not to hate it too much. Even when reason persuades to end oneself, the impulse is not to be seized rashly nor with a headlong rush.

[25] Vir fortis ac sapiens non fugere debet e vita sed exire; et ante omnia ille quoque vitetur affectus qui multos occupavit, libido moriendi. Est enim, mi Lucili, ut ad alia, sic etiam ad moriendum inconsulta animi inclinatio, quae saepe generosos atque acerrimae indolis viros corripit, saepe ignavos iacentesque: illi contemnunt vitam, hi gravantur.

[25] A brave and wise man ought not to flee from life but to exit; and before all, let that affect also be avoided which has seized many— the libido of dying. For there is, my Lucilius, as toward other things, so also toward dying, an unadvised inclination of mind, which often seizes noble men of very keen temperament, and often the cowardly and prostrate: the former disdain life, the latter are burdened by it.

[26] Quosdam subit eadem faciendi videndique satietas et vitae non odium sed fastidium, in quod prolabimur ipsa impellente philosophia, dum dicimus 'quousque eadem? nempe ex pergiscar dormiam, esuriam, algebo aestuabo. Nullius rei finis est, sed in orbem nexa sunt omnia, fugiunt ac sequuntur; diem nox premit, dies noctem, aestas in autumnum desinit, autumno hiemps instat, quae vere compescitur; omnia sic transeunt ut revertantur.

[26] A satiety of doing and seeing the same things steals upon some, and not a hatred of life but a fastidious disgust, into which we slip with philosophy itself impelling us, while we say, “how long the same things? surely I will wake, I will sleep, I will be hungry, I will be cold, I will be hot. Nothing has an end, but all things are bound into a circle, they flee and they follow; night presses upon day, day upon night, summer ends in autumn, upon autumn winter is imminent, which is restrained by spring; all things thus pass so that they may return.

Nihil novi facio, nihil novi video: fit aliquando et huius rei nausia.' Multi sunt qui non acerbum iudicent vivere sed supervacuum. Vale.

I do nothing new, I see nothing new: at times there comes even a nausea of this.' Many are those who judge living not bitter but superfluous. Farewell.

XXV. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM

25. SENECA TO HIS LUCILIUS, GREETINGS

[1] Quod ad duos amicos nostros pertinet, diversa via eundum est; alterius enim vitia emendanda, alterius frangenda sunt. Utar libertate tota: non amo illum nisi offendo. 'Quid ergo?' inquis 'quadragenarium pupillum cogitas sub tutela tua continere?

[1] As it pertains to our two friends, a diverse way must be gone; for the vices of the one are to be emended, those of the other are to be broken. I will use total liberty: I do not love that man unless I offend him. 'What then?' you ask, 'do you intend to keep a forty-year-old ward under your tutelage?'

Respice aetatem eius iam duram et intractabilem: non potest reformari; tenera finguntur.'

Consider his age, now hard and intractable: it cannot be reformed; the tender are fashioned.'

[2] An profecturus sim nescio: malo successum mihi quam fidem deesse. Nec desperaveris etiam diutinos aegros posse sanari, si contra intemperantiam steteris, si multa invitos et facere coegeris et pati. Ne de altero quidem satis fiduciae habeo, excepto eo quod adhuc peccare erubescit; nutriendus est hic pudor, qui quamdiu in animo eius duraverit, aliquis erit bonae spei locus. Cum hoc veterano parcius agendum puto, ne in desperationem sui veniat;

[2] Whether I am about to set out, I do not know: I prefer that success be lacking to me rather than good faith. Nor should you despair that even long-ailing patients can be healed, if you have stood against intemperance, if you have compelled them, unwilling, both to do and to suffer many things. Not even about the other do I have sufficient confidence, except in this, that he still blushes to sin; this shame must be nourished, and so long as it shall have endured in his mind, there will be some place for good hope. With this veteran I think one must deal more sparingly, lest he come into despair of himself;

[3] nec ullum tempus aggrediendi fuit melius quam hoc, dum interquiescit, dum emendato similis est. Aliis haec intermissio eius imposuit, mihi verba non dat: exspecto cum magno fenore vitia reditura, quae nunc scio cessare, non deesse. Impendam huic rei dies et utrum possit aliquid agi an non possit experiar.

[3] nor was any time for attacking the matter better than this, while he has a lull, while he is like one amended. This intermission of his has imposed upon others; it does not give me words: I expect the vices to return with great interest, which I know are now ceasing, not lacking. I will expend days on this business and will try whether anything can be done or cannot be done.

[4] Tu nobis te, ut facis, fortem praesta et sarcinas contrahe; nihil ex his quae habemus necessarium est. Ad legem naturae revertamur; divitiae paratae sunt. Aut gratuitum est quo egemus, aut vile: panem et aquam natura desiderat.

[4] Do you, as you do, show yourself brave to us, and contract your baggage; nothing of the things we have is necessary. Let us return to the law of nature; riches are ready. Either what we need is gratuitous, or cheap: bread and water nature desires.

Nemo ad haec pauper est, intra quae quisquis desiderium suum clusit cum ipso Iove de felicitate contendat, ut ait Epicurus, cuius aliquam vocem huic epistulae involvam.

No one is poor for these things; within which whoever has enclosed his desire contends with Jove himself concerning felicity, as Epicurus says, of whom I will interweave some saying into this epistle.

[5] 'Sic fac' inquit 'omnia tamquam spectet Epicurus.' Prodest sine dubio custodem sibi imposuisse et habere quem respicias, quem interesse cogitationibus tuis iudices. Hoc quidem longe magnificentius est, sic vivere tamquam sub alicuius boni viri ac semper praesentis oculis, sed ego etiam hoc contentus sum, ut sic facias quaecumque facies tamquam spectet aliquis: omnia nobis mala solitudo persuadet.

[5] 'Do thus,' he says, 'everything as though Epicurus were watching.' It profits, without a doubt, to have imposed upon oneself a custodian and to have someone whom you may look to, whom you judge to be present at your thoughts. This indeed is far more magnificent: to live thus as though under the eyes of some good man and ever present; but I am content even with this, that you do whatever you do as though someone were watching: solitude persuades us to all evils.

[6] Cum iam profeceris tantum ut sit tibi etiam tui reverentia, licebit dimittas paedagogum: interim aliquorum te auctoritate custodi - aut Cato ille sit aut Scipio aut Laelius aut alius cuius interventu perditi quoque homines vitia supprimerent, dum te efficis eum cum quo peccare non audeas. Cum hoc effeceris et aliqua coeperit apud te tui esse dignatio, incipiam tibi permittere quod idem suadet Epicurus: 'tunc praecipue in te ipse secede cum esse cogeris in turba'.

[6] When you shall already have advanced so far that there is for you even a reverence for yourself, it will be permitted to dismiss the pedagogue: meanwhile, guard yourself by the authority of some men - let that man be Cato, or Scipio, or Laelius, or another at whose intervention even depraved men would suppress their vices, until you make yourself such a one in whose presence you would not dare to sin. When you have accomplished this, and some esteem for yourself has begun to exist with you, I shall begin to permit to you what the same Epicurus urges: 'then especially withdraw into yourself when you are forced to be in a crowd'.

[7] Dissimilem te fieri multis oportet, dum tibi tutum [non] sit ad te recedere. Circumspice singulos: nemo est cui non satius sit cum quolibet esse quam secum. 'Tunc praecipue in te ipse secede cum esse cogeris in turba' - si bonus vir , si quietus, si temperans.

[7] It behooves you to become unlike the many, so long as it is [not] safe for you to withdraw to yourself. Look around at individuals: there is no one for whom it is not better to be with anyone whatsoever than with himself. 'Then especially withdraw into yourself when you are forced to be in a crowd' - if you are a good man , if quiet, if temperate.

Alioquin in turbam tibi a te recedendum est: istic malo viro propius es. Vale.

Otherwise you must withdraw from yourself into the crowd: there you are nearer to a bad man. Farewell.

XXVI. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM

26. SENECA TO HIS LUCILIUS, GREETING

[1] Modo dicebam tibi in conspectu esse me senectutis: iam vereor ne senectutem post me reliquerim. Aliud iam his annis, certe huic corpori, vocabulum convenit, quoniam quidem senectus lassae aetatis, non fractae nomen est: inter decrepitos me numera et extrema tangentis.

[1] Just now I was saying to you that I was within sight of old age; now I fear that I may have left old age behind me. Another appellation now befits these years—certainly this body—since indeed old age is the name of a wearied age, not a broken one: count me among the decrepit and those touching the extreme verge.

[2] Gratias tamen mihi apud te ago: non sentio in animo aetatis iniuriam, cum sentiam in corpore. Tantum vitia et vitiorum ministeria senuerunt: viget animus et gaudet non multum sibi esse cum corpore; magnam partem oneris sui posuit. Exsultat et mihi facit controversiam de senectute: hunc ait esse florem suum.

[2] Yet I render thanks for myself in your presence: I do not feel in my mind the injury of age, though I feel it in my body. Only the vices and the ministries of the vices have grown old: the spirit flourishes and rejoices that it has not much to do with the body; it has set down a great part of its burden. It exults and enters into a contention with me about old age: it says that this is its flower.

Credamus illi: bono suo utatur.

Let us believe him: let him make use of his own good.

[3] Ire in cogitationem iubet et dispicere quid ex hac tranquillitate ac modestia morum sapientiae debeam, quid aetati, et diligenter excutere quae non possim facere, quae nolim, proinde habiturus atque si nolim quidquid non posse me gaudeo: quae enim querela est, quod incommodum, si quidquid debebat desinere defecit?

[3] It bids me to go into cogitation and to descry what from this tranquility and modesty of manners I ought to owe to sapience, what to age, and to sift diligently which things I cannot do, which I do not wish to do, intending to regard as the same as if I were unwilling whatever I rejoice that I am not able to do: for what complaint is there, what inconvenience, if whatever ought to cease has fallen away?

[4] 'Incommodum summum est' inquis 'minui et deperire et, ut proprie dicam, liquescere. Non enim subito impulsi ac prostrati sumus: carpimur, singuli dies aliquid subtrahunt viribus.' Ecquis exitus est melior quam in finem suum natura solvente dilabi? non quia aliquid mali ictus et e vita repentinus excessus, sed quia lenis haec est via, subduci.

[4] 'The greatest inconvenience,' you say, 'is to be diminished and to perish and, to speak properly, to liquefy. For we are not suddenly impelled and prostrated: we are being picked at; individual days subtract something from our strength.' Is there any departure better than to slip away, with nature loosening us into our own end? not because the blow and sudden exit from life is anything evil, but because this is a gentle path, to be drawn off.

Ego certe, velut appropinquet experimentum et ille laturus sententiam de omnibus annis meis dies venerit, ita me observo et alloquor:

I, for my part, as if the trial were approaching and the day had come that is to bring judgment on all my years, thus I observe myself and address myself:

[5] 'nihil est' inquam 'adhuc quod aut rebus aut verbis exhibuimus; levia sunt ista et fallacia pignora animi multisque involuta lenociniis: quid profecerim morti crediturus sum. Non timide itaque componor ad illum diem quo remotis strophis ac fucis de me iudicaturus sum, utrum loquar fortia an sentiam, numquid simulatio fuerit et mimus quidquid contra fortunam iactavi verborum contumacium.

[5] 'there is nothing,' I say, 'as yet that we have exhibited either by deeds or by words; those are light and fallacious pledges of the spirit, and wrapped up in many allurements: how much I have advanced I will commit to Death. Therefore I am not timidly composed for that day on which, the tricks and paints removed, I shall pass judgment on myself—whether I speak brave things or feel them, whether whatever contumacious words I have hurled against Fortune were mere simulation and mime.'

[6] Remove existimationem hominum: dubia semper est et in partem utramque dividitur. Remove studia tota vita tractata: mors de te pronuntiatura est. Ita dico: disputationes et litterata colloquia et ex praeceptis sapientium verba collecta et eruditus sermo non ostendunt verum robur animi; est enim oratio etiam timidissimis audax.

[6] Remove the estimation of men: it is always dubious and is divided to either side. Remove the studies cultivated through an entire life: death is going to pronounce upon you. So I say: disputations and literate colloquies and words collected from the precepts of the wise, and erudite discourse do not display the true robustness of mind; for oratory is bold even to the most timid.

Quid egeris tunc apparebit cum animam ages. Accipio condicionem, non reformido iudicium.'

What you have done will then appear when you are expiring. I accept the condition; I do not dread the judgment.'

[7] Haec mecum loquor, sed tecum quoque me locutum puta. Iuvenior es: quid refert? non dinumerantur anni.

[7] I speak these things with myself, but suppose that I have spoken with you as well. You are younger: what does it matter? the years are not enumerated.

Incertum est quo loco te mors exspectet; itaque tu illam omni loco exspecta.

It is uncertain in what place death awaits you; therefore expect it in every place.

[8] Desinere iam volebam et manus spectabat ad clausulam, sed conficienda sunt aera et huic epistulae viaticum dandum est. Puta me non dicere unde sumpturus sim mutuum: scis cuius arca utar. Exspecta me pusillum, et de domo fiet numeratio; interim commodabit Epicurus, qui ait 'meditare mortem', vel si commodius sic transire ad nos hic potest sensus: 'egregia res est mortem condiscere'.

[8] I already wanted to cease, and my hand was looking toward the closing; but the accounts must be settled, and viaticum must be given to this epistle. Suppose me not to say from where I am going to take a loan: you know whose coffer I shall use. Wait for me a little, and from the household the payment will be made; meanwhile Epicurus will lend, who says, 'meditate on death,' or, if this sense can pass over to us more conveniently thus: 'it is an excellent thing to learn death thoroughly'.

[9] Supervacuum forsitan putas id discere quod semel utendum est. Hoc est ipsum quare meditari debeamus: semper discendum est quod an sciamus experiri non possumus.

[9] Perhaps you think it superfluous to learn that which is to be used only once. This is precisely why we ought to meditate: we must always be learning that which we cannot put to the test whether we know.

[10] 'Meditare mortem': qui hoc dicit meditari libertatem iubet. Qui mori didicit servire dedidicit; supra omnem potentiam est, certe extra omnem. Quid ad illum carcer et custodia et claustra?

[10] 'Meditate death': he who says this bids one to meditate freedom. He who has learned to die has unlearned to serve; he is above all power, assuredly outside any. What are prison and custody and bolts to him?

liberum ostium habet. Una est catena quae nos alligatos tenet, amor vitae, qui ut non est abiciendus, ita minuendus est, ut si quando res exiget, nihil nos detineat nec impediat quominus parati simus quod quandoque faciendum est statim facere. Vale.

He has an open door. There is one chain that holds us bound, the love of life, which, just as it is not to be cast aside, so it must be diminished, so that, if ever the circumstance demands, nothing may detain us nor impede us from being ready to do at once what must someday be done. Farewell.

XXVII. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM

27. SENECA TO HIS LUCIILIUS, GREETINGS

[1] 'Tu me' inquis 'mones? iam enim te ipse monuisti, iam correxisti? ideo aliorum emendationi vacas?' Non sum tam improbus ut curationes aeger obeam, sed, tamquam in eodem valetudinario iaceam, de communi tecum malo colloquor et remedia communico.

[1] 'You,' you say, 'advise me? Have you already advised yourself, already corrected yourself? Is that why you have leisure for the emendation of others?' I am not so unscrupulous as to undertake cures while sick, but, as though I were lying in the same infirmary, I converse with you about our common malady and communicate remedies.

Sic itaque me audi tamquam mecum loquar; in secretum te meum admitto et te adhibito mecum exigo.

So then listen to me as if I were speaking with myself; I admit you into my secret, and, with you brought in, I conduct an examination with myself.

[2] Clamo mihi ipse, 'numera annos tuos, et pudebit eadem velle quae volueras puer, eadem parare. Hoc denique tibi circa mortis diem praesta: moriantur ante te vitia. Dimitte istas voluptates turbidas, magno luendas: non venturae tantum sed praeteritae nocent.

[2] I shout to myself, 'number your years, and you will be ashamed to want the same things you wanted as a boy, to prepare the same things. This at least provide for yourself with respect to the day of death: let your vices die before you. Dismiss those turbid pleasures, to be paid for at great cost: not only those to come but those past do harm.

Quemadmodum scelera etiam si non sunt deprehensa cum fierent, sollicitudo non cum ipsis abit, ita improbarum voluptatum etiam post ipsas paenitentia est. Non sunt solidae, non sunt fideles; etiam si non nocent, fugiunt.

Just as crimes, even if they are not apprehended as they are being committed, the solicitude does not depart along with them, so for depraved pleasures there is repentance even after the pleasures themselves. They are not solid, they are not faithful; even if they do not harm, they flee.

[3] Aliquod potius bonum mansurum circumspice; nullum autem est nisi quod animus ex se sibi invenit. Sola virtus praestat gaudium perpetuum, securum; etiam si quid obstat, nubium modo intervenit, quae infra feruntur nec umquam diem vincunt.'

[3] Look around rather for some good that will endure; but there is none except what the mind finds for itself from itself. Only virtue affords joy perpetual, secure; even if something stands in the way, it intervenes in the manner of clouds, which are borne beneath and never conquer the day.'

[4] Quando ad hoc gaudium pervenire continget? non quidem cessatur adhuc, sed festinetur. Multum restat operis, in quod ipse necesse est vigiliam, ipse laborem tuum impendas, si effici cupis; delegationem res ista non recipit.

[4] When will it befall to arrive at this joy? There is no idling as yet, but let haste be made. Much of the work remains, into which it is necessary that you yourself expend your vigilance, you yourself your labor, if you desire to effect it; this matter does not receive delegation.

[5] Aliud litterarum genus adiutorium admittit Calvisius Sabinus memoria nostra fuit dives; et patrimonium habebat libertini et ingenium; numquam vidi hominem beatum indecentius. Huic memoria tam mala erat ut illi nomen modo Ulixis excideret, modo Achillis, modo Priami, quos tam bene noverat quam paedagogos nostros novimus. Nemo vetulus nomenclator, qui nomina non reddit sed imponit, tam perperam tribus quam ille Troianos et Achivos persalutabat.

[5] Another genus of letters admits aid: Calvisius Sabinus in our own memory was rich; and he had the patrimony of a freedman and the wits of one; never did I see a prosperous man more unbecomingly. His memory was so bad that now the name of Ulysses would slip him, now of Achilles, now of Priam—whom he knew as well as we know our pedagogues. No doddering nomenclator, who does not give back names but imposes them, ever misassigned the three so badly as he used to greet the Trojans and Achaeans.

[6] Nihilominus eruditus volebat videri. Hanc itaque compendiariam excogitavit: magna summa emit servos, unum qui Homerum teneret, alterum qui Hesiodum; novem praeterea lyricis singulos assignavit. Magno emisse illum non est quod mireris: non invenerat, faciendos locavit.

[6] Nevertheless he wanted to appear erudite. Therefore he excogitated this compendiary shortcut: at a great sum he bought slaves, one to retain Homer, another to retain Hesiod; moreover to the nine lyric poets he assigned one apiece. That he purchased them at a great price is not what you should marvel at: he had not found them; he commissioned them to be made.

Postquam haec familia illi comparata est, coepit convivas suos inquietare. Habebat ad pedes hos, a quibus subinde cum peteret versus quos referret, saepe in medio verbo excidebat.

After this household had been procured for him, he began to unsettle his dinner-guests. He had these at his feet, from whom, whenever he repeatedly asked for verses to quote, he would often drop out in the middle of a word.

[7] Suasit illi Satellius Quadratus, stultorum divitum arrosor et, quod sequitur, arrisor, et, quod duobus his adiunctum est, derisor, ut grammaticos haberet analectas. Cum dixisset Sabinus centenis millibus sibi constare singulos servos, 'minoris' inquit 'totidem scrinia emisses'. Ille tamen in ea opinione erat ut putaret se scire quod quisquam in domo sua sciret.

[7] Satellius Quadratus, a gnawer of foolish rich men and—what follows—a smiler, and—what is joined to these two—a derider, advised him to have grammarians as analects. When Sabinus had said that each slave cost him a hundred thousand, “for less,” he said, “you would have bought just as many book‑chests.” He, however, was in this opinion, that he thought he knew whatever anyone in his house knew.

[8] Idem Satellius illum hortari coepit ut luctaretur, hominem aegrum, pallidum, gracilem. Cum Sabinus respondisset, 'et quomodo possum? vix vivo', 'noli, obsecro te' inquit 'istuc dicere: non vides quam multos servos valentissimos habeas?' Bona mens nec commodatur nec emitur; et puto, si venalis esset, non haberet emptorem: at mala cotidie emitur.

[8] The same Satellius began to exhort him to wrestle—though the man was sick, pallid, slender. When Sabinus had answered, “And how can I? I scarcely live,” he said, “Do not, I beseech you, say that: do you not see how many very-strong slaves you have?” A sound mind is neither lent nor bought; and I think, if it were for sale, it would not have a buyer; but evils are bought every day.

[9] Sed accipe iam quod debeo et vale. 'Divitiae sunt ad legem naturae composita paupertas.' Hoc saepe dicit Epicurus aliter atque aliter, sed numquam nimis dicitur quod num quam satis discitur; quisbusdam remedia monstranda, quibusdam inculcanda sunt. Vale.

[9] But now receive what I owe and farewell. 'Wealth is poverty composed in accordance with the law of nature.' Epicurus often says this in one way and another, but what is never sufficiently learned is never said too much; for some, remedies must be shown, for others inculcated. Farewell.

XXVIII. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM

28. SENECA TO HIS LUCILIUS, GREETING

[1] Hoc tibi soli putas accidisse et admiraris quasi rem novam quod peregrinatione tam longa et tot locorum varietatibus non discussisti tristitiam gravitatemque mentis? Animum debes mutare, non caelum. Licet vastum traieceris mare, licet, ut ait Vergilius noster,

[1] Do you think this has happened to you alone and marvel at it as though a new thing, that by so long a peregrination and by so many varieties of places you have not dispelled the sadness and gravity of mind? You must change your spirit, not the sky. Though you cross a vast sea, though, as our Vergil says,

terraeque urbesque recedant,

and lands and cities recede,

sequentur te quocumque perveneris vitia.

vices will follow you wherever you arrive.

[2] Hoc idem querenti cuidam Socrates ait, 'quid miraris nihil tibi peregrinationes prodesse, cum te circumferas? premit te eadem causa quae expulit'. Quid terrarum iuvare novitas potest? quid cognitio urbium aut locorum?

[2] To someone complaining of this same thing Socrates said, 'why do you marvel that peregrinations profit you nothing, when you carry yourself around? the same cause presses you that expelled you.' What can the novelty of lands avail? what the cognition of cities or of places?

in irritum cedit ista iactatio. Quaeris quare te fuga ista non adiuvet? tecum fugis.

This tossing about falls to no purpose. Do you ask why that flight does not help you? You flee with yourself.

Onus animi deponendum est: non ante tibi ullus placebit locus.

The onus of the mind must be laid down: not before will any place please you.

[3] Talem nunc esse habitum tuum cogita qualem Vergilius noster vatis inducit iam concitatae et instigatae multumque habentis se spiritus non sui:

[3] Think that your present bearing is such as our Vergilius introduces of the vates (prophetess), already agitated and instigated and, in great part, under the sway of a spirit not her own:

bacchatur vates, magnum si pectore possit
excussisse deum.

raves the prophetess, if she could have shaken off the great god from her breast.

Vadis huc illuc ut excutias insidens pondus quod ipsa iactatione incommodius fit, sicut in navi onera immota minus urgent, inaequaliter convoluta citius eam partem in quam incubuere demergunt. Quidquid facis, contra te facis et motu ipso noces tibi; aegrum enim concutis.

You go here and there to shake off the incumbent weight, which by the very tossing becomes more incommodious, just as on a ship burdens unmoved press less, while unevenly rolled they more quickly sink that part upon which they have leaned. Whatever you do, you do against yourself, and by the motion itself you harm yourself; for you are shaking one who is sick.

[4] At cum istuc exemeris malum, omnis mutatio loci iucunda fiet; in ultimas expellaris terras licebit, in quolibet barbariae angulo colloceris, hospitalis tibi illa qualiscumque sedes erit. Magis quis veneris quam quo interest, et ideo nulli loco addicere debemus animum. Cum hac persuasione vivendum est: 'non sum uni angulo natus, patria mea totus hic mundus est'.

[4] But when you have taken away that evil, every change of place will become pleasant; though you be driven into the farthest lands, though you be stationed in any corner of barbarity, that seat, whatever it may be, will be hospitable to you. It matters more who you come as than whither, and therefore we ought to consign our mind to no place. One must live with this persuasion: 'I am not born for one corner; my fatherland is this whole world.'

[5] Quod si liqueret tibi, non admirareris nil adiuvari te regionum varietatibus in quas subinde priorum taedio migras; prima enim quaeque placuisset si omnem tuam crederes. Nunc peregrinaris sed erras et ageris ac locum ex loco mutas, cum illud quod quaeris, bene vivere, omni loco positum sit.

[5] But if this were clear to you, you would not wonder that you are aided nothing by the varieties of regions into which, from tedium of the former, you migrate time and again; for each first place would have pleased, if you believed the whole to be yours. Now you do peregrinate but wander and are driven, and you change place from place, since that which you seek, to live well, is situated in every place.

[6] Num quid tam turbidum fieri potest quam forum? ibi quoque licet quiete vivere, si necesse sit. Sed si liceat disponere se, conspectum quoque et viciniam fori procul fugiam; nam ut loca gravia etiam firmissimam valetudinem temptant, ita bonae quoque menti necdum adhuc perfectae et convalescenti sunt aliqua parum salubria.

[6] Is anything able to become so turbid as the forum? There too one may live quietly, if it is necessary. But if it were permitted to dispose oneself, I too would flee far from the sight and the vicinity of the forum; for just as oppressive places test even the most robust health, so also for a good mind not yet perfected and still convalescent, there are some places that are not sufficiently salubrious.

[7] Dissentio ab his qui in fluctus medios eunt et tumultuosam probantes vitam cotidie cum difficultatibus rerum magno animo colluctantur. Sapiens feret ista, non eliget, et malet in pace esse quam in pugna; non multum prodest vitia sua proiecisse, si cum alienis rixandum est.

[7] I dissent from those who go into the midst of the waves and, approving a tumultuous life, daily with high courage wrestle with the difficulties of things. The Wise Man will bear those things, he will not choose them, and he will prefer to be in peace rather than in battle; it is not of much profit to have cast off one’s own vices, if one must be wrangling with those of others.

[8] 'Triginta' inquit 'tyranni Socraten circumsteterunt nec potuerunt animum eius infringere.' Quid interest quot domini sint? servitus una est; hanc qui contempsit in quanta libet turba dominantium liber est.

[8] 'Thirty,' he says, 'tyrants surrounded Socrates and could not break his spirit.' What difference does it make how many masters there are? Slavery is one; he who has contemned it is free amid whatever crowd of rulers.

[9] Tempus est desinere, sed si prius portorium solvero. 'Initium est salutis notitia peccati.' Egregie mihi hoc dixisse videtur Epicurus; nam qui peccare se nescit corrigi non vult; deprehendas te oportet antequam emendes.

[9] It is time to cease, but only if first I shall have paid the customs-duty. 'The beginning of salvation is the knowledge of sin.' Epicurus seems to me to have said this excellently; for he who does not know that he sins does not wish to be corrected; you ought to apprehend yourself before you amend.

[10] Quidam vitiis gloriantur: tu existimas aliquid de remedio cogitare qui mala sua virtutum loco numerant? Ideo quantum potes te ipse coargue, inquire in te; accusatoris primum partibus fungere, deinde iudicis, novissime deprecatoris; aliquando te offende. Vale.

[10] Some glory in vices: do you suppose that those who count their evils in the place of virtues think at all about a remedy? Therefore, as much as you can, indict yourself; inquire into yourself; first perform the parts of accuser, then of judge, and at the very last of deprecator; sometimes be displeased with yourself. Farewell.

XXIX. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM

29. SENECA TO HIS LUCILIUS, GREETINGS

[1] De Marcellino nostro quaeris et vis scire quid agat. Raro ad nos venit, non ulla alia ex causa quam quod audire verum timet, a quo periculo iam abest; nulli enim nisi audituro dicendum est. Ideo de Diogene nec minus de aliis Cynicis qui libertate promiscua usi sunt et obvios monuerunt dubitari solet an hoc facere debuerint.

[1] You ask about our Marcellinus and want to know what he is doing. He comes to us rarely, for no other cause than that he is afraid to hear the truth, from which danger he is now absent; for one should speak to no one unless he will listen. Therefore, about Diogenes, and no less about the other Cynics who used an indiscriminate liberty and admonished whatever passers-by they met, it is commonly doubted whether they ought to have done this.

Quid enim, si quis surdos obiurget aut natura morbove mutos?

What, after all, if someone should objurgate the deaf, or those mute by nature or by disease?

[2] 'Quare' inquis 'verbis parcam? gratuita sunt. Non possum scire an ei profuturus sim quem admoneo: illud scio, alicui me profuturum, si multos admonuero.

[2] 'Why,' you say, 'should I spare words? They are gratuitous. I cannot know whether I will be of profit to him whom I admonish: this I know, that I will be of profit to someone, if I admonish many.'

Spargenda manus est: non potest fieri ut non aliquando succedat multa temptanti.'

The hand must be scattered: it cannot come to pass that it does not sometime succeed for one attempting many things.'

[3] Hoc, mi Lucili, non existimo magno viro faciendum: diluitur eius auctoritas nec habet apud eos satis ponderis quos posset minus obsolefacta corrigere. Sagittarius non aliquando ferire debet, sed aliquando deerrare; non est ars quae ad effectum casu venit. Sapientia ars est: certum petat, eligat profecturos, ab iis quos desperavit recedat, non tamen cito relinquat et in ipsa desperatione extrema remedia temptet.

[3] This, my Lucilius, I do not think a great man should do: his authority is diluted and does not have sufficient weight with those whom he could correct, if it were less made obsolete. The archer ought not sometimes to hit, but sometimes to miss; it is not an art that achieves its effect by chance. Wisdom is an art: let it aim at something definite, let it choose those who will make progress, let it withdraw from those of whom it has despaired, yet not abandon them quickly, and even in that very desperation let it try extreme remedies.

[4] Marcellinum nostrum ego nondum despero; etiam nunc servari potest, sed si cito illi manus porrigitur. Est quidem periculum ne porrigentem trahat; magna in illo ingeni vis est, sed iam tendentis in pravum. Nihilominus adibo hoc periculum et audebo illi mala sua ostendere.

[4] I do not yet despair of our Marcellinus; even now he can be preserved, but only if a hand is quickly extended to him. There is indeed the danger that he may drag down the one extending it; there is great force of ingenuity in him, but already tending into the depraved. Nonetheless I will approach this danger and will dare to show him his own ills.

[5] Faciet quod solet: advocabit illas facetias quae risum evocare lugentibus possunt, et in se primum, deinde in nos iocabitur; omnia quae dicturus sum occupabit. Scrutabitur scholas nostras et obiciet philosophis congiaria, amicas, gulam;

[5] He will do what he is accustomed to: he will summon those witticisms which can evoke laughter from the grieving, and he will joke at himself first, then at us; he will preempt everything that I am going to say. He will rummage through our schools and will taunt the philosophers with congiaries, girlfriends, and gluttony;

[6] ostendet mihi alium in adulterio, alium in popina, alium in aula; ostendet mihi lepidum philosophum Aristonem, qui in gestatione disserebat - hoc enim ad edendas operas tempus exceperat. De cuius secta cum quaereretur, Scaurus ait 'utique Peripateticus non est'. De eodem cum consuleretur Iulius Graecinus, vir egregius, quid sentiret, 'non possum' inquit 'tibi dicere; nescio enim quid de gradu faciat', tamquam de essedario interrogaretur.

[6] he will point out to me one man in adultery, another in a tavern, another in the court; he will point out to me the witty philosopher Aristo, who used to discourse during his carriage-ride—for he had picked this time for bringing out his works. When it was asked of what sect he was, Scaurus said, 'surely he is not a Peripatetic.' When Julius Graecinus, a distinguished man, was consulted about the same person, what he thought, he said, 'I cannot tell you; for I do not know what he does about his step,' as though he were being asked about a charioteer.

[7] Hos mihi circulatores qui philosophiam honestius neglexissent quam vendunt in faciem ingeret. Constitui tamen contumelias perpeti: moveat ille mihi risum, ego fortasse illi lacrimas movebo, aut si ridere perseverabit, gaudebo tamquam in malis quod illi genus insaniae hilare contigerit. Sed non est ista hilaritas longa: observa, videbis eosdem intra exiguum tempus acerrime ridere et acerrime rabere.

[7] He will thrust before my face those hucksters who would have more honorably neglected philosophy than sell it. I have resolved, nevertheless, to endure insults: let him provoke laughter in me; I perhaps shall provoke tears in him, or if he persists in laughing, I shall rejoice, as in misfortunes, that a cheerful kind of insanity has befallen him. But that hilarity is not long: observe, you will see these same men within a short time laughing most fiercely and raving most fiercely.

[8] Propositum est aggredi illum et ostendere quanto pluris fuerit cum multis minoris videretur. Vitia eius etiam si non excidero, inhibebo; non desinent, sed intermittent fortasse autem et desinent, si intermittendi consuetudinem fecerint. Non est hoc ipsum fastidiendum, quoniam quidem graviter affectis sanitatis loco est bona remissio.

[8] It is my purpose to address him and to show how much more he was worth when to many he seemed worth less. His vices, even if I do not excise them, I shall inhibit; they will not cease, but they will intermit—perhaps, moreover, they will even cease, if they have formed a habit of intermitting. This very thing is not to be disdained, since indeed for the gravely afflicted a good remission is in the place of health.

[9] Dum me illi paro, tu interim, qui potes, qui intellegis unde quo evaseris et ex eo suspicaris quousque sis evasurus, compone mores tuos, attolle animum, adversus formidata consiste; numerare eos noli qui tibi metum faciunt. Nonne videatur stultus, si quis multitudinem eo loco timeat per quem transitus singulis est? aeque ad tuam mortem multis aditus non est licet illam multi minentur.

[9] While I prepare myself for him, do you meanwhile—who are able, who understand from where to where you have escaped, and from that suspect how far you are going to escape—compose your morals, lift up your spirit, take your stand against the things feared; do not enumerate those who make you afraid. Would he not seem foolish, if someone were to fear a multitude in that place through which the transit is for single persons? Likewise, to your death there is no approach for many, although many menace it.

Sic istuc natura disposuit: spiritum tibi tam unus eripiet quam unus dedit.

Thus has nature arranged this: a single one will snatch your spirit from you just as a single one gave it.

[10] Si pudorem haberes, ultimam mihi pensionem remisisses; sed ne ego quidem me sordide geram in finem aeris alieni et tibi quod debeo impingam. 'Numquam volui populo placere; nam quae ego scio non probat populus, quae probat populus ego nescio.'

[10] If you had modesty, you would have remitted to me the last pension; but neither will I conduct myself sordidly in the winding-up of the debt, and I will not foist upon you what I owe. 'I never wished to please the people; for the things that I know the people does not approve, the things the people approves I do not know.'

[11] 'Quis hoc?' inquis, tamquam nescias cui imperem. Epicurus; sed idem hoc omnes tibi ex omni domo conclamabunt, Peripatetici, Academici, Stoici, Cynici. Quis enim placere populo potest cui placet virtus?

[11] 'Who said this?' you ask, as though you did not know whom I am addressing. Epicurus; but the same thing all will cry out to you from every house, the Peripatetics, the Academics, the Stoics, the Cynics. For who can please the people to whom virtue is pleasing?

malis artibus popularis favor quaeritur. Similem te illis facias oportet: non probabunt nisi agnoverint. Multo autem ad rem magis pertinet qualis tibi videaris quam aliis; conciliari nisi turpi ratione amor turpium non potest.

By evil arts, popular favor is sought. You must make yourself like them: they will not approve unless they recognize you. But it pertains much more to the matter what you seem to yourself than to others; the love of the base cannot be conciliated except by a base method.

[12] Quid ergo illa laudata et omnibus praeferenda artibus rebusque philosophia praestabit? scilicet ut malis tibi placere quam populo, ut aestimes iudicia, non numeres, ut sine metu deorum hominumque vivas, ut aut vincas mala aut finias. Ceterum, si te videro celebrem secundis vocibus vulgi, si intrante te clamor et plausus, pantomimica ornamenta, obstrepuerint, si tota civitate te feminae puerique laudaverint, quidni ego tui miserear, cum sciam quae via ad istum favorem ferat?

[12] What, then, will that philosophy, praised and to be preferred to all arts and affairs, furnish? namely: that you would rather choose to please yourself than the populace, that you esteem judgments, not number them, that you live without fear of gods and men, that you either conquer evils or bring them to an end. Moreover, if I see you celebrated by the favorable voices of the mob, if, as you enter, clamor and applause—the pantomimic ornaments—make a din, if throughout the whole city women and boys praise you, why should I not pity you, since I know what road leads to that favor?

Vale.

Farewell.