Letter 104
I have run off to my villa at Nomentum, for
what purpose, do you suppose? To escape the city? No; to shake
off a fever which was surely working its way into my system. It had
already got a grip upon me. My physician kept insisting that when
the circulation was upset and irregular, disturbing the natural poise,
the disease was under way. I therefore ordered my carriage to be made ready
at once, and insisted on departing in spite of my wife Paulina's a efforts
to stop me; for I remembered master Gallio's words, when he began to
develop a fever in Achaia and took ship at once, insisting that the disease
was not of the body but of the place. That is what I remarked to
my dear Paulina, who always urges me to take care of my health. I
know that her very life-breath comes and goes with my own, and I am beginning,
in my solicitude for her, to be solicitous for myself. And although
old age has made me braver to bear many things, I am gradually losing this
boon that old age bestows. For it comes into my mind that in this old man
there is a youth also, and youth needs tenderness. Therefore, since
I cannot prevail upon her to love me any more heroically, she prevails
upon me to cherish myself more carefully. For one must indulge genuine
emotions; sometimes, even in spite of weighty reasons, the breath of life
must be called back and kept at our very lips even at the price of great
suffering, for the sake of those whom we hold dear; because the good man
should not live as long
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as it pleases him, but as long as he ought. He who does not value
his wife, or his friend, highly enough to linger longer in life - he who
obstinately persists in dying is a voluptuary.
T he soul should also enforce this command
upon itself whenever the needs of one's relatives require; it should pause
and humour those near and dear, not only when it desires, but even when
it has begun, to die. It gives proof of a great heart to return to
life for the sake of others; and noble men have often done this.
But this procedure also, I believe, indicates the highest type of kindness:
that although the greatest advantage of old age is the opportunity to be
more negligent regarding self-preservation and to use life more adventurously,
one should watch over one's old age with still greater care if one knows
that such action is pleasing, useful, or desirable in the eyes of a person
whom one holds dear. This is also a source of no mean joy and profit;
for what is sweeter than to be so valued by one's wife that one becomes
more valuable to oneself for this reason? Hence my dear Paulina is
able to make me responsible, not only for her fears, but also for my own.
So you are curious to know the outcome of this prescription of travel?
As soon as I escaped from the oppressive atmosphere of the city, and from
that awful odour of reeking kitchens which, when in use, pour forth a ruinous
mess of steam and soot, I perceived at once that my health was mending.
And how much stronger do you think I felt when I reached my vineyards!
Being, so to speak, let out to pasture, I relgularly walked into my meals!
So I am my old self again, feeling now no wavering languor in my system,
and no sluggishness in my brain. I am beginning to work with all
my energy.
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B ut the mere place avails little for this
purpose. unless the mind is fully master of itself, and can, at its pleasure,
find seclusion even in the midst of business; the man, however, who is
always selecting resorts and hunting for leisure, will find something to
distract his mind in every place. Socrates is reported to have replied,
when a certain person complained of having received no benefit from his
travels: "It serves you right! You travelled in your own company!!"
O what a blessing it would be for some men to wander away from themselves!
As it is, they cause themselves vexation, worry, demoralization, and fear!
What profit is there in crossing the sea and in going from one city to
another? If you would escape your troubles, you need not another
place but another personality. Perhaps you have reached Athens, or
perhaps Rhodes; choose any state you fancy, how does it matter what its
character may be? You will be bringing to it your own.
S uppose that you hold wealth to be a good:
poverty will then distress you, and, - which is most pitiable, - it will
be an imaginary poverty. For you may be rich, and nevertheless, because
your neighbour is richer, you suppose yourself to be poor exactly by the
same amount in which you fall short of your neighbour. You may deem
official position a good; you will be vexed at another's appointment or
re-appointment to the consulship; you will be jealous whenever you see
a name several times in the state records. Your ambition will be
so frenzied that you will regard yourself last in the race if there is
anyone in front of you. Or you may rate death as the worst of evils, although
there is really no evil therein except that which precedes death's coming
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fear. You will be frightened out of your wits, not only by real,
but by fancied dangers, and will be tossed for ever on the sea of illusion.
What benefit will it be to
Have threaded all the towns of Argolis,
A fugitive through midmost press of foes?
For peace itself will furnish further apprehension. Even in the midst
of safety you will have no confidence if your mind has once been given
a shock; once it has acquired the habit of blind panic, it is incapable
of providing even for its own safety. For it does not avoid danger,
but runs away. Yet we are more exposed to danger when we turn our
backs.
Y ou may judge it the most grievous of ills
to lose any of those you love; while all the same this would be no less
foolish than weeping because the trees which charm your eye and adorn your
home lose their foliage. Regard everything that pleases you as if
it were a flourishing plant; make the most of it while it is in leaf, for
different plants at different seasons must fall and die. But just
as the loss of leaves is a light thing, because they are born afresh, so
it is with the loss of those whom you love and regard as the delight of
your life; for they can be replaced even though they cannot be born afresh.
"New friends, however, will not be the same." No, nor will you yourself
remain the same; you change with every day and every hour. But in
other men you more readily see what time plunders; in your own case the
change is hidden, because it will not take place visibly. Others
are snatched from sight; we ourselves are being stealthily filched away
from ourselves. You will not think about any of these problems, nor
will you apply remedies to these wounds. You will of your own volition
be sowing a crop of
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trouble by alternate hoping and despairing. If you are wise, mingle
these two elements: do not hope without despair, or despair without hope.
What benefit has travel of itself ever been able to give anyone?
No restraint upon pleasure, no bridling of desire, no checking of bad temper,
no crushing of the wild assaults of passion, no opportunity to rid the
soul of evil. Travelling cannot give us judgment, or shake off our errors;
it merely holds our attention for a moment by a certain novelty, as children
pause to wonder at something unfamiliar. Besides, it irritates us,
through the wavering of a mind which is suffering from an acute attack
of sickness; the very motion makes it more fitful and nervous. Hence
the spots we had sought most eagerly we quit still more eagerly, like birds
that flit and are off as soon as they have alighted. What travel
will give is familiarity with other nations: it will reveal to you mountains
of strange shape, or unfamiliar tracts of plain, or valleys that are watered
by everflowing springs, or the characteristics of some river that comes
to our attention. We observe how the Nile rises and swells in summer, or
how the Tigris disappears, runs underground through hidden spaces, and
then appears with unabated sweep; or how the Maeander, that oft-rehearsed
theme and plaything of the poets, turns in frequent bendings, and often
in winding comes close to its own channel before resuming its course.
But this sort of information will not make better or sounder men of us.
We ought rather to spend our time in study, and to cultivate those who
are masters of wisdom, learning something which has been investigated,
but not
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settled by this means the mind can be relieved of a most wretched serfdom,
and won over to freedom. Indeed, as long as you are ignorant of what
you should avoid or seek, or of what is necessary or superfluous, or of
what is right or wrong, you will not be travelling, but merely wandering.
There will be no benefit to you in this hurrying to and fro; for you are
travelling with your emotions and are followed by your afflictions.
Would that they were indeed following you! In that case, they would
be farther away; as it is, you are carrying and not leading them.
Hence they press about you on all sides, continually chafing and annoying
you. It is medicine, not scenery, for which the sick man must go
a-searching. Suppose that someone has broken a leg or dislocated
a joint: he does not take carriage or ship for other regions, but he calls
in the physician to set the fractured limb, or to move it back to its proper
place in the socket. What then? When the spirit is broken or
wrenched in so many places, do you think that change of place can heal
it? The complaint is too deep-seated to be cured by a journey.
Travel does not make a physician or an orator; no art is acquired by merely
living in a certain place. Where lies the truth, then? Can
wisdom, the greatest of all the arts, be picked up on a journey?
I assure you, travel as far as you like, you can never establish yourself
beyond the reach of desire, beyond the reach of bad temper, or beyond the
reach of fear; had it been so, the human race would long ago have banded
together and made a pilgrimage to the spot. Such ills, as long as
you carry with you their causes, will load you down and worry you to skin
and bone in your wanderings over land and sea. Do you wonder that
it is of no use to run away
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from them? That from which you are running, is within you.
Accordingly, reform your own self, get the burden off your own shoulders,
and keep within safe limits the cravings which ought to be removed.
Wipe out from your soul all trace of sin. If you would enjoy your
travels, make healthy the companion of your travels. As long as this
companion is avaricious and mean, greed will stick to you; and while you
consort with an overbearing man, your puffed-up ways will also stick close.
Live with a hangman, and you will never be rid of your cruelty. If
an adulterer be your club-mate, he will kindle the baser passions.
If you would be stripped of your faults leave far behind you the patterns
of the faults. The miser, the swindler, the bully, the cheat, who
will do you much harm merely by being near you, are within you. Change
therefore to better associations: live with the Catos, with Laelius, with
Tubero. Or, if you enjoy living with Greeks also, spend your time
with Socrates and with Zeno: the former will show you how to die if it
be necessary; the latter how to die before it is necessary. Live with Chrysippus,
with Posidonius: they will make you acquainted with things earthly and
things heavenly; they will bid you work hard over something more than neat
turns of language and phrases mouthed forth for the entertainment of listeners;
they will bid you be stout of heart and rise superior to threats.
The only harbour safe from the seething storms of this life is scorn of
the future, a firm stand, a readiness to receive Fortune's missiles
full in the breast, neither skulking nor turning the back. Nature
has brought us forth brave of spirit, and, as she has implanted in certain
animals a spirit of ferocity, in others craft,
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in others terror, so she has gifted us with an aspiring and lofty spirit,
which prompts us to seek a life of the greatest honour, and not of the
greatest security, that most resembles the soul of the universe, which
it follows and imitates as far as our mortal steps permit. This spirit
thrusts itself forward, confident of commendation and esteem. It
is superior to all, monarch of all it surveys; hence it should be subservient
to nothing, finding no task too heavy, and nothing strong enough to weigh
down the shoulders of a man.
Shapes dread to look upon, of toil or death
are not in the least dreadful, if one is able to look upon them with unflinching
gaze, and is able to pierce the shadows. Many a sight that is held
a terror in the night-time, is turned to ridicule by day. "Shapes dread
to look upon, of toil or death": our Vergil has excellently said that these
shapes are dread, not in reality, but only "to look upon" - in other words,
they seem terrible, but are not. And in these visions what is there,
I say, as fear-inspiring as rumour has proclaimed? Why, pray, my
dear Lucilius, should a man fear toil, or a mortal death? Countless
cases occur to my mind of men who think that what they themselves are unable
to do is impossible, who maintain that we utter words which are too big
for man's nature to carry out. But how much more highly do I think
of these men! They can do these things, but decline to do them.
To whom that ever tried have these tasks proved false? To what man
did they not seem easier in the doing? Our lack of confidence is not the
result of difficulty. The difficulty comes from our lack of confidence.
I f, however, you desire a pattern, take Socrates,
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a long-suffermg old man, who was sea-tossed amid every hardship and
yet was unconquered both by poverty (which his troubles at home made more
burdensome) and by toil, including the drudgery of military service.
He was much tried at home, whether we think of his wife, a woman of rough
manners and shrewish tongue, or of the children whose intractability showed
them to be more like their mother than their father. And if you consider
the facts, he lived either in time of war, or under tyrants, or under a democracy ,
which is more cruel than wars and tyrants. The war lasted for twenty-seven
years; then the state became the victim of the Thirty Tyrants, of whom
many were his personal enemies. At the last came that climax of condemnation
under the gravest of charges: they accused him of disturbing the state
religion and corrupting the youth, for they declared that he had influenced
the youth to defy the gods, to defy the council, and to defy the state
in general. Next came the prison, and the cup of poison.d/ But all
these measures changed the soul of Socrates so little that they did not
even change his features. What wonderful and rare distinction! He
maintained this attitude up to the very end, and no man ever saw Socrates
too much elated or too much depressed. Amid all the disturbance of
Fortune, he was undisturbed.
D o you desire another case? Take that
of the younger Marcus Cato, with whom Fortune dealt in a more hostile and
more persistent fashion. But he withstood her, on all occasions,
and in his last
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moments, at the point of death, showed that a brave man can live in
spite of Fortune, can die in spite of her. His whole life was passed
either in civil warfare, or under a political regime which was soon to
breed civil war. And you may say that he, just as much as Socrates,
declared allegiance to liberty in the midst of slavery - unless perchance
you think that Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus were the allies of liberty!
No one ever saw Cato change,
no matter how often the state changed: he kept himself the same in all
circumstances - in the praetorship, in defeat, under accusation, in
his province, on the platform, in the army, in death. Furthermore, when
the republic was in a crisis of terror, when Caesar was on one side with
ten embattled legions at his call, aided by so many foreign nations. and
when Pompey was on the other, satisfied to stand alone against all comers,
and when the citizens were leaning towards either Caesar or Pompey, Cato
alone established a definite party for the Republic. If you would
obtain a mental picture of that period, you may imagine on one side the
people and the whole proletariat eager for revolution - on the other the
senators and knights, the chosen and honoured men of the commonwealth;
and there were left between them but these two - the Republic and Cato.
I tell you, you will marvel when you see
Atreus' son, and Priam, and Achilles, wroth at both.
Like Achilles, he scorns and disarms each faction. And this is the
vote which he casts concerning them
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both: "If Caesar wins, I slay myself; if Pompey, I go into exile." What
was there for a man to fear who, whether in defeat or in victory, had assigned
to himself a doom which might have been assigned to him by bis enemies
in their utmost rage? So he died by his own decision.
Y ou see that man can endure toil: Cato,
on foot, led an army through African deserts. You see that thirst
can be endured: he marched over sun-baked hills, dragging the remains of
a beaten army and with no train of supplies, undergoing lack of water and
wearing a heavy suit of armour; always the last to drink of the few springs
which they chanced to find. You see that honour, and dishonour too,
can be despised: for they report that on the very day when Cato was defeated
at the elections, he played a game of ball. You see also that man
can be free from fear of those above him in rank: for Cato attacked Caesar
and Pompey simultaneously, at a time when none dared fall foul of the one
without endeavouring to oblige the other. You see that death can
be scorned as well as exile: Cato inflicted exile upon himself and
finally death, and war all the while.
A nd so, if only we are willing to withdraw
our necks from the yoke, we can keep as stout a heart against such terrors
as these. But first and foremost, we must reject pleasures; they
render us weak and womanish ; they make
great demands upon us, and, moreover, cause us to make great demands upon
Fortune. Second, we must spurn wealth: wealth is the diploma of slavery.
Abandon gold and silver, and whatever else is a burden upon our richly-furnished
homes; liberty cannot be gained for nothing. If you set a high value
on liberty, you must set a low value on everything else. Farewell.
<Ep3-211>
Latin / Greek Original
[1] In Nomentanum meum fugi -- quid putas? urbem? immo febrem et quidemsubrepentem; iam manum mihi iniecerat. Medicus initia esse dicebat motisvenis et incertis et naturalem turbantibus modum. Protinus itaque pararivehiculum iussi; Paulina mea retinente exire perseveravi. Illud mihi inore erat domini mei Gallionis, qui cum in Achaia febrem habere coepisset, protinus navem escendit clamitans non corporis esse sed loci morbum. [2]Hoc ego Paulinae meae dixi, quae mihi valetudinem meam commendat. Nam cumsciam spiritum illius in meo verti, incipio, ut illi consulam, mihi consulere. Et cum me fortiorem senectus ad multa reddiderit, hoc beneficium aetatisamitto; venit enim mihi in mentem in hoc sene et adulescentem esse cuiparcitur. Itaque quoniam ego ab illa non inpetro ut me fortius amet, <ame> inpetrat illa ut me diligentius amem. [3] Indulgendum est enim honestisadfectibus; et interdum, etiam si premunt causae, spiritus in honorem suorumvel cum tormento revocandus et in ipso ore retinendus est, cum bono virovivendum sit non quamdiu iuvat sed quamdiu oportet: ille qui non uxorem, non amicum tanti putat ut diutius in vita commoretur, qui perseverabitmori, delicatus est. Hoc quoque imperet sibi animus, ubi utilitas suorumexigit, nec tantum si vult mori, sed si coepit, intermittat et <se>suis commodet. [4] Ingentis animi est aliena causa ad vitam reverti, quodmagni viri saepe fecerunt; sed hoc quoque summae humanitatis existimo, senectutem suam, cuius maximus fructus est securior sui tutela et vitaeusus animosior, attentius <curare>, si scias alicui id tuorum esse dulce, utile, optabile. [5] Habet praeterea in se non mediocre ista res gaudiumet mercedem; quid enim iucundius quam uxori tam carum esse ut propter hoctibi carior fias? Potest itaque Paulina mea non tantum suum mihi timoreminputare sed etiam meum.
[6] Quaeris ergo quomodo mihi consilium profectionis cesserit? Ut primumgravitatem urbis excessi et illum odorem culinarum fumantium quae motaequidquid pestiferi vaporis sorbuerunt cum pulvere effundunt, protinus mutatamvaletudinem sensi. Quantum deinde adiectum putas viribus postquam vineasattigi? in pascuum emissus cibum meum invasi. Repetivi ergo iam me; nonpermansit marcor ille corporis dubii et male cogitantis. Incipio toto animostudere. [7] Non multum ad hoc locus confert nisi se sibi praestat animus, qui secretum in occupationibus mediis si volet habebit: at ille qui regioneseligit et otium captat ubique quo distringatur inveniet. Nam Socraten querenticuidam quod nihil sibi peregrinationes profuissent respondisse ferunt, 'non inmerito hoc tibi evenit; tecum enim peregrinabaris'. [8] O quam benecum quibusdam ageretur, si a se aberrarent! Nunc premunt se ipsi, sollicitant, corrumpunt, territant. Quid prodest mare traicere et urbes mutare? si visista quibus urgueris effugere, non aliubi sis oportet sed alius. Puta venissete Athenas, puta Rhodon; elige arbitrio tuo civitatem: quid ad rem pertinetquos illa mores habeat? tuos adferes. [9] Divitias iudicabis bonum: torquebitte paupertas, quod est miserrimum, falsa. Quamvis enim multum possideas, tamen, quia aliquis plus habet, tanto tibi videris defici quanto vinceris. Honores iudicabis bonum: male te habebit ille consul factus, ille etiamrefectus; invidebis quotiens aliquem in fastis saepius legeris. Tantuserit ambitionis furor ut nemo tibi post te videatur si aliquis ante tefuerit. [10] Maximum malum iudicabis mortem, cum <in> illa nihil sitmali nisi quod ante ipsam est, timeri. Exterrebunt te non tantum periculased suspiciones; vanis semper agitaberis. Quid enim proderit
Ipsa pax timores sumministrabit; ne tutis quidem habebitur fides consternatasemel mente, quae ubi consuetudinem pavoris inprovidi fecit, etiam ad tutelamsalutis suae inhabilis est. Non enim vitat sed fugit; magis autem periculispatemus aversi. [11] Gravissimum iudicabis malum aliquem ex his quos amabisamittere, cum interim hoc tam ineptum erit quam flere quod arboribus amoeniset domum tuam ornantibus decidant folia. Quidquid te delectat aeque vide+ut videres+: dum virent, utere. Alium alio die casus excutiet, sed quemadmodumfrondium iactura facilis est quia renascuntur, sic istorum quos amas quosqueoblectamenta vitae putas esse damnum, quia reparantur etiam si non renascuntur. [12] 'Sed non erunt idem. ' Ne tu quidem idem eris. Omnis dies, omnis horate mutat; sed in aliis rapina facilius apparet, hic latet, quia non exaperto fit. Alii auferuntur, at ipsi nobis furto subducimur. Horum nihilcogitabis nec remedia vulneribus oppones, sed ipse tibi seres sollicitudinumcausas alia sperando, alia desperando? Si sapis, alterum alteri misce:nec speraveris sine desperatione nec desperaveris sine spe.
[13] Quid per se peregrinatio prodesse cuiquam potuit? Non voluptatesilla temperavit, non cupiditates refrenavit, non iras repressit, non indomitosamoris impetus fregit, nulla denique animo mala eduxit. Non iudicium dedit, non discussit errorem, sed ut puerum ignota mirantem ad breve tempus rerumaliqua novitate detinuit. [14] Ceterum inconstantiam mentis, quae maximeaegra est, lacessit, mobiliorem levioremque reddit ipsa iactatio. Itaquequae petierant cupidissime loca cupidius deserunt et avium modo transvolantcitiusque quam venerant abeunt. [15] Peregrinatio notitiam dabit gentium, novas tibi montium formas ostendet, invisitata spatia camporum et inriguasperennibus aquis valles; alicuius fluminis <singularem ponet> sub observationenaturam, sive ut Nilus aestivo incremento tumet, sive ut Tigris eripiturex oculis et acto per occulta cursu integrae magnitudinis redditur, siveut Maeander, poetarum omnium exercitatio et ludus, implicatur crebris anfractibuset saepe in vicinum alveo suo admotus, antequam sibi influat, flectitur:ceterum neque meliorem faciet neque saniorem. [16] Inter studia versandumest et inter auctores sapientiae ut quaesita discamus, nondum inventa quaeramus;sic eximendus animus ex miserrima servitute in libertatem adseritur. Quamdiuquidem nescieris quid fugiendum, quid petendum, quid necessarium, quidsupervacuum, quid iustum, quid iniustum, quid honestum, quid inhonestumsit, non erit hoc peregrinari sed errare. [17] Nullam tibi opem feret istediscursus; peregrinaris enim cum adfectibus tuis et mala te tua sequuntur. Utinam quidem sequerentur! Longius abessent: nunc fers illa, non ducis. Itaque ubique te premunt et paribus incommodis urunt. Medicina aegro, nonregio quaerenda est. [18] Fregit aliquis crus aut extorsit articulum: nonvehiculum navemque conscendit, sed advocat medicum ut fracta pars iungatur, ut luxata in locum reponatur. Quid ergo? animum tot locis fractum et extortumcredis locorum mutatione posse sanari? Maius est istud malum quam ut gestationecuretur. [19] Peregrinatio non facit medicum, non oratorem; nulla ars locodiscitur: quid ergo? sapientia, ars omnium maxima, in itinere colligitur? Nullum est, mihi crede, iter quod te extra cupiditates, extra iras, extrametus sistat; aut si quod esset, agmine facto gens illuc humana pergeret. Tamdiu ista urguebunt mala macerabuntque per terras ac maria vagum quamdiumalorum gestaveris causas. [20] Fugam tibi non prodesse miraris? tecumsunt quae fugis. Te igitur emenda, onera tibi detrahe et [emenda] desideriaintra salutarem modum contine; omnem ex animo erade nequitiam. Si vis peregrinationeshabere iucundas, comitem tuum sana. Haerebit tibi avaritia quamdiu avarosordidoque convixeris; haerebit tumor quamdiu superbo conversaberis; numquamsaevitiam in tortoris contubernio pones; incendent libidines tuas adulterorumsodalicia. [21] Si velis vitiis exui, longe a vitiorum exemplis recedendumest. Avarus, corruptor, saevus, fraudulentus, multum nocituri si propea te fuissent, intra te sunt. Ad meliores transi: cum Catonibus vive, cumLaelio, cum Tuberone. Quod si convivere etiam Graecis iuvat, cum Socrate, cum Zenone versare: alter te docebit mori si necesse erit, alter antequamnecesse erit. [22] Vive cum Chrysippo, cum Posidonio: hi tibi tradent humanorumdivinorumque notitiam, hi iubebunt in opere esse nec tantum scite loquiet in oblectationem audientium verba iactare, sed animum indurare et adversusminas erigere. Unus est enim huius vitae fluctuantis et turbidae portuseventura contemnere, stare fidenter ac paratum tela fortunae adverso pectoreexcipere, non latitantem nec tergiversantem. [23] Magnanimos nos naturaproduxit, et ut quibusdam animalibus ferum dedit, quibusdam subdolum, quibusdampavidum, ita nobis gloriosum et excelsum spiritum quaerentem ubi honestissime, non ubi tutissime vivat, simillimum mundo, quem quantum mortalium passibuslicet sequitur aemulaturque; profert se, laudari et aspici credit. [24]<Dominus> omnium est, supra omnia est;itaque nulli se rei summittat, nihil illi videatur grave, nihil quod virum incurvet.
minime quidem, si quis rectis oculis intueri illa possit et tenebras perrumpere;multa per noctem habita terrori dies vertit ad risum.
egregie Vergilius noster non re dixit terribiles esse sed visu, id estvideri, non esse. [25] Quid, inquam, in istis est tam formidabile quamfama vulgavit? quid est, obsecro te, Lucili, cur timeat laborem vir, mortemhomo? Totiens mihi occurrunt isti qui non putant fieri posse quidquid facerenon possunt, et aiunt nos loqui maiora quam quae humana natura sustineat. [26] At quanto ego de illis melius existimo! ipsi quoque haec possunt facere, sed nolunt. Denique quem umquam ista destituere temptantem? cui non facilioraapparuere in actu? Non quia difficilia sunt non audemus, sed quia non audemusdifficilia sunt.
[27] Si tamen exemplum desideratis, accipite Socraten, perpessiciumsenem, per omnia aspera iactatum, invictum tamen et paupertate, quam gravioremilli domestica onera faciebant, et laboribus, quos militares quoque pertulit. Quibus ille domi exercitus, sive uxorem eius moribus feram, lingua petulantem, sive liberos indociles et matri quam patri similiores +sivere+ aut in bellofuit aut in tyrannide aut in libertate bellis ac tyrannis saeviore. [28]Viginti et septem annis pugnatum est; post finita arma triginta tyrannisnoxae dedita est civitas, ex quibus plerique inimici erant. Novissime damnatioest sub gravissimis nominibus impleta: obiecta est et religionum violatioet iuventutis corruptela, quam inmittere in deos, in patres, in rem publicamdictus est. Post haec carcer et venenum. Haec usque eo animum Socratisnon moverant ut ne vultum quidem moverint. <O> illam mirabilem laudemet singularem! usque ad extremum nec hilariorem quisquam nec tristioremSocraten vidit; aequalis fuit in tanta inaequalitate fortunae.
[29] Vis alterum exemplum? accipe hunc M. Catonem recentiorem, cumquo et infestius fortuna egit et pertinacius. Cui cum omnibus locis obstitisset, novissime et in morte, ostendit tamen virum fortem posse invita fortunavivere, invita mori. Tota illi aetas aut in armis est exacta civilibusaut +intacta+ concipiente iam civile bellum; et hunc licet dicas non minusquam Socraten +inseruisse dixisse+ nisi forte Cn. Pompeium et Caesaremet Crassum putas libertatis socios fuisse. [30] Nemo mutatum Catonem totiensmutata re publica vidit; eundem se in omni statu praestitit, in praetura, in repulsa, in accusatione, in provincia, in contione, in exercitu, inmorte. Denique in illa rei publicae trepidatione, cum illinc Caesar essetdecem legionibus pugnacissimis subnixus, totis exterarum gentium praesidiis, hinc Cn. Pompeius, satis unus adversus omnia, cum alii ad Caesarem inclinarent, alii ad Pompeium, solus Cato fecit aliquas et rei publicae partes. [31]Si animo conplecti volueris illius imaginem temporis, videbis illinc plebemet omnem erectum ad res novas vulgum, hinc optumates et equestrem ordinem, quidquid erat in civitate sancti et electi, duos in medio relictos, rempublicam et Catonem. Miraberis, inquam, cum animadverteris
utrumque enim inprobat, utrumque exarmat. [32] Hanc fert de utroque sententiam:ait se, si Caesar vicerit, moriturum, si Pompeius, exulaturum. Quid habebatquod timeret qui ipse sibi et victo et victori constituerat quae constitutaesse ab hostibus iratissimis poterant? Perit itaque ex decreto suo. [33]Vides posse homines laborem pati: per medias Africae solitudines pedesduxit exercitum. Vides posse tolerari sitim: in collibus arentibus sineullis inpedimentis victi exercitus reliquias trahens inopiam umoris loricatustulit et, quotiens aquae fuerat occasio, novissimus bibit. Vides honoremet notam posse contemni: eodem quo repulsus est die in comitio pila lusit. Vides posse non timeri potentiam superiorum: et Pompeium et Caesarem, quorumnemo alterum offendere audebat nisi ut alterum demereretur, simul provocavit. Vides tam mortem posse contemni quam exilium: et exilium sibi indixit etmortem et interim bellum. [34] Possumus itaque adversus ista tantum habereanimi, libeat modo subducere iugo collum. In primis autem respuendae voluptates:enervant et effeminant et multum petunt, multum autem a fortuna petendumest. Deinde spernendae opes: auctoramenta sunt servitutum. Aurum et argentumet quidquid aliud felices domos onerat relinquatur: non potest gratis constarelibertas. Hanc si magno aestimas, omnia parvo aestimanda sunt. Vale.