Letter 122
T he day has already begun to lessen.
It has shrunk considerably, but yet will still allow a goodly space of
time if one rises, so to speak, with the day itself. We are more
industrious, and we are better men if we anticipate the day and welcome
the dawn; but we are base churls if we lie dozing when the sun is high
in the heavens, or if we wake up only when noon arrives; and even then
to many it seems not yet
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dawn. Some have reversed the functions of light and darkness;
they open eyes sodden with yesterday's debauch only at the approach of
night. It is just like the condition of those peoples whom, according
to Vergil, Nature has hidden away and placed in an abode directly opposite
to our own:
When in our face the Dawn with panting steeds
Breathes down, for them the ruddy evening kindles
Her late-lit fires.
It is not the country of these men, so much as it is their life, that is
"directly opposite" to our own. There may be Antipodes dwelling in
this same city of ours who, in Cato's words, "have never seen the sun
rise or set." Do you think that these men know how to live, if they do
not know when to live? Do these men fear death, if they have buried
themselves alive? They are as weird as the birds of night Although they
pass their hours of darkness amid wine and perfumes, although they spend
the whole extent of their unnatural waking hours in eating dinners - and
those too cooked separately to make up many courses - they are not really
banqueting; they are conducting their own funeral services. And the
dead at least have their banquets by daylight. But indeed to one who
is active no day is long. So let us lengthen our lives; for the duty and
the proof of life consist in action .
Cut short the night: use some of it for the day's business. Birds that
are being prepared for the banquet, that they may be easily fattened through
lack of exercise, are kept in darkness; and similarly, if men vegetate
without physical activity, their idle bodies are overwhelmed with flesh,
and in their self-satisfied retirement the fat of indolence grows upon
them. Moreover, the bodies of those who have sworn allegiance to
the hours of
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darkness have a loathsome appearance. Their complexions are more
alarming than those of anaemic invalids; they are lackadaisical and flabby
with dropsy; though still alive, they are already carrion. But this,
to my thinking, would be among the least of their evils. How much
more darkness there is in their souls! Such a man is internally dazed;
his vision is darkened; he envies the blind. And what man ever had
eyes for the purpose of seeing in the dark? You ask me how this depravity
comes upon the soul -this habit of reversing the daylight and giving over
one's whole existence to the night? All vices rebel against Nature;
they all abandon the appointed order. It is the motto of luxury to enjoy
what is unusual, and not only to depart from that which is right, but to
leave it as far behind as possible, and finally even take a stand in opposition
thereto. Do you not believe that men live contrary to Nature who
drink fasting, - who take wine into empty veins, and pass to their food
in a state of intoxication? And yet this is one of youth's popular
vices - to perfect their strength in order to drink on the very threshold
of the bath, amid the unclad bathers; nay even to soak in wine and then
immediately to rub off the sweat which they have promoted by many a hot
glass of liquor! To them, a glass after lunch or one after dinner
is bourgeois; it is what the country squires do, who are not connoisseurs
in pleasure. This unmixed wine delights them just because there is
no food to float in it, because it readily makes its way into their muscles;
this boozing pleases them just because the stomach is empty. Do you not
believe that men live contrary to Nature who exchadge the fashion of their
attire with women? Do not men live contrary to Nature who
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endeavour to look fresh and boyish at an age unsuitable for such an
attempt? What could be more cruel or more wretched? Cannot
time and man's estate ever carry such a person beyond an artificial boyhood?
Do not men live contrary to Nature who crave roses in winter, or seek to
raise a spring flower like the lily by means of hot-water heaters and artificial
changes of temperature? Do not men live contrary to Nature who grow
fruit- trees on the top of a wall? Or raise waving forests upon the
roofs and battlements of their houses - the roots starting at a point,
to which it would be outlandish for the tree-tops to reach? Do not
men live contrary to Nature who lay the foundations of bathrooms in the
sea and do not imagine that they can enjoy their swim unless the heated
pool is lashed as with the waves of a storm?
W hen men have begun to desire all things
in opposition to the ways of Nature, they end by entirely abandoning the
ways of Nature. They cry: "It is daytime - let us go to sleep!
It is the time when men rest: now for exercise, now for our drive, now
for our lunch! Lo, the dawn approaches: it is dinner-time! We should
not do as mankind do. It is low and mean to live in the usual and
conventional way. Let us abandon the ordinary sort of day.
Let us have a morning that is a special feature of ours, peculiar to ourselves.
Such men are, in my opinion, as good as dead. Are they not all but
present at a funeral - and before their time too - when they live amid
torches and tapers?" I remember that this sort of life was very fashionable
at
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one time: among such men as Acilius Buta, a person of praetorian rank,
who ran through a tremendous estate and on confessing his bainkruptey to
Tiberius, received the answer: "You have waked up too late!" Julius Montanus
was once reading a poem aloud he was a middli ng good poet, noted for his
friendship with Tiberius, as well as his fall from favour. He always
used to fill his poems with a generous sprinkling of sunrises and sunsets.
Hence, when a certain person was complaining that Montanus had read all
day long, and declared that no man should attend any of his readings, Natta
Pinarius remarked: "I couldn't make a fairer bargain than this:
I am ready to listen to him from sunrise to sunset!"
Montanus was reading, and had reached the words:
'Gins the bright morning to spread forth his flames clear-
burning; the red dawn
Scatters its light; and the sad-eyed swallow
returns to her nestlings, Bringing the chatterers' food, and with sweet
bill sharing and serving. Then Varus, a Roman knight, the hanger-on
of Marcus Vinicius, and a sponger at elegant dinners which he earned
by his degenerate wit, shouted: "Bed-time for Buta!" And later, when Montanus
declaimed Lo, now the shepherds have folded their flocks, and the slow-
moving darkness 'Gins to spread silence o'er lands that are drowsily lulled
Into slumber, this same Varus remarked: "What? Night already?
I'll go and pay my morning call on Buta!" You see, nothing was more notorious
than Buta's upside-down manner of life. But this life, as I said,
was
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fashionable at one time. And the reason why some men live thus
is not because they think that night in itself offers any greater attractions,
but because that which is normal gives them no particular pleasure; light
being a bitter enemy of the evil conscience, and, when one craves or scorns
all things in proportion as they have cost one much or little, illumination
for which one does not pay is an object of contempt. Moreover, the
luxurious person wishes to be an object of gossip his whole life; if people
are silent about him, he thinks that he is wasting his time. Hence
he is uncomfortable whenever any of his actions escape notoriety.
M any men eat up their property, and many
men keep mistresses. If you would win a reputation among such persons,
you must make your programme not only one of luxury but one of notoriety;
for in such a busy community wickedness does not discover the ordinary
sort of scandal. I heard Pedo Albinovanus, that most attractive story-teller,
speaking of his residence above the town-house of Sextus Papinius.
Papinius belonged to the tribe of those who shun the light. "About nine
o'clock at night I hear the sound of whips. I ask what is going on,
and they tell me that Papinius is going over his accounts. About twelve
there is a strenuous shouting; I ask what the matter is, and they say he
is exercising his voice. About two A.M. I ask the significance
of the sound of wheels; they tell me that he is off for a drive.
And at dawn there is a tremendous flurry- calling of slaves and butlers,
and pandemonium among the cooks. I ask the meaning of this also, and they
tell me that he has called for his cordial and his appetizer, after leaving
the bath. His dinner," said Pedo, " never went
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beyond the day, for he lived very sparingly; he was lavish with nothing
but the night. Accordingly, if you believe those who call him tight-fisted
and mean, you will call him also a slave of the lamp.'"
Y ou should not be surprised at finding so
many special manifestations of the vices; for vices vary, and there are
countless phases of them, nor can all their various kinds be classified.
The method of maintaining righteousness is simple ;
the method of maintaining wickedness is complicated, and has infinite opportunity
to swerve. And the same holds true of character; if you follow nature,
character is easy to manage, free, and with very slight shades of difference;
but the sort of person I have mentioned possesses badly warped character,
out of harmony with all things, including himself. The chief cause,
however, of this discase seems to me to be a squeamish revolt from the
normal existence. Just as such persons mark themselves off from others
in their dress, or in the elaborate arrangement of their dinners, or in
the elegance of their carriages; even so they desire to make themselves
peculiar by their way of dividing up the hours of their day. They
are unwilling to be wicked in the conventional way, because notoriety is
the reward of their sort of wickedness. Notoriety is what all such
men seek - men who are, so to speak, living backwards.
F or this reason, Lucilius, let us keep to
the way which Nature has mapped out for us, and let us not swerve therefrom.
If we follow Nature, all is easy and unobstructed; but if we combat Nature,
our life differs not a whit from that of men who row against the current.
Farewell.
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Latin / Greek Original
(1) Detrimentum iam dies sensit; resiluit aliquantum, ita tamen ut liberale adhuc spatium sit si quis cum ipso, ut ita dicam, die surgat. Officiosiormeliorque si quis illum expectat et lucem primam excipit: turpis qui altosole semisomnus iacet, cuius uigilia medio die incipit; et adhuc multishoc antelucanum est. (2) Sunt qui officia lucis noctisque peruerterintnec ante diducant oculos hesterna graues crapula quam adpetere nox coepit. Qualis illorum condicio dicitur quos natura, ut ait Vergilius, pedibusnostris subditos e contrario posuit,
talis horum contraria omnibus non regio sed uita est. (3) Sunt quidam ineadem urbe antipodes qui, ut M. Cato ait, nec orientem umquam solem uideruntnec occidentem. Hos tu existimas scire quemadmodum uiuendum sit, qui nesciuntquando?
Et hi mortem timent, in quam se uiui condiderunt? tam infausti ominisquam nocturnae aues sunt. Licet in uino unguentoque tenebras suas exigant,licet epulis et quidem in multa fericula discoctis totum peruersae uigiliaetempus educant, non conuiuantur sed iusta sibi faciunt. Mortuis certe interdiuparentatur. At mehercules nullus agenti dies longus est. Extendamus uitam:huius et officium et argumentum actus est. Circumscribatur nox et aliquidex illa in diem transferatur. (4) Aues quae conuiuiis comparantur, ut inmotaefacile pinguescant, in obscuro continentur; ita sine ulla exercitationeiacentibus tumor pigrum corpus inuadit et ~superba umbra~ iners saginasubcrescit. At istorum corpora qui se tenebris dicauerunt foeda uisuntur,quippe suspectior illis quam morbo pallentibus color est: languidi et euanidialbent, et in uiuis caro morticina est. Hoc tamen minimum in illis malorumdixerim: quanto plus tenebrarum in animo est! ille in se stupet, ille caligat,inuidet caecis. Quis umquam oculos tenebrarum causa habuit?
(5) Interrogas quomodo haec animo prauitas fiat auersandi diem et totamuitam in noctem transferendi? Omnia uitia contra naturam pugnant, omniadebitum ordinem deserunt; hoc est luxuriae propositum, gaudere peruersisnec tantum discedere a recto sed quam longissime abire, deinde etiam econtrario stare. (6) Non uidentur tibi contra naturam uiuere <qui> ieiunibibunt, qui uinum recipiunt inanibus uenis et ad cibum ebrii transeunt? Atqui frequens hoc adulescentium uitium est, qui uires excolunt <ut>in ipso paene balinei limine inter nudos bibant, immo potent et sudoremquem mouerunt potionibus crebris ac feruentibus subinde destringant. Postprandium aut cenam bibere uulgare est; hoc patres familiae rustici faciuntet uerae uoluptatis ignari: merum illud delectat quod non innatat cibo,quod libere penetrat ad neruos; illa ebrietas iuuat quae in uacuum uenit. (7) Non uidentur tibi contra naturam uiuere qui commutant cum feminis uestem? Non uiuunt contra naturam qui spectant ut pueritia splendeat tempore alieno? Quid fieri crudelius uel miserius potest? numquam uir erit, ut diu uirumpati possit? et cum illum contumeliae sexus eripuisse debuerat, non neaetas quidem eripiet? (8) Non uiuunt contra naturam qui hieme concupiscuntrosam fomentoque aquarum calentium et locorum apta mutatione bruma lilium(florem uernum) exprimunt? Non uiuunt contra naturam qui pomaria in summisturribus serunt? quorum siluae in tectis domuum ac fastigiis nutant, indeortis radicibus quo inprobe cacumina egissent? Non uiuunt contra naturamqui fundamenta thermarum in mari iaciunt et delicate natare ipsi sibi nonuidentur nisi calentia stagna fluctu ac tempestate feriantur? (9) Cum institueruntomnia contra naturae consuetudinem uelle, nouissime in totum ab illa desciscunt. 'Lucet: somni tempus est. Quies est: nunc exerceamur, nunc gestemur, nuncprandeamus. Iam lux propius accedit: tempus est cenae. Non oportet id facerequod populus; res sordida est trita ac uulgari uia uiuere. Dies publicusrelinquatur: proprium nobis ac peculiare mane fiat. ' (10) Isti uero mihidefunctorum loco sunt; quantulum enim a funere absunt et quidem acerboqui ad faces et cereos uiuunt?
Hanc uitam agere eodem tempore multos meminimus, inter quos et Acilium Butam praetorium, cui post patrimonium ingens consumptum Tiberius paupertatemconfitenti 'sero' inquit 'experrectus es'. (11) Recitabat Montanus Iuliuscarmen, tolerabilis poeta et amicitia Tiberi notus et frigore. Ortus etoccasus libentissime inserebat; itaque cum indignaretur quidam illum totodie recitasse et negaret accedendum ad recitationes eius, Natta Pinariusait: 'numquid possum liberalius agere? paratus sum illum audire ab ortu ad occasum'.
Varus eques Romanus, M. Vinicii comes, cenarum bonarum adsectator, quasinprobitate linguae merebatur, exclamauit 'incipit Buta dormire'. (13) Deinde cum subinde recitasset
idem Varus inquit 'quid dicis? iam nox est? ibo et Butam salutabo'. Nihil erat notius hac eius uita in contrarium circumacta; quam, utdixi, multi eodem tempore egerunt. (14) Causa autem est ita uiuendi quibusdam,non quia aliquid existiment noctem ipsam habere iucundius, sed quia nihiliuuat solitum, et grauis malae conscientiae lux est, et omnia concupiscentiaut contemnenti prout magno aut paruo empta sunt fastidio est lumen gratuitum. Praeterea luxuriosi uitam suam esse in sermonibus dum uiuunt uolunt; namsi tacetur, perdere se putant operam. Itaque aliquotiens faciunt quod excitetfamam. Multi bona comedunt, multi amicas habent: ut inter istos nomen inuenias,opus est non tantum luxuriosam rem sed notabilem facere; in tam occupataciuitate fabulas uulgaris nequitia non inuenit. (15) Pedonem Albinouanumnarrantem audieramus (erat autem fabulator elegantissimus) habitasse sesupra domum Sex. Papini. Is erat ex hac turba lucifugarum. 'Audio' inquit'circa horam tertiam noctis flagellorum sonum. Quaero quid faciat: diciturrationes accipere. Audio circa horam sextam noctis clamorem concitatum. Quaero quid sit: dicitur uocem exercere.
Quaero circa horam octauam noctisquid sibi ille sonus rotarum uelit: gestari dicitur. (16) Circa lucem discurritur,pueri uocantur, cellarii, coqui tumultuantur. Quaero quid sit: diciturmulsum et halicam poposcisse, a balneo exisse. "Excedebat" inquit "huiusdiem cena. " Minime; ualde enim frugaliter uiuebat; nihil consumebat nisinoctem. ' Itaque Pedo dicentibus illum quibusdam auarum et sordidum 'uos'inquit 'illum et lychnobium dicetis'. (17) Non debes admirari si tantas inuenis uitiorum proprietates: uariasunt, innumerabiles habent facies, conprendi eorum genera non possunt. Simplex recti cura est, multiplex praui, et quantumuis nouas declinationescapit. Idem moribus euenit: naturam sequentium faciles sunt, soluti sunt,exiguas differentias habent; (his) distorti plurimum et omnibus et interse dissident. (18) Causa tamen praecipua mihi uidetur huius morbi uitaecommunis fastidium. Quomodo cultu se a ceteris distinguunt, quomodo elegantiacenarum, munditiis uehiculorum, sic uolunt separari etiam temporum dispositione. Nolunt solita peccare quibus peccandi praemium infamia est. Hanc petuntomnes isti qui, ut ita dicam, retro uiuunt. (19) Ideo, Lucili, tenendanobis uia est quam natura praescripsit, nec ab illa declinandum: illamsequentibus omnia facilia, expedita sunt, contra illam nitentibus non aliauita est quam contra aquam remigantibus. Vale.