Letter 22
You understand by this time that you must withdraw
yourself from those showy and depraved pursuits; but you still wish to
know how this may be accomplished. There are certain things which
can be pointed out only by someone who is present. The physician
cannot prescribe by letter the proper time for eating or bathing; he must
feel the pulse. There is an old adage about gladiators, - that they plan
their fight in the ring; as they intently watch, something in the adversary's
glance, some movement of his hand, even some slight bending of his body,
gives a warning. We can formulate general rules and commit them to
writing, as to what is usually done, or ought to be done; such advice may
be given, not only to our absent friends, but also to succeeding generations.
In regard, however, to that second question, - when or how your pl
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we must take counsel in the presence of the actual situation, You must
be not only present in the body, but watchful in mind, if you would avail
yourself of the fleeting opportunity. Accordingly, look about you
for the opportunity; if you see it, grasp it, and with all your energy
and with all your strength devote yourself to this task - to rid yourself
of those business
duties. Now listen carefully to the opinion which I shall offer;
it is my opinion that you should withdraw either from that kind of existence,
or else from existence altogether. But I likewise maintain that you
should take a gentle path, that you may loosen rather than cut the knot
which you have bungled so badly in tying, - provided that if there shall
be no other way of loosening it, you may actually cut it. No man
is so faint- hearted that he would rather hang in suspense for ever than
drop once for all.
Meanwhile, - and this is of first importance, - do not hamper yourself;
be content with the business into which you have lowered yourself, or,
as you prefer to have people think, have tumbled. There is no reason
why you should be struggling on to something further; if you do, you will
lose all grounds of excuse, and men will see that it was not a tumble.
The usual explanation which men offer is wrong: "I was compelled to do
it. Suppose it was against my will; I had to do it." But no one is
compelled to pursue prosperity at top speed; it means something to call
a halt, - even if one does not offer resistance, -instead of pressing eagerly
after favouring fortune. Shall you then be put out with me, if I
not only come to advise you, but also call in others to advise you, - wiser
heads than my own, men before whom I am wont to lay any problem upon
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which l am pondering? Read the letter of Epicurus which appears
on this matter; it is addressed to Idomeneus. The writer asks him
to hasten as fast as he can, and beat a retreat before some stronger influence
comes between and takes from him the liberty to withdraw. But he
also adds that one should attempt nothing except at the time when it can
be attempted suitably and seasonably. Then, when the long-sought
occasion comes, let him be up and doing. Epicurus forbids us to
doze when we are meditating escape; he bids us hope for a safe release
from even the hardest trials, provided that we are not in too great a hurry
before the time, nor too dilatory when the time arrives.
Now, I suppose, you are looking for a Stoic
motto also. There is really no reason why anyone should slander that
school to you on the ground of its rashness; as a matter of fact, its caution
is greater than its courage . You
are perhaps expecting the sect to utter such words as these: "It is base
to flinch under a burden. Wrestle with the duties which you have
once undertaken. No man is brave and earnest if he avoids danger,
if his spirit does not grow with the very difficulty of his task." Words
like these will indeed be spoken to you, if only your perseverance shall
have an object that is worth while, if only you will not have to do or
to suffer anything unworthy of a good man; besides, a good man will not
waste himself upon mean and discreditable work or be busy merely for the
sake of being busy. Neither will he, as you imagine, become so involved
in ambitious schemes that he will have continually to endure their ebb
and flow. Nay, when he sees the dangers, uncertainties, and hazards
in which he was formerly tossed about, he will withdraw, - not turn-
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ing his back to the foe, but falling back little by little to a safe
position. From business, however, my dear Lucilius, it is easy to
escape, if only you will despise the rewards of
business . We are held back and kept from escaping by thoughts
like these: "What then? Shall I leave behind me these great prospects?
Shall I depart at the very time of harvest? Shall I have no slaves
at my side? no retinue for my litter? no crowd in my reception room?" Hence
men leave such advantages as these with reluctance; they love the reward
of their hardships, but curse the hardships themselves. Men complain
about their ambitions as they complain about their mistresses; in other
words, if you penetrate their real feelings, you will find, not hatred,
but bickering. Search the minds of those who cry down what they have
desired, who talk about escaping from things which they are unable to do
without; you will comprehend that they are lingering of their own free
will in a situation which they declare they find it hard and wretched to
endure. It is so, my dear Lucilius; there are a few men whom
slavery holds fast, but there are many more who hold fast to slavery.
If, however, you intend to be rid of this
slavery; if freedom is genuinely pleasing in your eyes; and if you seek
counsel for this one purpose, - that you may have the good fortune to accomplish
this purpose without perpetual annoyance, - how can the whole company of
Stoic thinkers fail to approve your course? Zeno, Cbrysippus, and
all their kind will give you advice that is temperate, honourable, and
suitable. But if you keep turning round and looking about, in order to
see how much you may
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carry away with you, and how much money you may keep to equip yourself
for the life of leisure, you will never find a way out. No man can
swim ashore and take his baggage with him. Rise to a higher life,
with the favour of the gods; but let it not be favour of such a kind as
the gods give to men when with kind and genial faces they bestow magnificent
ills, justified in so doing by the one fact that the things which irritate
and torture have been bestowed in answer to prayer.
I was just putting the seal upon this letter;
but it must be broken again, in order that it may go to you with its customary
contribution, bearing with it some noble word. And lo, here is one
that occurs to my mind; I do not know whether its truth or its nobility
of utterance is the greater. "Spoken by whom?" you ask. By Epicurus;
for I am still appropriating other men's belongings. The words are:
"Everyone goes out of life just as if he had but lately entered it." Take
anyone off his guard, young, old, or middle-aged; you will find that all
are equally afraid of death, and equally ignorant of life. No one
has anything finished, because we have kept putting off into the future
all our undertakings. No thought in the quotation given above pleases
me more than that it taunts old men with being infants. "No one," he says,
"leaves this world in a different manner from one who has just been born."
That is not true; for we are worse when we die than when we were born;
but it is our fault, and not that of Nature. Nature should scold
us, saying: "What does this mean? I brought you into the world without
desires or fears, free from superstition, treachery and the other curses.
Go forth as you were when you entered!"
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Latin / Greek Original
[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. [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. [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. Nemo tam timidus est ut malit semper pendere quam semel cadere. [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. Quid si nollem? necesse erat.' Nulli necesse est felicitatem cursu sequi: est aliquid, etiam si non repugnare, subsistere nec instare fortunae ferenti.
[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. [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. [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. Non est vir fortis ac strenuus qui laborem fugit, nisi crescit illi animus ipsa rerum difficultate.' [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. [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? 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. 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? 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.
[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. 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. 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. 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. Nemo quam bene vivat sed quam diu curat, cum omnibus possit contingere ut bene vivant, ut diu nulli. Vale.