Letter 29

You have been inquiring about our friend Marcellinus and you desire to know how he is getting along.  He seldom comes to see me, for no other reason than that he is afraid to hear the truth, and at present he <Ep1-203> is removed from my danger of hearing it; for one must not talk to a man unless he is willing to listen.  That is why it is often doubted whether Diogenes and the other Cynics, who employed an undiscriminating freedom of speech and offered advice to any who came in their way, ought to have pursued such a plan.  For what if one should chide the deaf or those who are speechless from birth or by illness?  But you answer: Why should I spare words?  They cost nothing.  I cannot know whether I shall help the man to whom I give advice; but I know well that I shall help someone if I advise many.  I must scatter this advice by the handful. It is impossible that one who tries often should not sometime succeed." This very thing, my dear Lucilius, is, I believe, exactly what a great-souled man ought not to do; his influence is weakened; it has too little effect upon those whom it might have set right if it had not grown so stale.  The archer ought not to hit the mark only sometimes; be ought to miss it only sometimes.  That which takes effect by chance is not an art.  Now wisdom is an art; it should have a definite aim, choosing only those who will make progress, but withdrawing from those whom it has come to regard as hopeless, -yet not abandoning them too soon, and just when the case is becoming hopeless trying drastic remedies. As to our friend Marcellinus, I have not yet lost hope.  He can still be saved, but the helping hand must be offered soon.  There is indeed danger that be may pull his helper down; for there is in him a native character of great vigour, though it is already inclining to wickedness.  Nevertheless I shall brave this danger and be bold enough to show him his <Ep1-205> faults.  He will act in his usual way; he will have recourse to his wit, - the wit that can call forth smiles even from mourners. He will turn the jest, first against himself, and then against me. He will forestall every word which I am about to utter.  He will quiz our philosopbic systems; he will accuse philosophers of accepting doles, keeping mistresses, and indulging their appetites.  He will point out to me one philosopher who has been caught in adultery, another who haunts the cafes, and another who appears at court. He will bring to my notice Aristo, the philosopher of Marcus Lepidus, who used to hold discussions in his carriage; for that was the time which he had taken for editing his researches, so that Scaurus said of him when asked to what school he belonged: "At any rate, he isn't one of the Walking Philosophers." Julius Graecinus, too, a man of distinction, when asked for an opinion on the same point, replied: "I cannot tell you; for I don't know what he does when dismounted," as if the query referred to a chariot-gladiator. It is mountebanks of that sort, for whom it would be more creditable to have left philosophy alone than to traffic in her, whom Marcellinus will throw in my teeth. But I have decided to put up with taunts; he may stir my laughter, but I perchance shall stir him to tears; or, if he persist in his jokes, I shall rejoice, so to speak, in the midst of sorrow, because he is blessed with such a merry sort of lunacy.  But that kind of merriment does not last long.  Observe such men, and you will note that within a short space of time they laugh to excess and rage to excess.  It is my plan to approach him and to show him how much greater was his worth when many thought it less.  Even though I shall not root out his faults, I shall <Ep1-207> put a check upon them; they will not cease, but they will stop for a time; and perhaps they will even cease, if they get the habit of stopping. This is a thing not to be despised, since to men who are seriously stricken the blessing of relief is a substitute for health.  So while I prepare myself to deal with Marcellinus, do you in the meantime, who are able, and who understand whence and whither you have made your way, and who for that reason have an inkling of the distance yet to go, regulate your character, rouse your courage, and stand firm in the face of things which have terrified you.  Do not count the number of those who inspire fear in you. Would you not regard as foolish one who was afraid of a multitude in a place where only one at a time could pass?  Just so, there are not many who have access to you to slay you, though there are many who threaten you with death. Nature has so ordered it that, as only one has given you life, so only one will take it away. If you had any shame, you would have let me off from paying the last instalment.  Still, I shall not be niggardly either, but shall discharge my debts to the last penny and force upon you what I still owe: "I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know, they do not approve, and what they approve, I do not know." "Who said this?" you ask, as if you were ignorant whom I am pressing into service; it is Epicurus.  But this same watchword rings in your ears from every sect, - Peripatetic, Academic, Stoic, Cynic.  For who that is pleased by virtue can please the crowd?  It takes trickery to win popular approval; and you must needs make yourself like unto th <Ep1-209>

[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 <quosque> monuerunt dubitari solet an hoc facere debuerint. Quid enim, si quis surdos obiurget aut natura morbove mutos? [2] 'Quare' inquis 'verbis parcam? gratuita sunt. Non possum scire an ei profuturus sim quem admoneo: illud scio, alicui me profuturum, si multos admonuero. Spargenda manus est: non potest fieri ut non aliquando succedat multa temptanti.' [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. [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. [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; [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. [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. [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. [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. Sic istuc natura disposuit: spiritum tibi tam unus eripiet quam unus dedit. [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.' [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? 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. [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? Vale. Seneca the YoungerThe Latin Library The Classics Page