Letter 48
In answer to the letter which you wrote me
while travelling, - a letter as long as the journey itself, - I shall reply
later. I ought to go into retirement, and consider what sort of advice
I should give you. For you yourself, who consult me, also reflected
for a long time whether to do so; how much more, then, should I myself
reflect, since more
<Ep1-313>
deliberation is necessary in settling than in propounding a problem!
And this is particularly true when one thing is advantageous to you and
another to me. Am I speaking again in the guise of an Epicurean?
But the fact is, the same thing is advantageous to me which is advantageous
to you; for I am not your friend unless whatever is at issue concerning
you is my concern also. Friendship produces
between us a partnership in all our interests. There is no such thing
as good or bad fortune for the individual; we live in
common . And no one can live happily who has regard to himself
alone and transforms everything into a question of his own utility; you
must live for your neighbour, if you would live for yourself. This
fellowship, maintained with scrupulous care, which makes us mingle as men
with our fellow-men and holds that the human race have certain rights in
common, is also of great help in cherishing the more intimate fellowship
which is based on friendship, concerning which I began to speak above.
For he that has much in common with a fellow-man will have all things in
common with a friend.
And on this point, my excellent Lucilius,
I should like to have those subtle dialecticians of yours advise me how
I ought to help a friend, or how a fellowman, rather than tell me in how
many ways the word "friend" is used, and how many meanings the word "man"
possesses. Lo, Wisdom and Folly are taking opposite sides.
Which shall I join? Which party would you have me follow? On
that side, "man" is the equivalent of "friend"; on the other side, "friend"
is not the equivalent of "man." The one wants a friend for his own advantage;
the other wants to make himself an advantage to his
<Ep1-315>
friend. What you have to offer me is nothing but distortion of words
and splitting of syllables. It is clear that unless I can devise
some very tricky, premisses and by false deductions tack on to them a fallacy
which springs from the truth, I shall not be able to distinguish between
what is desirable and what is to be avoided! I am ashamed!
Old men as we are, dealing with a problem so serious, we make play of it!
"'Mouse' is a syllable. Now a mouse eats
its cheese; therefore, a syllable eats cheese." Suppose now that I cannot
solve this problem; see what peril hangs over my head as a result of such
ignorance! What a scrape I shall be in! Without doubt I must
beware, or some day I shall be catching syllables in a mousetrap, or, if
I grow careless, a book may devour my cheese! Unless, perhaps, the
following syllogism is shrewder still: "'Mouse' is a syllable. Now
a syllable does not eat cheese. Therefore a mouse does not eat cheese."
What childish nonsense! Do we knit our brows over this sort of problem?
Do we let our beards grow long for this reason? Is this the matter
which we teach with sour and pale faces?
Would you really know what philosophy offers
to humanity? Philosophy offers counsel. Death calls away one
man, and poverty chafes another; a third is worried either by his neighbour's
wealth or by his own. So-and-so is afraid of bad luck; another desires
to get away from his own good fortune. Some are ill- treated by men,
others by the gods. Why, then, do you frame for me such games as
these? It is no occasion for jest; you are retained as counsel for
unhappy ma
<Ep1-317>
EPISITLE XLVIII.
sick and the needy, and those whose heads are under the poised axe.
Whither are
you straying? What are you doing?
This friend, in whose company you are jesting,
is in fear. Help him, and take the noose from about his neck.
Men are stretching out imploring hands to you on all sides; lives ruined
and in danger of ruin are begging for some assistance; men's hopes, men's
resources, depend upon you. They ask that you deliver them from all
their restlessness, that you reveal to them, scattered and wandering as
they are, the clear light of truth. Tell them what nature has made
necessary, and what superfluous; tell them how simple are the laws that
she has laid down, how pleasant and unimpeded life is for those who follow
these laws, but how bitter and perplexed it is for those who have put their
trust in opinion rather than in nature.
I should deem your games of
logic to be of some avail in relieving men's burdens, if you could
first show me what part of these burdens they will relieve. What
among these games of yours banishes lust? Or controls it? Would
that I could say that they were merely of no profit! They are positively
harmful. I can make it perfectly clear to you whenever you wish,
that a noble spirit when involved in such subtleties is impaired and weaken@d.
I am ashamed to say what weapons they supply to men who are destined to
go to war with fortune, and how poorly they equip them! Is this the
path to the greatest good? Is philosophy to proceed by such claptrap
and by quibbles which would be a disgrace and a
<Ep1-319>
reproach even for expounders of the law? For what else is it
that you men are doing, when you deliberately ensnare the person to whom
you are putting questions, than making it appear that the man has lost
his case on a technical error? But just as the judge can reinstate those
who have lost a suit in this way, so philosophy has reinstated these victims
of quibbling to their former condition. Why do you men abandon your
mighty promises, and, after having assured me in high-sounding language
that you will permit the glitter of gold to dazzle my eyesight no more
than the gleam of the sword, and that I shall, with mighty steadfastness,
spurn both that which all men crave and that which all men fear, why do
you descend to the ABC's of scholastic pedants? What is your answer?
Is this the path to heaven? For that is exactly what pbilosophy promises
to me, that I shall be made equal to God. For this I have been summoned,
for this purpose have I come. Philosophy, keep your promise!
Therefore, my dear Lucilius, withdraw yourself
as far as possible from these exceptions and objections of so-called philosophers.
Frankness, and simplicity beseem true goodness.
Even if there were many years left to you, you would have had to spend
them frugally in order to have enough for the necessary thing; but as it
is, when your time is so scant, what madness it is to learn superfluous
things! Farewell.
<Ep1-321>
Latin / Greek Original
[1] Ad epistulam quam mihi ex itinere misisti, tam longam quam ipsum iter fuit, postea rescribam; seducere me debeo et quid suadeam circumspicere. Nam tu quoque, qui consulis, diu an consuleres cogitasti: quanto magis hoc mihi faciendum est, cum longiore mora opus sit ut solvas quaestionem quam ut proponas? utique cum aliud tibi expediat, aliud mihi. [2] Iterum ego tamquam Epicureus loquor? mihi vero idem expedit quod tibi: aut non sum amicus, nisi quidquid agitur ad te pertinens meum est. Consortium rerum omnium inter nos facit amicitia; nec secundi quicquam singulis est nec adversi; in commune vivitur. Nec potest quisquam beate degere qui se tantum intuetur, qui omnia ad utilitates suas convertit: alteri vivas oportet, si vis tibi vivere. [3] Haec societas diligenter et sancte observata, quae nos homines hominibus miscet et iudicat aliquod esse commune ius generis humani, plurimum ad illam quoque de qua loquebar interiorem societatem amicitiae colendam proficit; omnia enim cum amico communia habebit qui multa cum homine.
[4] Hoc, Lucili virorum optime, mihi ab istis subtilibus praecipi malo, quid amico praestare debeam, quid homini, quam quot modis 'amicus' dicatur, et 'homo' quam multa significet. In diversum ecce sapientia et stultitia discedunt! cui accedo? in utram ire partem iubes? Illi homo pro amico est, huic amicus non est pro homine; ille amicum sibi parat, hic se amico: tu mihi verba distorques et syllabas digeris. [5] Scilicet nisi interrogationes vaferrimas struxero et conclusione falsa a vero nascens mendacium adstrinxero, non potero a fugiendis petenda secernere. Pudet me: in re tam seria senes ludimus. [Vale. SENECA LUCILIO SUO SALUTEM.]
[6] 'Mus syllaba est; mus autem caseum rodit; syllaba ergo caseum rodit.' Puta nunc me istuc non posse solvere: quod mihi ex ista inscientia periculum imminet? quod incommodum? Sine dubio verendum est ne quando in muscipulo syllabas capiam, aut ne quando, si neglegentior fuero, caseum liber comedat. Nisi forte illa acutior est collectio: 'mus syllaba est; syllaba autem caseum non rodit; mus ergo caseum non rodit'. [7] O pueriles ineptias! in hoc supercilia subduximus? in hoc barbam demisimus? hoc est quod tristes docemus et pallidi? Vis scire quid philosophia promittat generi humano? consilium. Alium mors vocat, alium paupertas urit, alium divitiae vel alienae torquent vel suae; ille malam fortunam horret, hic se felicitati suae subducere cupit; hunc homines male habent, illum dii. Quid mihi lusoria ista componis? non est iocandi locus: ad miseros advocatus es. Opem laturum te naufragis, captis, aegris, egentibus, intentae securi subiectum praestantibus caput pollicitus es: quo diverteris? quid agis? Hic cum quo ludis timet: succurre, quidquid Ålaqueti respondentium poenisÅ. Omnes undique ad te manus tendunt, perditae vitae perituraeque auxilium aliquod implorant, in te spes opesque sunt; rogant ut ex tanta illos volutatione extrahas, ut disiectis et errantibus clarum veritatis lumen ostendas. [9] Dic quid natura necessarium fecerit, quid supervacuum, quam faciles <leges> posuerit, quam iucunda sit vita, quam expedita illas sequentibus, quam acerba et implicita eorum qui opinioni plus quam naturae crediderunt *** si prius docueris quam partem eorum levatura sint. Quid istorum cupiditates demit? quid temperat? Utinam tantum non prodessent! nocent. Hoc tibi cum voles manifestissimum faciam, comminui et debilitari generosam indolem in istas argutias coniectam. [10] Pudet dicere contra fortunam militaturis quae porrigant tela, quemadmodum illos subornent. Hac ad summum bonum itur? per istud philosophiae 'sive nive' et turpes infamesque etiam ad album sedentibus exceptiones? Quid enim aliud agitis, cum eum quem interrogatis scientes in fraudem inducitis, quam ut formula cecidisse videatur? Sed quemadmodum illos praetor, sic hos philosophia in integrum restituit. [11] Quid disceditis ab ingentibus promissis et grandia locuti, effecturos vos ut non magis auri fulgor quam gladii praestringat oculos meos, ut ingenti constantia et quod omnes optant et quod omnes timent calcem, ad grammaticorum elementa descenditis? Quid dicitis?
Hoc enim est quod mihi philosophia promittit, ut parem deo faciat; ad hoc invitatus sum, ad hoc veni: fidem praesta.
[12] Quantum potes ergo, mi Lucili, reduc te ab istis exceptionibus et praescriptionibus philosophorum: aperta decent et simplicia bonitatem. Etiam si multum superesset aetatis, parce dispensandum erat ut sufficeret necessariis: nunc quae dementia est supervacua discere in tanta temporis egestate! Vale.