Letter 50
I received your letter many months after you
had posted it; accordingly, I thought it useless to ask the carrier what
you were busied with. He must have a particularly good memory if
he can remember that! But I hope by this time you are living in such
a way that I can be sure what it is you are busied with, no matter where
you may be. For what else are you busied with except improving yourself
every day, laying aside some error, and coming to understand that the faults
which you attribute to circumstances are in yourself? We are indeed
apt to ascribe certain faults to the place or to the time; but those faults
will follow us, no matter how we change our place.
You know Harpaste, my wife's female clown; she has remained in my house,
a burden incurred from a legacy. I particularly disapprove of these
freaks; whenever I wish to enjoy the quips of a clown, I am not compelled
to hunt far; I can laugh at myself. Now this clown suddenly became
blind. The story sounds incredible, but I assure you that it is true:
she does not know that she is blind. She keeps asking her attendant to
change her quarters; she says that her apartments are too dark.
You can see clearly that that which makes
us smile in the case of Harpaste happens to all the rest of us; nobody
understands that he is himself greedy, or that he is covetous. Yet
the blind ask for a guide,
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RPISTLE L. while we wander without one, saying: "I am not self-seeking;
but one cannot live at Rome in any other way. I am not extravagant,
but mere living in the city demands a great outlay. It is not my
fault that I have a choleric disposition, or that I have not settled down
to any definite scheme of life; it is due to my youth." Why do we deceive
ourselves? The evil that afflicts us is not external, it is within
us, situated in our very vitals; for that reason we attain soundness with
all the more difficulty, because we do not know that we are diseased.
Suppose that we have begun the cure; when
shall we throw off all these diseases, with all their virulence?
At present, we do not even consult the physician, whose work would be easier
if he were called in when the complaint was in its early stages.
The tender and the inexperienced minds would follow his advice if he pointed
out the right way. No man finds it difficult to return to nature,
except the man who has deserted nature. We blush to receive instruction
in sound sense; but, by Heaven, if we think it base to seek a teacher of
this art, we should also abandon any hope that so great a good could be
instilled into us by mere chance.
No, we must work. To tell the truth,
even the work is not great, if only, as I said, we begin to mould and reconstruct
our souls before they are hardened by sin. But I do not despair even
of a hardened sinner. There is nothing that will not surrender to
persistent treatment, to concentrated and careful attention; however much
the timber may be bent, you can make it straight again. Heat unbends
curved beams, and wood that grew naturally in another shape is fashioned
artificially according to our needs. How much more easily does the
soul permit itself to be
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shaped, pliable as it is and more yielding than any liquid! For
what else is the soul than air in a certain state? And you see that
air is more adaptable than any other matter, in proportion as it is rarer
than any other.
There is nothing, Lucilius, to hinder you
from entertaining good hopes about us, just because we are even now in
the grip of evil, or because we have long been possessed thereby.
There is no man to whom a good mind comes before an evil one. It
is the evil mind that gets first hold on all of us. Learning virtue
means unlearning vice. We should therefore proceed to the task of
freeing ourselves from faults with all the more courage because, when once
committed to us, the good is an everlasting possession; virtue is not unlearned.
For opposites find difficulty in clinging where they do not belong, therefore
they can be driven out and hustled away; but qualities that come to a place
which is rightfully theirs abide faithfully. Virtue is according
to nature; vice is opposed to it and hostile. But although virtues,
when admitted, cannot depart and are easy to guard, yet the first steps
in the approach to them are toilsome, because it is characteristic of a
weak and diseased mind to fear that which is unfamiliar. The mind
must, therefore, be forced to make a beginning; from then on, the medicine
is not bitter; for just as soon as it is curing us it begins to give pleasure.
One enjovs other cures only after health is restored, but a draught of
philosophy is at the same moment wholesome and pleasant. Farewell.
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Latin / Greek Original
[1] Epistulam tuam accepi post multos menses quam miseras; supervacuum itaque putavi ab eo qui afferebat quid ageres quaerere. Valde enim bonae memoriae est, si meminit; et tamen spero te sic iam vivere ut, ubicumque eris, sciam quid agas. Quid enim aliud agis quam ut meliorem te ipse cotidie facias, ut aliquid ex erroribus ponas, ut intellegas tua vitia esse quae putas rerum? Quaedam enim locis et temporibus adscribimus; at illa, quocumque transierimus, secutura sunt. [2] Harpasten, uxoris meae fatuam, scis hereditarium onus in domo mea remansisse. Ipse enim aversissimus ab istis prodigiis sum; si quando fatuo delectari volo, non est mihi longe quaerendus: me rideo. Haec fatua subito desiit videre. Incredibilem rem tibi narro, sed veram: nescit esse se caecam; subinde paedagogum suum rogat ut migret, ait domum tenebricosam esse. [3] Hoc quod in illa ridemus omnibus nobis accidere liqueat tibi: nemo se avarum esse intellegit, nemo cupidum. Caeci tamen ducem quaerunt, nos sine duce erramus et dicimus, 'non ego ambitiosus sum, sed nemo aliter Romae potest vivere; non ego sumptuosus sum, sed urbs ipsa magnas impensas exigit; non est meum vitium quod iracundus sum, quod nondum constitui certum genus vitae: adulescentia haec facit'.
[4] Quid nos decipimus? non est extrinsecus malum nostrum: intra nos est, in visceribus ipsis sedet, et ideo difficulter ad sanitatem pervenimus quia nos aegrotare nescimus. Si curari coeperimus, quando tot morborum tantas vires discutiemus? Nunc vero ne quaerimus quidem medicum, qui minus negotii haberet si adhiberetur ad recens vitium; sequerentur teneri et rudes animi recta monstrantem. [5] Nemo difficulter ad naturam reducitur nisi qui ab illa defecit: erubescimus discere bonam mentem. At mehercules, <si> turpe est magistrum huius rei quaerere, illud desperandum est, posse nobis casu tantum bonum influere: laborandum est et, ut verum dicam, ne labor quidem magnus est, s modo, ut dixi, ante animum nostrum formare incipimus et recorrigere quam indurescat pravitas eius. [6] Sed nec indurata despero: nihil est quod non expugnet pertinax opera et intenta ac diligens cura. Robora m rectum quamvis flexa revocabis; curvatas trabes calor explicat et aliter natae in id finguntur quod usus noster exigit: quanto facilius animus accipit formam, flexibilis et omni umore obsequentior! Quid enim est aliud animus quam quodam modo se habens spiritus? vides autem tanto spiritum esse faciliorem omni alia materia quanto tenuior est. [7] Illud, mi Lucili, non est quod te impediat quominus de nobis bene speres, quod malitia nos iam tenet, quod diu in possessione nostri est: ad neminem ante bona mens venit quam mala; omnes praeoccupati sumus; virtutes discere vitia dediscere <est>. [8] Sed eo maiore animo ad emendationem nostri debemus accedere quod semel traditi nobis boni perpetua possessio est; non dediscitur virtus. Contraria enim male in alieno haerent, ideo depelli et exturbari possunt; fideliter sedent quae in locum suum veniunt. Virtus secundum naturam est, vitia inimica et infesta sunt. [9] Sed quemadmodum virtutes receptae exire non possunt facilisque earum tutela est, ita initium ad illas eundi arduum, quia hoc proprium imbecillae mentis atque aegrae est, formidare inexperta; itaque cogenda est ut incipiat. Deinde non est acerba medicina; protinus enim delectat, dum sanat. Aliorum remediorum post sanitatem voluptas est, philosophia pariter et salutaris et dulcis est. Vale.