Letter 72
The subject concerning which you question
me was once clear to my mind, and required no thought, so thoroughly had
I mastered it. But I have not tested my memory of it for some time,
and therefore it does not readily come back to me. I feel that I
have suffered the fate of a book whose rolls have stuck together by disuse;
my mind needs to be unrolled, and whatever has been stored away there ought
to be examined from time to time, so that it may be ready for use when
occasion demands. Let us therefore put this subject off for the present;
for it demands much labour and much care. As soon as I can hope to
stay for any length of time in the same place, I shall then take your question
in hand. For there are certain subjects about which you can write
even while travelling in a gig, and there are also subjects which need
a study-chair, and quiet, and seclusion. Nevertheless I ought to accomplish
something even on days like these, - days which are fully employed, and
indeed from morning till night. For there is never a moment when
fresh employments will not come along; we sow them, and for this reason
several spring up from one. Then, too, we keep adjourning our own
cases by saying: "As soon as I am done with this, I shall settle
down to hard work," or: "If I ever set this troublesome matter in
order, I shall devote yself to study."
But the study of philosophy is not to
be postponed until you have leisure; everything else is to be neglected
in order that we may attend to philosophy,
<Ep2-97>
for no amount of time is long enough for it, even though our lives be
prolonged from boyhood to the uttermost bounds of time allotted to man.
It makes little difference whether you leave philosophy out altogether
or study it intermittently; for it does not stay as it was when you dropped
it, but, because its continuity has been broken, it goes back to the position
in which it was at the beginning, like things which fly apart when they
are stretched taut. We must resist the affairs which occupy our time;
they must not be untangled, but rather put out of the way. Indeed,
there is no time that is unsuitable for helpful studies; and yet many a
man fails to study amid the very circumstances which make study necessary.
He says: "Something will happen to hinder me." No, not in the case of the
man whose spirit, no matter what his business
may be, is happy and alert. It is those who are still short of perfection
whose happiness can be broken off; the joy of a wise man, on the other
hand, is a woven fabric, rent by no chance happening and by no change of
fortune; at all times and in all places be is at peace. For his joy
depends on nothing external and looks for no boon from man or fortune.
His happiness is something within himself; it would depart from his soul
if it entered in from the outside; it is born there. Sometimes an
external happening reminds him of his mortality, but it is a light blow,
and merely grazes the surface of his skin. Some trouble, I repeat, may
touch him like a breath of wind, but that Supreme Good of his is unshaken.
This is what I mean: there are external disadvantages, like pimples and
boils that break out upon a body which is normally strong and sound; but
there is no deep-seated malady. The difference, I say, between
<Ep2-99>
a man of perfect wisdom and another who is progressing in wisdom is
the same as the difference between a healthy man and one who is convalescing
from a severe and lingering illness, for whom "health " means only a lighter
attack of his disease. If the latter does not take beed, there is
an imnmediate relapse and a return to the same old trouble; but the wise
man cannot slip back, or slip into any more illness at all. For health
of body is a temporary matter which the physician cannot guarantee, even
though he has restored it; nay, he is often roused from his bed to visit
the same patient who summoned him before. The mind, however, once
healed, is healed for good and all.
I shall tell you what I mean by health:
if the mind is content with its own self; if it has confidence in itself;
if it understands that all those things for which men pray, all the benefits
which are bestowed and sought for, are of no importance in relation to
a life of happiness; under such conditions it is sound. For anything
that can be added to is imperfect; anything that can suffer loss is not
lasting; but let the man whose happiness is to be lasting, rejoice in what
is truly his own. Now all that which the crowd gapes after, ebbs
and flows. Fortune
gives us nothing which we can really own. But even these gifts of Fortune
please us when reason has tempered and blended them to our taste; for it
is reason which makes acceptable to us even external goods that are disagreeable
to use if we absorb them too greedily. Attalus used to employ the
following simile: "Did you ever see a dog snapping with wide- open
jaws at bits of bread or meat which his master tosses to him? Whatever
he catches, be straightway swallows whole, and always
<Ep2-101>
EPlSTLE LXXII. opens his jaws in the hope of something more.
So it is with ourselves; we stand expectant, and whatever Fortune has thrown
to us we forthwith bolt, without any real pleasure, and then stand alert
and frantic for something else to snatch." But it is not so with the wise
man; he is satisfled. Even if something falls to him, he merely accepts
it carelessly and lays it aside. The happiness that he enjoys is
supremely great, is lasting, is his own. Assume that a man has good
intentions, and has made progress, but is still far from the heights; the
result is a series of ups and downs; he is now raised to heaven, now brought
down to earth. For those who lack experience and training, there is no
limit to the downhill course; such a one falls into the Chaos of Epicurus,
- empty and boundless. There is still a third class of men, - those who
toy with wisdom, -they have not indeed touched it, but yet are in sight
of it, and have it, so to speak, within striking distance. They are
not dashed about, nor do they drift back either; they are not on dry land,
but are already in port.
Therefore, considering the great difference
between those on the heights and those in the depths, and seeing that even
those in the middle are pursued by an ebb and flow peculiar to their state
and pursued also by an enormous risk of returning to their degenerate ways,
we should not give ourselves up to matters which occupy our time.
They should be shut out; if they once gain an entrance, they will bring
in still others to take their places. Let us resist them in their
carly stages. It is better that they shall never begin than that they shall
be made to cease. Farewell.
<Ep2-103>
Latin / Greek Original
[1] Quod quaeris a me liquebat mihi - sic rem edidiceram - per se; sed diu non retemptavi memoriam meam, itaque non facile me sequitur. Quod evenit libris situ cohaerentibus, hoc evenisse mihi sentio: explicandus est animus et quaecumque apud illum deposita sunt subinde excuti debent, ut parata sint quotiens usus exegerit. Ergo hoc in praesentia differamus; multum enim operae, multum diligentiae poscit. Cum primum longiorem eodem loco speravero moram, tunc istud in manus sumam. [2] Quaedam enim sunt quae possis et in cisio scribere, quaedam lectum et otium et secretum desiderant. Nihilominus his quoque occupatis diebus agatur aliquid et quidem totis. Numquam enim non succedent occupationes novae: serimus illas, itaque ex una exeunt plures. Deinde ipsi nobis dilationem damus: 'cum hoc peregero, toto animo incumbam' et 'si hanc rem molestam composuero, studio me dabo'. [3] Non cum vacaveris philosophandum est, sed ut philosopheris vacandum est; omnia alia neglegenda ut huic assideamus, cui nullum tempus satis magnum est, etiam si a pueritia usque ad longissimos humani aevi terminos vita producitur. Non multum refert utrum omittas philosophiam an intermittas; non enim ubi interrupta est manet, sed eorum more quae intenta dissiliunt usque ad initia sua recurrit, quod a continuatione discessit. Resistendum est occupationibus, nec explicandae sed summovendae sunt. Tempus quidem nullum est parum idoneum studio salutari; atqui multi inter illa non student propter quae studendum est. [4] 'Incidet aliquid quod impediat.' Non quidem eum cuius animus in omni negotio laetus atque alacer est: imperfectis adhuc interscinditur laetitia, sapientis vero contexitur gaudium, nulla causa rumpitur, nulla fortuna; semper et ubique tranquillus est. Non enim ex alieno pendet nec favorem fortunae aut hominis exspectat. Domestica illi felicitas est; exiret ex animo si intraret: ibi nascitur. [5] Aliquando extrinsecus quo admoneatur mortalitatis intervenit, sed id leve et quod summam cutem stringat. Aliquo, inquam, incommodo afflatur; maximum autem illud bonum fixum est. Ita dico, extrinsecus aliqua sunt incommoda, velut in corpore interdum robusto solidoque eruptiones quaedam pustularum et ulcuscula, nullum in alto malum est. [6] Hoc, inquam, interest inter consummatae sapientiae virum et alium procedentis quod inter sanum et ex morbo gravi ac diutino emergentem, cui sanitatis loco est levior accessio: hic nisi attendit, subinde gravatur et in eadem revolvitur, sapiens recidere non potest, ne incidere quidem amplius. Corpori enim ad tempus bona valetudo est, quam medicus, etiam si reddidit, non praestat - saepe ad eundem qui advocaverat excitatur: <animus> semel in totum sanatur. [7] Dicam quomodo intellegas sanum: si se ipse contentus est, si confidit sibi, si scit omnia vota mortalium, omnia beneficia quae dantur petunturque, nullum in beata vita habere momentum. Nam cui aliquid accedere potest, id imperfectum est; cui aliquid abscedere potest, id imperpetuum est: cuius perpetua futura laetitia est, is suo gaudeat. Omnia autem quibus vulgus inhiat ultro citroque fluunt: nihil dat fortuna mancipio. Sed haec quoque fortuita tunc delectant cum illa ratio temperavit ac miscuit haec est quae etiam externa commendet, quorum avidis usus ingratus est. [8] Solebat Attalus hac imagine uti: 'vidisti aliquando canem missa a domino frusta panis aut carnis aperto ore captantem? quidquid excepit protinus integrum devorat et semper ad spem venturi hiat. Idem evenit nobis: quidquid exspectantibus fortuna proiecit, id sine ulla voluptate demittimus statim, ad rapinam alterius erecti et attoniti.' Hoc sapienti non evenit: plenus est; etiam si quid obvenit, secure excipit ac reponit; laetitia fruitur maxima, continua, sua. [9] Habet aliquis bonam voluntatem, habet profectum, sed cui multum desit a summo: hic deprimitur alternis et extollitur ac modo in caelum allevatur, modo defertur ad terram. Imperitis ac rudibus nullus praecipitationis finis est; in Epicureum illud chaos decidunt, inane sine termino. [10] Est adhuc genus tertium eorum qui sapientiae alludunt, quam non quidem contigerunt, in conspectu tamen et, ut ita dicam, sub ictu habent: hi non concutiuntur, ne defluunt quidem; nondum in sicco, iam in portu sunt. [11] Ergo cum tam magna sint inter summos imosque discrimina, cum medios quoque sequatur fluctus suus, sequatur ingens periculum ad deteriora redeundi, non debemus occupationibus indulgere. Excludendae sunt: si semel intraverint, in locum suum alias substituent. Principiis illarum obstemus: melius non incipient quam desinent. Vale.