Moral Letters to Lucilius

​Besides, he says, Vergil imposed this cognomen on old age; he calls it sad: ‘ diseases creep in and sad old age ‘ In another place he says: ‘ And pale diseases and sad old age dwell. ‘ There is no reason why you should wonder that each person collects from the same material what is suited to his own studies; in the same meadow the ox seeks grass, the dog the hare, the stork the lizard.

​When some philologist on one hand, some grammarian on the other, and some devoted to philosophy on the other, takes up Cicero’s book on the Republic, each directs his attention to a different thing. The philosopher admires that so many things could be said against justice. When the philologist approaches this same reading, he notes this: that there are two Roman kings, one of whom has no father, the other no mother. For Servius’s mother is doubted; Ancus is said to have no father, and to be the grandson of Numa.

​Besides, he notes that he whom we call dictator, and read named so in histories, was called magister populi among the ancients. Today also this exists in the augural books, and the evidence is that he who is named by him is the magister equitum. Equally he notes that Romulus perished by a solar eclipse; that there was an appeal to the people even from the kings; that this is so in the pontifical books, as Fenestella and others, whoever they are, think.

​When the grammarian has unfolded the same books, first he enters into his commentary the expressive words, that reapse is said by Cicero, that is, re ipsa, and no less sepse, that is, se ipse. Then he passes to those things which the custom of the age has changed, as Cicero says: “since we have been recalled from the very calx by his interruption.” This which we now call creta in the circus, the ancients called calx. Then he collects the verses of Ennius, and especially those written about ​Africanus: ’ whom no citizen nor enemy will be able to return the reward of ops for his deeds. ‘ From this he says he understands that ops among the ancients signified not only help (auxilium), but work (opera). For Ennius says that no one, neither citizen nor enemy, was able to return to Scipio the reward of work (operae pretium). Then he thinks himself happy because he found whence it seemed fit to Vergil to say:

’above whom the huge gate of heaven thunders.’ He says that Ennius snatched this from Homer, and Vergil from Ennius. For he says that in these very books of Cicero on the Republic there is this epigram of Ennius: ‘ If it is right for anyone to ascend into the regions of the heavenly ones, For me alone the greatest gate of heaven lies open. ‘ ​But lest I myself also, while doing something else, slide into a philologist or grammarian, I give this warning, that the hearing and reading of philosophers must be drawn toward the purpose of a happy life, not so that we may catch archaic or made-up words and far-fetched metaphors and figures of speech, but so that we may grasp beneficial precepts and magnificent and courageous voices which are soon to be transferred into action. Let us learn these things in such a way that what were words may become deeds.

​But I judge none to deserve worse of all mortals than those who have learned philosophy as if it were some saleable trade, who live otherwise than they prescribe that one must live. For they carry themselves around as examples of useless learning, subject to every vice which they pursue.

​No such teacher can be of more use to me than a steersman who is seasick in a storm. The rudder must be held while the wave snatches, one must wrestle with the sea itself, the sails must be snatched from the wind; how can the helmsman of a ship assist me when he is astounded and vomiting? By how much greater a storm do you think life is tossed than any vessel? One must not talk, but steer.

​All things which they say, which they boast with the crowd listening, are alien; Plato said those things, Zeno said them, Chrysippus and Posidonius said them, and a huge army of our own so many and such men. How they can prove those things to be their own, I will show: let them do what they have said.

​Since I have already said what I wanted to convey to you, now I will satisfy your desire and transfer the whole matter which you had demanded, untouched, to another letter, lest you, exhausted, approach a thorny matter which is to be heard with erect and curious ears. FAREWELL.