§12.11.12neque enim aut tam perplexa aut tam numerosa sunt quae praecipiuntur, ut non paucorum admodum annorum intentione discantur.
For the precepts are neither so perplexed nor so numerous that they cannot be learned by the application of a very few years.
longam enim facit operam quod repugnamus; brevis est institution vitae honestae beataeque, si credas.
For it is our resistance that makes the work long; the instruction for a virtuous and happy life is short, if you believe.
natura enim nos ad mentem optimam genuit, adeoque discere meliora uolentibus promptum est, ut vere intuenti mirum sit illud magis malos esse tam multos.
For nature has generated us for the best mind, and learning better things is so easy for those who wish it, that to one who truly observes, it is rather a wonder that there are so many bad people.
§12.11.13nam ut aqua piscibus, ut sicca terrenis, circumfusus nobis spiritus volucribus convenit, ita certe facilius esse oportebat secundum naturam quam contra eam vivere.
For just as water is suited for fish, dry land for terrestrial animals, and the surrounding air for birds, so indeed it ought to have been much easier to live according to nature than against it.
cetera vero, etiamsi aetatem nostram non spatio senectutis sed tempore adolescentiae metiamur, abunde multos ad discendum annos habent.
But other matters, even if we measure our age not by the span of old age but by the time of youth, have abundantly many years for learning.
omnia enim breviora reddet ordo et ratio et modus.
For order, method, and measure will make everything shorter.
§12.11.14sed culpa est ad praeceptoribus prima, qui libenter detinent quos occupaverunt, partim cupiditate diutius exigendi mercedulas, partim ambitione, quo difficilius videatur esse quod pollicentur, partim etiam inscientia tradendi vel negligentia.
But the first fault lies with the teachers, who willingly detain those whom they have occupied, partly from a desire of demanding their little fees longer, partly from ambition, so that what they promise may seem more difficult, and partly also from ignorance of teaching or negligence.
proxima ad nobis, qui morari ad eo quod novimus, quam discere quae nondum scimus, melius putamus.
The next fault is with ourselves, who think it better to remain in that which we know, rather than to learn what we do not yet know.
§12.11.15nam ut de nostris potissimum studiis dicam, quid attinet tam multis annis quam ad more est plurimorum (ut de his, a quibus magna ad hoc pars aetatis absumitur, taceam) declamitare ad schola et tantum laboris ad rebus falsis consumere, cum satis sit modico tempore imaginem veri discriminis et dicendi leges comperisse Quod non eo diro,
For to speak of our own studies in particular, what is the use of declaiming in school for so many years, as is the custom of most people (to say nothing of those by whom a great part of life is consumed in this), and consuming so much labor on false matters, when it is enough in a moderate time to have understood the image of real contest and the laws of speaking?
§12.11.16quasi sit umquam omittenda dicendi exercitatio, sed quia non ad una sit eius specie consenescendum.
Which I do not say for this reason, as if the practice of speaking should ever be omitted, but because we should not grow old in only one species of it.
res varias cognoscere et praecepta vivendi perdiscere et ad foro nos experiri potuimus, dum scholastici sumus.
We could have known various things, thoroughly learned the precepts of living, and experienced ourselves in the forum, while we were students.
discendi ratio talis, ut non multos poscat annos.
The method of learning is such that it does not demand many years.
quaelibet enim ex iis artibus, quarum habui mentionem, ad paucos libros contrahi solet; adeo non est infinito spatio ad traditionem opus.
For any of those arts which I mentioned is accustomed to be contracted into a few books; so little is there need of infinite space for instruction.
reliqua est exercitatio, quae vires cito facit, cum fecit, tuetur.
The rest is practice, which quickly produces strength and, once produced, preserves it.
§12.11.17rerum cognitio cotidie crescit, et tamen quam multorum ad eam librorum necessaria lectio est, quibus aut rerum exempla ab historicis aut dicendi ab oratoribus petuntur, philosophorum quoque consultorumque opiniones, si utilia velimus legere non, quod ne fieri quidem potest, omnia? sed breve nobis tempus nos facimus.
The knowledge of things increases daily, and yet how many books must necessarily be read for it, in which either examples of things are sought from historians, or examples of speaking from orators, and also the opinions of philosophers and lawyers, if we wish to read only what is useful, and not everything, which is indeed impossible? But we make our own time short.
§12.11.18quantulum enim studiis partimur Alias horas vanus salutandi labor, alias datum tabulis otium, alias spectacula, alias convivia trahunt.
For how tiny a portion of time do we impart to studies? Some hours are dragged away by the vain labor of morning greetings, others by leisure given to game-boards, others by spectacles, others by banquets.
adiice tot genera ludendi et insanam corporis curam, peregrinatio, rura, calculorum anxiam sollicitudinem, invitamenta libidinum et vinum et flagrantibus omni genere voluptatum animis ne ea quidem tempora idonea, quae supersunt.
Add so many kinds of playing and the insane care of the body, travels, country life, anxious worry over calculations, the invitations of lusts and wine, and even those times which remain are not suitable for minds burning with every kind of pleasure.
§12.11.19quae si omnia studiis impenderentur, iam nobis longa aetas et abunde satis ad discendum spatii viderentur vel diurna tantum computantibus tempora ut nihil noctes, quarum bona pars omni somno longior est, adiuvarent.
If all these were spent on studies, our life would already seem long and the space for learning abundantly sufficient, even for those counting only daytime, even if nights (a good part of which is longer than any sleep) did not help at all.
nunc computamus annos, non quibus studuimus, sed quibus viximus.
Now we count the years, not in which we have studied, but in which we have lived.
§12.11.20nec vero si geometrae et musici et grammatici ceterarumque artium professores omnem suam vitam, quamlibet longa fuerit, ad singulis artibus consumpserunt, sequitur ut plures quasdam vitas ad plura discenda desideremus.
Nor indeed, if geometers, musicians, grammarians, and professors of other arts have consumed their whole life, however long it was, in single arts, does it follow that we require several lives to learn more things.
neque enim illi didicerunt haec usque ad senectutem, sed ea sola didicisse contenti fuerunt ac tot annos non ad percipiendo exhauserunt, sed ad praecipiendo.
For they did not learn these things up to old age, but were content to have learned those alone, and exhausted so many years not in acquiring knowledge, but in teaching.
§12.11.21ceterum, ut de Homero taceam, ad quo nullius non artis aut opera perfecta aut certe non dubia vestigia reperiuntur, (ut Eleum Hippiam transeam, qui non liberalium modo disciplinarum prae se scientiam tulit, sed vestem et anulum crepidasque, quae omni manu sua fecerat, ad usu habuit, atque ita se praeparavit, ne cuius alterius opere egeret,) illusisse tot malis, quot summa senectus habet, uniuersae Graeciae credimus Gorgian, qui quaerere auditores de quo quisque vellet iubebat.
For the rest, to say nothing of Homer, in whom either the perfect works or at least the certain traces of every art are found, (to pass over Hippias of Elis, who not only displayed a knowledge of the liberal disciplines, but wore garments, a ring, and sandals which he had made entirely with his own hand, and thus prepared himself so that he should not need the work of any other person,) we believe that Gorgias mocked all the evils which extreme old age has before the face of all Greece, he who ordered his hearers to ask about whatever each wished.