§108.20Haec cum exposuisset Sotion et inplesset argumentis suis, "Non credis," inquit, "animas in alia corpora atque alia discribi et migrationem esse quod dicimus mortem? Non credis in his pecudibus ferisve aut aqua mersis illum quondam hominis animum morari? Non credis nihil perire in hoc mundo, sed mutare regionem? Nec tantum caelestia per certos circuitus verti, sed animalia quoque per vices ire et animos per orbem agi? Magni ista crediderunt viri.
When Sotion had explained these things and filled them with his arguments, he said, "Do you not believe that souls are distributed into other and other bodies, and that what we call death is a migration? Do you not believe that in these cattle or wild beasts or those submerged in water that soul of what was once a man stays? Do you not believe that nothing perishes in this world, but only changes its region? And that not only celestial bodies are turned through certain circuits, but animals also go through vicissitudes and souls are driven through a circle? Great men believed these things.
§108.21Itaque iudicium quidem tuum sustine, ceterum omnia tibi in integro serva.
Therefore, hold indeed your judgment in suspense, but keep all things intact for yourself.
Si vera sunt ista, abstinuisse animalibus innocentia est; si falsa, frugalitas est.
If those things are true, it is innocence to have abstained from animals; if false, it is frugality.
Quod istic credulitatis tuae damnum est? Alimenta tibi leonum et vulturum eripio. " §108.22His ego instinctus abstinere animalibus coepi, et anno peracto non tantum facilis erat mihi consuetudo, sed dulcis.
What loss of your credulity is there in this? I am snatching from you the food of lions and vultures." Incited by these things, I began to abstain from animals, and when a year had passed, the custom was not only easy for me, but sweet.
Agitatiorem mihi animum esse credebam, nec tibi hodie adfirmaverim, an fuerit.
I believed my mind to be more active, and I would not affirm to you today whether it was.
Quaeris, quomodo desierim? In primum Tiberii Caesaris principatum iuventae tempus inciderat.
You ask how I ceased? The time of my youth had fallen upon the beginning of the principate of Tiberius Caesar.
Alienigena tum sacra movebantur, sed inter argumenta superstitionis ponebatur quorundam animalium abstinentia.
Alien rites were then being moved against, but among the proofs of superstition was placed the abstinence from certain animals.
Patre itaque meo rogante, qui non calumniam timebat, sed philosophiam oderat, ad pristinam consuetudinem redii.
Therefore, at the request of my father, who did not fear accusation but hated philosophy, I returned to my former custom.
Nec difficulter mihi, ut inciperem melius cenare, persuasit.
Nor did he persuade me with difficulty to begin to dine better.
§108.23Laudare solebat Attalus culcitam, quae resisteret corpori; tali utor etiam senex, in qua vestigium apparere non possit.
Attalus used to praise a mattress which resisted the body; such a one I use even as an old man, in which no footprint can appear.
Haec rettuli ut probarem tibi, quam vehementes haberent tirunculi impetus primos ad optima quaeque, si quis exhortaretur illos, si quis incenderet.
I have related these things so that I might prove to you how vehement first impulses beginners have toward all the best things, if someone should exhort them, if someone should set them on fire.
Sed aliquid praecipientium vitio peccatur, qui nos docent disputare, non vivere, aliquid discentium, qui propositum adferunt ad praeceptores suos non animum excolendi, sed ingenium.
But some wrong is committed by the fault of those who teach, who teach us to dispute, not to live, and some by the fault of those who learn, who bring to their teachers a purpose not of cultivating their mind, but their intellect.
Itaque quae philosophia fuit, facta philologia est.
Thus what was philosophy has become philology.
§108.24Multum autem ad rem pertinet, quo proposito ad quamquam rem accedas.
But it matters much with what purpose you approach any matter.
Qui grammaticus futurus Vergilium scrutatur, non hoc animo legit illud egregium:
"
fugit inreparabile tempus:
"
vigilandum est; nisi properamus, relinquemur; agit nos agiturque velox dies; inscii rapimur; omnia in futurum disponimus et inter praecipitia lenti sumus; sed ut observet, quotiens vergilius de celeritate temporum dicit, hoc uti verbo illum "fugit. "
"
Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
Prima fugit; subeunt morbi tristisque senectus
Et labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis. "
He who, about to be a grammarian, scrutinizes Vergil, does not read that excellent passage with this mind: ' time irrecoverable flees: ' we must watch; unless we hurry, we shall be left behind; the swift day drives us and is driven; we are snatched away unknowingly; we arrange all things for the future and are slow in the midst of precipices; but so that he may observe how often Vergil, when he speaks of the swiftness of times, uses this word "flees." ' Each best day of life for wretched mortals First flees; diseases creep in and sad old age And labor, and the severity of harsh death snatches away.
§108.25Ille, qui ad philosophiam spectat, haec eadem quo debet, adducit: numquam vergilius, inquit, dies dicit ire, sed fugere, quod currendi genus concitatissimum est, et optimos quosque primos rapi;
' He who looks toward philosophy leads these same things to where he ought: Vergil, he says, never says that days go, but flee, which is the most rapid kind of running, and that all the best days are snatched away first; why then do we delay to urge ourselves on, so that we may match the speed of the most rapid thing?
quid ergo cessamus nos ipsi concitare, ut velocitatem rapidissimae rei possimus aequare? Meliora praetervolant, deteriora succedunt.
Better things fly past, worse things succeed.
§108.26Quemadmodum ex amphora primum, quod est sincerissimum, effluit, gravissimum quodque turbidumque subsidit, sic in aetate nostra quod est optimum, in primo est.
Just as from an amphora what is clearest flows out first, and all the heaviest and turbid sinks to the bottom, so in our age what is best is in the first part.
Id exhauriri aliis potius patimur, ut nobis faecem reservemus? Inhaereat istud animo et tamquam missum oraculo placeat:
"
Optima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi
Prima fugit. "
Do we suffer that to be exhausted by others instead, so that we reserve the dregs for ourselves? Let that cling to the mind and please as if sent by an oracle: ' Each best day of life for wretched mortals First flees.
§108.27Quare optima? Quia quod restat, incertum est.
' Why best? Because what remains is uncertain.
Quare optima? Quia iuvenes possumus discere, possumus facilem animum et adhuc tractabilem ad meliora convertere; quia hoc tempus idoneum est laboribus, idoneum agitandis per studia ingeniis et exercendis per opera corporibus; quod superest, segnius et languidius est et propius a fine.
Why best? Because as youths we can learn, we can turn an easy and still tractable mind to better things; because this time is suitable for labors, suitable for stimulating intellects through studies and exercising bodies through works; what remains is slower and more sluggish and closer to the end.
Itaque toto hoc agamus animo et omissis, ad quae devertimur, in rem unam laboremus, ne hanc temporis pernicissimi celeritatem, quam retinere non possumus, relicti demum intellegamus.
Therefore, let us do this with all our mind, and having dismissed the things to which we turn aside, let us labor for one thing, lest we, left behind, only then understand this speed of the swiftest time, which we cannot retain.
Primus quisque tamquam optimus dies placeat et redigatur in nostrum.
Let each first day please us as if it were the best, and let it be reduced into our own.
§108.28Quod fugit, occupandum est.
What flees must be occupied.
Haec non cogitat ille, qui grammatici oculis carmen istud legit, ideo optimum quemque primum esse diem, quia subeunt morbi, quia senectus premit et adhuc adulescentiam cogitantibus supra caput est; sed ait Vergilium semper una ponere morbos et senectutem, non mehercules immerito.
He does not think of these things who reads that song with the eyes of a grammarian, namely that each best day is first because diseases creep in, because old age presses and is over the head of those still thinking of youth; but he says that Vergil always puts diseases and old age together, by Hercules, not undeservedly.
Senectus enim insanabilis morbus est.
For old age is an incurable disease.