§111.1Quid vocentur Latine sophismata, quaesisti a me.
You have asked me what sophisms are called in Latin.
Multi temptaverunt illis nomen inponere, nullum haesit, videlicet, quia res ipsa non recipiebatur a nobis nec in usu erat, nomini quoque repugnatum est.
Many have attempted to impose a name on them, but none has stuck; evidently because the thing itself was not received by us nor was in use, the name also was resisted.
Aptissimum tamen videtur mihi, quo Cicero usus est: cavillationes vocat.
Yet that which Cicero used seems to me most suitable: he calls them cavillations.
§111.2Quibus quisquis se tradidit, quaestiunculas quidem vafras nectit, ceterum ad vitam nihil proficit, neque fortior fit neque temperantior neque elatior.
Whoever has surrendered himself to these, weaves indeed crafty little questions, but makes no progress for life, becoming neither braver nor more temperate nor more elevated.
At ille, qui philosophiam in remedium suum exercuit, ingens fit animo, plenus fiduciae, inexsuperabilis et maior adeunti.
But he who has practiced philosophy for his own cure, becomes immense in spirit, full of confidence, insuperable, and greater to one who approaches him.
§111.3Quod in magnis evenit montibus, quorum proceritas minus apparet longe intuentibus; cum accesseris, tunc manifestum fit, quo in arduo summa sint; talis est, mi Lucili, verus et rebus, non artificiis philosophus.
This happens in the case of great mountains, whose height appears less to those looking from afar; when you have approached, then it becomes manifest on what a steep height their summits are; such, my Lucilius, is the true philosopher—true in reality, not in artifices.
In edito stat admirabilis, celsus, magnitudinis verae.
He stands on high, admirable, lofty, of true greatness.
Non exsurgit in plantas nec summis ambulat digitis eorum more, qui mendacio staturam adiuvant longioresque quam sunt, videri volunt; contentus est magnitudine sua.
He does not raise himself upon his soles, nor does he walk on the tips of his toes in the manner of those who help their stature with a lie and wish to seem taller than they are; he is content with his own greatness.
§111.4Quidni contentus sit eo usque crevisse, quo manus fortuna non porrigit? Ergo et supra humana est et par sibi in omni statu rerum, sive secundo cursu vita procedit, sive fluctuatur et it per adversa ac difficilia; hanc constantiam cavillationes istae, de quibus paulo ante loquebar, praestare non possunt.
Why indeed should he not be content to have grown to that point where the hand of fortune does not reach? Therefore, he is both above human affairs and equal to himself in every state of things, whether life proceeds with a favorable course, or fluctuates and goes through adverse and difficult times; those cavillations of which I was speaking a little while ago cannot guarantee this constancy.
Ludit istis animus, non proficit, et philosophiam a fastigio suo deducit in planum.
The mind plays with them, it does not profit, and it drags philosophy down from its height to the level ground.
§111.5Nec te prohibuerim aliquando ista agere, sed tunc, cum voles nihil agere.
Nor would I forbid you to engage in those things sometimes, but only then when you wish to do nothing.
Hoc tamen habent in se pessimum: dulcedinem quandam sui faciunt et animum specie subtilitatis inductum tenent ac morantur, cum tanta rerum moles vocet, cum vix tota vita sufficiat, ut hoc unum discas, vitam contemnere.
Yet they have this worst quality in themselves: they create a certain sweetness of their own and hold and delay the mind, seduced by the appearance of subtlety, when so great a mass of affairs calls, when scarcely a whole life is sufficient to learn this one thing, to despise life.
"Quid? Regere," inquis.
'What? To rule it?' you say.
Secundum opus est; nam nemo illam bene rexit nisi qui contempserat.
That is a secondary task; for no one has ruled it well except one who had despised it.
VALE.
FAREWELL.