§122.9Cum instituerunt omnia contra naturae consuetudinem velle, novissime in totum ab illa desuescunt.
When they have resolved to desire everything contrary to the custom of nature, at last they fall away from her entirely.
"Lucet: somni tempus est.
"It is light: it is time for sleep.
Quies est: nunc exerceamur, nunc gestemur, nunc prandeamus.
There is quiet: now let us exercise, now let us drive, now let us lunch.
Iam lux propius accedit; tempus est cenae.
Already the light is coming closer; it is time for dinner.
Non oportet id facere, quod populus.
One ought not to do that which the crowd does.
Res sordida est trita ac vulgari via vivere.
It is a mean thing to live by a worn and common path.
Dies publicus relinquatur: proprium nobis ac peculiare mane fiat. " §122.10Isti vero mihi defunctorum loco sunt.
Let the public day be abandoned: let a private and peculiar morning of our own be made." But those men indeed are in the place of the dead to me.
Quantulum enim a funere absunt et quidem acerbo, qui ad faces et cereos vivunt? Hanc vitam agere eodem tempore multos meminimus, inter quos et Acilium Butam, praetorium, cui post patrimonium ingens consumptum Tiberius paupertatem confitenti "sero," inquit, "experrectus es. " §122.11Recitabat Montanus Iulius carmen, tolerabilis poeta et amicitia Tiberi notus et frigore.
For how little are they removed from a funeral, and indeed an untimely one, who live by torches and wax tapers? We remember many who led this life at the same time, among whom was also Acilius Buta, of praetorian rank, to whom, after a huge patrimony had been consumed, when he confessed his poverty, Tiberius said: "You have woken up too late." Julius Montanus was reciting a poem, a tolerable poet and well known both for his friendship with Tiberius and for his coldness.
Ortus et occasus libentissime inserebat.
He very gladly inserted sunrises and sunsets.
Itaque cum indignaretur quidam illum toto die recitasse et negaret accedendum ad recitationes eius, Natta Pinarius ait: "Numquam possum liberalius agere: paratus sum illum audire ab ortu ad occasum. " §122.12Cum hos versus recitasset:
"
Incipit ardentes Phoebus producere flammas,
Spargere se rubicunda dies, iam tristis hirundo
Argutis reditura cibos inmittere nidis
Incipit et molli partitos ore ministrat,
"
Varus eques Romanus, M. Vinicii comes, cenarum bonarum adsectator, quas improbitate linguae merebatur, exclamavit: "incipit Buta dormire. "Deinde cum subinde recitasset: §122.13"
Iam sua pastores stabulis armenta locarunt,
Iam dare sopitis nox pigra silentia terris
Incipit,
"
idem Varus inquit: "Quid dicis? Iam nox est? Ibo et Butam salutabo. "Nihil erat notius hac eius vita in contrarium circumacta; quam, ut dixi, multi eodem tempore egerunt.
Therefore, when someone was indignant that he had recited the whole day, and said that one ought not to go to his recitations, Pinarius Natta said: "I can never act more generously: I am ready to hear him from sunrise to sunset." When he had recited these verses: "Phoebus begins to bring forth his glowing flames, the ruddy day begins to spread itself, now the sad swallow, about to return to her chirping nest, begins to bring food, and administers it, divided, with her soft beak, "Varus, a Roman knight, a companion of Marcus Vinicius, a seeker of good dinners which he earned by the impudence of his tongue, cried out: "Buta is beginning to sleep." Then, when he had immediately after recited: "Now the shepherds have placed their herds in the stalls, now lazy night begins to give sleep-laden silence to the earth, "the same Varus said: "What do you say? Is it already night? I will go and greet Buta." Nothing was better known than this life of his, turned in the opposite direction; which, as I said, many led at the same time.
§122.14Causa autem est ita vivendi quibusdam, non quia aliquid existiment noctem ipsam habere iucundius, sed quia nihil iuvat solitum, et gravis malae conscientiae lux est, et omnia concupiscenti aut contemnenti, prout magno aut parvo empta sunt, fastidio est lumen gratuitum.
But the cause of living in this way for certain people is, not because they think that night itself has something more pleasant, but because nothing of the accustomed delights them, and the light is heavy to a bad conscience, and to one who desires or despises everything according as it is bought at a high or low price, the free light is an object of disgust.
Praeterea luxuriosi vitam suam esse in sermonibus, dum vivunt, volunt; nam si tacetur, perdere se putant operam.
Besides, the luxurious want their life to be in people's mouths while they live; for if it is silent, they think they are losing their labor.
Itaque male habent, quotiens faciunt quod excidat fama.
Therefore, they are in a bad mood whenever they do what escapes fame.
Multi bona comedunt, multi amicas habent.
Many eat up their estates, many have mistresses.
Ut inter istos nomen invenias, opus est non tantum luxuriosam rem, sed notabilem facere; in tam occupata civitate fabulas vulgaris nequitia non invenit.
In order to find a name among these, it is necessary to make a thing not merely luxurious, but remarkable; in so busy a city, common wickedness does not find rumors.
§122.15Pedonem Albinovanum narrantem audieramus, erat autem fabulator elegantissimus, habitasse se supra domum S. Papini.
We had heard Pedo Albinovanus telling—he was moreover a most elegant storyteller—that he had lived above the house of Sextus Papinius.
Is erat ex hac turba lucifugarum.
He was of this crowd of light-shunners.
"Audio," inquit, "circa horam tertiam noctis flagellorum sonum.
"I hear," he said, "around the third hour of the night, the sound of whips.
Quaero, quid faciat; dicitur rationes accipere.
I ask what he is doing; he is said to be receiving accounts.
Audio circa horam sextam noctis clamorem concitatum; quaero, quid sit; dicitur vocem exercere.
I hear around the sixth hour of the night a loud cry; I ask what it is; he is said to be exercising his voice.
Quaero circa horam octavam noctis, quid sibi ille sonus rotarum velit; gestari dicitur. §122.16Circa lucem discurritur, pueri vocantur, cellarii, coqui tumultuantur.
I ask around the eighth hour of the night what that sound of wheels means; he is said to be riding." "Around dawn, people run about, slaves are called, cellarers and cooks make a tumult.
Quaero, quid sit; dicitur mulsum et habeam poposcisse, a balneo exisse.
I ask what it is; he is said to have asked for habeam and honeyed wine, and to have come out of the bath.
Excedebat," inquit, "huius diem cena minime, valde enim frugaliter vivebat; nihil consumebat nisi noctem.
His dinner," he said, "exceeded his budget not at all, for he lived very frugally; he consumed nothing but the night.
Itaque credendo dicentibus illum quibusdam avarum et sordidum vos," inquit, "illum et lychnobium dicetis. " §122.17Non debes admirari, si tantas invenis vitiorum proprietates; varia sunt, innumerabiles habent facies, comprendi eorum genera non possunt.
Therefore, believing those who call him avaricious and sordid, you," he said, "will call him also a lychnobius." You ought not to wonder if you find such great peculiarities of vices; they are diverse, they have innumerable faces, their kinds cannot be comprehended.
Simplex recti cura est, multiplex pravi, et quantumvis novas declinationes capit.
Simple is the care of the right, manifold of the wrong, and it admits of however many new deviations.
Idem moribus evenit; naturam sequentium faciles sunt, soluti sunt, exiguas differentias habent; his distorti plurimum et omnibus et inter se dissident.
The same happens to characters; those of people following nature are easy, free, and have tiny differences; those of people distorted from this clash extremely both with all others and among themselves.
§122.18Causa tamen praecipua mihi videtur huius morbi vitae communis fastidium.
Yet the chief cause of this disease seems to me to be a disgust of the common life.
Quomodo cultu se a ceteris distinguunt, quomodo elegantia cenarum, munditiis vehiculorum, sic se volunt separare etiam temporum dispositione.
Just as they distinguish themselves from others by dress, by the elegance of dinners, by the neatness of carriages, so they want to separate themselves also by the arrangement of their times.
Nolunt solita peccare, quibus peccandi praemium infamia est.
They do not want to commit ordinary sins, they for whom the reward of sinning is infamy.
Hanc petunt omnes isti, qui, ut ita dicam, retro vivunt.
This is what all those seek who, so to speak, live backwards.
§122.19Ideo, Lucili, tenenda nobis via est, quam natura praescripsit, nec ab illa declinandum; illam sequentibus omnia facilia, expedita sunt, contra illam nitentibus non alia vita est quam contra aquam remigantibus.
Therefore, Lucilius, we must keep the path which nature has prescribed, and not deviate from it; to those who follow it, all things are easy and unimpeded, but to those who struggle against it, life is no other than to those rowing against the stream.
VALE.
FAREWELL.