§123.1Itinere confectus incommodo magis quam longo in Albanum meum multa nocte perveni; nihil habeo parati nisi me.
\nExhausted by a journey that was inconvenient rather than long, I arrived at my estate in Alba late at night; I have nothing ready except myself.
Itaque in lectulo lassitudinem pono, hanc coci ac pistoris moram boni consulo.
Therefore, I lay my weariness down upon my small bed, and I take in good part this delay of the cook and the baker.
Mecum enim de hoc ipso loquor, quam nihil sit grave, quod leviter excipias, indignandum nihil nisi ipse indignando adstruas. §123.2Non habet panem meus pistor; sed habet vilicus, sed habet atriensis, sed habet colonus.
For I talk with myself about this very thing, how nothing is heavy that you take lightly, and that there is nothing to be indignant about unless you yourself add to it by being indignant.\n\nMy baker has no bread; but the bailiff has, but the house-steward has, but the tenant has.
"Malum panem "inquis.
"Bad bread," you say.
Exspecta: bonus fiet.
Wait: it will become good.
Etiam illum tibi tenerum et siligineum fames reddet.
Hunger will make even that bread tender and of finest wheat for you.
Ideo non est ante edendum quam illa imperat; exspectabo ergo nec ante edam quam aut bonum panem habere coepero aut fastidire desiero. §123.3Necessarium est parvo adsuescere: multae difficultates locorum, multae temporum etiam locupletibus et instructis ad voluptatem prohibentes occurrent.
Therefore, one must not eat before she commands; I shall wait, then, and I shall not eat before I either begin to have good bread or cease to be squeamish.\n\nIt is necessary to accustom oneself to a little: many difficulties of places, many also of times, will occur even to the rich and those equipped for pleasure, blockading them.
Quidquid vult habere nemo potest, illud potest, nolle quod non habet, rebus oblatis hilaris uti.
No one can have whatever he wants; but this he can do, not to want what he has not, and cheerfully to use what is offered.
Magna pars libertatis est bene moratus venter et contumeliae patiens. §123.4Aestimari non potest, quantam voluptatem capiam ex eo, quod lassitudo mea sibi ipsa adsuescit;
A great part of liberty is a well-disciplined stomach and one capable of enduring insult.\n\nIt cannot be estimated how much pleasure I derive from the fact that my weariness becomes reconciled to itself; I seek no unctors, no bath, no other remedy than that of time.
non unctores, non balineum, non ullum aliud remedium quam temporis quaero. Nam quod labor contraxit, quies tollit.
For what labor has contracted, rest removes.
Haec qualiscumque cena aditiali iucundior erit. §123.5Aliquod enim experimentum animi sumpsi subito; hoc enim est simplicius et verius.
This dinner, of whatever sort, will be more agreeable than an inaugural banquet.\n\nFor I have suddenly taken a certain trial of my mind; indeed, this is simpler and truer.
Nam ubi se praeparavit et indixit sibi patientiam, non aeque apparet, quantum habeat verae firmitatis; illa sunt certissima argumenta, quae ex tempore dedit, si non tantum aequus molestias, sed placidus aspexit; si non excanduit, non litigavit; si quod dari deberet ipse sibi non desiderando supplevit et cogitavit aliquid consuetudini suae, sibi nihil deesse. §123.6Multa quam supervacua essent, non intelleximus, nisi deesse coeperunt; utebamur enim illis, non quia debebamus, sed quia habebamus.
For when the mind has prepared itself and commanded patience upon itself, it is not equally apparent how much of true firmness it possesses; those are the surest proofs which it has given on the spur of the moment, if it has looked upon annoyances not only with an even mind but calmly; if it has not flared up, has not disputed; if it has supplied for itself what ought to have been given by not desiring it, and has reflected that something is missing for its custom, but nothing is missing for itself.\n\nHow many things were superfluous we did not understand until they began to be wanting; for we used them not because we ought to, but because we had them.
Quam multa autem paramus, quia alii paraverunt, quia apud plerosque sunt! Inter causas malorum nostrorum est, quod vivimus ad exempla, nec ratione conponimur sed consuetudine abducimur.
But how many things do we procure because others have procured them, because they are in the possession of most people! Among the causes of our evils is that we live according to examples, and are not regulated by reason but are carried away by custom.
Quod, si pauci facerent, nollemus imitari, cum plures facere coeperunt, quasi honestius sit, quia frequentius, sequimur.
A thing which, if few did it, we should be unwilling to imitate, when many have begun to do it, we follow, as if it were more honorable because it is more frequent.
Et recti apud nos locum tenet error, ubi publicus factus est. §123.7Omnes iam sic peregrinantur, ut illos Numidarum praecurrat equitatus, ut agmen cursorum antecedat;
And error holds the place of right among us once it has become public.\n\nEveryone now travels in such a way that a troop of Numidian horsemen runs before them, that a train of runners precedes them; it is a shameful thing if there are none to push from the road those who meet them, or who show by a great cloud of dust that a gentleman is coming.
turpe est nullos esse, qui occurrentis via deiciant, aut qui honestum hominem venire magno pulvere ostendant. Omnes iam mulos habent, qui crustallina et murrina et caelata magnorum artificum manu portent; turpe est videri eas te habere sarcinas totas, quae e tuto concuti possint.
Everyone now has mules to carry crystal vessels, and murrhine, and those carved by the hand of great artists; it is a shameful thing if you are seen to have only such baggage as can be shaken with safety.
Omnium paedagogia oblita facie vehuntur, ne sol, ne frigus teneram cutem laedat; turpe est neminem esse in comitatu tuo puerorum, cuius sana facies medicamentum desideret.
The young slaves of all travel with their faces smeared, lest the sun or the cold should damage their tender skin; it is a shameful thing if there is no boy in your train whose healthy face requires a cosmetic.\n\nThe conversation of all these must be avoided: these are they who hand down vices and transfer them from one place to another.
§123.8Horum omnium sermo vitandus est: hi sunt, qui vitia tradunt et alio aliunde transerunt. Pessimum genus horum hominum videbatur, qui verba gestarent; sunt quidam, qui vitia gestant.
The worst class of these men used to seem to be those who carried words; there are some who carry vices.
Horum sermo multum nocet; nam etiam si non statim profecit, semina in animo relinquit sequiturque nos etiam cum ab illis discessimus, resurrecturum postea malum.
The conversation of these does much harm; for even if it has not immediately succeeded, it leaves seeds in the mind, and follows us even when we have departed from them, the evil being destined to rise again later.\n\nJust as those who have heard a concert carry away with them in their ears that modulation and sweetness of songs, which obstructs thoughts and does not suffer them to be directed to serious matters, so the discourse of flatterers and of those who praise bad things clings longer than it is heard.
§123.9Quemadmodum qui audierunt symphoniam, ferunt secum in auribus modulationem illam ac dulcedinem cantuum, quae cogitationes impedit nec ad seria patitur intendi, sic adulatorum et prava laudantium sermo diutius haeret quam auditur. Nec facile est animo dulcem sonum excutere; prosequitur et durat et ex intervallo recurrit.
Nor is it easy to shake off the sweet sound from the mind; it follows and endures and returns after an interval.
Ideo cludendae sunt aures malis vocibus et quidem primis; quom initum fecerunt admissaeque insunt plus audent.
Therefore, the ears must be closed against bad words, and indeed the very first; for when they have made an entry and being admitted are within, they dare more.