§123.10Inde ad haec pervenitur verba: "virtus et philosophia et iustitia verborum inanium crepitus est.
Thence we arrive at these words: "Virtue and philosophy and justice are but a rattle of empty words.
Una felicitas est bene vitae facere.
The only happiness is to treat one's life well.
Esse, bibere, frui patrimonio, hoc est vivere, hoc est se mortalem esse meminisse.
To eat, to drink, to enjoy one's patrimony, this is to live, this is to remember that one is mortal.
Fluunt dies et inreparabilis vita decurrit; dubitamus sapere? Quid iuvat aetati non semper voluptates recepturae interim, dum potest, dum poscit, ingerere frugalitatem? Eo mortem praecurre et quidquid illa ablatura est, iam sine tibi interire.
The days flow by, and irreparable life runs away; do we hesitate to be wise? What does it profit to force frugality upon an age that will not always receive pleasures, in the meantime, while it is able, while it demands them? Therefore anticipate death, and whatever she is destined to take away, let it already perish for you.
Non amicam habes, non puerum, qui amicae moveat invidiam; cottidie sobrius prodis; sic cenas tamquam ephemeridem patri adprobaturus: non est istud vivere, sed alienae vitae interesse.
You have no mistress, no boy to move the mistress to jealousy; daily you go out sober; you dine as if you were about to approve your account-book to your father: that is not to live, but to be a bystander to another's life.
§123.11Quanta dementia est heredis sui res procurare et sibi negare omnia, ut tibi ex amico inimicum magna faciat hereditas.
What madness it is to manage the property of one's heir and deny oneself everything, so that a large inheritance may make an enemy out of a friend for you!
Plus enim gaudebit tua morte, quo plus acceperit.
For he will rejoice more in your death, the more he receives.
Istos tristes et superciliosos alienae vitae censores, suae hostes, publicos paedagogos assis ne feceris nec dubitaveris bonam vitam quam opinionem bonam malle. " §123.12Hae voces non aliter fugiendae sunt quam illae, quas Ulixes nisi alligatus praetervehi noluit.
Do not value at a single as those gloomy and supercilious censors of other people's lives, enemies of their own, and public pedagogues; nor hesitate to prefer a good life to a good reputation." These voices must be fled no differently than those which Ulysses was unwilling to sail past unless bound.
Idem possunt; abducunt a patria, a parentibus, ab amicis, a virtutibus et in turpem vitam misera nisi turpi spe illidunt.
They have the same power; they lead away from country, from parents, from friends, from virtues, and dash people into a shameful life by a miserable, or rather, shameful hope.
Quanto satius est rectum sequi limitem et eo se perducere, ut ea demum sint tibi iucunda, quae honesta.
How much better it is to follow the straight path and bring oneself to the point where only those things are pleasant to you which are honorable.
§123.13Quod adsequi poterimus', si scierimus duo esse genera rerum, quae nos aut invitent aut fugent.
This we shall be able to attain if we know that there are two kinds of things which either attract us or repel us.
Invitant ut divitiae, voluptates, forma, ambitio, cetera blanda et adridentia; fugat labor, mors, dolor, ignominia, victus adstrictior.
Things like riches, pleasures, beauty, ambition, and other seductive and smiling things attract us; labor, death, pain, disgrace, and a more restricted diet repel us.
Debemus itaque exerceri, ne haec timeamus, ne illa cupiamus.
We ought, therefore, to be exercised so that we do not fear the latter, nor desire the former.
In contrarium pugnemus et ab invitantibus recedamus, adversus petentia concitemur.
Let us fight in the opposite direction, and withdraw from the attracting things, and rouse ourselves against the attacking things.
§123.14Non vides, quam diversus sit descendentium habitus et ascendentium? Qui per pronum eunt, resupinant corpora, qui in arduum, incumbunt.
Do you not see how different is the posture of those descending and those ascending? Those who go down a slope lean their bodies back, while those who go up a steep incline lean forward.
Nam si descendas, pondus suum in priorem* partem dare, si ascendas, retro abducere cum vitio, Lucili, consentire est.
For if you descend, to give your own weight to the forward part, and if you ascend, to draw it back, is, Lucilius, to agree with vice.
In voluptates descenditur, in aspera et dura subeundum est; hic inpellamus corpora, illic refrenemus.
We descend into pleasures; we must climb up into rough and hard things; here let us push our bodies forward, there let us rein them in.
§123.15Hoc nunc me existimas dicere, eos tantum perniciosos esse auribus nostris, qui voluptatem laudant, qui doloris metus, per se formidabiles res, incutiunt? Illos quoque nocere nobis existimo, qui nos sub specie Stoicae sectae hortantur ad vitia.
Do you think I am now saying this, that only those are destructive to our ears who praise pleasure, who strike in us the fear of pain—things formidable in themselves? I think those also do us harm who, under the appearance of the Stoic sect, exhort us to vices.
Hoc enim iactant: solum sapientem et doctum esse amatorem.
For they boast of this: that only the wise and learned man is a lover.
"Solus sapit ad hanc artem; aeque conbibendi et convivendi sapiens est peritissimus.
"He alone is wise in this art; equally, in drinking together and banquetting together, the wise man is the most skilled.
Quaeramus, ad quam usque aetatem iuvenes amandi sint. " §123.16Haec Graecae consuetudini data sint, nos ad illa potius aures derigamus: "Nemo est casu bonus.
Let us inquire up to what age young men are to be loved." Let these things be granted to Greek custom; let us rather direct our ears to those words: "No one is good by chance.
Discenda virtus est.
Virtue must be learned.
voluptas humilis res et pusilla est et in nullo habenda pretio, communis cum mutis animalibus, ad quam minima et contemptissima advolant.
Pleasure is a lowly and petty thing, and to be held in no value, common with mute animals, to which the smallest and most contemptible creatures fly.
Gloria vanum et volucre quiddam est auraque mobilius.
Glory is a vain and fleeting thing, and more changeable than the breeze.
Paupertas nulli malum est nisi repugnanti.
Poverty is an evil to no one unless he resists it.
Mors malum non est; quid quaeris? Sola ius aecum generis humani.
Death is not an evil; what do you seek? It alone is the equal law of the human race.
Superstitio error insanientis est; amandos timet; quos colit, violat. Quid enim interest, utrum deos neges an infames?"
Superstition is the error of a madman; it fears those who ought to be loved; those whom it worships, it violates.
§123.17Haec discenda, immo ediscenda sunt; non debet excusationes vitio philosophia suggerere.
For what difference does it make whether you deny the gods or defame them?" These things must be learned, or rather, learned by heart; philosophy ought not to suggest excuses for vice.
Nullam habet spem salutis aeger, quem ad intemperantiam medicus hortatur.
A sick man has no hope of health whom the physician exhorts to intemperance.
VALE,
FAREWELL.