§14.1Fateor insitam esse nobis corporis nostri caritatem; fateor nos huius gerere tutelam.
I admit that a love of our own body is implanted in us; I admit that we must keep guard over it.
Non nego indulgendum illi; serviendum nego.
I do not deny that we should indulge it; I deny that we should be slaved to it.
Multis enim serviet, qui corpori servit, qui pro illo nimium timet, qui ad illud omnia refert.
For he will serve many masters who serves his body, who fears too much for it, who refers everything to it.
§14.2Sic gerere nos debemus, non tamquam propter corpus vivere debeamus, sed tamquam non possimus sine corpore.
We ought to conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the sake of the body, but as if we could not live without the body.
Huius nos nimius amor timoribus inquietat, sollicitudinibus onerat, contumeliis obicit.
Over-love of this body disquiets us with fears, burdens us with anxieties, and exposes us to insults.
Honestum ei vile est, cui corpus nimis carum est.
Virtue is cheap to him to whom the body is too dear.
Agatur eius diligentissime cura, ita tamen, ut cum exiget ratio, cum dignitas, cum fides, mittendum in ignes sit.
Let its care be conducted most diligently, yet in such a way that, when reason, dignity, and loyalty demand, it must be cast into the flames.
§14.3Nihilominus, quantum possumus, evitemus incommoda quoque, non tantum pericula, et in tutum nos reducamus excogitantes subinde, quibus possint timenda depelli.
Nevertheless, as far as we can, let us also avoid inconveniences, not only dangers, and bring ourselves back into safety, constantly thinking how feared things can be driven away.
Quorum tria, nisi fallor, genera sunt: timetur inopia, timentur morbi, timentur quae per vim potentioris eveniunt.
Of these, if I am not mistaken, there are three kinds: poverty is feared, diseases are feared, and those things which happen through the violence of a more powerful person are feared.
§14.4Ex his omnibus nihil nos magis concutit, quam quod ex aliena potentia inpendet.
Of all these, nothing shakes us more than what impends from another's power.
Magno enim strepitu et tumultu venit.
For it comes with a great noise and tumult.
Naturalia mala quae rettuli, inopia atque morbus, silentio subeunt nec oculis nec auribus quicquam terroris incutiunt.
The natural evils which I mentioned, poverty and disease, steal upon us in silence and strike no terror into either eyes or ears.
Ingens alterius mali pompa est.
The display of the other evil is immense.
Ferrum circa se et ignes habet et catenas et turbam ferarum, quam in viscera inmittat humana.
It has around itself iron and fires and chains and a pack of wild beasts to be let loose into human entrails.
§14.5Cogita hoc loco carcerem et cruces et eculeos et uncum et adactum per medium hominem, qui per os emergeret, stipitem et distracta in diversum actis curribus membra, illam tunicam alimentis ignium et inlitam et textam, et quicquid aliud praeter haec commenta saevitia est.
Picture to yourself in this place the prison, the crosses, the racks, the hook, and the stake driven through the middle of a man so that it emerged from his mouth, and the limbs torn apart by chariots driven in opposite directions, and that tunic smeared and woven with fuel for fires, and whatever else cruelty has devised besides these.
§14.6Non est itaque mirum, si maximus huius rei timor est, cuius et varietas magna et apparatus terribilis est.
It is therefore no wonder if the greatest fear is of this thing, of which both the variety is great and the apparatus is terrible.
Nam quemadmodum plus agit tortor, quo plura instrumenta doloris exposuit (specie enim vincuntur qui patientia restitissent); ita ex iis, quae animos nostros subigunt et domant, plus proficiunt, quae habent quod ostendant.
For just as the torturer accomplishes more the more instruments of pain he has displayed (for by the appearance those are overcome who would have resisted with endurance); so of those things which subdue and tame our minds, those which have something to show accomplish more.
Illae pestes non minus graves sunt, famem dico et sitim et praecordiorum subpurationes et febrem viscera ipsa torrentem.
Those plagues are no less grave—I mean hunger and thirst and suppurations of the viscera and fever burning the very entrails.
Sed latent, nihil habent quod intentent, quod praeferant; haec ut magna bella aspectu apparatuque vicerunt.
But they are hidden, they have nothing to threaten, nothing to display; these, like great wars, have conquered by their appearance and preparation.
§14.7Demus itaque operam, abstineamus offensis.
Therefore, let us take care to abstain from giving offense.
Interdum populus est, quem timere debeamus; interdum si ea civitatis disciplina est, ut plurima per senatum transigantur, gratiosi in eo viri; interdum singuli, quibus potestas populi et in populum data est.
Sometimes it is the people whom we ought to fear; sometimes, if such is the constitution of the State that most things are transacted through the senate, the influential men in it; sometimes individuals to whom the power of the people and over the people has been given.
Hos omnes amicos habere operosum est, satis est inimicos non habere.
To have all these as friends is a laborious task; it is enough not to have them as enemies.
Itaque sapiens numquam potentium iras provocabit, immo declinabit, non aliter quam in navigando procellam.
Therefore, the wise man will never provoke the anger of the powerful; rather, he will turn away from it, not otherwise than from a storm in navigation.
§14.8Cum peteres Siciliam, traiecisti fretum.
When you were seeking Sicily, you crossed the strait.
Temerarius gubernator contempsit austri minas, ille est enim, qui Siculum pelagus exasperet et in vertices cogat; non sinistrum petit litus, sed id, a quo propior Charybdis maria convolvit.
The reckless pilot despised the threats of the south wind—for it is that wind which roughens the Sicilian sea and forces it into whirlpools; he did not seek the left shore, but that side from which closer Charybdis convolves the seas.
At ille cautior peritos locorum rogat, quis aestus sit, quae signa dent nubes; longe ab illa regione verticibus infami cursum tenet.
But that more cautious pilot asks those who know the places what the tide is, what signs the clouds give; he holds his course far from that region infamous for whirlpools.
Idem facit sapiens; nocituram potentiam vitat, hoc primum cavens, ne vitare videatur.
The wise man does the same; he avoids a power that will do harm, taking care first of this, that he does not seem to avoid it.
Pars enim securitatis et in hoc est, non ex professo eam petere, quia, quae quis fugit, damnat.
For part of security lies also in this: not to seek it openly, because what a person flees, he condemns.
§14.9Circumspiciendum ergo nobis est, quomodo a vulgo tuti esse possimus.
Therefore we must look around to see how we can be safe from the crowd.
Primum nihil idem concupiscamus; rixa est inter competitores.
First, let us desire nothing of the same things; there is strife among competitors.
Deinde nihil habeamus, quod cum magno emolumento insidiantis eripi possit.
Next, let us possess nothing that can be snatched away with great profit to an ambusher.
Quam minimum sit in corpore tuo spoliorum.
Let there be as little spoil on your body as possible.
Nemo ad humanum sanguinem propter ipsum venit, aut admodum pauci.
No one comes for human blood for its own sake, or very few do.
Plures computant quam oderunt.
More people calculate than hate.
Nudum latro transmittit; etiam in obsessa via pauperi pax est.
A robber passes by a naked man; even on a beset road, there is peace for a poor man.