§18.8Non est tamen quare tu multum tibi facere videaris.
Yet there is no reason why you should seem to yourself to be doing much.
Facies enim, quod multa milia servorum, multa milia pauperum faciunt; illo nomine te suspice, quod facies non coactus, quod tam facile erit tibi illud pati semper quam aliquando experiri.
For you will do what many thousands of slaves, many thousands of poor people do; admire yourself on this account: that you will do it not forced, and that it will be as easy for you to endure that always as to try it sometimes.
Exerceamur ad palum.
Let us practice at the post.
Et ne inparatos fortuna deprehendat, fiat nobis paupertas familiaris.
And lest fortune find us unprepared, let poverty become familiar to us.
Securius divites erimus, si scierimus, quam non sit grave pauperes esse.
We shall be rich more securely if we know how not painful it is to be poor.
§18.9Certos habebat dies ille magister voluptatis Epicurus, quibus maligne famem extingueret, visurus, an aliquid deesset ex plena et consummata voluptate, vel quantum deesset et an dignum quod quis magno labore pensaret.
Epicurus, that master of pleasure, had certain days on which he scantily extinguished hunger, to see whether anything was lacking from full and consummated pleasure, or how much was lacking, and whether it was worthy of being compensated with great labor.
Hoc certe in his epistulis ait, quas scripsit Charino magistratu ad Polyaenum.
He certainly says this in those epistles which he wrote to Polyaenus in the magistracy of Charinus.
Et quidem gloriatur non toto asse se pasci, Metrodorum, qui nondum tantum profecerit, toto.
And indeed he boasts that he is fed for less than a whole as, but Metrodorus, who has not yet made so much progress, for a whole one.
§18.10In hoc tu victu saturitatem putas esse? Et voluptas est.
In this food do you think there is satiety? There is also pleasure.
Voluptas autem non illa levis et fugax et subinde reficienda, sed stabilis et certa.
But a pleasure, not that light and fleeting one which must be refitted immediately, but stable and certain.
Non enim iucunda res est aqua et polenta aut frustum hordeacei panis, sed summa voluptas est posse capere etiam ex his voluptatem et ad id se deduxisse, quod eripere nulla fortunae iniquitas possit.
For water and barley meal or a piece of barley bread is not a pleasant thing, but it is the highest pleasure to be able to take pleasure even from these, and to have brought oneself to that point which no iniquity of fortune can snatch away.
§18.11Liberaliora alimenta sunt carceris, sepositos ad capitale supplicium non tam anguste, qui occisurus est, pascit Quanta est animi magnitudo ad id sua sponte descendere, quod ne ad extrema quidem decretis timendum sit! Hoc est praeoccupare tela fortunae.
The nourishments of a prison are more liberal; he who is about to kill does not feed those set aside for capital punishment so scantily. How great is the magnitude of mind to descend of one's own accord to that which is not to be feared even by those sentenced to extreme punishments! This is to preoccupy the darts of fortune.
§18.12Incipe ergo, mi Lucili, sequi horum consuetudinem et aliquos dies destina, quibus secedas a tuis rebus minimoque te facias familiarem; incipe cum paupertate habere commercium.
Begin therefore, my Lucilius, to follow the custom of these, and destine some days on which you may withdraw from your affairs and make yourself familiar with the least; begin to have commerce with poverty.
"
Aude, hospes, contemnere opes et te quoque dignum
Finge deo. " §18.13Nemo alius est deo dignus quam qui opes contempsit.
"Dare, guest, to despise riches, and fashion yourself also worthy of a god." No other is worthy of a god than he who has despised riches.
Quarum possessionem tibi non interdico, sed efficere volo, ut illas intrepide possideas; quod uno consequeris modo, si te etiam sine illis beate victurum persuaseris tibi, si illas tamquam exituras semper aspexeris.
I do not forbid you the possession of them, but I wish to bring it about that you possess them intrepidly; which you will attain in one way only, if you persuade yourself that you will live happily even without them, if you always look upon them as about to depart.
§18.14Sed iam incipiamus epistulam conplicare.
But now let us begin to fold up the letter.
"Prius," inquis, "redde quod debes. "Delegabo te ad Epicurum; ab illo fiet numeratio: "Inmodica ira gignit insaniam. "Hoc quam verum sit, necesse est scias, cum habueris et servum et inimicum.
"First," you say, "pay what you owe." I will delegate you to Epicurus; by him the payment will be made: "Immoderate anger breeds madness." How true this is, you must of necessity know, when you have both a slave and an enemy.
§18.15In omnes personas hic exardescit affectus; tam ex amore nascitur quam ex odio, non minus inter seria quam inter lusus et iocos.
This affection flares up against all persons; it is born as much from love as from hate, no less among serious things than among play and jokes.
Nec interest, ex quam magna causa nascatur, sed in qualem perveniat animum.
Nor does it matter how great a cause it is born from, but into what kind of mind it comes.
Sic ignis non refert quam magnus, sed quo incidat.
So it does not matter how great a fire is, but where it falls.
Nam etiam maximum solida non receperunt; rursus arida et corripi facilia scintillam quoque fovent usque in incendium.
For even the greatest fire solid things do not receive; again, dry and easily caught things cherish even a spark up to a conflagration.
Ita est, mi Lucili, ingentis irae exitus furor est, et ideo ira vitanda est non moderationis causa, sed sanitatis.
So it is, my Lucilius, the end of huge anger is madness, and therefore anger is to be avoided not for the sake of moderation, but for health.
VALE.
FAREWELL.