§19.1Exulto, quotiens epistulas tuas accipio.
I rejoice as often as I receive your letters.
Inplent enim me bona spe et iam non promittunt de te, sed spondent.
For they fill me with good hope and no longer merely promise regarding you, but guarantee.
Ita fac, oro atque obsecro.
Do so, I pray and beseech you.
Quid enim habeo melius, quod amicum rogem, quam quod pro ipso rogaturus sum? Si potes, subduc te istis occupationibus; si minus, eripe.
For what better thing do I have to ask of a friend than what I am about to ask on his own behalf? If you can, withdraw yourself from those occupations; if not, tear yourself away.
Satis multum temporis sparsimus; incipiamus vasa in senectute colligere.
We have scattered enough time; let us begin to pack our baggage in old age.
§19.2Numquid invidiosum est? In freto viximus, moriamur in portu.
Is this at all invidious? We have lived in the deep, let us die in the harbor.
Neque ego suaserim tibi nomen ex otio petere, quod nec iactare debes nec abscondere.
Nor would I advise you to seek a name from leisure, which you ought neither to boast of nor to hide.
Numquam enim usque eo te abigam generis humani furore damnato, ut latebram tibi aliquam parari et oblivionem velim; id age, ut otium tuum non emineat, sed appareat.
For I will never drive you away so far, having condemned the madness of the human race, that I should wish some hiding-place and oblivion to be prepared for you; do this, so that your leisure does not stand out, but is apparent.
§19.3Deinde videbunt de isto, quibus integra sunt et prima consilia, an velint vitam per obscurum transmittere; tibi liberum non est.
Then they will see about that, who have intact and first plans, whether they wish to pass their life in obscurity; for you it is not free.
In medium te protulit ingenii vigor, scriptorum elegantia, clarae et nobiles amicitiae.
The vigor of your intellect, the elegance of your writings, and your bright and noble friendships have brought you forward into the public eye.
Iam notitia te invasit.
Already fame has seized you.
Ut in extrema mergaris ac penitus recondaris, tamen priora monstrabunt.
Even if you merge into the depths and are deeply hidden, nevertheless your former achievements will show you.
§19.4Tenebras habere non potes; sequetur, quocumque fugeris, multum pristinae lucis.
You cannot have darkness; a great deal of your former light will follow, wherever you flee.
Quietem potes vindicare sine ullius odio, sine desiderio aut morsu animi tui.
You can claim quiet without anyone's hatred, without regret or the bite of your own mind.
Quid enim relinques, quod invitus relictum a te possis cogitare? Clientes? Quorum nemo te ipsum sequitur, sed aliquid ex te.
For what will you leave behind, which you can think was left by you unwillingly? Clients? Of whom no one follows you yourself, but something from you.
Amicitia olim petebatur, nunc praeda; mutabunt testamenta destituti senes, migrabit ad aliud limen salutator.
Friendship was once sought, now plunder; abandoned old men will change their wills, the morning caller will migrate to another threshold.
Non potest parvo res magna constare; aestima, utrum te relinquere an aliquid ex tuis malis.
A great thing cannot cost little; estimate whether you prefer to leave yourself behind, or some of your belongings.
§19.5Utinam quidem tibi senescere contigisset intra natalium tuorum modum, nec te in altum fortuna misisset! Tulit te longe a conspectu vitae salubris rapida felicitas, provincia et procuratio, et quicquid ab istis promittitur; maiora deinde officia te excipient et ex aliis alia.
Would indeed that it had fallen to your lot to grow old within the measure of your birth, and fortune had not cast you into the deep! Rapid prosperity has carried you far from the sight of a wholesome life—the province, the procuratorship, and whatever is promised by those; next greater duties will receive you, and one after another.
§19.6Quis exitus erit? Quid expectas, donec desinas habere, quod cupias? Numquam erit id tempus.
What end will there be? What do you expect, until you cease to have what you desire? That time will never be.
Qualem dicimus seriem esse causarum, ex quibus nectitur fatum, talem esse cupiditatum; altera ex fine alterius nascitur.
Just as we say the series of causes is, from which fate is woven, so is that of desires; one is born from the end of another.
In eam demissus es vitam, quae numquam tibi terminum miseriarum ac servitutis ipsa factura sit.
You have been cast down into that life which will never of itself make an end of miseries and of slavery for you.
Subduc cervicem iugo tritam; semel illam incidi quam semper premi satius est.
Withdraw your neck worn by the yoke; it is better that it be cut through once for all than always pressed.
§19.7Si te ad privata rettuleris, minora erunt omnia, sed affatim implebunt; at nunc plurima et undique ingesta non satiant.
If you return yourself to private life, all things will be smaller, but they will fill you abundantly; but now, very many things heaped up from all sides do not satisfy.
Utrum autem mavis ex inopia saturitatem an in copia famem? et avida felicitas est et alienae aviditati exposita.
But which do you prefer: satiety from scarcity, or hunger in abundance? Prosperity is both greedy itself and exposed to the greed of others.
Quamdiu tibi satis nihil fuerit, ipse aliis non eris.
As long as nothing is enough for you, you yourself will not be enough for others.
§19.8"Quomodo," inquis, "exibo?" Utcumque.
"How," you say, "shall I get out?" Somehow or other.
Cogita, quam multa temere pro pecunia, quam multa laboriose pro honore temptaveris; aliquid et pro otio audendum est, aut in ista sollicitudine procurationum et deinde urbanorum officiorum senescendum in tumultu ac semper novis fluctibus, quos effugere nulla modestia, nulla vitae quiete contigit.
Think how many things you have attempted rashly for money, how many laboriously for honor; something must be dared also for leisure, or you must grow old in that anxiety of procuratorships and then of city duties, in the tumult and always new waves, which to escape has fallen to the lot of no modesty, no quiet of life.
Quid enim ad rem pertinet, an tu quiescere velis? Fortuna tua non vult.
For what does it matter to the matter, whether you wish to rest? Your fortune does not wish it.
Quid si illi etiam nunc permiseris crescere? Quantum ad successus accesserit, accedet ad metus.
What if you permit it to grow even now? As much as is added to successes, will be added to fears.
§19.9Volo tibi hoc loco referre dictum Maecenatis vera in ipso culmine elocuti: "Ipsa enim altitudo attonat summa. "Si quaeris, in quo libro dixerit; in eo, qui Prometheus inscribitur. Hoc voluit dicere, attonita habet summa.
I wish in this place to relate to you a saying of Maecenas, who spoke the truth at the very summit: "For height itself thunders down upon the highest things." If you ask in which book he said it: in that which is entitled "Prometheus." He wished to say this: it keeps the highest things thunderstruck.
Est ergo tanti ulla potentia, ut sit tibi tam ebrius sermo? Ingeniosus ille vir fuit, magnum exemplum Romanae eloquentiae daturus, nisi illum enervasset felicitas, immo castrasset.
Is any power of such great value, therefore, that your speech should be so drunken? He was a talented man, about to give a great example of Roman eloquence, had not prosperity enervated, or rather, castrated him.
Hic te exitus manet, nisi iam contrahes vela, nisi, quod ille sero voluit, terram leges.
This end awaits you, unless you now furl your sails, unless, which he wished too late, you hug the shore.
§19.10Poteram tecum hac Maecenatis sententia parem facere rationem.
I could have made the account even with you by this opinion of Maecenas.
Sed movebis mihi controversiam, si novi te, nec voles quod debeo in aspero et inprobo accipere.
But you will raise a dispute against me, if I know you, nor will you wish to receive what I owe in rough and bad coin.
Ut se res habet, ab Epicuro versura facienda est.
As the case stands, a loan must be made from Epicurus.
"Ante," inquit, "circumspiciendum est, cum quibus edas et bibas, quam quid edas e bibas.
"Before," he says, "you look around for what you eat and drink, you must look around for with whom you eat and drink.
Nam sine amico visceratio leonis ac lupi vita est. " §19.11Hoc non continget tibi, nisi secesseris; alioqui habebis convivas, quos ex turba salutantium nomenclator digesserit.
For without a friend, a feasting on meat is the life of a lion and a wolf." This will not fall to your lot, unless you withdraw; otherwise you will have guests whom the nomenclator has selected from the crowd of morning callers.
Errat autem, qui amicum in atrio quaerit, in convivio probat.
But he errs who seeks a friend in the atrium and tests him at the banquet.
Nullum habet maius malum occupatus homo et bonis suis obsessus, quam quod amicos sibi putat, quibus ipse non est, quod beneficia sua efficacia iudicat ad conciliandos amicos, cum quidam, quo plus debent, magis oderint.
A busy man, besieged by his own goods, has no greater evil than that he thinks those are friends to him, to whom he himself is not a friend, and that he judges his benefits effective for winning friends, when some, the more they owe, the more they hate.
Leve aes alienum debitorem facit, grave inimicum. "
"A light debt makes a debtor, a heavy one an enemy." "What then?
§19.12Quid ergo? Beneficia non parant amicitias? "Parant, si accepturos licuit eligere, si conlocata, non sparsa sunt.
Do benefits not procure friendships?" They do, if it was permitted to choose those who are to receive them, if they were invested, not scattered.
Itaque dum incipis esse mentis tuae, interim hoc consilio sapientium utere, ut magis ad rem existimes pertinere, quis, quam quid acceperit.
Therefore, while you begin to be of your own mind, meanwhile use this advice of wise men, that you think it matters more to the business who received, than what he received.
VALE.
FAREWELL.