§24.18Non sum tam ineptus, ut Epicuream cantilenam hoc loco persequar et dicam vanos esse inferorum metus, nec Ixionem rota volvi nec saxum umeris Sisyphi trudi in adversum nec ullius viscera et renasci posse cotidie et carpi; nemo tam puer est, ut Cerberum timeat et tenebras et larvalem habitum nudis ossibus cohaerentium.
I am not so foolish as to pursue the Epicurean sing-song at this point and say that the fears of the underworld are empty, that Ixion is not whirled on a wheel, that the stone is not pushed up against the hill by the shoulders of Sisyphus, and that no one's entrails can both be reborn daily and devoured; no one is so childish as to fear Cerberus and the darkness and the ghostly appearance of those holding together on bare bones.
Mors nos aut consumit aut exuit.
Death either consumes us or strips us.
Emissis meliora restant onere detracto, consumptis nihil restat, bona pariter malaque submota sunt.
For those released, better things remain when the burden is removed; for those consumed, nothing remains, and good and bad things alike have been removed.
§24.19Permitte mihi hoc loco referre versum tuum, si prius admonuero, ut te iudices non aliis scripsisse ista, sed etiam tibi.
Allow me to quote your own verse at this point, if I first advise you to judge that you wrote those things not for others, but also for yourself.
Turpe est aliud loqui, aliud sentire; quanto turpius aliud scribere, aliud sentire! Memini te illum locum aliquando tractasse, non repente nos in mortem incidere, sed minutatim procedere; cotidie morimur.
It is shameful to say one thing and feel another; how much more shameful to write one thing and feel another! I remember that you once treated that topic, that we do not fall into death suddenly, but proceed step by step; we die daily.
§24.20Cotidie enim demitur aliqua pars vitae, et tunc quoque, cum crescimus, vita decrescit.
For daily some part of life is taken away, and even then, when we are growing, life is decreasing.
Infantiam amisimus, deinde pueritiam, deinde adulescentiam.
We lost infancy, then childhood, then youth.
Usque ad hesternum, quicquid transît temporis, perit; hunc ipsum, quem agimus, diem cum morte dividimus.
Up to yesterday, whatever time has passed is dead; this very day which we are spending, we divide with death.
Quemadmodum clepsydram non extremum stillicidium exhaurit, sed quicquid ante defluxit, sic ultima hora, qua esse desinimus, non sola mortem facit, sed sola consummat; tunc ad illam pervenimus, sed diu venimus.
Just as it is not the last drop that empties the water-clock, but whatever has flowed out before, so the last hour, in which we cease to be, does not alone make death, but alone completes it; then we arrive at it, but we have been coming for a long time.
§24.21Haec cum descripsisses quo soles ore, semper quidem magnus, numquam tamen acrior quam ubi veritati commodas verba, dixisti:
"
Mors non una venit, sed quae rapit, ultima mors est.
When you had described these things with that countenance which is usual for you, always indeed great, yet never sharper than when you lend words to truth, you said: "Death does not come but once, but that which snatches us away is the last death.
"
Malo te legas quam epistulam meam.
"I prefer you to read yourself rather than my letter.
Apparebit enim tibi hanc, quam timemus, mortem extremam esse, non solam.
For it will appear to you that this death, which we fear, is the last, not the only one.
§24.22Video quo spectes; quaeris, quid huic epistulae infulserim, quod dictum alicuius animosum, quod praeceptum utile.
I see where you are looking; you ask what I have stuffed into this letter, what spirited saying of someone, what useful precept.
Ex hac ipsa materia, quae in manibus fuit, mittetur aliquid.
Something will be sent from this very material which was in hand.
Obiurgat Epicurus non minus eos, qui mortem concupiscunt, quam eos, qui timent, et ait: "Ridiculum est currere ad mortem taedio vitae, cum genere vitae, ut currendum ad mortem esset, effeceris. " §24.23Item alio loco dicit: "Quid tam ridiculum quam adpetere mortem, cum vitam inquietam tibi feceris metu mortis?" His adicias et illud eiusdem notae licet, tantam hominum inprudentiam esse, immo dementiam, ut quidam timore mortis cogantur ad mortem.
Epicurus rebukes no less those who long for death than those who fear it, and says: "It is ridiculous to run to death from weariness of life, when you have brought it about by your style of life that you had to run to death." Likewise in another place he says: "What is so ridiculous as to seek death, when you have made life restless for yourself through the fear of death?" To these you may also add that saying of the same stamp, that so great is the imprudence of men, or rather madness, that some are driven to death by the fear of death.
§24.24Quicquid horum tractaveris, confirmabis animum vel ad mortis vel ad vitae patientiam.
Whichever of these you ponder, you will strengthen your mind for the endurance of either death or life.
In utrumque enim monendi ac firmandi sumus, et ne nimis amemus vitam et ne nimis oderimus.
For we must be warned and strengthened for both, that we neither love life too much nor hate it too much.
Etiam cum ratio suadet finire se, non temere nec cum procursu capiendus est inpetus.
Even when reason persuades us to end ourselves, the impulse must not be taken rashly nor with a rush.
§24.25Vir fortis ac sapiens non fugere debet e vita, sed exire.
A brave and wise man ought not to flee from life, but to depart.
Et ante omnia ille quoque vitetur affectus, qui multos occupavit, libido moriendi.
And above all, let that feeling also be avoided which has seized many, the lust for dying.
Est enim, mi Lucili, ut ad alia, sic etiam ad moriendum inconsulta animi inclinatio, quae saepe generosos atque acerrimae indolis viros corripit, saepe ignavos iacentesque; illi contemnunt vitam, hi gravantur.
For there is, my Lucilius, as toward other things, so also toward dying, an unreflecting inclination of the mind, which often seizes noble men of the sharpest disposition, and often the cowardly and dejected; the former despise life, the latter are burdened by it.
§24.26Quosdam subit eadem faciendi videndique satietas et vitae non odium sed fastidium, in quod prolabimur ipsa inpellente philosophia, dum dicimus: "Quousque eadem? Nempe expergiscar dormiam, esuriam fastidiam, algebo aestuabo.
A satiety of doing and seeing the same things steals over some, and not a hatred of life but a weariness, into which we glide with philosophy itself impelling us, while we say: "How long the same things? Surely I shall wake, I shall sleep, I shall hunger, I shall be sated, I shall be cold, I shall be hot.
Nullius rei finis est, sed in orbem nexa sunt omnia, fugiunt ac secuntur.
There is an end to nothing, but all things are linked in a circle; they flee and follow.
Diem nox premit, dies noctem, aestas in autumnum desinit, autumno hiemps instat, quae vere conpescitur; omnia sic transeunt ut revertantur.
Night presses upon day, day upon night, summer ends in autumn, winter presses upon autumn, which is checked by spring; all things pass away so as to return.
Nihil novi facio, nihil novi video; fit aliquando et huius rei nausia. "
Multi sunt, qui non acerbum iudicent vivere, sed supervacuum.
I do nothing new, I see nothing new; sometimes even nausea of this thing arises." There are many who judge living not to be bitter, but superfluous.
VALE.
FAREWELL.