§27.1"Tu me," inquis, "mones? Iam enim te ipse monuisti, iam correxisti? Ideo aliorum emendationi vacas? "Non sum tam inprobus, ut curationes aeger obeam, sed tamquam in eodem valitudinario iaceam, de communi tecum malo conloquor et remedia communico.
"Do you advise me?" you say. "For have you already advised yourself, already corrected yourself? Is that why you find time for the emendation of others?" I am not so shameless as to administer cures while myself sick, but, as if lying in the same hospital, I talk with you about our common illness and share the remedies.
Sic itaque me audi, tamquam mecum loquar.
Hear me, therefore, just as if I were talking to myself.
In secretum te meum admitto et te adhibito mecum exigo.
I admit you into my secret chamber, and, with you summoned to attend, I examine myself.
§27.2Clamo mihi ipse: "Numera annos tuos, et pudebit eadem velle, quae volueras puer, eadem parare.
I cry out to myself: "Count your years, and you will be ashamed to want the same things you had wanted as a boy, to prepare the same things.
Hoc denique tibi circa mortis diem praesta: moriantur ante te vitia.
Provide this for yourself at last as death's day approaches: let your vices die before you do.
Dimitte istas voluptates turbidas, magno luendas; non venturae tantum, sed praeteritae nocent.
Dismiss those turbid pleasures, to be paid for at a high price; not only those that are to come but those that are past do harm.
Quemadmodum scelera etiam si non sint deprehensa cum fierent, sollicitudo non cum ipsis abit; ita inprobarum voluptatum etiam post ipsas paenitentia est.
Just as crimes, even if they were not caught when they were committed, does anxiety not depart along with them; so too there is repentance for wicked pleasures even after they themselves are gone.
Non sunt solidae, non sunt fideles; etiam si non nocent, fugiunt.
They are not solid, they are not faithful; even if they do not harm, they flee.
§27.3Aliquod potius bonum mansurum circumspice.
Look rather for some good that will last.
Nullum autem est, nisi quod animus ex se sibi invenit.
But there is none, except what the mind finds for itself from within itself.
Sola virtus praestat gaudium perpetuum, securum; etiam si quid obstat, nubium modo intervenit, quae infra feruntur nec umquam diem vincunt. "
Virtue alone affords a perpetual and secure joy; even if something obstructs it, it intervenes only in the manner of clouds, which drift below and never conquer the day." When will it be granted to reach this joy?
§27.4Quando ad hoc gaudium pervenire continget? Non quidem cessatur adhuc, sed festinetur.
To be sure, there is no slackening even now, but let us make haste.
Multum restat operis, in quod ipse necesse est vigiliam, ipse laborem tuum inpendas, si effici cupis.
Much work remains, upon which you yourself must expend your vigilance, you yourself your labor, if you desire it to be accomplished.
Delegationem res ista non recipit.
This matter does not admit of delegation.
§27.5Aliud litterarum genus adiutorium admittit.
Another kind of literature admits of assistance.
Calvisius Sabinus memoria nostra fuit dives.
Calvisius Sabinus was a rich man within our memory.
Et patrimonium habebat libertini et ingenium; numquam vidi hominem beatum indecentius.
He had both the patrimony of a freedman and the intellect of one; I have never seen a rich man behave more indecently.
Huic memoria tam mala erat, ut illi nomen modo Vlixis excideret, modo Achillis, modo Priami, quos tam bene quam paedagogos nostros novimus.
He had so bad a memory that now the name of Ulysses would escape him, now that of Achilles, now that of Priam—men whom we know as well as our own tutors.
Nemo vetulus nomenclator, qui nomina non reddit, sed inponit, tam perperam tribus quam ille Troianos et Achivos persalutabat.
No old name-caller, who does not return names but invents them, ever greeted the tribes as incorrectly as he used to salute the Trojans and Achaians.
Nihilominus eruditus volebat videri.
Nevertheless, he wished to seem learned.
§27.6Hanc itaque conpendiariam excogitavit: magna summa emit servos, unum, qui Homerum teneret, alterum, qui Hesiodum; novem praeterea lyricis singulos adsignavit.
Therefore he devised this short-cut: he bought slaves for a large sum, one to hold Homer in mind, another to hold Hesiod; besides, he assigned one to each of the nine lyric poets.
Magno emisse illum non est quod mireris; non invenerat, faciendos locavit.
There is no reason for you to wonder that he bought them at a high price; he had not found them ready-made, but contracted for them to be trained.
Postquam haec familia illi conparata est, coepit convivas suos inquietare.
After this household was procured for him, he began to plague his dinner guests.
Habebat ad pedes hos, a quibus subinde cum peteret versus, quos referret, saepe in medio verbo excidebat.
He kept these slaves at his feet, and whenever he asked them for verses to repeat, he would often forget them in the middle of a word.
§27.7Suasit illi Satellius Quadratus, stultorum divitum adrosor, et quod sequitur, adrisor, et quod duobus his adiunctum est, derisor, ut grammaticos haberet analectas.
Satellius Quadratus, a hanger-on of foolish rich men, and, what follows, their flatterer, and, what is joined to these two, their ridiculer, persuaded him to have grammarians as his food-gatherers.
Cum dixisset Sabinus centenis milibus sibi constare singulos servos; "Minoris," inquit, "totidem scrinia emisses. "Ille tamen in ea opinione erat, ut putaret se scire, quod quisquam in domo sua sciret.
When Sabinus had said that each individual slave cost him a hundred thousand sesterces; "For less," he said, "you could have bought as many book-boxes." Yet he was under the opinion that he thought he knew what anyone in his house knew.
§27.8Idem Satellius illum hortari coepit, ut luctaretur, hominem aegrum, pallidum, gracilem.
The same Satellius began to exhort him to wrestle, a man who was sick, pale, and slender.
Cum Sabinus respondisset: "Et quomodo possum? Vix vivo," "Noli, obsecro te," inquit, "istuc dicere; non vides, quam multos servos valentissimos habeas? "Bona mens nec commodatur nec emitur.
When Sabinus replied: "And how can I? I am scarcely alive," "Do not, I beseech you," he said, "say that; do you not see how many very strong slaves you have?" A good mind is neither lent nor bought.
Et puto, si venalis esset, non haberet emptorem.
And I think, if it were for sale, it would have no buyer.
At mala cotidie emitur.
But a bad mind is bought every day.
§27.9Sed accipe iam quod debeo et vale.
But receive now what I owe and farewell.
"Divitiae sunt ad legem naturae conposita paupertas. "Hoc saepe dicit Epicurus aliter atque aliter; sed numquam nimis dicitur, quod numquam satis discitur.
"Wealth is poverty adjusted to the law of nature." Epicurus says this often in one way or another; but that is never said too often which is never learned enough.
Quibusdam remedia monstranda, quibusdam inculcanda sunt.
To some, remedies must be shown; into others, they must be drummed.
VALE.
FAREWELL.