§29.1De Marcellino nostro quaeris et vis scire, quid agat.
You ask about our Marcellinus and want to know what he is doing.
Raro ad nos venit, non ulla alia ex causa quam quod audire verum timet, a quo periculo iam abest.
He rarely comes to us, for no other reason than that he fears to hear the truth, a danger from which he is now free.
Nulli enim nisi audituro dicendum est.
For one must speak to no one except to him who is willing to listen.
Ideo de Diogene nec minus de aliis Cynicis, qui libertate promiscua usi sunt et obvios monuerunt, dubitari solet, an hoc facere debuerint.
Therefore, concerning Diogenes and no less the other Cynics, who used indiscriminate freedom of speech and admonished those they met, it is often doubted whether they ought to have done this.
§29.2Quid enim, si quis surdos obiurget aut natura morbove mutos? "Quare," inquis, "verbis parcam? Gratuita sunt.
For what if someone should scold the deaf, or those who are mute by nature or illness? "Why," you say, "should I spare my words? They cost nothing.
Non possum scire, an ei profuturus sim, quem admoneo; illud scio, alicui me profuturum si multos admonuero.
I cannot know whether I will benefit the one whom I admonish; but this I know, that I will benefit someone if I admonish many.
Spargenda manus est.
The hand must be scattered.
Non potest fieri, ut non aliquando succedat multa temptanti. " §29.3Hoc, mi Lucili, non existimo magno viro faciendum; diluitur eius auctoritas nec habet apud eos satis ponderis, quos posset minus obsolefacta corrigere.
It cannot be that success does not sometimes come to one who tries many things." This, my Lucilius, I do not think should be done by a great man; his authority is diluted, and it does not have enough weight among those whom he might have corrected had his authority been less cheapened.
Sagittarius non aliquando ferire debet, sed aliquando deerrare.
An archer ought not to hit the mark sometimes, but to miss sometimes.
Non est ars, quae ad effectum casu venit.
It is not an art that arrives at its effect by chance.
Sapientia ars est; certum petat, eligat profecturos, ab is, quos desperavit, recedat, non tamen cito relinquat et in ipsa desperatione extrema remedia temptet.
Wisdom is an art; let it aim at a certain target, choose those who will make progress, recede from those of whom it has despaired, yet not abandon them quickly, and even in that very despair, try extreme remedies.
§29.4Marcellinum nostrum ego nondum despero.
I do not yet despair of our Marcellinus.
Etiamnunc servari potest, sed si cito illi manus porrigitur.
Even now he can be saved, but only if a hand is quickly extended to him.
Est quidem periculum, ne porrigentem trahat; magna in illo ingenii vis est, sed iam tendentis in pravum.
There is indeed a danger that he may drag down the one who extends it; there is a great force of intellect in him, but it is already inclining toward what is crooked.
Nihilominus adibo hoc periculum et audebo illi mala sua ostendere.
Nevertheless, I will face this danger and dare to show him his evils.
§29.5Faciet quod solet; advocabit illas facetias, quae risum evocare lugentibus possunt, et in se primum, deinde in nos iocabitur.
He will do what he is accustomed to do; he will call upon those pleasantries which can evoke laughter even from those who mourn, and will joke first at his own expense, and then at ours.
Omnia, quae dicturus sum, occupabit.
He will forestall everything I am about to say.
Scrutabitur scholas nostras et obiciet philosophis congiaria, amicas, gulam.
He will scrutinize our schools and object to philosophers their doles, their mistresses, their gluttony.
Ostendet mihi alium in adulterio, alium in popina, alium in aula.
He will point out to me one philosopher in adultery, another in a tavern, another at court.
§29.6Ostendet mihi M. Lepidi philosophum Aristonem, qui in gestatione disserebat.
He will point out to me Aristo, the philosopher of Marcus Lepidus, who used to lecture during his carriage rides.
Hoc enim ad edendas operas tempus acceperat.
For he had taken this time to publish his works.
De cuius secta cum quaereretur, Scaurus ait: "Utique Peripateticus non est. "De eodem cum consuleretur Iulius Graecinus, vir egregius, quid sentiret, "Non possum," inquit, "tibi dicere; nescio enim, quid de gradu faciat," tamquam de essedario interrogaretur.
When asked about his sect, Scaurus said: "At any rate, he is not a Peripatetic." When Julius Graecinus, an excellent man, was consulted about what he thought of the same man, he said: "I cannot tell you; for I do not know what he does regarding his stance," as if he were being asked about a chariot-fighter.
§29.7Hos mihi circulatores, qui philosophiam honestius neglexissent quam vendunt, in faciem ingeret.
He will fling in my face these street-hawkers, who would have neglected philosophy more honorably than they sell it.
Constitui tamen contumelias perpeti; moveat ille mihi risum, ego fortasse illi lacrimas movebo, aut si ridere perseverabit, gaudebo tamquam in malis, quod illi genus insaniae hilare contigerit.
Yet I have resolved to endure his insults; let him move me to laughter, I will perhaps move him to tears, or if he persists in laughing, I will rejoice, as if in the midst of evils, that a cheerful kind of madness has fallen to his lot.
Sed non est ista hilaritas longa.
But that cheerfulness is not long-lasting.
Observa; videbis eosdem intra exiguum tempus acerrime ridere et acerrime rabere.
Observe; you will see the very same people within a short time laughing most bitterly and raving most bitterly.
§29.8Propositum est adgredi illum et ostendere, quanto pluris fuerit, quom multis minoris videretur.
My purpose is to approach him and show him how much more valuable he was, when he seemed of much less value to many.
Vitia eius etiam si non excidero, inhibebo; non desinent, sed intermittent.
Even if I do not eradicate his vices, I will check them; they will not cease, but they will remit.
Fortasse autem et desinent, si intermittendi consuetudinem fecerint.
Perhaps, moreover, they will even cease, if they make a habit of remitting.
Non est hoc ipsum fastidiendum, quoniam quidem graviter adfectis sanitatis loco est bona remissio.
Even this itself is not to be disdained, since indeed to those gravely afflicted, a good remission is in place of health.
§29.9Dum me illi paro, tu interim, qui potes, qui intellegis, unde quo evaseris, et ex eo suspicans, quousque sis evasurus, compone mores tuos, attolle animum, adversus formidata consiste.
While I prepare myself for him, do you meanwhile, you who are able, who understand from where to where you have escaped, and guessing from that how far you will escape, compose your manners, raise up your mind, stand firm against what is feared.
Numerare eos noli, qui tibi metum faciunt.
Do not count those who cause you fear.
Nonne videatur stultus, si quis multitudinem eo loco timeat, per quem transitus singulis est? Aeque ad tuam mortem multis aditus non est, licet illam multi minentur.
Would he not seem foolish, if anyone should fear a crowd in a place through which the passage is for single files? Equally, there is no approach to your death for many, although many may threaten it.
Sic istuc natura disposuit: spiritum tibi tam unus eripiet quam unus dedit.
Nature has arranged it so: one person will snatch away your life just as one person gave it.
§29.10Si pudorem haberes, ultimam mihi pensionem remisisses.
If you had any shame, you would have remitted my last payment.
Sed ne ego quidem me sordide geram in finem aeris alieni et tibi quod debeo, inpingam.
But not even I will behave meanly at the end of my debt, and I will force upon you what I owe.
"Numquam volui populo placere.
"I have never wished to please the people.
Nam quae ego scio, non probat populus; quae probat populus, ego nescio. "" §29.11Quis hoc?" inquis, tamquam nescias, cui imperem; Epicurus.
For what I know, the people do not approve; and what the people approve, I do not know." "Who said this?" you ask, as if you did not know whom I am levying upon; Epicurus.
Sed idem hoc omnes tibi ex omni domo conclamabunt, Peripatetici, Academici, Stoici, Cynici.
But everyone from every house will shout this same thing to you, Peripatetics, Academics, Stoics, Cynics.
Quis enim placere populo potest, cui placet virtus? Malis artibus popularis favor quaeritur.
For who can please the people, to whom virtue is pleasing? Popular favor is sought by evil arts.
Similem te illis facias oportet.
You must make yourself like them.
Non probabunt, nisi agnoverint.
They will not approve of you unless they recognize you.
Multo autem ad rem magis pertinet, qualis tibi videaris quam qualis aliis.
But it is of much more relevance how you appear to yourself than how you appear to others.
Conciliari nisi turpi ratione amor turpium non potest.
The love of base people cannot be won except by base means.
§29.12Quid ergo illa laudata et omnibus praeferenda artibus rebusque philosophia praestabit? Scilicet ut malis tibi placere quam populo, ut aestimes iudicia, non numeres, ut sine metu deorum hominumque vivas, ut aut vincas mala aut finias.
What then will that philosophy, praised and to be preferred to all arts and things, provide? Plainly, that you prefer to please yourself rather than the people, that you weigh judgments rather than count them, that you live without fear of gods and men, that you either conquer evils or end them.
Ceterum, si te videro celebrem secundis vocibus vulgi, si intrante te clamor et plausus, pantomimica ornamenta, obstrepuerint, si tota civitate te feminae puerique laudaverint, quidni ego tui miserear, cum sciam, quae via ad istum favorem ferat? VALE.
For the rest, if I see you celebrated by the favorable voices of the crowd, if upon your entrance clamor and applause, the trappings of pantomime, resound, if throughout the whole city women and boys praise you, why should I not pity you, when I know what path leads to that favor? FAREWELL.