§31.1Agnosco Lucilium meum; incipit, quem promiserat, exhibere.
I recognize my Lucilius; he begins to show himself as he had promised.
Sequere illum impetum animi, quo ad optima quaeque calcatis popularibus bonis ibas.
Follow that impulse of your mind, by which you were going toward all the best things, having trampled underfoot worldly goods.
Non desidero maiorem melioremque te fieri quam moliebaris.
I do not desire you to become greater and better than you were striving to be.
Fundamenta tua multum loci occupaverunt; tantum effice, quantum conatus es, et illa quae tecum in animo tulisti, tracta.
Your foundations have occupied much space; accomplish just as much as you have attempted, and manage those things which you have carried with you in your mind.
§31.2Ad summam sapiens eris, si cluseris aures, quibus ceram parum est obdere; firmiore spissamento opus est quam in sociis usum Vlixem ferunt.
In short, you will be wise if you shut your ears, for which it is not enough to plug them with wax; you need a firmer obstacle than they say Ulysses used for his companions.
Illa vox, quae timebatur, erat blanda, non tamen publica, at haec, quae timenda est, non ex uno scopulo, sed ex omni terrarum parte circumsonat.
That voice, which was feared, was enticing, yet not public; but this one, which is to be feared, sounds around us not from a single cliff, but from every part of the earth.
Praetervehere itaque non unum locum insidiosa voluptate suspectum, sed omnes urbes.
Therefore, sail past not just one place suspected of insidious pleasure, but all cities.
Surdum te amantissimis tuis praesta; bono animo mala precantur.
Show yourself deaf to those who love you most; they pray for harmful things with good intentions.
Et si esse vis felix, deos ora, ne quid tibi ex his, quae optantur, eveniat.
And if you wish to be happy, pray to the gods that none of those things which are wished for you may happen to you.
§31.3Non sunt ista bona, quae in te isti volunt congeri; unum bonum est, quod beatae vitae causa et firmamentum est, sibi fidere.
Those are not goods which those people wish to be heaped upon you; there is only one good, which is the cause and foundation of a happy life, to trust in oneself.
Hoc autem contingere non potest, nisi contemptus est labor et in eorum numero habitus, quae neque bona sunt neque mala.
But this cannot happen unless labor is held in contempt and reckoned in the number of those things which are neither good nor bad.
Fieri enim non potest, ut una ulla res modo mala sit, modo bona, modo levis et perferenda, modo expavescenda.
For it cannot happen that any single thing is at one time bad, at another time good, at one time light and to be endured, at another time to be dreaded.
§31.4Labor bonum non est.
Labor is not a good.
Quid ergo est bonum? Laboris contemptio.
What then is a good? The contempt of labor.
Itaque in vanum operosos culpaverim.
Therefore I would blame those who are busy in vain.
Rursus ad honesta nitentes, quanto magis incubuerint minusque sibi vinci ac strigare permiserint, adprobabo et clamabo: "Tanto melior, surge et inspira et clivum istum uno, si potes, spiritu exsupera. " §31.5Generosos animos labor nutrit.
On the other hand, those who strive toward noble things, the more they exert themselves and the less they allow themselves to be beaten and to flag, the more I shall approve and cry out: "By so much the better, rise and take breath and surmount that hill, if you can, in a single breath!" Labor nourishes noble minds.
Non est ergo, quod ex illo voto vetere parentum tuorum eligas, quid contingere tibi velis, quid optes; et in totum iam per maxima acto viro turpe est etiamnunc deos fatigare.
There is no reason, therefore, for you to choose from that old wish of your parents what you want to fall to your lot, what you pray for; and for a man who has already been driven through the greatest things, it is disgraceful even now to weary the gods.
Quid votis opus est? Fac te ipse felicem.
What need is there of vows? Make yourself happy.
Facies autem, si intellexeris bona esse, quibus admixta virtus est, turpia, quibus malitia coniuncta est.
You will do so, moreover, if you understand that those things are goods in which virtue is mixed, and those are base in which malice is joined.
Quemadmodum sine mixtura lucis nihil splendidum est, nihil atrum, nisi quod tenebras habet aut aliquid in se traxit obscuri, quemadmodum sine adiutorio ignis nihil calidum est, nihil sine aere frigidum; ita honesta et turpia virtutis ac malitiae societas efficit.
Just as without the mixture of light nothing is bright, and nothing is black unless it contains darkness or has drawn some obscurity into itself; just as without the help of fire nothing is hot, and nothing is cold without air; so the association of virtue and malice produces noble and base things.
§31.6Quid ergo est bonum? Rerum scientia.
What then is a good? Knowledge of things.
Quid malum est? Rerum imperitia.
What is bad? Ignorance of things.
Ille prudens atque artifex pro tempore quaeque repellet aut eliget.
That wise man and craftsman will reject or choose each thing according to the occasion.
Sed nec quae repellit timet, nec miratur quae elegit, si modo magnus illi et invictus animus est.
But he neither fears what he rejects, nor admires what he chooses, provided that his mind is great and unconquered.
Summitti te ac deprimi veto.
I forbid you to be lowered and depressed.
Laborem si non recuses, parum est; posce. "
If you do not refuse labor, that is not enough; demand it.
§31.7Quid ergo?" inquis, "labor frivolus et supervacuus et quem humiles causae evocaverunt, non est malus? "Non magis quam ille, qui pulchris rebus inpenditur, quoniam animi est ipsa tolerantia, quae se ad dura et aspera hortatur ac dicit: "Quid cessas?
"What then?" you say, "is labor that is frivolous and superfluous, and which humble causes have summoned, not bad?" No more than that which is spent on beautiful things, since endurance itself belongs to the mind, which exhorts itself to hard and rough things and says: "Why do you hesitate?
§31.8Non est viri timere sudorem. "Huc et illud accedat, ut perfecta virtus sit, aequalitas ac tenor vitae per omnia consonans sibi, quod non potest esse, nisi rerum scientia contingit et ars, per quam humana ac divina noscantur.
It is not the part of a man to fear sweat." Let this also be added, so that virtue may be perfect: equality and a course of life consistent with itself through all things, which cannot be unless there is knowledge of things and the art through which human and divine things are known.
Hoc est summum bonum.
This is the supreme good.
Quod si occupas, incipis deorum socius esse, non supplex.
If you seize this, you begin to be a companion of the gods, not a suppliant.
§31.9"Quomodo," inquis, "isto pervenitur?" Non per Poeninum Graiumve montem nec per deserta Candaviae, nec Syrtes tibi nec Scylla aut Charybdis adeundae sunt, quae tamen omnia transisti procuratiunculae pretio; tutum iter est, iucundum est, ad quod natura te instruxit.
"How," you ask, "does one arrive there?" Not through the Pennine or Graian mountain, nor through the deserts of Candavia, nor must you go to the Syrtes or Scylla or Charybdis, all of which, however, you have crossed for the price of a petty procuratorship; the journey is safe, it is pleasant, for which nature has equipped you.
Dedit tibi illa, quae si non deserueris, par deo surges.
She gave you those things which, if you do not abandon them, you will rise equal to a god.
§31.10Parem autem te deo pecunia non faciet; deus nihil habet.
But money will not make you equal to a god; god has nothing.
Praetexta non faciet; deus nudus est.
The pretexta will not do it; god is naked.
Fama non faciet nec ostentatio tui et in populos nominis dimissa notitia; nemo novit deum, multi de illo male existimant, et inpune.
Fame will not do it, nor the display of yourself and the knowledge of your name spread among the nations; no one knows god, many think ill of him, and with impunity.
Non turba servorum lecticam tuam per itinera urbana ac peregrina portantium; deus ille maximus potentissimusque ipse vehit omnia.
Not a crowd of slaves carrying your litter through the streets of the city and abroad; that greatest and most powerful god himself carries all things.
Ne forma quidem et vires beatum te facere possunt; nihil horum patitur vetustatem.
Not even beauty and strength can make you happy; none of these suffers old age.
§31.11Quaerendum est, quod non fiat in dies eius, quoi non possit obstari.
We must seek that which does not become worse day by day, which cannot be opposed.
Quid hoc est? Animus, sed hic rectus, bonus, magnus.
What is this? The mind, but this one upright, good, great.
Quid aliud voces hunc quam deum in corpore humano hospitantem? Hic animus tam in equitem Romanum quam in libertinum, quam in servum potest cadere.
What else would you call this than a god dwelling in a human body? This mind can fall to the lot of a Roman knight just as well as a freedman, just as well as a slave.
Quid est enim eques Romanus aut libertinus aut servus? Nomina ex ambitione aut ex iniuria nata.
For what is a Roman knight, or a freedman, or a slave? Names born of ambition or of injustice.
Subsilire in caelum ex angulo licet.
It is permitted to leap up to heaven from a corner.
Exurge modo et te quoque dignum Finge deo.
Only rise, and fashion yourself also worthy of a god.
Finges autem non auro vel argento; non potest ex hac materia imago deo exprimi similis: cogita illos, cum propitii essent, fictiles fuisse.
But you will fashion yourself not with gold or silver; an image similar to god cannot be expressed from this material: remember that those gods, when they were propitious, were made of clay.
VALE.
FAREWELL.