§33.1Desideras his quoque epistulis sicut prioribus adscribi aliquas voces nostrorum procerum.
You desire that some sayings of our leaders should be written down in these letters also, just as in the former ones.
Non fuerunt circa flosculos occupati; totus contextus illorum virilis est.
They were not occupied with flowery phrases; their entire context is manly.
Inaequalitatem scias esse, ubi quae eminent, notabilia sunt.
You should know that there is inequality where those things which stand out are conspicuous.
Non est admirationi una arbor, ubi in eandem altitudinem tota silva surrexit.
A single tree is not an object of admiration where the whole forest has risen to the same height.
§33.2Eiusmodi vocibus referta sunt carmina, refertae historiae.
Poems are stuffed with sayings of this kind, and histories are stuffed with them.
Itaque nolo illas Epicuri existimes esse; publicae sunt et maxime nostrae.
Therefore, I do not wish you to think that they belong to Epicurus; they are common property and especially ours.
Sed in illo magis adnotantur, quia rarae interim interveniunt, quia inexpectatae, quia mirum est fortiter aliquid dici ab homine mollitiam professo.
But they are more noted in him, because they step in occasionally, because they are unexpected, and because it is surprising that something brave is said by a man who professed softness.
Ita enim plerique iudicant.
Indeed, most people judge so.
Apud me Epicurus est et fortis, licet manuleatus sit.
In my view, Epicurus is brave, even though he might wear long sleeves.
Fortitudo et industria et ad bellum prompta mens tam in Persas quam in alte cinctos cadit.
Bravery, industry, and a mind ready for war fall as much upon Persians as upon those who are high-girt.
§33.3Non est ergo quod exigas excerpta et repetita; continuum est apud nostros quicquid apud alios excerpitur.
Therefore, there is no reason for you to demand excerpts and repetitions; whatever is excerpted in others is a continuous whole in ours.
Non habemus itaque ista ocliferia nec emptorem decipimus nihil inventurum, cum intraverit, praeter illa, quae in fronte suspensa sunt.
We do not have, therefore, those eye-catchers, nor do we deceive the buyer who, when he enters, will find nothing except those things which were hung in front.
Ipsis permittimus, unde velint sumere exemplaria.
We permit them to take models from wherever they wish.
§33.4Puta nos velle singulares sententias ex turba separare;
Suppose we wish to separate individual maxims from the crowd; to whom shall we assign them?
cui illas adsignabimus? Zenoni an Cleanthi an Chrysippo an Panaetio an Posidonio? Non sumus sub rege; sibi quisque se vindicat.
To Zeno, Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Panaetius, or Posidonius? We are not under a king; each person claims himself for himself.
Apud istos quicquid Hermarchus dixit, quicquid Metrodorus, ad unum refertur.
Among those people, whatever Hermarchus said, whatever Metrodorus said, is referred to one.
Omnia quae quisquam in illo contubernio locutus est, unius ductu et auspiciis dicta sunt.
Everything that anyone has spoken in that companionship was said under the leadership and auspices of one.
Non possumus, inquam, licet temptemus, educere aliquid ex tanta rerum aequalium multitudine.
We cannot, I say, even if we try, extract anything from such a great multitude of equal things.
Pauperis est numerare pecus.
It belongs to a poor man to count his flock.
Quocumque miseris oculum, id tibi occurret, quod eminere posset, nisi inter paria legeretur.
Wherever you cast your eye, that will meet you which could stand out, unless it were read among its equals.
§33.5Quare depone istam spem, posse te summatim degustare ingenia maximorum virorum; tota tibi inspicienda sunt, tota tractanda.
Therefore, lay aside that hope that you can taste in a summary way the geniuses of the greatest men; you must inspect them as a whole, handle them as a whole.
Res geritur et per lineamenta sua ingenii opus nectitur, ex quo nihil subduci sine ruina potest.
The matter is conducted and the work of genius is woven through its own outlines, from which nothing can be subtracted without ruin.
Nec recuso, quo minus singula membra, dummodo in ipso homine, consideres.
Nor do I refuse to let you consider individual members, provided they are in the man himself.
Non est formonsa, cuius crus laudatur aut brachium, sed illa, cuius universa facies admirationem partibus singulis abstulit.
She is not beautiful whose leg or arm is praised, but she whose overall appearance has taken away admiration from individual parts.
§33.6Si tamen exegeris, non tam mendice tecum agam, sed plena manu fiet; ingens eorum turba est passim iacentium, sumenda erunt, non colligenda.
If, however, you demand it, I will not deal with you so beggarly, but it will be done with a full hand; there is a huge crowd of them lying around everywhere, they will have to be taken, not gathered.
Non enim excidunt, sed fluunt.
For they do not fall out, but flow.
Perpetua et inter se contexta sunt.
They are continuous and woven together.
Nec dubito, quin multum conferant rudibus adhuc et extrinsecus auscultantibus; facilius enim singula insidunt circumscripta et carminis modo inclusa.
Nor do I doubt that they contribute much to those who are still unrefined and listening from the outside; for individual things, circumscribed and enclosed in the manner of poetry, settle in more easily.
§33.7Ideo pueris et sententias ediscendas damus et has quas Graeci chrias vocant, quia conplecti illas puerilis animus potest, qui plus adhuc non capit.
For this reason, we give children both maxims to learn by heart and these which the Greeks call chriae, because the childish mind, which does not yet grasp more, can comprehend them.
Certi profectus viro captare flosculos turpe est et fulcire se notissimis ac paucissimis vocibus et memoria stare; sibi iam innitatur.
It is shameful for a man of certain progress to hunt after flowery phrases, to prop himself up with the most well-known and fewest sayings, and to stand by memory; let him now lean upon himself.
Dicat ista, non teneat.
Let him speak those things, not just hold them.
Turpe est enim seni aut prospicienti senectutem ex commentario sapere.
For it is shameful for an old man, or one looking forward to old age, to be wise from a notebook.
"Hoc Zenon dixit";
"Zeno said this"; what about you?
tu quid? "Hoc Cleanthes";
"Cleanthes said this"; what about you?
tu quid? Quousque sub alio moveris? Impera et dic, quod memoriae tradatur.
How long will you move under another? Command and say something to be handed down to memory.
§33.8Aliquid et de tuo profer.
Produce something from your own as well.
Omnes itaque istos, numquam auctores, semper interpretes sub aliena umbra latentes, nihil existimo habere generosi, numquam ausos aliquando facere, quod diu didicerant.
Therefore, I think that all those who are never authors, always interpreters, hiding under another's shadow, have nothing noble in them, never having dared to do at some time what they had long learned.
Memoriam in alienis exercuerunt.
They have exercised their memory on other people's property.
Aliud autem est meminisse, aliud scire.
But it is one thing to remember, another to know.
Meminisse est rem commissam memoriae custodire.
To remember is to preserve a thing committed to memory.
At contra scire est et sua facere quaeque nec ad exemplar pendere et totiens respicere ad magistrum.
But on the contrary, to know is both to make each thing one's own, and not to hang on a model, and not to look back so often to the master.
" §33.9Hoc dixit Zenon, hoc Cleanthes! "Aliquid inter te intersit et librum.
"Zeno said this, Cleanthes this!" Let there be some difference between you and the book.
Quousque disces? Iam et praecipe.
How long will you learn? Now teach as well.
"Quid est quare et audiam, quod legere possum?" "Multum," inquit, "viva vox facit. "Non quidem haec, quae alienis verbis commodatur et actuari vice fungitur.
"What is the reason why I should even hear what I can read?" "Much," he says, "the living voice does." Not indeed this one, which is lent to another's words and performs the role of a reader.
§33.10Adice nunc quod isti, qui numquam tutelae suae fiunt, primum in ea re secuntur priores, in qua nemo non a priore descivit; deinde in ea re secuntur, quae adhuc quaeritur.
Add now that these people, who never come under their own guardianship, follow their predecessors first in that matter in which no one has not departed from a predecessor; secondly, they follow in that matter which is still being investigated.
Numquam autem invenietur si contenti fuerimus inventis.
But nothing will ever be found if we are content with what has been found.
Praeterea qui alium sequitur, nihil invenit, immo nec quaerit.
Besides, he who follows another finds nothing, indeed, he does not even seek.
§33.11Quid ergo? Non ibo per priorum vestigia? Ego vero utar via vetere, sed si propiorem planioremque invenero, hanc muniam.
What then? Shall I not go through the footsteps of my predecessors? I indeed shall use the old road, but if I find a closer and flatter one, I shall pave this.
Qui ante nos ista moverunt, non domini nostri, sed duces sunt.
Those who set those things in motion before us are not our masters, but our guides.
Patet omnibus veritas, nondum est occupata.
Truth lies open to all, it has not yet been occupied.
Multum ex illa etiam futuris relictum est.
Much of it has been left even for those to come.
VALE.
FAREWELL.