§36.1Amicum tuum hortare, ut istos magno animo contemnat, qui illum obiurgant, quod umbram et otium petierit, quod dignitatem suam destituerit, et cum plus consequi posset, praetulerit quietem omnibus; quam utiliter suum negotium gesserit, cotidie illis ostentet.
Encourage your friend to look down with a great mind upon those who chide him because he has sought retirement and ease, because he has abandoned his dignity, and because, when he might have achieved more, he preferred quiet before all things; let him show them daily how usefully he has conducted his own business.
Hi, quibus invidetur, non desinent transire; alii elidentur, alii cadent.
These people who are envied will not cease to pass away; some will be crushed, others will fall.
Res est inquieta felicitas; ipsa se exagitat.
Prosperity is a restless thing; it vexes itself.
Movet cerebrum non uno genere; alios in aliud irritat, hos in potentiam, illos in luxuriam.
It stirs the brain in more than one way; it incites different people to different things, these to power, those to luxury.
Hos inflat, illos mollit et totos resolvit.
It inflates these, weakens those and completely dissolves them.
§36.2"At bene aliquis illam fert. "Sic, quomodo vinum.
"But someone bears it well." Yes, in the same way as wine.
Itaque non est quod tibi isti persuadeant cum esse felicem, qui a multis obsidetur; sic ad illum, quemadmodum ad lacum concurritur, quem exhauriunt et turbant.
Therefore, there is no reason why those people should persuade you that he is happy who is besieged by many; people rush to him in the same manner as to a lake, which they drain and muddy.
"Nugatorium et inertem vocant. "Scis quosdam perverse loqui et significare contraria.
"They call him a trifler and idle." You know that some people speak perversely and mean the opposite.
§36.3Felicem vocabant;
They used to call him happy; what of it?
quid ergo? Erat? Ne illud quidem curo, quod quibusdam nimis horridi animi videtur et tetrici.
Was he? I do not even care about that which to some seems to belong to an overly rugged and harsh mind.
Ariston aiebat malle se adulescentem tristem quam hilarem et amabilem turbae.
Ariston used to say that he preferred a gloomy youth to one who was cheerful and agreeable to the crowd.
Vinum enim bonum fieri, quod recens durum et asperum visum est; non pati aetatem, quod in dolio placuit.
For wine becomes good which, when fresh, seemed hard and sour; but that which pleased in the cask does not endure age.
Sine eum tristem appellent et inimicum processibus suis; bene se dabit in vetustate ipsa tristitia, perseveret modo colere virtutem, perbibere liberalia studia, non illa, quibus perfundi satis est, sed haec, quibus tingendus est animus.
Let them call him gloomy and an enemy to his own advancement; that very gloominess will turn out well in old age, provided he continues to cultivate virtue and to drink deep of liberal studies—not those with which it is enough to be sprinkled, but these with which the mind must be dyed.
§36.4Hoc est discendi tempus.
This is the time for learning.
"Quid ergo? Aliquod est, quo non sit discendum? "Minime.
"What then? Is there any time in which one should not learn?" By no means.
Sed quemadmodum omnibus annis studere honestum est, ita non omnibus institui.
But just as to study is honorable in all years, so to be instructed is not for all.
Turpis et ridicula res est elementarius senex; iuveni parandum, seni utendum est.
An old man learning his ABCs is a shameful and ridiculous thing; the young man must prepare, the old man must use.
Facies ergo rem utilissimam tibi, si illum quam optimum feceris; haec aiunt beneficia esse expetenda tribuendaque, non dubie primae sortis, quae tam dare prodest quam accipere.
You will therefore do a most useful thing for yourself if you make him as good as possible; these, they say, are benefits to be sought and bestowed, undoubtedly of the first rank, which are as profitable to give as to receive.
§36.5Denique nihil illi iam liberi est; spopondit.
In short, he is no longer free; he has given his promise.
Minus autem turpe est creditori quam spei bonae decoquere.
But it is less shameful to become bankrupt to a creditor than to a good expectation.
Ad illud aes alienum solvendum opus est negotianti navigatione prospera, agrum colenti ubertate eius, quam colit, terrae, caeli favore; ille quod debet, sola potest voluntate persolvi.
To pay that debt, the merchant needs a prosperous voyage, the husbandman needs the fertility of the soil he cultivates and the favor of the sky; but what he owes can be paid by the will alone.
§36.6In mores fortuna ius non habet.
Over character fortune has no rights.
Hos disponat, ut quam tranquillissimus ille animus ad perfectum veniat, qui nec ablatum sibi quicquam sentit nec adiectum, sed in eodem habitu est, quomodocumque res cedunt.
Let her arrange these matters so that his mind may arrive at perfection in the greatest possible tranquility, feeling neither anything taken away nor added to itself, but remaining in the same condition, however things turn out.
Cui sive adgeruntur vulgaria bona, supra res suas eminet, sive aliquid ex istis vel omnia casus excussit, minor non fit.
Whether common goods are heaped upon him, he rises above his possessions, or whether chance has shaken off some or all of them, he is not made smaller.
§36.7Si in Parthia natus esset, arcum infans statim tenderet; si in Germania, protinus puer tenerum hastile vibraret; si avorum nostrorum temporibus fuisset, equitare et hostem comminus percutere didicisset.
If he had been born in Parthia, he would immediately as an infant have bent the bow; if in Germany, he would straightway as a boy have brandished the slender spear; if he had lived in the times of our ancestors, he would have learned to ride and to strike the enemy hand-to-hand.
Haec singulis disciplina gentis suae suadet atque imperat.
The discipline of each nation commends and commands these things to its individuals.
§36.8Quid ergo huic meditandum est? Quod adversus omnia tela, quod adversus omne hostium genus bene facit, mortem contemnere, quae quin habeat aliquid in se terribile, ut et animos nostros, quos in amorem sui natura formavit, offendat, nemo dubitat; nec enim opus esset in id comparari et acui, in quod instinctu quodam voluntario iremus, sicut feruntur omnes ad conservationem sui.
What, then, must this man meditate upon? That which works well against all weapons, against every kind of enemies: to despise death. No one doubts that death has something terrifying in itself, so as to offend our minds, which nature has fashioned to love themselves; for indeed there would be no need to prepare and sharpen ourselves for that into which we would go by some voluntary impulse, just as all are carried toward self-preservation.
§36.9Nemo discit, ut si necesse fuerit, aequo animo in rosa iaceat, sed in hoc duratur, ut tormentis non summittat fidem, ut si necesse fuerit, stans etiam aliquando saucius pro vallo pervigilet et ne pilo quidem incumbat, quia solet obrepere interim somnus in aliquod adminiculum reclinatis.
No one learns so that, if it is necessary, he may lie on roses with an equal mind, but one is hardened for this: that he may not surrender his loyalty to tortures, and that, if it is necessary, standing and even sometimes wounded, he may keep watch before the rampart and not lean even upon his spear, because sleep is wont meanwhile to creep upon those who recline on some support.
Mors nullum habet incommodum; esse enim debet aliquid, cuius sit incommodum.
Death has no disadvantage; for there must be something to experience the disadvantage.
§36.10Quod si tanta cupiditas te longioris aevi tenet, cogita nihil eorum, quae ab oculis abeunt et in rerum naturam, ex qua prodierunt ac mox processura sunt, reconduntur, consumi; desinunt ista, non pereunt.
But if so great a desire for a longer life holds you, reflect that nothing of those things which pass from our eyes and are hidden in nature, from which they came forth and are soon to proceed again, is consumed; those things cease, they do not perish.
Et mors, quam pertimescimus ac recusamus, intermittit vitam, non eripit; veniet iterum, qui nos in lucem reponat dies, quem multi recusarent, nisi oblitos reduceret.
And death, which we dread and refuse, interrupts life, does not take it away; the day will come again which will restore us to the light, a day which many would refuse, were it not that it brings them back forgotten.
§36.11Sed postea diligentius docebo omnia, quae videntur perire, mutari.
But later I will teach more diligently that all things which seem to perish are changed.
Aequo animo debet rediturus exire.
He who is to return ought to depart with an equal mind.
Observa orbem rerum in se remeantium; videbis nihil in hoc mundo extingui, sed vicibus descendere ac surgere.
Observe the circle of things returning into themselves; you will see that nothing in this world is extinguished, but descends and rises by turns.
Aestas abît, sed alter illam annus adducet; hiemps cecidit, referent illam sui menses; solem nox obruit, sed ipsam statim dies abiget.
Summer has departed, but another year will bring it; winter has fallen, its own months will bring it back; night has overwhelmed the sun, but day will immediately drive it away.
Stellarum iste discursus quicquid praeterit repetit; pars caeli levatur assidue, pars mergitur.
That wandering of the stars repeats whatever it passes by; a part of the sky is continually lifted up, a part is submerged.
§36.12Denique finem faciam, si hoc unum adiecero, nec infantes nec pueros nec mente lapsos timere mortem et esse turpissimum, si eam securitatem nobis ratio non praestat, ad quam stultitia perducit.
Finally, I will make an end if I add this one thing: that neither infants nor boys nor those of unsound mind fear death, and it is most shameful if reason does not guarantee to us that security to which folly leads.
VALE.
FAREWELL.