§37.1Quod maximum vinculum est ad bonam mentem, promisisti virum bonum, sacramento rogatus es.
As for that which is the greatest bond to a good mind, you have promised to be a good man, and you have been bound by an oath.
Deridebit te, si quis tibi dixerit mollem esse militiam et facilem.
If anyone tells you that this warfare is soft and easy, he will mock you.
Nolo te decipi.
I do not wish you to be deceived.
Eadem honestissimi huius et illius turpissimi auctoramenti verba sunt: §37.2"Uri, vinciri ferroque necari. "Ab illis, qui manus harenae locant et edunt ac bibunt, quae per sanguinem reddant, cavetur, ut ista vel inviti patiantur; a te, ut volens libensque patiaris.
The words of this most honorable contract and of that most disgraceful one are the exact same: "To be burned, to be bound, and to be killed with iron." By those who hire out their hands to the arena and eat and drink what they must pay back with blood, it is pledged that they endure these things even against their will; by you, that you endure them willingly and gladly.
Illis licet arma summittere, misericordiam populi temptare; tu neque summittes nec vitam rogabis.
To them it is permitted to lower their arms, to try the mercy of the people; you will neither lower yours nor beg for life.
Recto tibi invictoque moriendum est.
You must die standing straight and undefeated.
Quid porro prodest paucos dies aut annos lucrificare? Sine missione nascimur.
What further does it profit to gain a few days or years? We are born without discharge.
§37.3"Quomodo ergo," inquis, "me expediam?" Effugere non potes necessitates, potes vincere.
"How then," you say, "shall I extricate myself?" You cannot escape necessities; you can conquer them.
"
Fit via vi. "
Et hanc tibi viam dabit philosophia.
"A way is made by force." And philosophy will give you this way.
Ad hanc te confer, si vis salvus esse, si securus, si beatus, denique si vis esse, quod est maximum, liber.
Betake yourself to her, if you wish to be safe, if secure, if happy, in short, if you wish to be—what is greatest—free.
Hoc contingere aliter non potest.
This cannot happen otherwise.
§37.4Humilis res est stultitia, abiecta, sordida, servilis, multis affectibus et saevissimis subiecta.
Folly is a low thing, abject, sordid, slavish, subjected to many and most cruel passions.
Hos tam graves dominos, interdum alternis imperantes, interdum pariter, dimittit a te sapientia, quae sola libertas est.
These so heavy masters, ruling sometimes alternately, sometimes together, wisdom dismisses from you, which alone is freedom.
Una ad hanc fert via, et quidem recta; non aberrabis.
Only one way leads to her, and indeed a straight one; you will not go astray.
Vade certo gradu; si vis omnia tibi subicere, te subice rationi; multos reges si ratio te rexerit.
Go with a sure step; if you wish to subject all things to yourself, subject yourself to reason; you will rule many if reason rules you.
Ab illa disces, quid et quemadmodum adgredi debeas; non incides rebus.
From her you will learn what and in what manner you ought to approach; you will not fall into things by accident.
§37.5Neminem mihi dabis, qui sciat, quomodo quod vult, coeperit velle; non consilio adductus illo, sed inpetu inpactus est.
You will give me no one who knows how he began to will what he wills; he was not led to it by deliberation, but driven into it by impulse.
Non minus saepe fortuna in nos incurrit quam nos in illam.
Not less often does fortune run into us than we into her.
Turpe est non ire, sed ferri et subito in medio turbine rerum stupentem quaerere: "Huc ego quemadmodum veni?" VALE.
It is shameful not to go, but to be carried along, and suddenly, in the midst of the whirlpool of affairs, to ask in daze: "How did I come here?" FAREWELL.