§45.9Si utique vis verborum ambiguitates diducere, I hoc nos doce, beatum non eum esse, quem vulgus appellat, ad quem pecunia magna confluxit, sed illum, cui bonum omne in animo est, erectum et excelsum et mutabilia calcantem, qui neminem videt, cum quo se conmutatum velit, qui hominem ea sola parte aestimat, qua homo est, qui natura magistra utitur, ad illius leges conponitur, sic vivit, quomodo illa praescripsit, cui bona sua nulla vis excutit, qui mala in bonum vertit, certus iudicii, inconcussus, intrepidus, quem aliqua vis movet, nulla perturbat, quem fortuna, cum quod habuit telum nocentissimum vi maxima intorsit, pungit, non vulnerat, et hoc raro.
If you really wish to untangle the ambiguities of words, go, teach us this: that the happy man is not he whom the common people call so, to whom great money has flowed, but that man whose every good is in his mind, upright and lofty and treading upon mutable things, who sees no one with whom he would wish himself to be exchanged, who estimates a human being by that part alone by which he is human, who uses nature as his teacher, conforms himself to her laws, and lives in such a way as she has prescribed; from whom no force shakes out his own goods, who turns bad things into good, certain in his judgment, unshaken, intrepid, whom some force may move, but none perturbs, whom fortune, when she has hurled her most harmful weapon with the greatest force, pricks but does not wound, and this rarely.
Nam cetera eius tela, quibus genus humanum debellatur, grandinis more dissultant, quae incussa tectis sine ullo habitatoris incommodo crepitat ac solvitur.
For her other weapons, by which the human race is conquered, bounce off like hail, which, striking against roofs, rattles and dissolves without any discomfort to the inhabitant.
§45.10Quid me detines in eo, quem tu ipse pseudomenon appellas, de quo tantum librorum conpositum est? Ecce tota mihi vita mentitur;
Why do you detain me in that which you yourself call the "liar" paradox, about which so many books have been written?
hanc coargue, hanc ad verum, si acutus es, redige.
Behold, my whole life is lying; refute this, bring this back to the truth, if you are acute.
Necessaria iudicat, quorum magna pars supervacua est.
It judges things to be necessary, of which a great part is superfluous.
Etiam quae non est supervacua, nihil in se momenti habet in hoc, ut possit fortunatam beatumque praestare.
Even that which is not superfluous has no importance in itself for making life fortunate and happy.
Non enim statim bonum est, si quid necessarium est; aut proicimus bonum, si hoc nomen pani et polentae damus et ceteris, sine quibus vita non ducitur.
For it is not immediately good if something is necessary; otherwise, we throw away the good if we give this name to bread and barley-meal and other things without which life cannot be led.
§45.11Quod bonum est, utique necessarium est; quod necessarium est, non utique bonum est, quoniam quidem necessaria sunt quaedam eadem vilissima.
What is good is certainly necessary; what is necessary is not certainly good, since indeed some things are necessary and at the same time most worthless.
Nemo usque eo dignitatem boni ignorat, ut illud ad haec in diem utilia demittat.
No one is so ignorant of the dignity of the good as to degrade it to these things useful for the day.
§45.12Quid ergo? Non eo potius curam transferes, ut ostendas omnibus magno temporis inpendio quaeri supervacua et multos transisse vitam, dum vitae instrumenta conquirunt? Recognosce singulos, considera universos; nullius non vita spectat in crastinum.
What then? Will you not rather transfer your care to this, to show to everyone that superfluous things are sought at a great expense of time, and that many have passed through life while they are seeking the instruments of life? Examine individuals, consider them all together; there is no one whose life does not look toward tomorrow.
§45.13Quid in hoc sit mali, quaeris? Infinitum.
Do you ask what evil there is in this? An infinite amount.
Non enim vivunt, sed victuri sunt.
For they do not live, but are about to live.
Omnia differunt.
They postpone everything.
Etiamsi adtenderemus, tamen nos vita praecurreret; nunc vero cunctantes quasi aliena transcurrit et ultimo die finitur, omni perit.
Even if we were paying attention, life would still run ahead of us; but as it is, while we hesitate, it runs past as if it belonged to someone else, and though it ends on the last day, it perishes on every day.
Sed ne epistulae modum excedam, quae non debet sinistram manum legentis inplere, in alium diem hanc litem cum dialecticis differam nimium subtilibus et hoc solum curantibus, non et hoc.
But lest I exceed the limit of a letter, which ought not to fill the left hand of the reader, I shall postpone to another day this dispute with the dialecticians, who are too subtle and care only for this, and not for that.
VALE.
FAREWELL.