§50.1Epistulam tuam accepi post multos menses quam miseras.
I received your letter many months after you had sent it.
Supervacuum itaque putavi ab eo, qui adferebat, quid ageres quaerere.
And so I thought it superfluous to ask the man who brought it how you were doing.
Valde enim bonae memoriae est, si meminit! Et tamen spero te sic iam vivere, ut ubicumque eris, sciam quid agas.
For he must have an excellent memory if he remembers! And yet I hope that you are already living in such a way that, wherever you are, I may know what you are doing.
Quid enim aliud agis quam ut meliorem te ipse cottidie facias, ut aliquid ex erroribus ponas, ut intellegas tua vitia esse, quae putas rerum? Quaedam enim locis et temporibus adscribimus. At illa, quocumque transierimus, secutura sunt.
For what else are you doing than making yourself better every day, laying aside some of your errors, and understanding that the faults you think belong to circumstances are actually your own? For we attribute certain things to places and times; but those things will follow us, wherever we migrate.
§50.2Harpasten, uxoris meae fatuam, scis hereditarium onus in domo mea remansisse.
You know that Harpaste, my wife's fool, has remained in my house as an inherited burden.
Ipse enim aversissimus ab istis prodigiis sum; si quando fatuo delectari volo, non est mihi longe quaerendus; me rideo.
For I myself am utterly averse to such monsters; if ever I want to be amused by a fool, I do not have to look far for one; I laugh at myself.
Haec fatua subito desiit videre.
This female fool has suddenly lost her sight.
Incredibilem rem tibi narro, sed veram: nescit esse se caecam.
I am telling you an incredible but true thing: she does not know that she is blind.
Subinde paedagogum suum rogat ut migret. Ait domum tenebricosam esse.
She repeatedly asks her keeper to move; she says the house is dark.
§50.3Hoc quod in illa ridemus, omnibus nobis accidere liqueat tibi; nemo se avarum esse intellegit, nemo cupidum.
Let it be clear to you that this which we laugh at in her happens to all of us; no one understands that he is greedy, no one that he is lustful.
Caeci tamen ducem quaerunt, nos sine duce erramus et dicimus: "Non ego ambitiosus sum, sed nemo aliter Romae potest vivere.
Yet the blind seek a guide; we wander without a guide and say: 'I am not ambitious, but no one can live otherwise in Rome.
Non ego sumptuosus sum, sed urbs ipsa magnas inpensas exigit Non est meum vitium, quod iracundus sum, quod nondum constitui certum genus vitae; adulescentia haec facit. " §50.4Quid nos decipimus? Non est extrinsecus malum nostrum; intra nos est, in visceribus ipsis sedet, et ideo difficulter ad sanitatem pervenimus, quia nos aegrotare nescimus.
I am not extravagant, but the city itself demands great expenses. It is not my fault that I am quick-tempered, that I have not yet established a certain way of life; youth does this.' Why do we deceive ourselves? Our evil is not from without; it is within us, it sits in our very bowels, and we arrive at health with difficulty for this reason, that we do not know we are sick.
Si curari coeperimus, quando tot morborum tantas vires discutiemus? Nunc vero ne quaerimus quidem medicum, qui minus negotii haberet, si adhiberetur ad recens vitium.
If we begin to be cured, when shall we dispel such great powers of so many diseases? But now we do not even seek a physician, who would have less trouble if he were applied to a fresh fault.
Sequerentur teneri et rudes animi recta monstrantem.
Tender and untutored minds would follow one who points out the right way.
§50.5Nemo difficulter ad naturam reducitur, nisi qui ab illa defecit.
No one is with difficulty brought back to nature, except him who has revolted from her.
Erubescimus discere bonam mentem; at mehercules, si turpe est magistrum huius rei quaerere, illud desperandum est, posse nobis casu tantum bonum induere.
We blush to learn a good mind; but, by Hercules, if it is shameful to seek a teacher of this thing, we must despair of this, that so great a good can be put on by us by chance.
Laborandum est, et ut verum dicam, ne labor quidem magnus est, si modo, ut dixi, ante animum nostrum formare incipimus et recorrigere, quam indurescat pravitas eius.
We must labor, and to tell the truth, not even is the labor great, if only, as I said, we begin to mold and correct our mind before its wickedness hardens.
Sed nec indurata despero.
But I do not despair even of what has hardened.
§50.6Nihil est, quod non expugnet pertinax opera et intenta ac diligens cura; robora in rectum quamvis flexa revocabis.
There is nothing which persistent labor and intense and diligent care cannot conquer; you will recall oak trees to straightness, however much they have been bent.
Curvatas trabes calor explicat et aliter natae in id finguntur, quod usus noster exigit; quanto facilius animus accipit formam, flexibilis et omni umore obsequentior.
Heat straightens bent beams, and wood grown in one way is fashioned into what our use demands; how much more easily does the mind receive a shape, being flexible and more yielding than any liquid!
Quid enim est aliud animus quam quodam modo se habens spiritus? Vides autem tanto spiritum esse faciliorem omni alia materia, quanto tenuior est.
For what else is the mind than a spirit in a certain state? And you see that spirit is as much more easily worked than any other matter as it is thinner.
§50.7Illud, mi Lucili, non est quod te inpediat, quo minus de nobis bene speres, quod malitia nos iam tenet, quod diu in possessione nostri est; ad neminem ante bona mens venit quam mala.
My dear Lucilius, this is not a thing to prevent you from hoping well of us, namely, that malice already holds us and has long been in possession of us; a good mind comes to no one before a bad one.
Omnes praeoccupati sumus.
We are all pre-occupied.
Virtutes discere vitia dediscere est.
To learn virtues is to unlearn vices.
§50.8Eo maiore animo ad emendationem nostri debemus accedere, quod semel traditi nobis boni perpetua possessio est; non dediscitur virtus.
We ought to approach our self-improvement with all the greater courage because once the good is delivered to us, it is a perpetual possession; virtue is not unlearned.
Contraria enim male in alieno haerent, ideo depelli et exturbari possunt; fideliter sedent, quae in locum suum veniunt.
For opposites cling badly in a place not their own, and therefore they can be driven out and expelled; but things which come into their own place sit faithfully.
Virtus secundum naturam est, vitia inimica et infesta sunt.
Virtue is according to nature; vices are hostile and plague-like.
§50.9Sed quemadmodum virtutes receptae exire non possunt facilisque earum tutela est, ita initium ad illas eundi arduum, quia hoc proprium inbecillae mentis atque aegrae est, formidare inexperta.
But just as virtues, once received, cannot depart and their guardianship is easy, so the beginning of the journey toward them is difficult, because this is characteristic of a weak and sick mind: to dread untried things.
Itaque cogenda est, ut incipiat; deinde non est acerba medicina.
Therefore, it must be forced to begin; thereafter, the medicine is not bitter.
Protinus enim delectat, dum sanat.
For it delights immediately while it cures.
Aliorum remediorum post sanitatem voluptas est, philosophia pariter et salutaris et dulcis est.
In the case of other remedies, the pleasure comes after the cure; philosophy is at once both healing and sweet.
VALE.
FAREWELL.