§56.8Quae non audit, audisse se queritur.
He complains that he has heard what he does not hear.
Quid in causa putas esse? Animus illi obstrepit.
What do you think is the cause? His mind is clamoring within him.
Hic placandus est, huius conpescenda seditio est, quem non est quod existimes placidum, si iacet corpus.
This must be pacified, the rebellion of this must be suppressed; there is no reason for you to think it is peaceful just because the body is lying down.
Interdum quies inquieta est.
Sometimes quiet is unquiet.
Et ideo ad rerum actus excitandi ac tractatione bonarum artium occupandi sumus, quotiens nos male habet inertia sui inpatiens.
And therefore we must be aroused to active affairs and occupied in the cultivation of liberal arts, whenever idleness, impatient of itself, afflicts us.
§56.9Magni imperatores, cum male parere militem vident, aliquo labore conpescunt et expeditionibus detinent; numquam vacat lascivire districtis nihilque tam certum est quam otii vitia negotio discuti.
Great commanders, when they see their soldiers obeying poorly, suppress them with some labor and keep them occupied with expeditions; those who are busy never have leisure to run riot, and nothing is so certain as that the vices of leisure are shaken off by business.
Saepe videmur taedio rerum civilium et infelicis atque ingratae stationis paenitentia secessisse, tamen in illa latebra, in quam nos timor ac lassitudo coniecit, interdum recrudescit ambitio.
Often we seem to have retired out of weariness of public affairs and regret for an unhappy and ungrateful station; yet in that very hiding place into which fear and exhaustion have cast us, ambition sometimes flares up again.
Non enim excisa desit, sed fatigata aut etiam obirata rebus parum sibi cedentibus.
For it did not cease because it was eradicated, but because it was fatigued or even angered by affairs turning out poorly for it.
§56.10Idem de luxuria dico, quae videtur aliquando cessisse, deinde frugalitatem professos sollicitat atque in media parsimonia voluptates non damnatus, sed relictas petit, et quidem eo vehementius, quo occultius.
I say the same of luxury, which seems at times to have yielded, but then solicits those who have professed frugality, and in the midst of parsimony seeks pleasures that were not condemned but merely abandoned, and indeed more vehemently the more secretly.
Omnia enim vitia in aperto leniora sunt; morbi quoque tunc ad sanitatem inclinant, cum ex abdito erumpunt ac vim suam proferunt.
For all vices are milder when they are in the open; diseases also incline toward health when they break out from hiding and bring forth their power.
Et avaritiam itaque et ambitionem et cetera mala mentis humanae tunc perniciosissima scias esse, cum simulata sanitate subsidunt.
And so you should know that avarice, ambition, and the other evils of the human mind are then most pernicious when they subside under a pretense of health.
§56.11Otiosi videmur, et non sumus.
We seem to be at leisure, and we are not.
Nam si bona fide sumus, si receptui cecinimus, si speciosa contemnimus, ut paulo ante dicebam, nulla res nos avocabit, nullus hominum aviumque concentus interrumpet cogitationes bonas, solidasque iam et certas.
For if we are so in good faith, if we have sounded the retreat, if we despise showy things, as I was saying a little while ago, no business will distract us, no chorus of men or birds will interrupt our good, and by now solid and certain, thoughts.
§56.12Leve illud ingenium est nec sese adhuc reduxit introrsus, quod ad vocem et accidentia erigitur.
That mind is light and has not yet withdrawn itself inward which is startled by a voice and accidental occurrences.
Habet intus aliquid sollicitudinis et habet aliquid concepti pavoris, quod illum curiosum facit, ut ait Vergilius noster:
"
Et me, quem dudum non ulla iniecta movebant
Tela neque adverso glomerati ex agmine Grai,
Nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus excitat omnis
Suspensum et pariter comitique onerique timentem. "
It has some anxiety within and has some conceived fear, which makes it hyper-alert, as our Vergil says: "And me, whom lately no showered weapons could move, nor Greeks massed together from the opposing army, now every breeze terrifies, every sound startles, anxious and fearing equally for both companion and burden.
§56.13Prior ille sapiens est, quem non tela vibrantia, non arietata inter se arma agminis densi, non urbis inpulsae fragor territat.
"That former man is the wise man, whom no brandished weapons, no clashing arms of a dense column, no crash of a battered city terrifies.
Hic alter inperitus est, rebus suis timet ad omnem crepitum expavescens, quem una quaelibet vox pro fremitu accepta deicit, quem motus levissimi exanimant; timidum illum sarcinae faciunt.
This latter one is untutored, fearing for his own possessions, trembling at every crack, whom any single voice taken for a rumble casts down, whom the slightest movements leave breathless; his baggage makes him timid.
§56.14Quemcumque ex istis felicibus elegeris, multa trahentibus, multa portantibus, videbis illum "comitique onerique timentem. "
Tunc ergo te scito esse conpositum, cum ad te nullus clamor pertinebit, cum te nulla vox tibi excutiet, non si blandietur, non si minabitur, non si inani sono vana circumstrepet. "
Whomever you choose from those prosperous men, dragging many things, carrying many things, you will see him "fearing equally for both companion and burden." Know then that you are composed only when no clamor will concern you, when no voice will shake you out of yourself, whether it flatters, whether it threatens, or whether it rings uselessly around you with empty sound.
§56.15Quid ergo? Non aliquando commodius est et carere convicio?" Fateor.
"What then? Is it not sometimes more convenient to be free from brawling?" I admit it.
Itaque ego ex hoc loco migrabo.
And so I shall move from this place.
Experiri et exercere me volui.
I wanted to test and exercise myself.
Quid necesse est diutius torqueri, cum tam facile remedium Vlixes sociis etiam adversus Sirenas invenerit? VALE.
Why is it necessary to be tortured any longer, when Ulysses found so easy a remedy for his companions even against the Sirens? FAREWELL.