§58.20Quartum locum habebit idos.
Idos will hold the fourth place.
Quid sit hoc idos, attendas oportet et Platoni inputes, non mihi, hanc rerum difficultatem.
What this idos is, you must pay attention, and attribute to Plato, not to me, this difficulty of things.
Nulla est autem sine difficultate subtilitas.
Yet there is no subtlety without difficulty.
Paulo ante pictoris imagine utebar.
A little before, I was using the image of a painter.
Ille cum reddere Vergilium coloribus vellet, ipsum intuebatur.
When he wished to reproduce Vergil in colors, he gazed at him.
Idea erat Vergilii facies, futuri operis exemplar.
The idea was the face of Vergil, the exemplar of the future work.
Ex hac quod artifex trahit et operi suo inposuit, idos est.
What the artist draws from this and has imposed on his work is the idos.
§58.21Quid intersit, quaeris? Alterum exemplar est, alterum forma ab exemplari sumpta et operi inposita.
What is the difference, you ask? The one is the exemplar, the other the form taken from the exemplar and imposed on the work.
Alteram artifex imitatur, alteram facit.
The one the artist imitates, the other he makes.
Habet aliquam faciem statua; haec est idos.
The statue has a certain appearance; this is the idos.
Habet aliquam faciem exemplar ipsum, quod intuens opifex statuam figuravit; haec idea est.
The exemplar itself has a certain appearance, gazing at which the craftsman shaped the statue; this is the idea.
Etiamnunc si aliam desideras distinctionem, idos in opere est, idea extra opus nec tantum extra opus est, sed ante opus.
Furthermore, if you desire another distinction, the idos is in the work, the idea is outside the work, and not only outside the work, but before the work.
§58.22Quintum genus est eorum, quae communiter sunt; haec incipiunt ad nos pertinere; hic sunt omnia, homines, pecora, res.
The fifth genus is of those things which exist commonly; these begin to pertain to us; here are all things, men, cattle, things.
Sextum genus eorum, quae quasi sunt: tamquam inane, tamquam tempus.
The sixth genus is of those things which exist as it were: such as void, such as time.
Quaecumque videmus aut tangimus, Plato in illis non numerat, quae esse proprie putat.
Whatever we see or touch, Plato does not number among those things which he thinks properly exist.
Fluunt enim et in assidua deminutione atque adiectione sunt.
For they flow and are in constant decrease and increase.
Nemo nostrum idem est in senectute, qui fuit iuvenis; nemo nostrum est idem mane, qui fuit pridie.
None of us is the same in old age as he was when a young man; none of us is the same in the morning as he was the day before.
Corpora nostra rapiuntur fluminum more.
Our bodies are swept away in the manner of rivers.
Quicquid vides, currit cum tempore.
Whatever you see runs with time.
Nihil ex iis, quae videmus, manet.
Nothing of those things which we see remains.
Ego ipse, dum loquor mutari ista, mutatus sum.
I myself, while I speak of these things being changed, have been changed.
§58.23Hoc est, quod ait Heraclitus: "In idem flumen bis descendimus et non descendimus. "Manet enim idem fluminis nomen, aqua transmissa est.
This is what Heraclitus says: "We descend and do not descend into the same river twice." For the same name of the river remains, but the water has passed on.
Hoc in amne manifestius est quam in homine.
This is more manifest in a river than in a man.
Sed nos quoque non minus velox cursus praetervehit, et ideo admiror dementiam nostram, quod tantopere amamus rem fugacissimam, corpus, timemusque, ne quando moriamur, cum omne momentum mors prioris habitus sit.
But a no less rapid course carries us away too, and therefore I wonder at our madness, that we love so greatly a most fleeting thing, the body, and fear lest we should die at some time, since every moment is the death of the prior state.
Vis tu non timere, ne semel fiat, quod cotidie fit!
Do you not wish not to fear lest that happen once which happens daily!
§58.24De homine dixi, fluvida materia et caduca et omnibus obnoxia causis; mundus quoque, aeterna res et invicta, mutatur nec idem manet.
I have spoken of man, a fluid and falling matter and liable to all causes; the universe also, an eternal and invincible thing, is changed and does not remain the same.
Quamvis enim omnia in se habeat, quae habuit, aliter habet quam habuit; §58.25ordinem mutat.
For although it has in itself all things which it had, it has them otherwise than it had them; it changes its order.
"Quid ista," inquis, "mihi subtilitas proderit?" Si me interrogas, nihil.
"What will that subtlety profit me?" you say. If you ask me, nothing.
Sed quemadmodum ille caelator oculos diu intentos ac fatigatos remittit atque avocat et, ut dici solet, pascit; sic nos animum aliquando debemus relaxare et quibusdam oblectamentis reficere.
But just as that engraver relaxes and turns away his eyes, long intent and fatigued, and, as is commonly said, feeds them; so we ought sometimes to relax our mind and refresh it with certain amusements.
Sed ipsa oblectamenta opera sint.
But let the amusements themselves be works.
Ex his quoque, si observaveris, sumes, quod possit fieri salutare.
From these too, if you observe, you will take what can become salutary.
§58.26Hoc ego, Lucili, facere soleo: ex omni notione, etiam si a philosophia longissime aversa est, eruere aliquid conor et utile efficere.
This I, Lucilius, am accustomed to do: from every notion, even if it is very far removed from philosophy, I endeavor to extract something and make it useful.
Quid istis, quae modo tractavimus, remotius a reformatione morum? Quomodo meliorem me facere ideae Platonicae possunt? Quid ex istis traham, quod cupiditates meas conprimat? Vel hoc ipsum, quod omnia ista, quae sensibus serviunt, quae nos accendunt et inritant, negat Plato ex his esse, quae vere sint.
What is more remote from the reform of morals than those things which we have just treated? How can Platonic ideas make me better? What shall I draw from them that may suppress my desires? Or rather this very thing, that all those things which serve the senses, which inflame and irritate us, Plato denies to be among those things which truly exist.
§58.27Ergo ista imaginaria sunt et ad tempus aliquam faciem ferunt, nihil horum stabile nec solidum est; et nos tamen cupimus, tamquam aut semper futura aut semper habituri.
Therefore, these are imaginary and bear some appearance for a time; none of these is stable or solid; and yet we desire them, as if they will either exist forever or we shall possess them forever.
Inbecilli fluvidique inter vana constitimus; ad illa mittamus animum, quae aeterna sunt.
Weak and fluid we stand among vain things; let us send our mind to those things which are eternal.
Miremur in sublimi volitantes rerum omnium formas deumque inter illa versantem et hoc providentem, quemadmodum quae inmortalia facere non potuit, quia materia prohibebat, defendat a morte ac ratione vitium corporis vincat.
Let us look with wonder at the forms of all things flying in the heights, and at God moving among them and providing for this, how he may defend from death those things which he could not make immortal because matter prevented, and by reason overcome the defect of the body.