§66.1Claranum,condiscipulum meum, vidi post multos annos.
I saw Claranus, my classmate, after many years.
Non, puto, exspectas, ut adiciam senem, sed mehercules viridem animo ac vigentem et cum corpusculo suo conluctantem.
I do not think you expect me to add "an old man," but, by Hercules, one who is green in mind and vigorous and struggling with his poor body.
Inique enim se natura gessit et talem animum male conlocavit; aut fortasse voluit hoc ipsum nobis ostendere, posse ingenium fortissimum ac beatissimum sub qualibet cute latere.
For nature acted unfairly and housed such a mind poorly; or perhaps she wished to show us this very thing, that the strongest and most blessed disposition can lurk under any skin.
Vincit tamen omnia inpedimenta et ad cetera contemnenda a contemptu sui venit.
He conquers, however, all obstacles, and comes to despising other things from contempt of his own body.
§66.2Errare mihi visus est, qui dixit
"
gratior et pulchro veniens e corpore virtus. "
Non enim ullo honestamento eget; ipsa magnum sui decus est et corpus suum consecrat.
He seemed to me to be mistaken who said, "Virtue is more pleasing when coming from a beautiful body." For it needs no external ornament; it is itself its own great glory, and consecrates its body.
Aliter certe Claranum nostrum coepi intueri; formosus mihi videtur et tam rectus corpore quam est animo.
Certainly I began to look at our friend Claranus differently; he seems beautiful to me, and as straight in body as he is in mind.
§66.3Potest ex casa vir magnus exire, potest et ex deformi humilique corpusculo formosus animus ac magnus.
A great man can go out from a cottage; a beautiful and great mind can also emerge from a deformed and low little body.
Quosdam itaque mihi videtur in hoc tales natura generare, ut adprobet virtutem omni loco nasci.
And so nature seems to me to generate certain such men for this purpose, namely, to prove that virtue is born in every place.
Si posset per se nudos edere animos, fecisset; nunc, quod amplius est, facit; quosdam enim edit corporibus inpeditos, sed nihilominus perrumpentes obstantia.
If she could produce minds bare by themselves, she would have done so; now she does what is more: for she produces some who are hindered by their bodies, but who nonetheless break through the obstacles.
§66.4Claranus mihi videtur in exemplar editus, ut scire possemus non deformitate corporis foedari animum, sed pulchritudine animi corpus ornari.
Claranus seems to me to have been produced as an exemplar, so that we might know that the mind is not defiled by the deformity of the body, but the body is adorned by the beauty of the mind.
Quamvis autem paucissimos una fecerimus dies, tamen multi nobis sermones fuerunt, quos subinde egeram et ad te permittam.
Although we spent very few days together, yet we had many conversations, which I had then put in order and will send to you.
§66.5Hoc primo die quaesitum est: quomodo possint paria bona esse, si triplex eorum condicio est.
On this first day, this question was asked: how goods can be equal, if their condition is threefold.
Quaedam, ut nostris videtur, prima bona sunt, tamquam gaudium, pax, salus patriae; quaedam secunda, in materia infelici expressa, tamquam tormentorum patientia et in morbo gravi temperantia.
Some, as it seems to our school, are primary goods, such as joy, peace, the safety of the fatherland; some are secondary, expressed in unfortunate matter, such as the endurance of tortures and temperance in severe illness.
Illa bona derecto optabimus nobis, haec, si necesse erit.
Those goods we shall wish for ourselves directly, these only if it is necessary.
Sunt adhuc tertia, tamquam modestus incessus et conpositus ac probus voltus et conveniens prudenti viro gestus.
There are still third ones, such as a modest gait, a composed and honest countenance, and a gesture suitable for a wise man.
§66.6Quomodo ista inter se paria esse possunt, cum alia optanda sint, alia aversanda? Si volumus ista distinguere, ad primum bonum revertamur et consideremus id quale sit: animus intuens vera, peritus fugiendorum ac petendorum, non ex opinione, sed ex natura pretia rebus inponens, toti se inserens mundo et in omnes eius actus contemplationem suam mittens, cogitationibus actionibusque intentus, ex aequo magnus ac vehemens, asperis blandisque pariter invictus, neutri se fortunae summittens, supra omnia quae contingunt acciduntque eminens, pulcherrimus, ordinatissimus cum decore tum viribus, sanus ac siccus, inperturbatus, intrepidus, quem nulla vis frangat, quem nec adtollant fortuita nec deprimant;
How can these be equal to one another, when some are to be desired, and others to be shunned? If we wish to distinguish these, let us return to the primary good and consider what sort of thing it is: a mind that beholds truth, skilled in what is to be avoided and what is to be sought, imposing values on things not according to opinion but according to nature, inserting itself into the whole world and sending its contemplation into all its actions, intent on thoughts and actions, equally great and vehement, unconquered alike by hardships and flatteries, submitting itself to neither fortune, rising above all things that happen and occur, most beautiful, most orderly both in grace and in strength, healthy and sober, undisturbed, intrepid, which no force can break, which fortuitous events neither elevate nor depress; such a mind is virtue.
talis animus virtus est. §66.7Haec eius est facies, si sub unum veniat aspectum et semel tota se ostendat.
This is its face, if it should come under a single view and show itself whole at once.
Ceterum multae eius species sunt.
Yet its forms are many.
Pro vitae varietate et pro actionibus explicantur; nec minor fit aut maior ipsa.
They are unfolded according to the variety of life and according to actions; and virtue itself does not become smaller or greater.
Decrescere enim summum bonum non potest nec virtuti ire retro licet; sed in alias atque alias qualitates convertitur ad rerum, quas actura est, habitum figurata.
For the supreme good cannot decrease, nor is virtue permitted to go backward; but it is transformed into various qualities, shaped to the condition of the things which it is about to perform.
§66.8Quidquid attigit, in similitudinem sui adducit et tinguit; actiones, amicitias, interdum domos totas, quas intravit disposuitque, condecorat.
Whatever it touches, it brings into likeness of itself and dyes; it adorns actions, friendships, sometimes entire houses which it has entered and set in order.
Quidquid tractavit, id amabile, conspicuum, mirabile facit.
Whatever it has handled, it makes lovable, conspicuous, admirable.
Itaque vis eius et magnitudo ultra non potest surgere, quando incrementum maximo non est.
Therefore its power and magnitude cannot rise further, since there is no increase for the greatest.
Nihil invenies rectius recto, non magis quam verius vero, quam temperato temperatius.
You will find nothing straighter than straight, no more than truer than true, or more temperate than temperate.