§72.1Quod quaeris a me, liquebat mihi, sic rem edidiceram, per se.
What you ask of me was clear to me, so well had I learned the matter, of itself.
Sed diu non retemptavi memoriam meam, itaque non facile me sequitur.
But for a long time I have not retested my memory, and so it does not follow me easily.
Quod evenit libris situ cohaerentibus, hoc evenisse mihi sentio; explicandus est animus et quaecumque apud illum deposita sunt, subinde excuti debent, ut parata sint, quotiens usus exegerit.
What happens to books that stick together from neglect, I feel has happened to me; my mind must be unfolded, and whatever has been deposited in it must be shaken out from time to time, so that they may be ready whenever use demands.
Ergo hoc in praesentia differamus; multum enim operae, multum diligentiae poscit.
Therefore, let us defer this for the present; for it requires much labor and much diligence.
Cum primum longiorem eodem loco speravero moram, tunc istud in manus sumam.
As soon as I hope for a longer stay in the same place, then I will take that matter into my hands.
§72.2Quaedam enim sunt, quae possis et in cisio scribere.
For there are some things which you can write even in a gig.
Quaedam lectum et otium et secretum desiderant.
Some require a couch, leisure, and privacy.
Nihilominus his quoque occupatis diebus agatur aliquid et quidem totis.
Nevertheless, even in these busy days something should be done, and indeed throughout them all.
Numquam enim non succedent occupationes novae; serimus illas, itaque ex una exeunt plures.
For new occupations will never fail to succeed; we sow them, and so from one many go forth.
Deinde ipsi nobis dilationem damus: "cum hoc peregero, toto animo incumbam "et "si hanc rem molestam composuero, studio me dabo. " §72.3Non cum vacaveris, philosophandum est; omnia alia neglegenda, ut huic adsideamus, cui nullum tempus satis magnum est. etiam si a pueritia usque ad longissimos humani aevi terminos vita producitur.
Then we give ourselves a delay: "when I have finished this, I will apply myself with my whole heart," and "if I settle this troublesome business, I will give myself to study." You must not study philosophy only when you have leisure; all other things must be neglected so that we may attend to this, for which no time is large enough, even if life is prolonged from boyhood to the longest limits of human age.
Non multum refert, utrum omittas philosophiam an intermittas; non enim ubi interrupta est, manet, sed eorum more, quae intenta dissiliunt, usque ad initia sua recurrit, quod a continuatione discessit.
It does not matter much whether you abandon philosophy or interrupt it; for it does not remain where it was interrupted, but in the manner of those things which fly apart when stretched, it runs back to its very beginnings because it has departed from continuity.
Resistendum est occupationibus, nec explicandae, sed submovendae sunt.
We must resist occupations, and they must not be unraveled but removed.
Tempus quidem nullum parum est idoneum studio salutari; atqui multi inter illa non student, propter quae studendum est. "
No time indeed is too little suited for salutary study; yet many do not study among those very things for the sake of which they ought to study.
§72.4Incidet aliquid, quod inpediat. "Non quidem eum, cuius animus in omni negotio laetus atque alacer est; inperfectis adhuc interscinditur laetitia, sapientis vero contexitur gaudium, nulla causa rumpitur, nulla fortuna, semper et ubique tranquillus est.
"Something will happen to hinder." Indeed, not to him whose mind is cheerful and active in every business; for those who are still imperfect, joy is cut in two, but the wise man's joy is woven together, broken by no cause, by no fortune, and he is always and everywhere tranquil.
Non enim ex alieno pendet nec favorem fortunae aut hominis expectat.
For he does not depend on what belongs to another, nor does he expect the favor of fortune or of man.
Domestica illi felicitas est; exiret ex animo, si intraret; ibi nascitur.
His happiness is home-born; it would go out of his mind if it entered from without; it is born there.
§72.5Aliquando extrinsecus, quo admoneatur mortalitatis, intervenit, sed id leve et quod summam cutem stringat.
Sometimes something from without intervenes by which he is reminded of mortality, but it is light and merely grazes the surface of the skin.
Aliquo, inquam, incommodo addatur; maximum autem illud bonum est fixum.
Let some inconvenience, I say, be added; yet that greatest good remains fixed.
Ita dico: extrinsecus aliqua sunt incommoda, velut in corpore interdum robusto solidoque eruptiones quaedam pusularum et ulcuscula, nullum in alto malum est.
I mean it this way: from without there are some inconveniences, just as in a body that is sometimes robust and solid there are certain eruptions of pimples and small ulcers, but there is no evil in the depths.
§72.6Hoc, inquam, interest inter consummatae sapientiae virum et alium procedentis, quod inter sanum et ex morbo gravi ac diutino emergentem, cui sanitatis loco est levior accessio: hic nisi adtendit, subinde gravatur et in eadem revolvitur, sapiens recidere non potest, ne incidere quidem amplius.
This, I say, is the difference between a man of consummated wisdom and another who is making progress, which is between a healthy man and one emerging from a severe and long-lasting illness, for whom a lighter attack of the disease takes the place of health: unless this latter attends, he is immediately worsened and rolls back into the same disease; the wise man cannot relapse, nor indeed can he fall ill any further.
Corpori enim ad tempus bona valetudo est, quam medicus, etiam si reddidit, non praestat, saepe ad eundem, qui advocaverat, excitatur.
For good health is for the body a temporary thing, which the physician, even if he has restored it, does not guarantee, and he is often summoned back to the same patient who had called him.
Animus semel in totum sanatur.
But the mind is cured once and for all.
§72.7Dicam, quomodo intellegam sanum: si se ipso contentus est, si confidit sibi, si scit omnia vota mortalium, omnia beneficia quae dantur petunturque, nullum in beata vita habere momentum.
I will tell you how I understand a healthy mind: if it is content with itself, if it trusts itself, if it knows that all the prayers of mortals, all the benefits that are given and sought, have no weight in a happy life.
Nam cui aliquid accedere potest, id inperfectum est; cui aliquid abscedere potest, id inperpetuum est; cuius perpetua futura laetitia est, is suo gaudeat.
For that to which something can be added is imperfect; that from which something can be taken away is not perpetual; he whose joy is to be perpetual, let him rejoice in his own.
Omnia autem, quibus vulgus inhiat, ultro citroque fluunt.
But all those things which the crowd gapes at flow to and fro.
Nihil dat fortuna mancipio.
Fortune gives nothing in absolute ownership.
Sed haec quoque fortuita tunc delectant, cum illa ratio temperavit ac miscuit; haec est, quae etiam externa commendet, quorum avidis usus ingratus est.
But these fortuitous things also delight only when that reason has tempered and mixed them; this is what commends even external things, the use of which is unpleasant to those who are greedy for them.
§72.8Solebat Attalus hac imagine uti: "vidisti aliquando canem missa a domino frusta panis aut carnis aperto ore captantem? Quicquid excepit, protinus integrum devorat et semper ad spem venturi hiat.
Attalus used to use this image: "Have you ever seen a dog catching pieces of bread or meat thrown by its master with open mouth? Whatever it has caught, it immediately swallows whole and always gapes in hope of what is to come.
Idem evenit nobis: quicquid expectantibus fortuna proiecit, id sine ulla voluptate demittimus statim, ad rapinam alterius erecti et adtoniti. "Hoc sapienti non evenit; plenus est.
The same thing happens to us: whatever fortune has thrown to us while we are waiting, we let down immediately without any pleasure, erect and astonished for the plundering of another." This does not happen to the wise man; he is full.
Etiam si quid obvenit, secure excipit ac reponit.
Even if something comes his way, he receives and stores it away securely.
§72.9Laetitia fruitur maxima, continua, sua.
He enjoys a joy that is greatest, continuous, and his own.
Habet aliquis bonam voluntatem, habet profectum, sed cui multum desit a summo; hic deprimitur alternis et extollitur ac modo in caelum adlevatur, modo defertur ad terram.
Someone has a good will, has made progress, but one from whom much is lacking to reach the summit; this man is depressed and exalted by turns, and now is lifted to heaven, now is brought down to earth.
Imperitis ac rudibus nullus praecipitationis finis est; in Epicureum illud chaos decidunt, inane, sine termino.
For the unskilled and ignorant there is no end to their falling headlong; they fall into that Epicurean chaos, empty and without end.
§72.10Est adhuc genus tertium eorum, qui sapientiae adludunt, quam non quidem contigerunt, in conspectu tamen et, ut ita dicam, sub ictu habent; hi non concutiuntur, ne defluunt quidem.
There is still a third class of those who play around wisdom, which they indeed have not touched, but yet have in sight and, so to speak, within range; these are not shaken, nor do they even slip back.
Nondum in sicco, iam in portu sunt.
They are not yet on dry land, but they are already in harbor.
§72.11Ergo cum tam magna sint inter summos imosque discrimina, cum medios quoque sequatur fluctus suus, sequatur ingens periculum ad deteriora redeundi, non debemus occupationibus indulgere.
Therefore, since there are such great differences between the highest and the lowest, since their own wave follows those in the middle too, and there follows a huge danger of returning to worse things, we must not indulge in occupations.
Excludendae sunt; si semel intraverint, in locum suum alias substituent.
They must be shut out; if they have once entered, they will substitute others in their place.
Principiis illarum obstemus.
Let us resist their beginnings.
Melius non incipient, quam desinent.
They will not begin more easily than they will stop.
VALE.
FAREWELL.