§73.8Adice nunc, quod magna et vera bona non sic dividuntur, ut exiguum in singulos cadat; ad unumquemque tota perveniunt.
Add now to this, that great and true goods are not so divided that a tiny portion falls to each individual; they reach everyone in their entirety.
Ex congiario tantum ferunt homines, quantum in capita promissum est.
From a public bounty, people receive only as much as was promised per head.
Epulum et visceratio et quicquid aliud manu capitur, discedit in partes.
A banquet, a distribution of meat, and whatever else is seized by hand, departs into pieces.
At haec individua bona, pax et libertas, et tam omnium tota quam singulorum sunt.
But these indivisible goods, peace and liberty, belong as much to all in their entirety as they do to each individual.
§73.9Cogitat itaque, per quem sibi horum usus fructusque contingat, per quem non ad arma illum nec ad servandas vigilias nec ad tuenda moenia et multiplex belli tributum publica necessitas vocet, agitque gubernatori suo gratias.
Therefore, he reflects through whom the use and enjoyment of these things fall to his lot, through whom public necessity does not call him to arms, nor to keep watch, nor to defend the walls and pay the manifold tax of war, and he gives thanks to his helmsman.
Hoc docet philosophia praecipue, bene debere beneficia, bene solvere; §73.10interdum autem solutio est ipsa confessio.
This is what philosophy teaches above all: to owe benefits well, and to repay them well; and yet sometimes the repayment is the very acknowledgment itself.
Confitebitur ergo multum se debere ei, cuius administratione ac providentia contingit illi pingue otium et arbitrium sui temporis et inperturbata publicis occupationibus quies.
He will therefore acknowledge that he owes much to him by whose administration and foresight there fall to his lot a rich leisure, the disposal of his own time, and a tranquility undisturbed by public occupations.
"
O Meliboee, deus nobis haec otia fecit:
Namque erit ille mihi semper deus. "
"O Meliboeus, a god has made this leisure for us: For indeed he shall always be a god to me.
§73.11Si illa quoque otia multum auctori suo debent, quorum munus hoc maximum est:
"
Ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum
Ludere quae vellem calamo permisit agresti; "
quanti aestimamus hoc otium, quod inter deos agitur, quod deos facit?
"If those leisure hours also owe much to their author, whose greatest gift is this: "He permitted my cattle to roam, as you see, and myself To play what I wished on my rustic pipe; "at how much do we value this leisure, which is spent among the gods, which makes men gods?
§73.12Ita dico, Lucili, et te in caelum compendiario voco.
I say this, Lucilius, and I call you to heaven by a shortcut.
Solebat Sextius dicere Iovem plus non posse quam bonum virum.
Sextius used to say that Jupiter has no more power than a good man.
Plura Iuppiter habet, quae praestet hominibus, sed inter duos bonos non est melior, qui locupletior, non magis quam inter duos, quibus par scientia regendi gubernaculum est, meliorem dixeris, cui maius speciosiusque navigium est.
Jupiter has more things to bestow upon men, but between two good men, he who is richer is not better, any more than between two persons who have equal knowledge of steering a helm, you would say that he who has a larger and more splendid ship is the better helmsman.
§73.13Iuppiter quo antecedit virum bonum? Diutius bonus est;
In what does Jupiter surpass a good man?
sapiens nihilo se minoris existimat, quod virtutes eius spatio breviore cluduntur.
He is good for a longer time; the wise man estimates himself not a whit less because his virtues are enclosed within a shorter space of time.
Quemadmodum ex duobus sapientibus qui senior decessit, non est beatior eo, cuius intra pauciores annos terminata virtus est, sic deus non vincit sapientem felicitate, etiam si vincit aetate.
Just as, of two wise men, he who died older is not happier than he whose virtue was terminated within fewer years, so God does not surpass the wise man in happiness, even if He surpasses him in age.
§73.14Non est virtus maior, quae longior.
Virtue is not greater because it is longer.
Iuppiter omnia habet, sed nempe aliis tradidit habenda; ad ipsum hic unus usus pertinet, quod utendi omnibus causa est.
Jupiter has all things, but to be sure, he has delivered them to others to be held; to himself belongs only this single use, that he is the cause of all things being used.
Sapiens tam aequo animo omnia apud alios videt contemnitque quam Iuppiter et hoc se magis suspicit, quod Iuppiter uti illis non potest, sapiens non vult.
The wise man views and despises all things in the hands of others with as calm a mind as Jupiter does, and in this he respects himself more, because Jupiter cannot use them, while the wise man does not wish to.
§73.15Credamus itaque Sextio monstranti pulcherrimum iter et clamanti: "hac 'itur ad astra,' hac secundum frugalitatem, hac secundum temperantiam, hac secundum fortitudinem. "
Non sunt di fastidiosi, non invidi; admittunt et ascendentibus manum porrigunt.
Let us therefore believe Sextius, who points out the most beautiful path and cries out: "By this way 'one goes to the stars,' by this way according to frugality, by this way according to temperance, by this way according to fortitude." The gods are not fastidious, nor are they envious; they admit us and stretch out a hand to those who ascend.
§73.16Miraris hominem ad deos ire? Deus ad homines venit, immo quod est propius, in homines venit;
Do you wonder that man goes to the gods?
nulla sine deo mens bona est.
God comes to men, or rather, what is closer, comes into men; no good mind is without God.
Semina in corporibus humanis divina dispersa sunt, quae si bonus cultor excipit, similia origini prodeunt et paria iis, ex quibus orta sunt, surgunt; si malus, non aliter quam humus sterilis ac palustris necat ac deinde creat purgamenta pro frugibus.
Divine seeds are scattered in human bodies, which, if a good husbandman receives them, come forth similar to their origin and rise up equal to those from which they sprang; if a bad one, not otherwise than a sterile and marshy soil, he kills them and then creates dross instead of crops.
VALE.
FAREWELL.