§74.1Epistula tua delectavit me et marcentem excitavit, memoriam quoque meam, quae iam mihi segnis ac lenta est, evocavit.
Your letter delighted me and roused me from my languor, and it also summoned up my memory, which is already sluggish and slow for me.
Quidni tu, mi Lucili, maximum putes instrumentum beatae vitae hanc persuasionem, unum bonum esse, quod honestum est? Nam qui alia bona iudicat, in fortunae venit potestatem, alieni arbitrii fit; qui omne bonum honesto circumscripsit, intra se est felix.
Why, my Lucilius, should you not think that the greatest instrument of a happy life is this conviction, that the only good is what is honorable? For he who judges other things to be goods comes under the power of fortune and becomes subject to another's will; he who has circumscribed all good within the honorable is happy within himself.
§74.2Hic amissis liberis maestus, hic sollicitus aegris, hic turpibus et aliquam passis infamiam tristis.
This one is sad because of lost children, that one is anxious for the sick, another is gloomy because of disgraceful deeds or having suffered some infamy.
Illum videbis alienae uxoris amore cruciari, illum suae.
You will see that man tortured by love for another's wife, this one by love for his own.
Non deerit quem repulsa distorqueat; erunt quos ipse honor vexet.
There will not be lacking someone whom rejection distorts; there will be those whom public honor itself vexes.
§74.3Illa vero maxima ex omni mortalium populo turba miserorum, quam expectatio mortis exagitat undique inpendens.
But indeed that greatest crowd of unfortunates from the entire population of mortals is the one which the expectation of death, impending from all sides, agitates.
Nihil enim est, unde non subeat.
For there is no place from which it does not steal upon us.
Itaque ut in hostili regione versantibus huc et illuc circumspiciendum est et ad omnem strepitum circumagenda cervix; nisi hic timor e pectore eiectus est, palpitantibus praecordiis vivitur.
Therefore, just as for those traveling in hostile territory, one must look around this way and that and turn one's neck at every sound; unless this fear is cast out from the breast, one lives with a throbbing heart.
§74.4Occurrent acti in exilium et evoluti bonis.
There will encounter us those driven into exile and stripped of their property.
Occurrent, quod genus egestatis gravissimum est, in divitiis inopes.
There will encounter us, which is the heaviest kind of need, those who are destitute in the midst of riches.
Occurrent naufragi similiave naufragis passi, quos aut popularis ira aut invidia, perniciosum optimis telum, inopinantes securesque disiecit procellae more, quae in ipsa sereni fiducia solet emergere, aut fulminis subiti, ad cuius ictum etiam vicina tremuerunt.
There will encounter us the shipwrecked or those who have suffered things similar to shipwreck, whom either popular anger or envy, a deadly weapon against the best men, has scattered when they were unsuspecting and secure, like a storm that is wont to arise in the very confidence of calm weather, or like a sudden lightning bolt, at whose stroke even neighboring things trembled.
Nam ut illic quisquis ab igne propior stetit, percusso similis obstipuit, sic in his per aliquam vim accidentibus unum calamitas opprimit, ceteros metus, paremque passis tristitiam facit pati posse.
For just as there, whoever stood closer to the fire was stunned as if struck, so in these events happening through some force, calamity oppresses one, but fear oppresses the rest, and the fact that one is able to suffer makes a sadness equal to those who have suffered.
§74.5Omnium animos mala aliena ac repentina sollicitant.
The misfortunes of others, when sudden, trouble the minds of all.
Quemadmodum aves etiam inanis fundae sonus territat, nos ita non ad ictum tantum exagitamur, sed ad crepitum.
Just as even the sound of an empty sling terrifies birds, so we are agitated not only by the blow but also by the noise.
Non potest ergo quisquam beatus esse, qui huic se opinioni credidit.
No one can therefore be happy who has trusted himself to this opinion.
Non enim beatum est, nisi quod intrepidum; inter suspecta male vivitur.
For nothing is happy unless it is intrepid; life is lived badly among suspected things.
§74.6Quisquis se multum fortuitis dedit, ingentem sibi materiam perturbationis et inexplicabilem fecit; una haec via est ad tuta vadenti, externa despicere et honesto contentum esse.
Whoever has given himself much to fortuitous things has made for himself a vast and inextricable material for perturbation; this is the only path for one walking toward safety: to despise external things and to be content with the honorable.
Nam qui aliquid virtute melius putat aut ullum praeter illam bonum, ad haec, quae a fortuna sparguntur, sinum expandit et sollicitus missilia eius expectat.
For he who thinks anything is better than virtue or any good besides it, expands his lap to these things which are scattered by fortune, and anxiously awaits her missiles.
§74.7Hanc enim imaginem animo tuo propone, ludos facere fortunam et in hunc mortalium coetum honores, divitias, gratiam excutere, quorum alia inter diripientium manus scissa sunt, alia infida societate divisa, alia magno detrimento eorum, in quos devenerant, prensa.
For propose this image to your mind, that fortune is holding games and showering honors, riches, and favor upon this assembly of mortals, some of which are torn apart between the hands of those who plunder, others divided by treacherous partnership, others seized to the great detriment of those upon whom they had fallen.
Ex quibus quaedam aliud agentibus inciderunt, quaedam, quia nimis captabantur, amissa et, dum avide rapiuntur, expulsa sunt.
Some of these have fallen upon people who were doing something else, some were lost because they were too eagerly sought, and, while greedily snatched, were knocked away.
Nulli vero etiam cui rapina feliciter cessit, gaudium rapti duravit in posterum.
Indeed, for no one, even him for whom the plunder turned out happily, did the joy of what was snatched last into the future.
Itaque prudentissimus quisque cum primum induci videt munuscula, a theatro fugit et scit magno parva constare.
Therefore, every most prudent person, as soon as he sees the small gifts being brought in, flees from the theater and knows that small things cost a great price.
Nemo manum conserit cum recedente, nemo exeuntem ferit; circa praemium rixa est.
No one joins hands in conflict with one who is leaving, no one strikes one who is going out; the brawl is around the prize.
§74.8Idem in his evenit, quae fortuna desuper iactat: aestuamus miseri, distringimur, multas habere cupimus manus, modo in hanc partem, modo in illam respicimus.
The same happens in these things which fortune throws down from above: we miserable people are excited, we are distracted, we desire to have many hands, we look now in this direction, now in that.
Nimis tarde nobis mitti videntur, quae cupiditates nostras inritant, ad paucos perventum, expectata omnibus.
The things that irritate our desires seem to us to be sent too slowly, reaching only a few, though expected by all.
§74.9Ire obviam cadentibus cupimus.
We desire to go to meet the falling things.
Gaudemus, si quid invasimus, invadendique aliquos spes vana delusit; vilem praedam magno aliquo incommodo luimus aut destituti fallimur.
We rejoice if we have seized anything, and a vain hope of seizing some things has deceived others; we pay for cheap prey with some great disadvantage, or, left destitute, we are deceived.
Secedamus itaque ab istis ludis et demus raptoribus locum; illi spectent bona ista pendentia et ipsi magis pendeant.
Let us therefore withdraw from those games and give place to the plunderers; let them look at those goods hanging in the air, and let them hang in suspense even more themselves.
§74.10Quicumque beatus esse constituet, unum esse bonum putet, quod honestum est.
Whoever decides to be happy, let him think that the only good is what is honorable.
Nam si ullum aliud esse existimat, primum male de providentia indicit, quia multa incommoda iustis viris accidunt et quia, quicquid nobis dedit, breve est et exiguum, si compares mundi totius aevo.
For if he estimates any other thing to be a good, first of all he judges ill of providence, because many disadvantages happen to just men, and because whatever it has given us is brief and tiny, if you compare it to the age of the whole world.