§74.11Ex hac deploratione nascitur, ut ingrati divinorum interpretes simus; querimur, quod non semper, quod et pauca nobis et incerta et abitura contingant.
From this lamentation it arises that we are ungrateful interpreters of divine things; we complain that they are not always with us, and that what falls to our lot is both few and uncertain and bound to depart.
Inde est, quod nec vivere nec mori volumus; vitae nos odium tenet, timor mortis.
Hence it is that we wish neither to live nor to die; hatred of life holds us, and fear of death.
Natat omne consilium nec inplere nos ulla felicitas potest.
Every plan drifts, and no prosperity can satisfy us.
Causa autem est, quod non pervenimus ad illud bonum inmensum et insuperabile, ubi necesse est resistat voluntas nostra, quia ultra summum non est locus.
But the cause is that we have not reached that boundless and insuperable good, where our will must of necessity come to a stand, because there is no place beyond the highest.
§74.12Quaeris, quare virtus nullo egeat? Praesentibus gaudet, non concupiscit absentia.
You ask why virtue lacks nothing? It rejoices in what is present, and does not desire what is absent.
Nihil non illi magnum est, quod satis.
Nothing is not great to it, which is enough.
Ab hoc discede iudicio; non pietas constabit, non fides.
Depart from this judgment; neither piety nor loyalty will stand.
Multa enim utramque praestare cupienti patienda sunt ex iis, quae mala vocantur; multa inpendenda ex iis, quibus indulgemus tamquam bonis.
For many things must be endured from those which are called evils by one who desires to practice both; many things must be spent from those in which we indulge as if they were goods.
§74.13Perit fortitudo, quae periculum facere debet sui; perit magnanimitas, quae non potest eminere, nisi omnia velut minuta contempsit, quae pro maximis volgus optat; perit gratia et relatio gratiae, si timemus laborem, si quicquam pretiosius fide novimus, si non optima spectamus.
Courage, which ought to make trial of itself, perishes; magnanimity perishes, which cannot stand out unless it has despised as tiny all those things which the crowd prays for as the greatest; gratitude and the return of gratitude perish if we fear labor, if we know anything more precious than loyalty, if we do not look to the best things.
§74.14Sed ut illa praeteream, aut ista bona non sunt, quae vocantur, aut homo felicior deo est, quoniam quidem quae parata nobis sunt, non habet in usu deus.
But to pass over those things, either those things are not goods which are so called, or man is happier than God, since indeed God does not have in use those things which are prepared for us.
Nec enim libido ad illum nec epularum lautitiae nec opes nec quicquam ex his hominem inescantibus et vili voluptate ducentibus pertinet.
For neither lust nor the luxury of banquets nor riches nor any of these things that bait man and lead him by cheap pleasure belong to Him.
Ergo aut non incredibile est bona deo deesse aut hoc ipsum argumentum est bona non esse, quod deo desunt.
Therefore, either it is not incredible that goods are lacking to God, or this very thing is a proof that they are not goods, because they are lacking to God.
§74.15Adice, quod multa, quae bona videri volunt, animalibus quam homini pleniora contingunt.
Add that many things, which wish to appear as goods, fall to the lot of animals more fully than to man.
Illa cibo avidius utuntur, venere non aeque fatigantur, virium illis maior est et aequabilior firmitas.
They use food more greedily, they are not equally exhausted by lust, and their strength has a greater and more uniform stability.
Sequitur, ut multo feliciora sint homine.
It follows that they are much happier than man.
Nam sine nequitia, sine fraudibus degunt.
For they live without wickedness, without deceits.
Fruuntur voluptatibus, quas et magis capiunt et ex facili sine ullo pudoris aut paenitentiae metu.
They enjoy pleasures, which they both capture more fully and easily without any fear of shame or repentance.
§74.16Considera tu itaque, an id bonum vocandum sit, quo deus ab homine vincitur.
Consider therefore, whether that is to be called a good by which God is surpassed by man.
Summum bonum in animo contineamus; obsolescit, si ab optima nostri parte ad pessimam transit et transfertur ad sensus, qui agiliores sunt animalibus mutis.
Let us keep the supreme good in the mind; it loses its value if it passes from the best part of us to the worst and is transferred to the senses, which are more agile in dumb animals.
Non est summa felicitatis nostrae in carne ponenda; bona illa sunt vera, quae ratio dat, solida ac sempiterna, quae cadere non possunt, ne decrescere quidem aut minui.
The summit of our happiness is not to be placed in the flesh; those goods are true which reason gives, solid and everlasting, which cannot fall, nor indeed decrease or be diminished.
§74.17Cetera opinione bona sunt et nomen quidem habent commune cum veris, proprietas in illis boni non est.
Other things are goods by opinion and indeed have a common name with true ones, but the property of the good is not in them.
Itaque commoda vocentur et, ut nostra lingua loquar, producta.
Therefore let them be called advantages and, to speak in our language, preferred things.
Ceterum sciamus mancipia nostra esse, non partes; et sint apud nos, sed ita, ut meminerimus extra nos esse.
For the rest, let us know that they are our property, not parts of us; and let them be with us, but in such a way that we remember they are outside of us.
Etiam si apud nos sint, inter subiecta et humilia numerentur propter quae nemo se adtollere debeat.
Even if they are with us, let them be numbered among subordinate and humble things because of which no one ought to lift himself up.
Quid enim stultius quam aliquem eo sibi placere, quod ipse non fecit?
For what is more foolish than for someone to please himself with that which he did not make himself?
§74.18Omnia ista nobis accedant, non haereant, ut si abducentur, sine ulla nostri laceratione discedant.
Let all those things be added to us, not cling to us, so that if they are taken away, they may depart without any tearing of ourselves.
Utamur illis, non gloriemur, et utamur parce tamquam depositis apud nos et abituris.
Let us use them, not boast of them, and let us use them sparingly as if deposited with us and bound to depart.
Quisquis illa sine ratione possedit, non diu tenuit, ipsa enim se felicitas, nisi temperatius premit.
Whoever has possessed them without reason has not held them long, for prosperity itself, unless it restrains itself, collapses.
Si fugacissimis bonis credidit, cito deseritur et, ut non deseratur, adfligitur.
If he has trusted in most fleeting goods, he is quickly abandoned, and, even if he is not abandoned, he is tormented.
Paucis deponere felicitatem molliter licuit; ceteri cum iis, inter quae eminuere, labuntur et illos degravant ipsa, quae extulerant.
To few has it been permitted to lay aside prosperity gently; the rest fall together with those things among which they stood out, and those very things which had elevated them weigh them down.