§75.1Minus tibi accuratas a me epistulas mitti querens.
Your complaint is that less carefully composed letters are sent to you by me.
Quis enim accurate loquitur, nisi qui vult putide loqui? Qualis sermo meus esset, si una sederemus aut ambularemus, inlaboratus et facilis, tales esse epistulas meas volo, quae nihil habent accersitum nec fictum.
For who speaks with meticulous care, unless he wants to speak in an affected manner? Such as my conversation would be if we were sitting or walking together, unlabored and easy, such I wish my letters to be, which have nothing fetched from afar nor fictitious.
§75.2Si fieri posset, quid sentiam, ostendere quam loqui mallem.
If it could be done, I should prefer to show what I feel rather than to speak it.
Etiam si disputarem, nec supploderem pedem nec manum iactarem nec attollerem vocem, sed ista oratoribus reliquissent!, contentus sensus meos ad te pertulisse, quos nec exornassem nec abiecissem.
Even if I were debating, I would neither stamp my foot, nor wave my hand, nor raise my voice, but I would have left those things to the orators, content to have conveyed my thoughts to you, which I would have neither adorned nor degraded.
§75.3Hoc unum plane tibi adprobare vellem: omnia me illa sentire, quae dicerem, nec tantum sentire, sed amare.
H0c one thing indeed I should wish to prove to you: that I feel all those things that I say, and not only feel them, but love them.
Aliter homines amicam, aliter liberos osculantur; tamen in hoc quoque amplexu tam sancto et moderato satis apparet adfectus.
People kiss a mistress in one way, and their children in another; yet in this latter embrace also, so holy and moderate, affection is sufficiently apparent.
Non mehercules ieiuna esse et arida volo, quae de rebus tam magnis dicentur; neque enim philosophia ingenio renuntiat.
I do not, by Hercules, want what is said about such great matters to be starved and dry; for philosophy does not renounce talent.
Multum tamen operae inpendi verbis non oportet.
Yet much labor ought not to be spent on words.
§75.4Haec sit propositi nostri summa: quod sentimus loquamur, quod loquimur sentiamus; concordet sermo cum vita.
Let this be the sum of our purpose: let us speak what we feel, let us feel what we speak; let our speech harmonize with our life.
Ille promissum suum inplevit, qui, et cum videas illum et cum audias, idem est.
He has fulfilled his promise who, both when you see him and when you hear him, is the same.
§75.5Videbimus, qualis sit, quantus sit; unus sit.
We shall see what sort of man he is, how great he is; let him be one.
Non delectent verba nostra, sed prosint.
Let our words not delight, but benefit.
Si tamen contingere eloquentia non sollicito potest, si aut parata est aut parvo constat, adsit et res pulcherrimus prosequatur.
If, however, eloquence can fall to the lot of one who is not anxious for it, if it is either ready at hand or costs little, let it be present and accompany the most beautiful subjects.
Sit talis, ut res potius quam se ostendat.
Let it be such that it shows the matter rather than itself.
Aliae artes ad ingenium totae pertinent, hic animi negotium agitur.
Other arts belong entirely to talent; here, the business of the soul is being transacted.
§75.6Non quaerit aeger medicum eloquentem, sed, si ita conpetit, ut idem ille, qui sanare potest, compte de iis, quae facienda sunt, disserat, boni consulet.
A sick man does not look for an eloquent physician, but if it so happens that the very same man who can cure can also discuss elegantly what needs to be done, he will take it in good part.
Non tamen erit, quare gratuletur sibi, quod inciderit in medicum etiam disertum.
Yet there will be no reason for him to congratulate himself because he has run into a physician who is also eloquent.
Hoc enim tale est, quale si peritus gubernator etiam formosus est.
For this is of such a kind as if a skilled pilot were also handsome.
§75.7Quid aures meas scabis? Quid oblectas? Aliud agitur;
Why do you tickle my ears? Why do you entertain me?
urendus, secandus, abstinendus sum.
Something else is at stake; I am to be cauterized, incised, kept on a strict diet.
Ad haec adhibitus es.
For these things you have been called in.
Curare debes morbum veterem, gravem, publicum.
You have to cure an old, severe, public disease.
Tantum negotii habes, quantum in pestilentia medicus.
You have as much business as a physician has in a plague.
Circa verba occupatus es? Iamdudum gaude, si sufficis rebus.
Are you busy about words? Rejoice long ago if you are equal to the facts.
Quando, quae multa disces? Quando, quae didiceris, adfiges tibi ita, ut excidere non possint? Quando illa experieris? Non enim ut cetera, memoriae tradidisse satis est; in opere temptanda sunt.
When will you learn so many things? When will you fix what you have learned in yourself so that they cannot slip away? When will you try them in practice? For it is not enough, as in other things, to have committed them to memory; they must be tested in action.
Non est beatus, qui scit illa, sed qui facit. "Quid ergo?
He is not happy who knows those things, but he who does them." "What then?
§75.8Infra illum nulli gradus sunt? Statim a sapientia praeceps est?" Non, ut existimo.
Are there no steps below him? Is there a precipice immediately down from wisdom?" No, as I think.
Nam qui proficit, in numero quidem stultorum est, magno tamen intervallo ab illis diducitur.
For he who makes progress is indeed in the number of the foolish, yet he is separated from them by a great interval.
Inter ipsos quoque proficientes sunt magna discrimina.
Among those making progress themselves there are also great distinctions.
In tres classes, ut quibusdam placet, dividuntur: primi sunt, qui sapientiam nondum habent, sed iam in vicinia eius constiterant.
They are divided into three classes, as it pleases some: the first are those who do not yet possess wisdom, but have already taken their stand in its neighborhood.
§75.9Tamen etiam quod prope est, extra est.
Yet even what is near is still outside.
Qui sint hi quaeris? Qui omnes iam adfectus ac vitia posuerunt, quae erant complectenda, didicerunt, sed illis adhuc inexperta fiducia est.
Who are these, you ask? Those who have already laid aside all passions and vices, and have learned what had to be mastered, but their confidence is still untested.
Bonum suum nondum in usu habent, iam tamen in illa, quae fugerunt, decidere non possunt.
They do not yet have their good in use, yet they can no longer fall back into those things which they have fled.
Iam ibi sunt, unde non est retro lapsus, sed hoc illis de se nondum liquet; quod in quadam epistula scripsisse me memini, "scire se nesciunt. "Iam contigit illis bono suo frui, nondum confidere.
They are already in a place from which there is no backward slip, but this is not yet clear to them concerning themselves; as I remember writing in a certain letter, "they do not know that they know." It has already fallen to their lot to enjoy their good, but not yet to trust it.