§78.19Quicquid vis nunc licet dicas, destillationes et vim continuae tussis egerentem viscerum partes et febrem praecordia ipsa torrentem et sitim et artus in diversum articulis exeuntibus tortos; plus est flamma et eculeus et lammina et vulneribus ipsis intumescentibus quod illa renovaret et altius urgeret inpressum.
You may say whatever you wish now: catarrhs, and the violence of a continuous cough casting up parts of your viscera, and a fever scorching your very breast, and thirst, and limbs twisted in different directions with joints slipping out; yet more severe is the flame, the rack, the red-hot plate, and that which, upon the very swelling wounds, would renew them and press down deeper what was applied.
Inter haec tamen aliquis non gemuit.
Yet amid these things, someone did not groan.
"Parum est"; non rogavit.
"It is too little," he said, and did not ask for mercy.
"Parum est"; non respondit.
"It is too little," he said, and did not answer.
"Parum est"; risit et quidem ex animo.
"It is too little," he said, and laughed, and indeed from his heart.
Vis tu post hoc dolorem deridere?
Do you still hesitate, after this, to mock pain?
§78.20"Sed nihil," inquit, "agere sinit morbus, qui me omnibus abduxit officiis. "Corpus tuum valetudo tenet, non et animum.
"But," someone says, "disease allows me to do nothing, which has withdrawn me from all my duties." It is your body that ill health holds, not also your mind.
Itaque cursoris moratur pedes, sutoris aut fabri manus inpediet; si animus tibi esse in usu solet, suadebis docebis, audies disces, quaeres recordaberis.
Therefore, it will delay the runner's feet, it will impede the hands of the shoemaker or the craftsman; but if your mind is accustomed to being in use, you will advise, you will teach, you will hear, you will learn, you will investigate, you will remember.
Quid porro? Nihil agere te credis, si temperans aeger sis? Ostendes morbum posse superari vel certe sustineri.
What further? Do you believe that you are doing nothing, if you are a self-controlled patient? You will show that disease can be overcome, or at least endured.
§78.21Est, mihi crede, virtuti etiam in lectulo locus.
Believe me, there is a place for virtue even in a sickbed.
Non tantum arma et acies dant argumenta alacris animi indomitique terroribus; et in vestimentis vir fortis apparet.
Not only weapons and battle lines give proofs of an eager mind and one untamed by terrors; even wrapped in bedclothes a brave man appears.
Habes, quod agas: bene luctare cum morbo.
You have something to do: struggle well with your disease.
Si nihil te coegerit, si nihil exoraverit, insigne prodis exemplum.
If nothing has forced you, if nothing has won you over, you show yourself a distinguished example.
O quam magna erat gloriae materia, si spectaremur aegri! Ipse te specta, ipse te lauda.
Oh, how great a material for glory there would be, if we were watched while sick! Watch yourself, praise yourself.
§78.22Praeterea duo genera sunt voluptatum.
Moreover, there are two kinds of pleasures.
Corporales morbus inhibet, non tamen tollit.
Disease inhibits bodily pleasures, yet does not take them away.
Immo, si verum aestimes, incitat; magis iuvat bibere sitientem; gratior est esurienti cibus.
Nay, if you judge truly, it sharpens them; it pleases a thirsty man more to drink; food is more pleasing to a hungry man.
Quicquid ex abstinentia contigit, avidius exciditur.
Whatever is obtained after abstinence is received more greedily.
Illas vero animi voluptates, quae maiores certioresque sunt, nemo medicus aegro negat.
But those pleasures of the mind, which are greater and more certain, no doctor denies to a sick man.
Has quisquis sequitur et bene intellegit, omnia sensuum blandimenta contemnit.
Whoever pursues these and understands them well, despises all the allurements of the senses.
" §78.23O infelicem aegrum!" Quare? Quia non vino nivem diluit? Quia non rigorem potionis suae, quam capaci scypho miscuit, renovat fracta insuper glacie? Quia non ostrea illi Lucrina in ipsa mensa aperiuntur? Quia non circa cenationem eius tumultus cocorum est ipsos cum opsoniis focos transferentium? Hoc enim iam luxuria commenta est: ne quis intepescat cibus, ne quid palato iam calloso parum ferveat, cenam culina prosequitur.
"O unhappy sick man!" Why? Because he does not dilute wine with snow? Because he does not renew the chill of his drink, which he has mixed in a capacious cup, by breaking ice on top of it? Because Lucrine oysters are not opened for him at the very table? Because there is no bustle of cooks around his dining room, transferring the very hearths along with the provisions? For luxury has now devised this: lest any food should grow lukewarm, lest anything should not be hot enough for a palate that is already calloused, the kitchen follows the dinner.
" §78.24O infelicem aegrum! "edet, quantum concoquat.
"O unhappy sick man!"—he will eat only as much as he can digest.
Non iacebit in conspectu aper ut vilis caro a mensa relegatus, nec in repositorio eius pectora avium, totas enim videre fastidium est, congesta ponentur.
A wild boar will not lie in his sight, relegated from the table like cheap meat, nor will bird breasts be placed piled up on his serving-tray—for to see them whole is a disgust.
Quid tibi mali factum est? Cenabis tamquam aeger, immo aliquando tamquam sanus.
What harm has been done to you? You will dine like a sick man, or rather, sometimes like a healthy one.
§78.25Sed omnia ista facile perferemus, sorbitionem, aquam calidam et quicquid aliud intolerabile videtur debeatis et luxu fluentibus magisque animo quam corpore morbidis; tantum mortem desinamus horrere.
But we shall easily endure all those things, the broth, the warm water, and whatever else seems intolerable to the delicate and to those overflowing with luxury, who are diseased in mind more than in body; only let us cease to shudder at death.
Desinemus autem, si fines bonorum ac malorum cognoverimus; ita demum nec vita taedio erit nec mors timori.
And we shall cease, if we have known the boundaries of goods and evils; only thus will life not be a weariness, nor death a terror.
§78.26Vitam enim occupare satietas sui non potest tot res varias, magnas, divinas percensentem; in odium illam sui adducere solet iners otium.
For weariness of itself cannot seize a life that reviews so many various, great, and divine things; slothful leisure is accustomed to bring it into hatred of itself.
Rerum naturam peragranti numquam in fastidium veritas veniet; falsa satiabunt.
To one traversing the nature of things, truth will never come into disgust; false things will satiate.
§78.27Rursus si mors accedit et vocat, licet inmatura sit, licet mediam praecidat aetatem, perceptus longissimae fructus est.
Again, if death approaches and calls, though it be untimely, though it cut off middle age, the fruit of the longest life has been gathered.
Cognita est illi ex magna parte natura.
Nature has been known to him in large part.
Scit tempore honesta non crescere; iis necesse est videri omnem vitam brevem, qui illam voluptatibus vanis et ideo infinitis metiuntur.
He knows that honorable things do not increase with time; to those it is necessary that all life seem short, who measure it by vain and therefore infinite pleasures.
§78.28His te cogitationibus recrea et interim epistulis nostris vaca.
Refresh yourself with these thoughts, and meanwhile find time for our letters.
Veniet aliquando tempus, quod nos iterum iungat ac misceat; quantulumlibet sit illud, longum faciet scientia utendi.
A time will come some day which will join and unite us again; however small that may be, the knowledge of how to use it will make it long.
Nam, ut Posidonius ait, "unus dies hominum eruditorum plus patet quam inperitis longissima aetas. " §78.29Interim hoc tene, hoc morde: adversis non succumbere, laetis non credere, omnem fortunae licentiam in oculis habere, tamquam quicquid potest facere, factura sit.
For, as Posidonius says, "one day of educated men lies more open than the longest age to the unlearned." Meanwhile hold this, cling to this: not to succumb to adversity, not to trust prosperity, to keep before your eyes every license of fortune, as if she will do whatever she can do.
Quicquid expectatum est diu, lenius accedit.
Whatever has been expected for a long time approaches more gently.
Vale.
Farewell.