§80.1Hodierno die non tantum meo beneficio mihi vaco, sed spectaculi, quod omnes molestos ad sphaeromachian avocavit.
\nToday I have leisure for myself not only through my own doing, but through that of a spectacle, which has called away all troublesome people to a ball-game.
Nemo inrumpet, nemo cogitationem meam impediet, quae hac ipsa fiducia procedit audacius.
No one will burst in, no one will obstruct my thought, which proceeds more boldly with this very confidence.
Non crepuit subinde ostium, non adlevabitur velum; licebit tuto vadere, quod magis necessarium est per se eunti et suam sequenti viam.
The door has not creaked from time to time, the curtain will not be raised; it will be permitted to go safely, which is more necessary for one going by oneself and following his own path.
Non ergo sequor priores? Facio, sed permitto mihi et invenire aliquid et mutare et relinquere.
Do I not then follow my predecessors? I do, but I permit myself both to find something and to change and to leave.
Non servio illis, sed adsentior. §80.2Magnum tamen verbum dixi, qui mihi silentium promittebam et sine interpellatore secretum.
I do not slave for them, but assent to them.\n\nYet I have spoken a great word, I who was promising myself silence and seclusion without an interrupter.
Ecce ingens clamor ex stadio perfertur et me non excutit mihi, sed in huius ipsius rei contentionem transfert.
Behold, a huge shout is brought from the stadium, and it does not shake me out of myself, but transfers me into the contemplation of this very thing.
Cogito mecum, quam multi corpora exerceant, ingenia quam pauci; quantus ad spectaculum non fidele et lusorium fiat concursus, quanta sit circa artes bonas solitudo; quam inbecilli animo sint, quorum lacertos umerosque miramur. §80.3Illud maxime revolvo mecum: si corpus perduci exercitatione ad hanc patientiam potest, qua et pugnos pariter et calces non unius hominis ferat, qua solem ardentissimum in ferventissimo pulvere sustinens aliquis et sanguine suo madens diem ducat; quanto facilius animus conroborari possit, ut fortunae ictus invictus excipiat, ut proiectus, ut conculcatus exsurgat.
I think to myself how many exercise their bodies, how few their minds; how great a crowd gathers for a faithless and playful spectacle, how great is the solitude around noble arts; how weak in mind they are, whose upper arms and shoulders we admire.\n\nI especially revolve this with myself: if the body can be brought by exercise to this endurance, by which it may bear the fists and kicks alike of more than one man, by which someone, sustaining the burning sun in the hottest dust and drenched in his own blood, may pass the day; how much more easily the mind can be strengthened so that it may receive the blows of fortune unconquered, so that, cast down, so that, trodden underfoot, it may rise again.
Corpus enim multis eget rebus, ut valeat; animus ex se crescit, se ipse alit, se exercet.
For the body needs many things to be healthy; the mind grows from itself, nourishes itself, exercises itself.
Illis multo cibo, multa potione opus est, multo oleo, longa denique opera; tibi continget virtus sine apparatu, sine inpensa.
They have need of much food, much drink, much oil, and finally long labor; virtue will fall to your lot without apparatus, without expense.
Quicquid facere te potest bonum, tecum est. §80.4Quid tibi opus est, ut sis bonus? Velle.
Whatever can make you good is with you.\n\nWhat is needed for you to be good? To wish it.
Quid autem melius potes velle quam eripere te huic servituti, quae omnes premit, quam mancipia quoque condicionis extremae et in his sordibus nata omni modo exuere conantur? Peculium suum, quod conparaverunt ventre fraudato, pro capite numerant; tu non concupisces qualiacumque ad libertatem pervenire, qui te in illa putas natum?
But what better can you wish than to snatch yourself from this slavery, which oppresses everyone, which even slaves of the lowest condition and born in these dregs try in every way to shake off? Their savings, which they have gathered by defrauding their belly, they pay down for their head; will you not long to arrive at liberty by any means whatever, you who think you were born in it?\n\nWhy do you look to your money-chest?
§80.5Quid ad arcam tuam respicis? Emi non potest.
It cannot be bought.
Itaque in tabulas vanum coicitur nomen libertatis, quam nec qui emerunt, habent nec qui vendiderunt.
And so the empty name of liberty is entered into the ledgers, which neither those who bought have, nor those who sold.
Tibi des oportet istud bonum, a te petas.
You must give that good to yourself, ask it of yourself.
Libera te primum metu mortis: illa nobis iugum inponit; deinde metu paupertatis.
Free yourself first from the fear of death: that imposes the yoke upon us; then from the fear of poverty.\n\nIf you want to know how there is no evil in it, compare with one another the faces of the poor and of the rich; more often and more genuinely the poor man laughs; no anxiety is deep-seated; even if any care occurs, it passes like a light cloud.
§80.6Si vis scire, quam nihil in illa mali sit, compara inter se pauperum et divitum vultus; saepius pauper et fidelius ridet; nulla sollicitudo in alto est; etiam si qua incidit cura, velut nubes levis transit. Horum, qui felices vocantur, hilaritas ficta est at gravis et subpurata tristitia, eo quidem gravior, quia interdum non licet palam esse miseros, sed inter aerumnas cor ipsum exedentes necesse est agere felicem.
The cheerfulness of these who are called happy is feigned, but their sadness is heavy and festering within, and indeed heavier because sometimes they are not allowed to be openly miserable, but amidst tribulations eating away their very heart, they must act the happy man.\n\nI must use this example more often, for by no other is this mime of human life more effectively expressed, which assigns to us roles which we play badly.
§80.7Saepius hoc exemplo mihi utendum est, nec enim ullo efficacius exprimitur hic humanae vitae mimus, qui nobis partes, quas male agamus, adsignat. Ille, qui in scaena latus incedit et haec resupinus dicit
"
En impero Argis; regna mihi liquit Pelops,
Qua ponto ab Helles atque ab Ionio mari
Urgetur Isthmos,
"
servus est, quinque modios accipit et quinque denarios;
He who struts broadly on the stage and with head thrown back says these things:\n"Behold, I rule in Argos; Pelops left kingdoms to me, where the Isthmus is pressed by the sea of Hellespont and the Ionian sea," is a slave, and receives five pecks of grain and five denarii.
ille qui superbus atque inpotens et fiducia virium tumidus ait: §80.8Quod nisi quieris, Menelae, hac dextra occides, diurnum accipit, in centunculo dormit.
And he who, proud and powerless over himself and swollen with confidence in his strength, says:\n\n"Unless you are quiet, Menelaus, you shall die by this right hand," receives a daily wage and sleeps on a patchwork rag.
Idem de istis licet omnibus dicas, quos supra capita hominum supraque turbam delicatos lectica suspendit; omnium istorum personata felicitas est.
You may say the same of all these delicate men whom a litter suspends above the heads of men and above the crowd; the happiness of all those is masked.
Contemnes illos, si despoliaveris. §80.9Equum empturus solvi iubes stratum, detrahis vestimenta venalibus, ne qua vitia corporis lateant;
You will despise them if you strip them.\n\nWhen you are about to buy a horse, you order the blanket to be untied, you strip the clothes from those on sale, lest any defects of the body should lie hidden; do you estimate a man when he is wrapped up?
hominem involutum aestimas? Mangones quicquid est, quod displiceat, aliquo lenocinio abscondunt, itaque ementibus ornamenta ipsa suspecta sunt.
Slave-dealers hide whatever is displeasing by some trick of adornment, and therefore the ornaments themselves are suspect to buyers.
Sive crus alligatum sive brachium aspiceres, nudari iuberes et ipsum tibi corpus ostendi.
Whether you saw a bound leg or arm, you would order it to be bared and the body itself to be shown to you.\n\nDo you see that king of Scythia or Sarmatia, adorned with the ornament of his head?
§80.10Vides illum Scythiae Sarmatiaeve regem insigni capitis decorum? Si vis illum aestimare totumque scire, qualis sit, fasciam solve; multum mali sub illa latet.
If you wish to estimate him and to know him entirely, what sort of man he is, untie the band; much of evil lies hidden under it.
Quid de aliis loquor? Si perpendere te voles, sepone pecuniam, domum, dignitatem, intus te ipse considera.
Why do you speak of others? If you wish to weigh yourself, put aside money, house, rank; consider yourself within.
Nunc qualis sis, aliis credis.
Now, you believe others as to what sort of person you are.
VALE
FAREWELL.