§87.18Fiscus tanti est, quantum habet; immo in accessionem eius venit, quod habet.
A cash-box is worth as much as it holds; indeed, what it holds becomes an accession to it.
Quis pleno sacculo ullum pretium ponit nisi quod pecuniae in eo conditae numerus effecit? Idem evenit magnorum dominis patrimoniorum: accessiones illorum et appendices sunt.
Who places any value on a full purse except that which the number of money deposited in it has made? The same happens to the owners of great patrimonies: they are accessions and appendages to them.
Quare ergo sapiens magnus est? Quia magnum animum habet.
Why then is the wise man great? Because he has a great mind.
Verum est ergo quod contemptissimo cuique contingit, bonum non esse.
It is true, therefore, that what falls to the lot of any most contemptible person is not a good.
§87.19Itaque in dolentiam numquam bonum dicam; habet illam cicada, habet pulex.
Therefore, I shall never call freedom from pain a good; a cicada has it, a flea has it.
Ne quietem quidem et molestia vacare bonum dicam;
I shall not even call quiet and being free from trouble a good; what is more idle than a worm?
quid est otiosius verme? Quaeris, quae res sapientem faciat? Quae deum.
You ask what thing makes a wise man? That which makes a god.
Des oportet illi divinum aliquid, caeleste, magnificum.
You must give him something divine, heavenly, magnificent.
Non in omnes bonum cadit nec quemlibet possessorem patitur.
Good does not fall to the lot of all, nor does it tolerate just any possessor.
§87.20Vide
"
Et quid quaeque ferat regio et quid quaeque recuset:
Hic segetes, illic veniunt felicius uvae.
See: "And what each region bears and what each refuses: Here grain, there grapes grow more happily.
Arborei fetus alibi atque iniussa virescunt
Gramina.
Elsewhere the fruits of trees and unbidden grasses Grow green.
Nonne vides, croceos ut Tmolus odores,
India mittat ebur, molles sua tura Sabaei?
At Chalybes nudi ferrum.
Do you not see how Tmolus sends saffron odors, India ivory, the soft Sabaeans their own frankincense? But the naked Chalybes iron.
" §87.21Ista in regiones discripta sunt, ut necessarium mortalibus esset inter ipsos commercium, si invicem alius aliquid ab alio peteret.
"These things have been distributed among regions so that commerce among mortals would be necessary, if they should mutually seek something from one another.
Summum illud bonum habet et ipsum suam sedem.
That supreme good itself also has its own seat.
Non nascitur, ubi ebur, nec ubi ferrum.
It is not born where ivory is, nor where iron is.
Quis sit summi boni locus quaeris? Animus.
Do you ask what is the place of the supreme good? The mind.
Hic nisi purus ac sanctus est, deum non capit.
Unless this is pure and holy, it does not receive god.
§87.22"Bonum ex malo non fit.
"Good does not come from evil.
Divitiae fiunt autem ex avaritia.
But riches come from avarice.
Divitiae ergo non sunt bonum. "" Non est," inquit, "verum, bonum ex malo non nasci.
Therefore, riches are not a good." "It is not true," he says, "that good is not born from evil.
Ex sacrilegio enim et furto pecunia nascitur.
For money is born from temple-robbery and theft.
Itaque malum quidem est sacrilegio enim et furtum, sed ideo, quia plura mala facit quam bona.
Therefore, temple-robbery and theft are indeed an evil, but for this reason, because they produce more evils than goods.
Dat enim lucrum, sed cum metu, sollicitudine, tormentis et animi et corporis. "
For they give profit, but with fear, anxiety, and torments of both mind and body." Whoever says this must admit that temple-robbery, just as it is an evil because it produces many evils, is also in some part a good because it produces something of good.
§87.23Quisquis hoc dicit, necesse est recipiat sacrilegium, sicut malum sit, quia multa mala facit, ita bonum quoque ex aliqua parte esse, quia aliquid boni facit.
What can be more monstrous than this?
Quo quid fieri portentuosius potest? Quamquam sacrilegium, furtum, adulterium inter bona haberi prorsus persuasimus.
Although we have thoroughly persuaded ourselves that temple-robbery, theft, and adultery are to be held among goods.
Quam multi furto non erubescunt, quam multi adulterio gloriantur! Nam sacrilegia minuta puniuntur, magna in triumphis feruntur.
How many do not blush at theft, how many boast of adultery! For minor temple-robberies are punished, great ones are carried in triumphs.
§87.24Adice nunc, quod sacrilegium, si omnino ex aliqua parte bonum est, etiam honestum erit et recte factum vocabitur: nostra enim actio est.
Add now that temple-robbery, if it is at all a good in some part, will also be honorable and will be called a right action: for it is our action.
Quod nullius mortalium cogitatio recipit.
Which the thought of no mortal accepts.
Ergo bona nasci ex malo non possunt.
Therefore, goods cannot be born from evil.
Nam si, ut dicitis, ob hoc unum sacrilegium malum est, quia multum mali adfert, si remiseris illi supplicia, si securitatem spoponderis, ex toto bonum erit.
For if, as you say, temple-robbery is an evil for this one reason, because it brings much evil, if you remit its punishments, if you promise security, it will be entirely a good.
Atqui maximum scelerum supplicium in ipsis est.
And yet the greatest punishment of crimes is in themselves.
§87.25Erras, inquam, si illa ad carnificem aut carcerem differs; statim puniuntur, cum facta sunt, immo dum fiunt.
You err, I say, if you defer those to the executioner or the prison; they are punished immediately when they are done, indeed while they are being done.
Non nascitur itaque ex malo bonum, non magis quam ficus ex olea.
Therefore, good is not born from evil, no more than a fig from an olive.
Ad semen nata respondent, bona degenerare non possunt.
Born things correspond to their seed; goods cannot degenerate.
Quemadmodum ex turpi honestum non nascitur, ita ne ex malo quidem bonum.
Just as the honorable is not born from the shameful, so neither is good from evil.
Nam idem est honestum et bonum.
For the honorable and the good are the same.