§88.29Singulas Iubet circumire virtutes.
He orders us to go around the individual virtues.
Fortitudo contemptrix timendorum est; terribilia et sub iugum libertatem nostram mittentia despicit, provocat, frangit.
Courage is a despiser of things to be feared; it looks down on, challenges, and breaks terrible things and those that send our liberty under the yoke.
Numquid ergo hanc liberalia studia corroborant? Fides sanctissimum humani pectoris bonum est, nulla necessitate ad fallendum cogitur, nullo corrumpitur praemio.
Does, then, liberal studies corroborate this? Fidelity is the most sacred good of the human breast, forced to deceive by no necessity, corrupted by no reward.
"Ure," inquit, "caede, occide; non prodam, sed quo magis secreta quaeret dolor, hoc illa altius condam. "Numquid liberalia studia hos animos facere possunt? Temperantia voluptatibus imperat, alias odit atque abigit, alias dispensat et ad sanum modum redigit nec umquam ad illas propter ipsas venit.
"Burn," she says, "cut, kill; I will not betray, but the more pain seeks my secrets, the deeper I will hide them." Can liberal studies make these minds? Temperance rules over pleasures; some she hates and drives away, others she dispenses and reduces to a healthy limit, nor does she ever come to them for their own sake.
Scit optimum esse modum cupitorum non quantum velis, sed quantum debeas sumere.
She knows that the best limit of things desired is not to take as much as you want, but as much as you ought.
§88.30Humanitas vetat superbum esse adversus socios, vetat avarum.
Humanity forbids one to be proud toward associates, forbids one to be greedy.
Verbis, rebus, adfectibus comem se facilemque omnibus praestat.
In words, in deeds, in affections, she shows herself kind and easy to all.
Nullum alienum malum putat.
She thinks no evil is foreign to herself.
Bonum autem suum ideo maxime, quod alicui bono futurum est, amat.
And she loves her own good especially because it will be of benefit to someone.
Numquid liberalia studia hos mores praecipiunt? Non magis quam simplicitatem, quam modestiam ac moderationem, non magis quam frugalitatem ac parsimoniam, non magis quam clementiam, quae alieno sanguini tamquam suo parcit et scit homini non esse homine prodige utendum.
Do liberal studies prescribe these manners? Not any more than they prescribe simplicity, modesty and moderation, nor any more than frugality and parsimony, nor any more than clemency, which spares another's blood as if it were its own, and knows that a man must not make lavish use of a man.
§88.31"Cum dicatis," inquit, "sine liberalibus studiis ad virtutem non perveniri, quemadmodum negatis illa nihil conferre virtuti?" Quia nec sine cibo ad virtutem pervenitur, cibus tamen ad virtutem non pertinet.
"Since you say," he says, "that without liberal studies one does not arrive at virtue, how do you deny that they contribute nothing to virtue?" Because neither without food does one arrive at virtue, yet food does not belong to virtue.
Ligna navi nihil conferunt, quamvis non fiat navis nisi ex lignis.
Timber contributes nothing to a ship, although a ship is not made except of timber.
Non est, inquam, cur aliquid putes eius adiutorio fieri, sine quo non potest fieri.
There is no reason, I say, why you should think that something is made by the assistance of that without which it cannot be made.
§88.32Potest quidem etiam illud dici: sine liberalibus studiis veniri ad sapientiam posse; quamvis enim virtus discenda sit, tamen non per haec discitur.
Indeed, this also can be said: that without liberal studies one can come to wisdom; for although virtue must be learned, yet it is not learned through these.
Quid est autem, quare existimem non futurum sapientem eum, qui litteras nescit, cum sapientia non sit in litteris? Res tradit, non verba, et nescio an certior memoria sit, quae nullum extra se subsidium habet.
What is the reason, then, why I should think that he who does not know letters will not be wise, since wisdom is not in letters? It delivers things, not words, and I do not know whether the memory is more certain which has no support outside itself.
§88.33Magna et spatiosa res est sapientia.
Wisdom is a great and spacious thing.
Vacuo illi loco opus est.
It needs a vacant space.
De divinis humanisque discendum est, de praeteritis de futuris, de caducis de aeternis, de tempore.
One must learn about divine and human things, about things past and future, about things fleeting and eternal, about time.
De quo uno vide quam multa quaerantur: primum an per se sit aliquid; deinde an aliquid ante tempus sit sine tempore; cum mundo coeperit an etiam ante mundum quia fuerit aliquid, fuerit et tempus.
See how many things are asked about this one thing alone: first, whether it is something by itself; then, whether anything is before time, without time; whether it began with the world, or whether, because there was something even before the world, time also existed.
§88.34Innumerabiles quaestiones sunt de animo tantum: unde sit, qualis sit, quando esse incipiat, quamdiu sit; aliunde alio transeat et domicilia mutet in alias animalium formas aliasque coniectus, an non amplius quam semel serviat et emissus vagetur in toto; utrum corpus sit an non sit; quid sit facturus, cum per nos aliquid facere desierit, quomodo libertate sua usurus, cum ex hac effugerit cavea; an obliviscatur priorum et illinc nosse se incipiat, unde corpori abductus in sublime secessit.
There are innumerable questions about the soul alone: whence it is, of what quality it is, when it begins to exist, how long it exists; whether it passes from one place to another and changes its dwellings into other shapes of animals, cast from one to another, or whether it serves no more than once and, being released, wanders in the whole; whether it is a body or is not; what it will do when it ceases to do anything through us, how it will use its liberty when it escapes from this cage; whether it forgets former things and begins to know itself from the point where, drawn away from the body, it withdrew on high.
§88.35Quamcumque partem rerum humanarum divinarumque conprenderis, ingenti copia quaerendorum ac discendorum fatigaberis.
Whatever part of human and divine things you comprehend, you will be fatigued by a huge abundance of things to be sought and learned.
Haec tam multa, tam magna ut habere possint liberum hospitium, supervacua ex animo tollenda sunt.
So that these so many, so great things may have a free lodging, superfluous things must be removed from the mind.
Non dabit se in has angustias virtus; laxum spatium res magna desiderat.
Virtue will not give itself into these narrow spaces; a great thing desires a wide space.
Expellantur omnia, totum pectus illi vacet.
Let all things be expelled, let the whole breast be vacant for it.
§88.36"At enim delectat artium notitia multarum. "Tantum itaque ex illis retineamus, quantum necessarium est.
"But indeed the knowledge of many arts delights." Let us therefore retain so much from them as is necessary.
An tu existimas reprendendum, qui supervacua usibus conparat et pretiosarum rerum pompam in domo explicat, non putas eum, qui occupatus est in supervacua litterarum supellectile? Plus scire velle quam sit satis, intemperantiae genus est.
Or do you think that he is to be blamed who procures superfluous things for use and displays a pomp of precious things in his house, but you do not think him to be blamed who is occupied with the superfluous furniture of literature? To wish to know more than is enough is a kind of intemperance. To wish to know more than is enough is a kind of intemperance.