§89.17Superest ut rationalem partem philosophiae dividam.
It remains for me to divide the rational part of philosophy.
Omnis oratio aut continua est aut inter respondentem et interrogantem discissa.
All speech is either continuous or split between respondent and questioner.
Hanc διαλεκτικήν, illam ῤητορικὴν placuit vocari.
It has pleased that the latter be called dialectic, the former rhetoric.
Ῥητορικὴ verba curat et sensus et ordinem; διαλεκτικὴ in duas partes dividitur, in verba et significationes, id est in res quae dicuntur et vocabula quibus dicuntur.
Rhetoric cares for words, meanings, and order; dialectic is divided into two parts, into words and significations, that is, into things which are spoken and vocabulary by which they are spoken.
Ingens deinde sequitur utriusque divisio.
Then follows a huge division of both.
Itaque hoc loco finem faciam et
"
Summa sequar fastigia rerum; "
alioqui si voluero facere partium partes, quaestionum liber fiet.
Therefore, at this point I shall make an end, and "I shall follow the highest summits of things;" otherwise, if I wish to make parts of parts, it will become a book of questions.
§89.18Haec, Lucili virorum optime, quo minus legas non deterreo, dummodo quicquid legeris, ad mores statim referas.
These things, Lucilius, best of men, I do not deter you from reading, provided that whatever you read, you immediately refer to morals.
Illos conpesce, marcentia in te excita, soluta constringe, contumacia doma, cupiditates tuas publicasque quantum potes vexa; et istis dicentibus "quo usque eadem?" responde: "ego debebam dicere 'quo usque eadem peccabitis?'"
Restrain those; excite the sluggish things in you, bind tight the loose, tame the rebellious, vex your own desires and those of the public as much as you can; and to those saying "How long the same things?" answer: "I ought to be saying, 'How long will you sin the same sins?'" Do you want remedies to cease before vices do?
§89.19Remedia ante vultis quam vitia desinere? Ego vero eo magis dicam et, quia recusatis, perseverabo.
Indeed, I shall speak all the more, and because you refuse, I shall persevere.
Tunc incipit medicina proficere, ubi in corpore alienato dolorem tactus expressit.
Medicine then begins to be of benefit when a touch expresses pain in an alienated body.
Dicam etiam invitis profutura.
I shall speak things that will benefit even the unwilling.
Aliquando aliqua ad vos non blanda vox veniat, et quia verum singuli audire non vultis, publice audite.
Let some voice that is not flattering come to you at some time, and because you, as individuals, do not wish to hear the truth, hear it publicly.
§89.20Quo usque fines possessionum propagabitis? Ager uni domino, qui populum cepit, angustus est.
How far will you extend the boundaries of your possessions? A field is narrow for a single master, which once contained a nation.
Quo usque arationes vestras porrigetis, ne provinciarum quidem spatio contenti circumscribere praediorum modum? Inlustrium fluminum per privatum decursus est et amnes magni magnarumque gentium termini usque ad ostium a fonte vestri sunt.
How far will you stretch your plowlands, not content to circumscribe the limit of your estates even within the space of provinces? Renowned rivers flow through private property, and great streams, the boundaries of great nations, are yours from source to mouth.
Hoc quoque parum est, nisi latifundiis vestris maria cinxistis, nisi trans Hadriam et Ionium Aegaeumque vester vilicus regnat, nisi insulae, ducum domicilia magnorum, inter vilissima rerum numerantur.
This too is too little, unless you have enclosed seas with your vast estates, unless across the Adriatic, the Ionian, and the Aegean your bailiff reigns, unless islands, the homes of great generals, are numbered among the cheapest of things.
Quam vultis late possidete, sit fundus quod aliquando imperium vocabatur; facite vestrum quicquid potestis, dum plus sit alieno.
Possess as widely as you wish; let that be an estate which was once called an empire; make your own whatever you can, as long as there is more that belongs to another.
§89.21Nunc vobiscum loquor, quorum aeque spatiose luxuria quam illorum avaritia diffunditur.
Now I speak with you, whose luxury is spread as spaciously as their avarice.
Vobis dico: quo usque nullus erit lacus cui non villarum vestrarum fastigia immineant? Nullum flumen cuius non ripas aedificia vestra praetexant? Ubicumque scatebunt aquarum calentium venae, ibi nova deversoria luxuriae excitabuntur.
To you I say: how long will there be no lake upon which the roofs of your villas do not look down? No river whose banks your buildings do not fringe? Wherever veins of hot waters gush, there new lodgings of luxury will be raised.
Ubicumque in aliquem sinum litus curvabitur, vos protinus fundamenta iacietis nec contenti solo nisi quod manu feceritis, mare agetis introrsus.
Wherever the shore curves into any bay, you will immediately lay foundations, and not content with soil unless it is what you have made by hand, you will drive the sea inward.
Omnibus licet locis tecta vestra resplendeant, aliubi inposita montibus in vastum terrarum marisque prospectum, aliubi ex plano in altitudinem montium educta, cum multa aedificaveritis, cum ingentia, tamen et singula corpora estis et parvola.
Let your roofs shine resplendent in all places, in one place placed on mountains with a vast prospect of lands and sea, in another raised from the plain to the height of mountains; though you build many things, though huge, yet you are each single bodies, and very small ones.
Quid prosunt multa cubicula? In uno iacetis, Non est vestrum ubicumque non estis.
What do many bedrooms profit? You lie in only one. Wherever you are not is not yours.
§89.22Ad vos deinde transeo, quorum profunda et insatiabilis gula hinc maria scrutatur, hinc terras, alia hamis, alia laqueis, alia retium variis generibus cum magno labore persequitur; nullis animalibus nisi ex fastidio pax est.
I pass next to you, whose deep and insatiable throat searches the seas here, the lands there, pursuing some things with hooks, others with snares, others with various kinds of nets with great labor; no animals have peace except from your satiety.
Quantulum ex istis epulis, quae per tot comparatis manus, fesso voluptatibus ore libatis? Quantulum ex ista fera periculose capta dominus crudus ac nauseans gustat? Quantulum ex tot conchyliis tam longe advectis per istum stomachum inexplebilem labitur? Infelices, ecquid intellegitis maiorem vos famem habere quam ventrem?
How tiny a part of those banquets, which you prepare through so many hands, do you taste with a mouth weary of pleasures? How tiny a part of that wild beast captured dangerously does the master, bloated and nauseous, taste? How tiny a part of so many shellfish brought from so far glides through that insatiable stomach? Unhappy men, do you at all understand that you have a hunger greater than your belly?
§89.23Haec aliis dic, ut dum dicis, audias ipse; scribe, ut dum scribis, legas, omnia ad mores et ad sedandam rabiem adfectuum referens.
Say these things to others, so that while you say them, you yourself may hear; write, so that while you write, you may read, referring all things to morals and to the calming of the madness of affections.
Stude, non ut plus aliquid scias, sed ut melius.
Study, not that you may know something more, but that you may know it better.
VALE.
FAREWELL.