§90.17Opus est tamen calorem solis aestivi umbra crassiore propellere. "Quid ergo? Non vetustas multa dedit loca, quae vel iniuria temporis vel alio quolibet casu excavata in specum recesserunt? Quid ergo? Non quilibet virgeam cratera texuerunt manu et vili obliverunt luto, deinde stipula aliisque silvestribus operuere fastigium, et pluviis per devexa labentibus hiemem transiere securi? Quid ergo? Non in defosso latent Syrticae gentes quibusque propter nimios solis ardores nullum tegimentum satis repellendis caloribus solidum est nisi ipsa arens humus?
"Yet it is necessary to repel the heat of the summer sun by a thicker shade." What then? Did not antiquity give many places which, hollowed out either by the injury of time or by any other chance, receded into a cave? What then? Did not any people weave a wicker frame with their hand and plaster it with cheap mud, then cover the top with straw and other wild plants, and while the rains glided down the slopes, pass the winter secure? What then? Do not the Syrtic nations lie hidden in dug-out pits, and those for whom, on account of the excessive heat of the sun, no covering is solid enough to repel the heat except the dry earth itself?
§90.18Non fuit tam inimica natura, ut, cum omnibus aliis animalibus facilem actum vitae daret, homo solus non posset sine tot artibus vivere.
Nature was not so hostile that, while she gave an easy course of life to all other animals, man alone could not live without so many arts.
Nihil horum ab illa nobis imperatum est, nihil aegre quaerendum, ut possit vita produci.
None of these things was commanded to us by her, none is to be sought with trouble so that life can be prolonged.
Ad parata nati sumus; nos omnia nobis difficilia facilium fastidio fecimus.
We were born to things prepared; we have made everything difficult for ourselves through disgust with easy things.
Tecta tegimentaque et fomenta corporum et cibi et quae nunc ingens negotium facta sunt, obvia erant et Among many accounts by Roman writers of early man, compare this passage of Ovid, and that in the fifth book of Lucretius.
Roofs and coverings and the warming of bodies and food, and what have now become a huge business, were ready at hand, and
gratuita et opera levi parabilia.
free of cost, and procurable with light labor.
Modus enim omnium prout necessitas erat; nos ista pretiosa, nos mira, nos magnis multisque conquirenda artibus fecimus.
For the measure of all things was according to necessity; we have made those things costly, we have made them objects of wonder, and things to be sought with great and many arts.
§90.19Sufficit ad id natura, quod poscit.
Nature is sufficient for that which she demands.
A natura luxuria descivit, quae cotidie se ipsa incitat et tot saeculis crescit et ingenio adiuvat vitia.
From nature luxury has departed, which daily incites itself and has grown through so many ages and assists vices with ingenuity.
Primo supervacua coepit concupiscere, inde contraria, novissime animum corpori addixit et illius deservire libidini iussit.
First it began to desire superfluous things, then things contrary to nature, and most recently it has enslaved the mind to the body and ordered it to serve the body's lust.
Omnes istae artes, quibus aut circitatur civitas aut strepit, corporis negotium gerunt, cui omnia olim tamquam servo praestabantur, nunc tamquam domino parantur.
All those arts by which the city is either busied or makes a din carry on the business of the body, to which once all things were furnished as to a servant, but are now prepared as for a master.
Itaque hinc textorum, hinc fabrorum officinae sunt, hinc odores coquentium, hinc mollitia molles corporis motus docentium mollesque cantus et infractos.
Therefore, hence are the workshops of weavers, hence of craftsmen, hence the odors of those who cook, hence the soft manners of those who teach effeminate movements of the body and soft and broken songs.
Recessit enim ille naturalis modus desideria ope necessaria finiens; iam rusticitatis et miseriae est velle, quantum sat est.
For that natural measure has receded, which bounded desires by necessary aid; now it is a sign of rusticity and misery to wish only for as much as is enough.
§90.20Incredibilest, mi Lucili, quam facile etiam magnos viros dulcedo orationis abducat vero.
It is incredible, my Lucilius, how easily the sweetness of speech leads even great men away from the truth.
Ecce Posidonius, ut mea fert opinio, ex is qui plurimum philosophiae contulerunt, dum vult describere primum, quemadmodum alia torqueantur fila, alia ex molli solidoque ducantur, deinde quemadmodum tela suspensis ponderibus rectum stamen extendet, quemadmodum subtemen insertum, quod duritiam utrimque conprimentis tramae remolliat, spatha coire cogatur et iungi.
Behold Posidonius, in my opinion one of those who have contributed most to philosophy, while he wishes to describe first how some threads are twisted, others drawn from a soft and solid mass, then how the loom stretches the straight warp with suspended weights, how the inserted woof, which softens the hardness of the warp compressing it on both sides, is forced to come together and be joined by the batten.
Textrini quoque artem a sapientibus dixit iuventam, oblitus postea repertum hoc subtilius genus, in quo
"
Tela iugo vincta est, stamen secernit harundo,
Inseritur medium radiis subtemen acutis,
Quod lato paviunt insecti pectine dentes. "
Quid, si contigisset illi adire has nostri temporis telas, quibus vestis nihil celatura conficitur, in qua non dico nullum corpori auxilium, sed nullum pudori est?
He said that the art of weaving also was invented by wise men, forgetting that later this more subtle kind was found, in which "The web is bound to the beam, the reed separates the warp, the woof is inserted in the middle by sharp shuttles, which the teeth of the notched reed beat with a broad comb." What if it had happened to him to approach these looms of our time, by which clothing that will conceal nothing is made, in which I do not say there is no help for the body, but none for decency?
§90.21Transit deinde ad agricolas nec minus facunde describit proscissum aratro solum et iteratum, quo solutior terra facilius pateat radicibus, tunc sparsa semina et collectas manu herbas, ne quid fortuitum et agreste succrescat, quod necet segetem.
He passes then to the farmers, and no less eloquently describes the soil ploughed by the plough and ploughed again, so that the loosened earth may open more easily to the roots, then the scattered seeds and the weeds gathered by hand, lest anything fortuitous and wild should grow up to kill the crop.
Hoc quoque opus ait esse sapientium, tamquam non nunc quoque plurima cultores agrorum nova inveniant, per quae fertilitas augeatur.
This work too he says is of wise men, as if even now husbandmen do not find very many new things by which fertility is increased.
§90.22Deinde non est contentus his artibus, sed in pistrinum sapientem summittit.
Then he is not content with these arts, but sends the wise man down into the mill.
Narrat enim quemadmodum rerum naturam imitatus panem coeperit facere.
For he tells how, having imitated the nature of things, he began to make bread.
"Receptas," inquit, "in os fruges concurrens inter se duritia dentium frangit, et quicquid excidit, ad eosdem dentes lingua refertur; tunc vero miscetur, ut facilius per fauces lubricas transeat.
"The grains," he says, "received into the mouth, the hardness of the teeth meeting together breaks, and whatever falls out is brought back to the same teeth by the tongue; then indeed it is mixed, so that it may pass more easily through the slippery throat.
Cum pervenit in ventrem, aequali eius fervore concoquitur, tunc demum corpori accedit.
When it has arrived in the stomach, it is digested by its equal heat, and only then is it added to the body."