§92.27"Dis," inquit, "inmortalibus solis et virtus et beata vita contigit, nobis umbra quaedam illorum bonorum et similitudo.
"To the immortal gods alone," he says, "have both virtue and the happy life fallen; to us, a certain shadow and likeness of those goods.
Accedimus ad illa, non pervenimus. "Ratio vero dis hominibusque communis est; haec in illis consummata est, in nobis consummabilis.
We approach them, we do not reach them." But reason is common to gods and humans; this is perfected in them, and perfectible in us.
§92.28Sed ad desperationem nos vitia nostra perducunt; nam ille alter secundus est ut aliquis parum constans ad custodienda optima, cuius iudicium bibat etiamnunc et incertum est.
But our vices lead us to despair; for that other is second, like someone not steady enough to guard the best things, whose judgment even now wavers and is uncertain.
Desideret oculorum atque aurium sensum, bonam valitudinem et non foedum aspectum corporis et habitu manente suo aetatis praeterea longius spatium.
He may desire the sense of eyes and ears, good health, a not unsightly appearance of the body, and besides, a longer span of age with his physical state remaining intact.
§92.29Per hanc potest non paenitenda agi vita, at inperfecto viro huic malitiae vis quaedam inest, quia animum habet mobilem ad prava.
Through this reason, a life not to be repented of can be led, yet in this imperfect man there is a certain force of malice, because he has a mind movable toward crooked things.
Illa apparens malitia et exagitata abest; non est adhuc bonus, sed in bonum fingitur.
That visible and driven malice is absent; he is not yet good, but is being shaped toward the good.
Cuicumque autem deest aliquid ad bonum, malus est.
But whoever lacks anything for the good is bad.
Sed Si cui virtus animusque in corpore praesens, hic deos aequat, illo tendit originis suae memor
But if anyone has virtue and spirit present in his body, he equals the gods, and mindful of his origin, he strives thither.
§92.30Nemo inprobe eo conatur ascendere, unde descenderat.
No one is wicked in striving to ascend to that place whence he had descended.
Quid est autem cur non existimes in eo divini aliquid existere, qui dei pars est? Totum hoc, quo continemur, et unum est et deus; et socii sumus eius et membra.
What is there, moreover, why you should not think something divine exists in him who is a part of God? This whole in which we are contained is both one and God; and we are his companions and members.
Capax est noster animus, perfertur illo, si vitia non deprimant.
Our mind is capable of this, and is carried thither, if vices do not weigh it down.
Quemadmodum corporum nostrorum habitus erigitur et spectat in caelum, ita animus, cui in quantum vult licet porrigi, in hoc a natura rerum formatus est, ut paria dis vellet.
Just as the posture of our bodies is upright and looks toward heaven, so the mind, which is allowed to be stretched as far as it wishes, has been formed by the nature of things for this purpose, to wish for things equal to the gods.
Et si utatur suis viribus ac se in spatium suum extendat, non aliena via ad summa nititur.
And if it uses its own powers and extends itself into its own space, it strives to the summit not by an alien path.
§92.31Magnus erat labor ire in caelum; redit.
It was a great labor to go to heaven; it returns.
Cum hoc iter nactus est, vadit audaciter contemptor omnium nec ad pecuniam respicit aurumque et argentum illis, in quibus iacuere, tenebris dignissima, non ab hoc aestimat splendore, quo inperitorum verberant oculos, sed a vetere caeno, ex quo illa secrevit cupiditas nostra et effodit.
When it has obtained this journey, it goes boldly, a contemner of all things, nor does it look back at money, and it values gold and silver—things most worthy of the darkness in which they lay—not by this splendor with which they strike the eyes of the unskilled, but by the old filth from which our desire separated and dug them out.
Scit, inquam, aliubi positas esse divitias quam quo congeruntur; animum impleri debere, non arcam.
It knows, I say, that riches are placed elsewhere than where they are piled up; that the mind ought to be filled, not the money-chest.
§92.32Hunc inponere dominio rerum omnium licet, hunc in possessionem rerum naturae inducere, ut sua orientis occidentisque terminis finiat deorumque ritu cuncta possideat. cum opibus suis divites superne despiciat. quorum nemo tam suo laetus est quid cristis alieno.
One may place this man in dominion over all things, and lead him into possession of the nature of things, so that he may limit his own possessions by the boundaries of the east and west, and possess all things in the manner of the gods, and from above look down upon the rich with their wealth, of whom no one is so pleased with his own things as he is saddened by another's.
§92.33Cum se in hanc sublimitatem edit. corporis quoque ut oneris necessarii non amator, sed procurator est nec se illi, cui inpositus est, subicit.
When he raises himself into this sublimity, he is not a lover but a manager of the body as a necessary burden, nor does he subject himself to that upon which he has been placed.
Nemo liber est, qui corpori servit.
No one is free who serves the body.
Nam ut alios dominos, quos nimia pro illo sollicitudo invenit; transeas, ipsius morosum imperium delicatumque est.
For even if you pass over other masters whom excessive anxiety for the body finds, the command of the body itself is moody and fastidious.
§92.34Ab hoc modo aequo animo exit, modo nihilo prosilit, nec quis deinde relicti eius futurus sic exitus quaerit.
From this body he departs sometimes with an even mind, sometimes he leaps out unexpectedly, nor does he ask what the future end of his abandoned body will be.
Sed ut ex barba capilloque tonsa neglegimus, ita ille divinus animus egressurus hominem. quo receptaculum suum conferatur. ignis illud exurat an lapis includat an terra conterat an ferae distrahant. non magis ad se iudicat pertinere quam secundas ad editum infantem.
But just as we neglect the shaved hair from a beard and head, so that divine mind, about to depart from the man, judges where its receptacle is gathered—whether fire burns it, a stone encloses it, the earth crushes it, or wild beasts tear it apart—to pertain to itself no more than the afterbirth to a newborn infant.
Utrum proiectum aves differant. an consumatur Canibus data praeda marinis. quid ad illum, qui nullus est?
Whether, cast out, the birds tear it apart, or it is consumed as prey given to marine dogs, what is that to him who is no more?
§92.35Sed tunc quoque, cum inter homines est, non timet ullas post mortem minas eorum, quibus usque ad mortem timeri parum est.
But even then, when he is among men, he does not fear any threats after death from those for whom being feared up to death is not enough.
Non conferret, inquit, me nec uncus nec proiecti ai contumeliam cadaveris laceratio foeda visuris.
"Neither the hook," he says, "nor the foul tearing apart of the cast-out body for those who will see it as an insult, will terrify me.
Neminem de supremo officio rogo. nulli reliquias meas commendo.
I ask no one for the last service, I commend my remains to no one.
Ne quis insepultus esset, rerum natura prospexit.
Nature has provided that no one should be unburied.
Quem saevitia proiecerit, die; condet. Diserte Maecenas ait:
"
Nec tumulum curo. Sepelit natura relictos.
Time will cover him whom cruelty has cast out." Maecenas eloquently says: "I care not for a tomb.
"
Alte cinctum putes dixisse.
Nature buries those left behind." You might think a man girt up had said this.
Habuit enim ingenium et grande et virile, ruri illud secundis discinxisset.
For he had a grand and manly genius, if only he had not loosened it in prosperity.
VALE.
FAREWELL.