§93.7Habeo meum.
I have what is mine.
Quemadmodum in minore corporis habitu potest homo esse perfectus, sic et in minore temporis modo potest vita esse perfecta.
Just as a human being can be perfect in a smaller bodily stature, so also a life can be perfect in a smaller measure of time.
Aetas inter externa est.
Age is among external things.
Quamdiu sim, alienum est; quamdiu ero, ut sim, meum est.
How long I exist is someone else's affair; as long as I shall exist, how I exist is my own.
Hoc a me exige, ne velut per tenebras aevum ignobile emetiar, ut agam vitam, non ut praetervehar,
Demand this of me, that I do not measure out an inglorious age as if through darkness, so that I may live life, not just drift through it.
§93.8Quaeris quod sit amplissimum vitae spatium? Usque ad sapientiam vivere.
Do you ask what is the greatest span of life? To live up to wisdom.
Qui ad illam pervenit, attigit non longissimum finem, sed maximum.
He who has reached it has touched not the longest limit, but the greatest.
Ille vero glorietur audacter et dis agat gratias interque eos sibi, et rerum naturae inputet, quod fuit.
He indeed may boast boldly and give thanks to the gods, and among them to himself, and attribute to the nature of things that he existed.
Merito enim inputabit; meliorem illi vitam reddidit quam accepit.
For he will attribute it with merit; he has returned to nature a better life than he received.
Exemplar boni viri posuit, qualis quantusque esset ostendit.
He set up an exemplar of a good man, and showed what sort of person and how great he was.
Si quid adiecisset, fuisset simile praeterito.
If he had added anything, it would have been similar to the past.
§93.9Et tamen quo usque vivimus? Omnium rerum cognitione fruiti sumus.
And yet, how far do we live? We have enjoyed the knowledge of all things.
Scimus a quibus principiis natura se adtollat, quemadmodum ordinet mundum, per quas annum vices revocet, quemadmodum omnia, quae usquam erant, cluserit et se ipsam finem sui fecerit.
We know from what principles nature raises herself, how she orders the universe, by what alternations she recalls the year, how she has closed all things that ever existed anywhere and made herself her own end.
Scimus sidera impetu suo vadere, praeter terram nihil stare, cetera continua velocitate decurrere.
We know that the stars go by their own impulse, that nothing stands still except the earth, and that the rest run down with continuous speed.
Scimus quemadmodum solem luna praetereat, quare tardior velociorem post se relinquat, quomodo lumen accipiat aut perdat, quae causa inducat noctem, quae reducat diem.
We know how the moon passes the sun, why the slower leaves the swifter behind, how she receives or loses light, what cause brings on the night and what brings back the day.
Illuc eundum est, ubi ista propius aspicias.
We must go thither, where you may behold these things more closely.
" §93.10Nec hac spe," inquit sapiens ille, "fortius exeo, quod patere mihi ad deos meos iter iudico.
"Nor do I depart more bravely," says that wise man, "because of this hope, that I judge the path to my gods lies open to me.
Merui quidem admitti et iam inter illos fui animumque illo meum misi et ad me illi suum miserant.
Indeed, I have deserved to be admitted and have already been among them, and I sent my mind thither and they had sent theirs to me.
Sed tolli me de medio puta et post mortem nihil ex homine restare; aeque magnum animum habeo, etiam si nusquam transiturus excedo. " §93.11"Non tam multis vixit annis quam potuit. "Et paucorum versuum liber est et quidem laudandus atque utilis;
But suppose I am removed from the midst, and nothing remains of a human being after death; I have an equally great mind, even if I depart intending to go nowhere." "He did not live as many years as he could have." A book of even a few lines exists and is indeed to be praised and useful; you know how heavy the annals of Tanusius are and what they are called.
annales Tanusii scis quam ponderosi sint et quid vocentur. Hoc est vita quorumdam longa, et quod Tanusii sequitur annales.
Such is the long life of some, and like what follows the annals of Tanusius.
§93.12Numquid feliciorem iudicas eum, qui summo die muneris, quam eum, qui medio occiditur? Numquid aliquem tam stulte cupidum esse vitae putas, ut iugulari in spoliario quam in harena malit? Non maiore spatio alter alterum praecedimus.
Do you judge him to be happier who is slain on the last day of the games, than him who is slain in the middle? Do you think anyone is so foolishly desirous of life that he would rather have his throat cut in the stripping-room than in the arena? We do not precede one another by any larger interval.
Mors per omnes it; qui occidit, consequitur occisum.
Death goes through all; he who slays follows the slain.
Minimum est, de quo sollicitissime agitur.
It is a mere trifle about which we are most anxiously concerned.
Quid autem ad rem pertinet, quam diu vites, quod evitare non possis? Vale.
What difference does it make, moreover, how long you avoid what you cannot escape? Farewell.