§5.1Solemus dicere summum bonum esse secundum naturam vivere.
We are accustomed to say that the supreme good is to live according to nature.
Natura nos ad utrumque genuit, et contemplationi rerum et actioni.
Nature has begotten us for both, both for the contemplation of things and for action.
Nunc id probemus, quod prius diximus.
Now let us prove what we said before.
Quid porro? Hoc non erit probatum, si se unusquisque consuluerit, quantam cupidinem habeat ignota noscendi, quam ad omnis fabulas excitetur?
What further? Will this not be proved if each person consults himself as to how great a desire he has for knowing what is unknown, how he is excited by every story?
§5.2Navigant quidam et labores peregrinationis longissimae una mercede perpetiuntur cognoscendi aliquid abditum remotumque.
Some set sail and endure the hardships of the longest journey for the sole reward of knowing something hidden and remote.
Haec res ad spectacula populos contrahit, haec cogit praeclusa rimari, secretiora exquirere, antiquitates evolvere, mores barbararum audire gentium.
This force draws crowds to spectacles; this compels them to peer into closed places, to seek out more secret things, to unroll antiquities, to hear of the customs of barbarian nations.
§5.3Curiosum nobis natura ingenium dedit et artis sibi ac pulchritudinis suae conscia spectatores nos tantis rerum spectaculis genuit, perditura fructum sui, si tam magna, tam clara, tam subtiliter ducta, tam nitida et non uno genere formosa solitudini ostenderet.
Nature has given us an inquisitive mind, and, conscious of her own art and beauty, has begotten us to be spectators of so great a spectacle of things; she would have lost the fruit of her work if she had shown to a wilderness things so great, so bright, so subtly drawn, so shining, and beautiful in more than one way.
§5.4Ut scias illam spectari voluisse, non tantum aspici, vide quem nobis locum dederit.
To know that she wished to be contemplated, not merely glanced at, look at the place she has given us.
In media nos sui parte constituit et circumspectum omnium nobis dedit; nec erexit tantummodo hominem, sed etiam habilem contemplationi factura, ut ab ortu sidera in occasum labentia prosequi posset et vultum suum circumferre cum toto, sublime fecit illi caput et collo flexili imposuit; deinde sena per diem, sena per noctem signa perducens nullam non partem sui explicuit, ut per haec, quae optulerat oculis eius, cupiditatem faceret etiam ceterorum.
She has established us in the center of herself and gave us a panoramic view of everything; and she did not merely raise man upright, but, intending to make him fit for contemplation, so that he could follow the stars gliding from their rising to their setting and turn his gaze along with the whole, she made his head sublime and set it upon a flexible neck; then, bringing forward six signs of the zodiac by day and six by night, she left no part of herself unrevealed, so that through these things which she had offered to his eyes, she might create a desire for the rest as well.
§5.5Nec enim omnia nec tanta visimus quanta sunt, sed acies nostra aperit sibi investigandi viam et fundamenta vero iacit, ut inquisitio transeat ex apertis in obscura et aliquid ipso mundo inveniat antiquius: unde ista sidera exierint; quis fuerit universi status, antequam singula in partes discederent; quae ratio mersa et confusa diduxerit; quis loca rebus adsignaverit, suapte natura gravia descenderint, evolaverint levia, an praeter nisum pondusque corporum altior aliqua vis legem singulis dixerit; an illud verum sit, quo maxime probatur homines divini esse spiritus, partem ac veluti scintillas quasdam astrorum in terram desiluisse atque alieno loco haesisse.
For we do not see all things, nor in such magnitude as they really are, but our vision opens a way of investigation for itself and lays the foundations for truth, so that inquiry may pass from open things to obscure ones and find something older than the world itself: whence those stars came forth; what was the state of the universe before individual things separated into parts; what reason separated what was submerged and confused; who assigned places to things, whether heavy things descended and light things flew up by their own nature, or whether some higher force, beyond the impulse and weight of bodies, dictated a law to each; or whether that is true which most proves that human beings are of divine spirit, that a part and, as it were, certain sparks of the stars leaped down to the earth and stuck in a foreign place.
§5.6Cogitatio nostra caeli munimenta perrumpit nec contenta est id, quod ostenditur, scire.
Our thought breaks through the battlements of heaven and is not content to know what is shown.
"Illud," inquit, "scrutor, quod ultra mundum iacet, utrumne profunda vastitas sit an et hoc ipsum terminis suis cludatur; qualis sit habitus exclusis, informia et confusa sint, in omnem partem tantundem loci obtinentia, an et illa in aliquem cultum discripta sint; huic cohaereant mundo, an longe ab hoc secesserint et hic vacuo volutentur; individua sint, per quae struitur omne quod natum futurumque est, an continua eorum materia sit et per totum mutabilis; utrum contraria inter se elementa sint, an non pugnent sed per diversa con- Spirent. " §5.7Ad haec quaerenda natus, aestima, quam non multum acceperit temporis, etiam si illud totum sibi vindicat.
'I investigate that,' it says, 'which lies beyond the world, whether there is a profound vastness or whether this itself is enclosed by its own boundaries; what is the condition of things excluded from it, whether they are formless and confused, occupying equal space in every direction, or whether they also are arranged in some order; whether they cling to this world, or have withdrawn far from it and roll about in a vacuum; whether they are indivisible particles by which everything that is born and will be is built, or whether their matter is continuous and changeable through the whole; whether the elements are contrary to each other, or whether they do not fight but conspire through diverse functions.' Born to seek these things, estimate how little time man has received, even if he claims all of it for himself.
Cui licet nihil facilitate eripi, nihil neglegentia patiatur excidere, licet horas suas avarissime servet et usque in ultimum aetatis humanae terminum procedat nec quicquam illi ex eo, quod natura constituit, fortuna concutiat, tamen homo ad immortalium cognitionem nimis mortalis est.
Even though he allows nothing to be snatched from him by ease, nothing to slip away by negligence; though he guards his hours most greedily and proceeds to the very limit of human life, and fortune shakes nothing of what nature has established for him, yet man is too mortal for the knowledge of immortal things.
§5.8Ergo secundum naturam vivo, si totum me illi dedi, si illius admirator cultorque sum.
Therefore I live according to nature if I have given myself entirely to her, if I am her admirer and worshipper.
Natura autem utrumque facere me voluit, et agere et contemplationi vacare.
But nature wished me to do both: to act and to be free for contemplation.
Utrumque facio, quoniam ne contemplatio quidem sine actione est.
I do both, since not even contemplation is without action.