credibiliter delector: quæ nec ullâ impediuntur senectute, et mihi ad sapientis vitam proxime videntur accedere. But I am now come to speak to the pleasures of a country life, with which I am infinitely delighted. To these old age never is an obstruction. It is the life of nature, and appears to me the exactest plan of that which a wise man ought to lead. OLD AGE. Senect. 17. Habet senectus, honorata præsertim, tantam auctoritatem, ut ea pluris sit, quam omnes adolescentiæ voluptates. Old age in a person graced with honours, is attended with such respect and authority, that the sense of this alone is preferable to all the pleasures youth can enjoy. AVARICE. Senect. 18. Potest enim quidquam esse absurdius, quam, quo minus viæ restat, eo plus viatici quærere ? For can anything be more senselessly absurd, than that the nearer we are to our journey's end, we should still lay in the more provision for it? WHAT CAN BE CALLED LONG IN LIFE. Senect. 19. O dii boni! quid est in hominis vitâ diu? da enim supremum tempus: Expectemus Tartessiorum regis ætatem: fuit enim (ut scriptum video) Arganthonius quidam Gadibus, qui octoginta regnavit annos, centum et viginti vixit. Sed mihi ne diuturnum quidem quidquam videtur, in quo est aliquid extremum; cum enim id advenit, tunc illud, quod præteriit, effluxit: tantum remanet, quod virtute, et recte factis consecutus sis; horæ quidem cedunt, et dies, et menses, et anni: nec præteritum tempus umquam revertitur, nec quid sequatur, sciri potest; quod cuique temporis ad vivendum datur, eo debet esse contentus. Neque enim histrioni, ut placeat, peragenda est fabula, modo, in quocumque fuerit actu, probetur: neque sapienti usque ad Plaudite vivendum. Breve enim tempus ætatis, satis est longum ad bene, honesteque vivendum. Yet oh, good gods! what is it in life that can be said to be of long duration? Though we should hold it to the utmost extent of age, or admit we should live the days of that Tartessian king, (for I have read that one Arganthonius reigned at Cadiz four-score years, and lived to a hundred and twenty), yet in my opinion nothing can properly be termed lasting that has a certain period fixed: for when that is once come, all the past is over and gone; and in the business of life, when that is run out, nothing remains to us but what results from past good and virtuous actions. The hours, the days, and months, and years, all slide away, nor can the past time ever more return, or what is to follow be foreknown. We ought all to be content with the time and portion assigned us. No man expects of any one actor on the theatre that he should perform all the parts of the piece himself: one roll only is committed to him, and whatever that be, if he acts it well, he is applauded. In the same manner, it is not the part of a wise man to desire to be busy in these scenes to the last plaudit. term may be long enough to live it well and honourably. DEATH. A short Moriendum enim certe est: et id incertum, an eo ipso die. No man can be ignorant that he must die, nor be sure that he may not that very day. THE SOUL. Senect. 21. Nam, dum sumus in his inclusi compagibus corporis, munere quodam necessitatis, et gravi opere perfungimur. Est enim animus cœlestis ex altissimo domicilio depressus, et quasi demersus in terram, locum divinæ naturæ, æternitatique contrarium. Sed credo, deos immortales sparsisse animos in corpora humana, ut essent, qui terras tuerentur, quique cœlestium ordinem contemplantes, imitarentur eum vitæ modo, atque constantiâ. For while we are closed in these mortal frames, our bodies, we are bound down to a law of necessity, that obliges us with labour and pains to attend to the discharge of the several incumbent duties it requires. But our minds are of a heavenly original, descended from the blissful seats above, thrust down and immersed into these gross habitations of the earth, a situation altogether unsuitable to a divine and eternal nature. But the immortal gods, I believe, thought fit to throw our immortal minds into these human bodies, that the earth might be peopled with inhabitants proper to contemplate and admire the beauty and order of the heavens, and the whole creation; that from this great exemplar they might form their conduct and regulate their lives, with the like unerring steadiness. THE SOUL. Senect. 22. Mihi quidem nunquam persuaderi potuit, animos, dum in corporibus essent mortalibus, vivere; cum exiissent ex iis, emori; nec vero, tum animum esse insipientem, cum ex insipienti corpore exiissent; sed cum omni admixtione corporis liberatus, purus et integer esse cœpisset, tum esse sapientem. I never, indeed, could persuade myself that souls confined in these mortal bodies can be properly said to live, and that, when they leave them, they die; or that they lose all sense when parted from these vehicles; but, on the contrary, when the mind is wholly freed from all corporeal mixture, and begins to be purified, and recover itself again; then, and then only, it becomes truly knowing and wise. DREAMS EVINCE THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. Senect. 22. Atqui dormientium animi maxime declarant divinitatem suam; multa enim, cum remissi, et liberi sunt, futura prospiciunt. Ex quo intelligitur, quales futuri sint, cum se plane corporis vinculis relaxaverint. But the soul in sleep, above all other times, gives proofs of its divine nature; for when free and disengaged from the immediate service of the body, it has frequently a foresight of things to come; from whence we may more clearly conceive what will be its state, when entirely freed from this bodily prison. LIFE A TEMPORARY LODGING. Neque me vixisse pœnitet: quoniam ita vixi, ut non frustra me natum existemem: et ex vitâ ita discedo, tamquam ex hospitio, non tamquam ex domo; commorandi enim natura deversorium nobis, non habitandi locum dedit. For I am not at all uneasy that I came into, and have so far passed my course in this world; because I have so lived in it, that I have reason to believe I have been of some use to it; and when the close comes, I shall quit life as I would an inn, and not as a real home. For nature appears to me to have ordained this station here for us, as a place of sojournment, a transitory abode only, and not as a fixed settlement or permanent habitation. SOULS ARE IMMORTAL. Senect. 23. Quod si in hoc erro, quod animos hominum immortales esse credam, lubenter erro: nec mihi hunc errorem, quo delector, dum vivo, extorqueri volo. But if I should be mistaken in this belief, that our souls are immortal, I am, however, pleased and happy in my mistake; nor while I live, shall it ever be in the power of man to beat me out of an opinion that yields me so solid a comfort, and so durable a satisfaction. SOULS ANNIHILATED BY DEATH. Amicit. 3. Neque assentior iis, qui hæc nuper disserere cœperunt, cum corporibus simul animos interire atque omnia morte deleri. Plus apud me antiquorum auctoritas valet, qui dicebant, animos hominum esse divinos, iisque, cum e corpore excessissent, reditum in cœlum patere, optimoque et justissimo cuique expeditissimum. Nor am I able to agree with those who have begun to affirm that the soul dies with the body, and that all things are destroyed by death. I am more inclined to be of the opinion of those among the ancients, who used to maintain that the souls of men are divine, and when they leave the body they return to heaven, and those who are the most virtuous and upright have the most speedy entrance. FRIENDSHIP A UNION OF FEELING ON ALL SUBJECTS. Amicit. 6. Est autem amicitia nihil aliud, nisi omnium divinarum, humanarumque rerum cum benevolentiâ, et caritate summa consensio quâ quidem haud scio, an, exceptâ sapientiâ, quicquam melius homini sit a diis immortalibus datum. Friendship only truly exists where men harmonise in their views of things human and divine, accompanied with the greatest love and esteem; I know not whether, with the exception of wisdom, the gods have given us anything better. FRIENDSHIP RENDERS PROSPERITY MORE BRILLIANT. Amicit. 6. Secundas res splendidiores facit amicitia et adversas partiens communicansque leviores. Friendship throws a greater lustre on prosperity, while it lightens adversity by sharing in its griefs and anxieties. ABSENT FRIENDS. Amicit. 7. Quocirca et absentes adsunt, et egentes abundant, et imbecilles valent, et, quod difficilius dictu est, mortui vivunt. For in this way we may say that the absent are present, the needy have abundance, the weak are in health, and, what may seem absurd, the dead are alive. IN FRIENDSHIP NOTHING FALSE. Amicit. 8. In amicitiâ autem nihil fictum, nihil simulatum; et, quidquid in eâ est, id est verum, et voluntarium. In friendship we find nothing false or insincere; everything is straightforward, and springs from the heart. THAN FRIENDSHIP NOTHING MORE DELIGHTFUL. Amicit. 13. O præclaram sapientiam! Solem enim e mundo tollere videntur, qui amicitiam e vitâ tollunt: quâ a diis immortalibus nihil melius habemus, nihil jucundius. O matchless wisdom! those seem to take the sun out of the world who remove friendship from the pleasures of life: than which we have received nothing better or more pleasant from the gods. A MIND WELL REGULATED. Ergo hoc proprium est animi bene constituti, et lætari bonis rebus, et dolere contrariis. This, then, is a proof of a well-trained mind, to delight in what is good, and to be annoyed at the opposite. WHO CAN LOVE HIM WHOM HE FEARS? Amicit. 15. Quis enim aut eum diligat, quem metuit; aut eum, a quo se metui putat? For who can either love him whom he fears, or him by whom he thinks that he is feared? |