Letter 8

"You tell me to avoid the crowd," you say, "to withdraw from people and be content with my own conscience. What has happened to the teachings of your school, which order a person to die in the middle of active service?" Do I seem to you to be recommending idleness? I have hidden myself away and closed the doors so that I may help more people. No day passes for me in leisure. I claim part of the night for study. I do not have time for sleep; I yield to it, and when my eyes are tired from wakefulness and beginning to fall shut, I keep them at their work. I have withdrawn not only from people, but from affairs, especially my own affairs. I am conducting business for generations to come. I am writing down things that may help them: healthy warnings, like recipes for useful medicines. I have tested their power on my own wounds; even if those wounds are not wholly healed, they have at least stopped spreading. I point others toward the right road, which I found late, tired from wandering. I cry out: "Avoid whatever pleases the crowd. Avoid the things chance assigns to you. Stand suspicious and afraid before every accidental good. Wild animals and fish are deceived by some tempting hope. Do you think these are Fortune's gifts? They are traps. Whoever among you wants to live safely should avoid, as far as possible, those sticky favors by which we poor mortals are deceived in this way too: we think we hold them, but we are caught by them. "That road leads down cliffs; the end of a life set on such heights is a fall. Once prosperity begins driving us sideways, we are not even allowed to resist, or at least to go down with the ship on course, or to fall once and be done. Fortune does not merely overturn us; she pitches us headfirst and smashes us. "Hold, then, to this sound and healthy pattern of life: indulge the body only as much as good health requires. The body must be treated rather sternly, so that it does not obey the mind badly. Let food quiet hunger, drink quench thirst, clothing keep off cold, and a house serve as protection against the discomforts of weather. Whether that house is raised from turf or from multicolored stone imported from another country makes no difference. Know that a person is covered just as well by straw as by gold. Despise everything that needless labor adds as ornament and decoration. Remember that nothing except the mind is worthy of wonder; to a great mind, nothing is great." If I speak in this way with myself and with later generations, do you not think I do more good than if I went down as an advocate for a court appearance, or pressed my seal onto the tablets of a will, or in the senate lent my voice and hand to a candidate? Believe me: those who seem to be doing nothing are doing greater things. They are dealing with human and divine matters at the same time. But now I must stop and pay something, as I have made it my practice to do, for this letter. The payment will not come from my own property, for I am still reading Epicurus. Today I read this sentence: "If you wish to enjoy true freedom, you must be a slave to philosophy." The person who submits and surrenders himself to her is not kept waiting; he is freed at once. To serve philosophy is itself freedom. You may ask why I report so many noble sayings from Epicurus rather than from our own school. But why should you think those words belong to Epicurus, and not to everyone? How many poets say things that philosophers have said, or ought to say! I will not discuss the tragedians or our Roman toga-plays, which have some seriousness too and stand midway between comedy and tragedy. How many brilliantly expressed lines lie buried among the mimes! How many sayings of Publilius deserve not the slipper of comedy but the high boot of tragedy! I will quote one line of his that belongs to philosophy, especially to the part we were just discussing, where he denies that accidental gains should be counted as our own: Whatever comes by wishing is still another's. I remember you saying the same thing much better and more tightly: What fortune made yours is not truly yours. And I will not pass over another thing you said even better: The good that could be given can be taken away. I will not charge this against your account, since I have given it to you from your own store. Farewell.

“Do you bid me,” you say, “shun the throng, and withdraw from men, and be content with my own conscience? Where are the counsels of your school, which order a man to die in the midst of active work?” As to the course which I seem to you to be urging on you now and then, my object in shutting myself up and locking the door is to be able to help a greater number. I never spend a day in idleness; I appropriate even a part of the night for study. I do not allow time for sleep but yield to it when I must, and when my eyes are wearied with waking and ready to fall shut, I keep them at their task. I have withdrawn not only from men, but from affairs, especially from my own affairs; I am working for later generations, writing down some ideas that may be of assistance to them. There are certain wholesome counsels, which may be compared to prescriptions of useful drugs; these I am putting into writing; for I have found them helpful in ministering to my own sores, which, if not wholly cured, have at any rate ceased to spread. I point other men to the right path, which I have found late in life, when wearied with wandering. I cry out to them: “Avoid whatever pleases the throng: avoid the gifts of Chance! Halt before every good which Chance brings to you, in a spirit of doubt and fear; for it is the dumb animals and fish that are deceived by tempting hopes. Do you call these things the ‘gifts’ of Fortune? They are snares. And any man among you who wishes to live a life of safety will avoid, to the utmost of his power, these limed twigs of her favour, by which we mortals, most wretched in this respect also, are deceived; for we think that we hold them in our grasp, but they hold us in theirs. Such a career leads us into precipitous ways, and life on such heights ends in a fall. Moreover, we cannot even stand up against prosperity when she begins to drive us to leeward; nor can we go down, either, ‘with the ship at least on her course,’ or once for all; Fortune does not capsize us,—she plunges our bows under and dashes us on the rocks. “Hold fast, then, to this sound and wholesome rule of life; that you indulge the body only so far as is needful for good health. The body should be treated more rigorously, that it may not be disobedient to the mind. Eat merely to relieve your hunger; drink merely to quench your thirst; dress merely to keep out the cold; house yourself merely as a protection against personal discomfort. It matters little whether the house be built of turf, or of variously coloured imported marble; understand that a man is sheltered just as well by a thatch as by a roof of gold. Despise everything that useless toil creates as an ornament and an object of beauty. And reflect that nothing except the soul is worthy of wonder; for to the soul, if it be great, naught is great.” When I commune in such terms with myself and with future generations, do you not think that I am doing more good than when I appear as counsel in court, or stamp my seal upon a will, or lend my assistance in the senate, by word or action, to a candidate? Believe me, those who seem to be busied with nothing are busied with the greater tasks; they are dealing at the same time with things mortal and things immortal. But I must stop, and pay my customary contribution, to balance this letter. The payment shall not be made from my own property; for I am still conning Epicurus. I read to-day, in his works, the following sentence: “If you would enjoy real freedom, you must be the slave of Philosophy.” The man who submits and surrenders himself to her is not kept waiting; he is emancipated on the spot. For the very service of Philosophy is freedom. It is likely that you will ask me why I quote so many of Epicurus’s noble words instead of words taken from our own school. But is there any reason why you should regard them as sayings of Epicurus and not common property? How many poets give forth ideas that have been uttered, or may be uttered, by philosophers! I need not touch upon the tragedians and our writers of national drama; for these last are also somewhat serious, and stand half-way between comedy and tragedy. What a quantity of sagacious verses lie buried in the mime! How many of Publilius’s lines are worthy of being spoken by buskin-clad actors, as well as by wearers of the slipper! I shall quote one verse of his, which concerns philosophy, and particularly that phase of it which we were discussing a moment ago, wherein he says that the gifts of Chance are not to be regarded as part of our possessions: Still alien is whatever you have gained By coveting. I recall that you yourself expressed this idea much more happily and concisely: What Chance has made yours is not really yours. And a third, spoken by you still more happily, shall not be omitted: The good that could be given, can be removed. I shall not charge this up to the expense account, because I have given it to you from your own stock. Farewell.

[1] 'Tu me' inquis 'vitare turbam iubes, secedere et conscientia esse contentum? ubi illa praecepta vestra quae imperant in actu mori?' Quid? ego tibi videor inertiam suadere? In hoc me recondidi et fores clusi, ut prodesse pluribus possem. Nullus mihi per otium dies exit; partem noctium studiis vindico; non vaco somno sed succumbo, et oculos vigilia fatigatos cadentesque in opere detineo. [2] Secessi non tantum ab hominibus sed a rebus, et in primis a meis rebus: posterorum negotium ago. Illis aliqua quae possint prodesse conscribo; salutares admonitiones,velut medicamentorum utilium compositiones, litteris mando, esse illas efficaces in meis ulceribus expertus, quae etiam si persanata non sunt, serpere desierunt. [3] Rectum iter, quod sero cognovi et lassus errando, aliis monstro. Clamo: 'vitate quaecumque vulgo placent, quae casus attribuit; ad omne fortuitum bonum suspiciosi pavidique subsistite: et fera et piscis spe aliqua oblectante decipitur. Munera ista fortunae putatis? insidiae sunt. Quisquis vestrum tutam agere vitam volet, quantum plurimum potest ista viscata beneficia devitet in quibus hoc quoque miserrimi fallimur: habere nos putamus, haeremus. [4] In praecipitia cursus iste deducit; huius eminentis vitae exitus cadere est. Deinde ne resistere quidem licet, cum coepit transversos agere felicitas, aut saltim rectis aut semel ruere: non vertit fortuna sed cernulat et allidit. [5] Hanc ergo sanam ac salubrem formam vitae tenete, ut corpori tantum indulgeatis quantum bonae valetudini satis est. Durius tractandum est ne animo male pareat: cibus famem sedet, potio sitim exstinguat, vestis arceat frigus, domus munimentum sit adversus infesta temporis. Hanc utrum caespes erexerit an varius lapis gentis alienae, nihil interest: scitote tam bene hominem culmo quam auro tegi. Contemnite omnia quae supervacuus labor velut ornamentum ac decus ponit; cogitate nihil praeter animum esse mirabile, cui magno nihil magnum est.' [6] Si haec mecum, si haec cum posteris loquor, non videor tibi plus prodesse quam cum ad vadimonium advocatus descenderem aut tabulis testamenti anulum imprimerem aut in senatu candidato vocem et manum commodarem? Mihi crede, qui nihil agere videntur maiora agunt: humana divinaque simul tractant. [7] Sed iam finis faciendus est et aliquid, ut institui, pro hac epistula dependendum. Id non de meo fiet: adhuc Epicurum compilamus, cuius hanc vocem hodierno die legi: 'philosophiae servias oportet, ut tibi contingat vera libertas'. Non differtur in diem qui se illi subiecit et tradidit: statim circumagitur; hoc enim ipsum philosophiae servire libertas est. [8] Potest fieri ut me interroges quare ab Epicuro tam multa bene dicta referam potius quam nostrorum: quid est tamen quare tu istas Epicuri voces putes esse, non publicas? Quam multi poetae dicunt quae philosophis aut dicta sunt aut dicenda! Non attingam tragicos nec togatas nostras - habent enim hae quoque aliquid severitatis et sunt inter comoedias ac tragoedias mediae -: quantum disertissimorum versuum inter mimos iacet! quam multa Publilii non excalceatis sed coturnatis dicenda sunt! [9] Unum versum eius, qui ad philosophiam pertinet et ad hanc partem quae modo fuit in manibus, referam, quo negat fortuita in nostro habenda: alienum est omne quidquid optando evenit. [10] Hunc sensum a te dici non paulo melius et adstrictius memini: non est tuum fortuna quod fecit tuum. Illud etiam nunc melius dictum a te non praeteribo: dari bonum quod potuit auferri potest. Hoc non imputo in solutum: de tuo tibi. Vale.