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1 I | us rushes by so speedily and so swiftly that all save
2 I | it merely the common herd and the unthinking crowd that
3 I(1) | is clear from chapters 18 and 19 that, when this essay
4 I(1) | the grain supply of Rome, and was, therefore, a man of
5 I(1) | s wife, Pompeia Paulina, and is usually identified with
6 I | though he is born for so many and such great achievements.
7 I | it. Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently
8 I | is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is
9 I | wasteful of it. Just as great and princely wealth is scattered
10 II | trader, is led over all lands and all seas by the hope of
11 II | tormented by a passion for war and are always either bent upon
12 II | following no fixed aim, shifting and inconstant and dissatisfied,
13 II | shifting and inconstant and dissatisfied, are plunged
14 II | unawares while they loll and yawn—so surely does it happen
15 II | merely time. Vices beset us and surround us on every side,
16 II | surround us on every side, and they do not permit us to
17 II | not permit us to rise anew and lift up our eyes for the
18 II | they have overwhelmed us and we are chained to lust.
19 II | they are tossed about, and no rest from their lusts
20 II | From how many do eloquence and the daily straining to display
21 II | names are known by heart, and you will see that these
22 II | distinguish them: A cultivates B and B cultivates C; no one is
23 II | no one is his own master. And then certain men show the
24 II(6) | one who by his presence and advice lent support in court. ~~
25 III | to seize their estates, and they rush to stones and
26 III | and they rush to stones and arms if there is even the
27 III | themselves most prodigal. And so I should like to lay
28 III | the company of older men and say: "I see that you have
29 III | come now, recall your life and make a reckoning. Consider
30 III | time that has lain idle and unused; you will see that
31 III | count. Look back in memory and consider when you ever had
32 III | if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though
33 III | all the fears of mortals and all the desires of immortals.
34 III | me from public duties." And what guarantee, pray, have
35 III | only the remnant of life, and to set apart for wisdom
36 III | wholesome plans to the fiftieth and sixtieth year, and to intend
37 III | fiftieth and sixtieth year, and to intend to begin life
38 IV | see that the most powerful and highly placed men let drop
39 IV | for leisure, acclaim it, and prefer it to all their blessings.
40 IV | not cease to pray for rest and to seek release from public
41 IV | the fortune of individuals and of nations, thought most
42 IV | against his colleagues, and lastly against his relatives,
43 IV | relatives, he shed blood on land and sea. ~ Through Macedonia,
44 IV | Macedonia, Sicily, Egypt, Syria, and Asia, and almost all countries
45 IV | Egypt, Syria, and Asia, and almost all countries he
46 IV | followed the path of battle, and when his troops were weary
47 IV | pacifying the Alpine regions, and subduing the enemies planted
48 IV | bounds even beyond the Rhine and the Euphrates and the Danube,
49 IV | Rhine and the Euphrates and the Danube, in Rome itself
50 IV | Caepio, Lepidus, Egnatius, and others were being whetted
51 IV | plots, when his daughter9 and all the noble youths who
52 IV | alarmed his failing years—and there was Paulus, and a
53 IV | years—and there was Paulus, and a second time the need to
54 IV(10) | pitted against Mark Antony and Cleopatra; in 2 B.C. Iullus
55 IV | always a rupture somewhere. And so he longed for leisure,
56 IV | for leisure, in the hope and thought of which he found
57 IV(11) | characterization of Julia and his two grandchildren in
58 IV(11) | sua" ("his trio of boils and trio of ulcers"). ~~
59 V | among men like Catiline and Clodius and Pompey and Crassus,
60 V | like Catiline and Clodius and Pompey and Crassus, some
61 V | Catiline and Clodius and Pompey and Crassus, some open enemies,
62 V | friends, as he is tossed to and fro along with the state
63 V | fro along with the state and seeks to keep it from destruction,
64 V | elder had been conquered, and the son was still trying
65 V | bewails his former life and complains of the present
66 V | complains of the present and despairs of the future.
67 V | possesses an undiminished and stable liberty, being free
68 V | stable liberty, being free and his own master and towering
69 V | free and his own master and towering over all others.
70 VI | Livius Drusus,13 a bold and energetic man, had with
71 VI | Italy proposed new laws and the evil measures of the
72 VI | had had from the cradle, and to have exclaimed that he
73 VI | while he was still a ward and wearing the dress of a boy,
74 VI | those who were accused, and to make his influence felt
75 VI | result in great personal and public misfortune. And so
76 VI | personal and public misfortune. And so it was too late for him
77 VI | had been a trouble-maker and a nuisance in the forum.
78 VI | every act of their years, and with their own lips have
79 VI | were something superfluous and that could be replaced. ~
80 VI(13) | B.C. he proposed a corn law and the granting of citizenship
81 VII | time for nothing but wine and lust; for none have more
82 VII | the pleasures of the belly and into lust bear a stain that
83 VII | become a matter of business—, and you will see how their interests,
84 VII | life to learn how to live, and—what will perhaps make you
85 VII | renounced riches, business, and pleasures, have made it
86 VII | me, it takes a great man and one who has risen far above
87 VII | to be filched from him, and it follows that the life
88 VII | None of it lay neglected and idle; none of it was under
89 VII | in exchange for his time. And so that man had time enough,
90 VII | had too little of it. ~ And there is no reason for you
91 VII | powerful friend who has you and your like on the list, not
92 VII | retinue? Check off, I say, and review the days of your
93 VII | will see that very few, and those the refuse. have been
94 VII | desires to lay them aside and says over and over: "When
95 VII | them aside and says over and over: "When will this year
96 VII | That man gives games,18 and, after setting great value
97 VII | throughout the whole forum, and fills all the place with
98 VII | Everyone hurries his life on and suffers from a yearning
99 VII | yearning for the future and a weariness of the present.
100 VII | but nothing taken from it, and he will take any addition
101 VII | the man who is satisfied and filled takes the food which
102 VII | which he does not desire and yet can hold. And so there
103 VII | desire and yet can hold. And so there is no reason for
104 VII | soon as he left harbour, and, swept hither and thither
105 VII | harbour, and, swept hither and thither by a succession
106 VIII | demanding the time of others and those from whom they ask
107 VIII | beneath the sight of the eyes, and for this reason it is counted
108 VIII | great store by pensions and doles, and for these they
109 VIII | store by pensions and doles, and for these they hire out
110 VIII | physicians if they fall ill and the danger of death draws
111 VIII | sparing of them would they be! And yet it is easy to dispense
112 VIII | part of their own years. And they do give it, without
113 VIII | the path it started upon, and will neither reverse nor
114 VIII | nowhere will it delay. And what will be the result?
115 IX | depends upon the morrow and wastes to-day. You dispose
116 IX | greatest of bards cries out, and, as if inspired with divine
117 IX | in the speed of using it, and, as from a torrent that
118 IX | a torrent that rushes by and will not always flow, you
119 IX | you must drink quickly. And, too, the utterance of the
120 IX | stretch before yourself months and years in long array, unconcerned
121 IX | long array, unconcerned and slow though time flies so
122 IX | speaks to you about the day, and about this very day that
123 IX | minds are still childish, and they come to it unprepared
124 IX | they come to it unprepared and unarmed, for they have made
125 IX | stumbled upon it suddenly and unexpectedly, they did not
126 IX | beguiles the traveller, and he finds that he has reached
127 IX | just so with this unceasing and most swift journey of life,
128 X | but one of the genuine and old-fashioned kind, used
129 X | force, not with artifice, and that the battle-line must
130 X | look back upon the past, and even if they should have,
131 X | backward to ill-spent hours, and those whose vices become
132 X | needs fear his own memory. And yet this is the part of
133 X | our time that is sacred and set apart, put beyond the
134 X | reach of all human mishaps, and removed from the dominion
135 X | away—it is an everlasting and unanxious possession. The
136 X | only one day at a time, and each by minutes; but all
137 X | suffer you to behold them and keep them at your will—a
138 X | mind that is untroubled and tranquil has the power to
139 X | weighted by a yoke, cannot turn and look behind. And so their
140 X | cannot turn and look behind. And so their life vanishes into
141 X | vanishes into an abyss; and as it does no good, no matter
142 X | is no bottom21 to receive and hold it, so with time—it
143 X | passes out through the chinks and holes of the mind. Present
144 X | in motion, it ever flows and hurries on; it ceases to
145 X | to be before it has come, and can no more brook delay
146 X | with present time alone, and it is so brief that it cannot
147 X | that it cannot be grasped, and even this is filched away
148 XI | themselves with a falsehood, and are as pleased to deceive
149 XI | being dragged out of life, and not merely leaving it. They
150 XI | they have not really lived, and that they will live henceforth
151 XI | which they did not enjoy, and how all their toil has gone
152 XI | scattered in this direction and that, none of it is committed
153 XI | to speak, yields income. And so, however small the amount
154 XI | is abundantly sufficient, and therefore, whenever his
155 XII(22) | were let in at nightfall, and caught the engrossed lawyer
156 XII | gain that is disreputable and that will one day fester.
157 XII | mania of a few makes costly, and spends the greater part
158 XII | into pairs of the same age and colour? Who feeds all the
159 XII | ones drawn from this side and that toward the forehead?
160 XII | are occupied with the comb and the mirror? And what of
161 XII | the comb and the mirror? And what of those who are engaged
162 XII | engaged in composing, hearing, and learning songs, while they
163 XII | twist the voice, whose best and simplest movement Nature
164 XII | leisure, but idle occupation. And their banquets, Heaven knows!
165 XII | reputation of being fastidious and elegant, and to such an
166 XII | fastidious and elegant, and to such an extent do their
167 XII | drink without ostentation. And I would not count these
168 XII | themselves borne hither and thither in a sedan-chair
169 XII | thither in a sedan-chair and a litter, and are punctual
170 XII | sedan-chair and a litter, and are punctual at the hours
171 XII | lifted by hands from the bath and placed in his sedan-chair,
172 XII | a man who is very lowly and despicable to know what
173 XII | over more than they invent, and such a multitude of unbelievable
174 XIII | belong to the same author, and various other matters of
175 XIII | pleasure your secret soul, and, if you publish them, make
176 XIII | board ship. It was Claudius, and this was the very reason
177 XIII | Law are called codices,27 and, in the ancient fashion,
178 XIII | first to conquer Messana, and was the first of the family
179 XIII | conquered city to himself, and was later called Messala
180 XIII | were exhibited in chains, and that javelin-throwers were
181 XIII | Bocchus to despatch them? And, doubtless, this too may
182 XIII | He, a leader of the state and one who, according to report,
183 XIII | all-powerful man should learn them and be jealous of an act that
184 XIII | dagger of the vilest slave, and then at last discovered
185 XIII(29) | that they rose in a body and called down curses upon
186 XIII | which I have digressed, and to show that some people
187 XIII | who had caused a hundred and twenty captured elephants
188 XIII | his auspices on that spot—and, in turn, countless other
189 XIII(31) | space kept vacant within and (according to Livy, i. 44)
190 XIV | been wrested from darkness and brought into light; from
191 XIV | have access to all ages, and if it is our wish, by greatness
192 XIV | not turn from this paltry and fleeting span of time and
193 XIV | and fleeting span of time and surrender ourselves with
194 XIV | duties, who give themselves and others no rest, when they
195 XIV | crossed everybody's threshold, and have left no open door unvisited,
196 XIV | apart—out of a city so huge and torn by such varied desires,
197 XIV | is crowded with clients, and will make their escape through
198 XIV | many, still half asleep and sluggish from last night'
199 XIV | Pythagoras, Democritus, and all the other high priests
200 XIV | priests of liberal studies, and Aristotle and Theophrastus,
201 XIV | liberal studies, and Aristotle and Theophrastus, as their most
202 XIV | visitor leave more happy and more devoted to himself
203 XV | counsel on matters great and small, whom he may consult
204 XV | praise without flattery, and after whose likeness he
205 XV | the path to immortality, and will raise you to a height
206 XV | time does not tear down and remove. But the works which
207 XV | reduce them; the following and each succeeding age will
208 XV | upon what is close at hand, and things that are far off
209 XV | therefore, has wide range, and he is not confined by the
210 XVI | past, neglect the present, and fear for the future have
211 XVI | life that is very brief and troubled; when they have
212 XVI | death because they fear it. And, too, you have no reason
213 XVI | left with nothing to do, and they do not know how to
214 XVI | or to drag out the time. And so they strive for something
215 XVI | something else to occupy them, and all the intervening time
216 XVI | which they enjoy is short and swift, and it is made much
217 XVI | enjoy is short and swift, and it is made much shorter
218 XVI | one pleasure to another and cannot remain fixed in one
219 XVI | gods as their sponsors, and to present the excused indulgence
220 XVI | expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the
221 XVII | pleasures of such men are uneasy and disquieted by alarms of
222 XVII | alarms of various sorts, and at the very moment of rejoicing
223 XVII | the power they possessed, and they have not so much delighted
224 XVII | army over the vast plains and could not grasp its number
225 XVII | battle, some in flight, and within a short time was
226 XVII | hundredth year he had such fear. And why is it that even their
227 XVII | by which they are exalted and lifted above mankind are
228 XVII | are a source of anxiety, and at no time is fortune less
229 XVII | need of other prosperity, and in behalf of the prayers
230 XVII | from chance is unstable, and the higher it rises, the
231 XVII | very wretched, therefore, and not merely short, must the
232 XVII | they attain what they wish, and with anxiety hold what they
233 XVII | will vex their preserver, and, when as a young man he
234 XVIII | XVIII. And so, my dearest Paulinus,
235 XVIII | yourself away from the crowd, and, too much storm-tossed for
236 XVIII | been displayed in laborious and unceasing proofs—try how
237 XVIII | time for yourself as well. And I do not summon you to slothful
238 XVIII | native energy in slumbers and the pleasures that are dear
239 XVIII | the midst of your release and retirement. You, I know,
240 XVIII | adapted to the happy life, and reflect that in all your
241 XVIII | hope of something greater and more lofty. There will be
242 XVIII | lack of men of tested worth and painstaking industry. But
243 XVIII | than thoroughbred horses, and who ever hampers the fleetness
244 XVIII | Roman people were alive41 and had enough food left for
245 XVIII | building his bridges of boats42 and playing with the resources
246 XVIII | his imitation of a mad and foreign and misproud king43
247 XVIII | imitation of a mad and foreign and misproud king43 was very
248 XVIII(42)| Three and a half miles long, reaching
249 XVIII | of the city's destruction and famine and the general revolution
250 XVIII | s destruction and famine and the general revolution that
251 XVIII | charge of the corn-market, and had to face stones, the
252 XVIII | stones, the sword, fire—and a Caligula? By the greatest
253 XIX | it does not become heated and spoiled by collecting moisture
254 XIX | spoiled by collecting moisture and tallies in weight and measure,
255 XIX | moisture and tallies in weight and measure, or whether you
256 XIX | enter upon these sacred and lofty studies with the purpose
257 XIX | to their proper changes—and ether matters, in turn,
258 XIX | really must leave the ground and turn your mind's eye upon
259 XIX | is good to know—the love and practice of the virtues,
260 XIX | passions, knowledge of living and dying, and a life of deep
261 XIX | knowledge of living and dying, and a life of deep repose. ~
262 XIX | things in the world—loving and hating. If these wish to
263 XX | XX. And so when you see a man often
264 XX | the midst of their great and shameless endeavours. Shameful
265 XX | when, advanced in years and still courting the applause
266 XX | receiving payments on account, and draws a smile from his long
267 XX | to be laid out on his bed and to be mourned by the assembled
268 XX | leisure of its old master, and did not end its sorrow until
269 XX | Meantime, while they rob and are being robbed, while
270 XX | life—huge masses of tombs and dedications of public works
271 XX | dedications of public works and gifts for their funeral-pyres
272 XX | for their funeral-pyres and ostentatious funerals. But,
273 XX | by the light of torches and wax tapers,47 as though
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