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1 I | because even this space that has been granted to us rushes
2 I | speedily and so swiftly that all save a very few find
3 I | and the unthinking crowd that bemoan what is, as men deem
4 I | were famous. It was this that made the greatest of physicians
5 I | greatest of physicians exclaim that "life is short, art is long;"2
6 I(1) | from chapters 18 and 19 that, when this essay was written (
7 I | art is long;"2 it was this that led Aristotle,3 while expostulating
8 I | unbecoming to a wise man—that, in point of age, she has
9 I | shown such favour to animals that they drag out five or ten
10 I | five or ten lifetimes,4 but that a much shorter limit is
11 I | achievements. It is not that we have a short space of
12 I | short space of time, but that we waste much of it. Life
13 I | ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before
14 I | away before we were aware that it was passing. So it is—
15 II | possessed by an avarice that is insatiable, another by
16 II | toilsome devotion to tasks that are useless; one man is
17 II | exhausted by an ambition that always hangs upon the decision
18 II | their fickleness into plans that are ever new; some have
19 II | so surely does it happen that I cannot doubt the truth
20 II | cannot doubt the truth of that utterance which the greatest
21 II | lusts abides. Think you that I am speaking of the wretches
22 II | does the throng of clients that crowd about them leave no
23 II | this one answers the call, that one is on trial, that one
24 II | call, that one is on trial, that one defends him, that one
25 II | trial, that one defends him, that one gives sentence; no one
26 II | heart, and you will see that these are the marks that
27 II | that these are the marks that distinguish them: A cultivates
28 II | for such services, seeing that, when you performed them,
29 III | older men and say: "I see that you have reached the farthest
30 III | acts, add, too, the time that has lain idle and unused;
31 III | and unused; you will see that you have fewer years to
32 III | to you; you will perceive that you are dying before your
33 III | supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on
34 III | guarantee, pray, have you that your life will last longer?
35 III | set apart for wisdom only that time which cannot be devoted
36 IV | IV. You will see that the most powerful and highly
37 IV | would gladden his labours—that he would one day live for
38 IV | in which he had promised that his rest would not be devoid
39 IV | far distant, my desire for that time most earnestly prayed
40 IV | a thing did leisure seem that he anticipated it in thought
41 IV | thought most happily of that future day on which he should
42 IV | much sweat those blessings that shone throughout all lands
43 IV(8) | The idea is that greatness sinks beneath
44 IV | place; just as in a body that was overburdened with blood,
45 V | many times does he curse that very consulship of his,
46 V | the future. Cicero said that he was "half a prisoner."
47 VI | cradle, and to have exclaimed that he was the only person who
48 VI | so powerfully, indeed, that it is very well known that
49 VI | that it is very well known that in certain trials he forced
50 VI | go? One might have known that such precocious hardihood
51 VI | late for him to complain that he had never had a holiday
52 VI | something superfluous and that could be replaced. ~
53 VII | and into lust bear a stain that is dishonourable. Search
54 VII(14) | in the interests of life that they take no time for philosophy. ~~
55 VII | Finally, everybody agrees that no one pursuit can be successfully
56 VII | but rejects everything that is, as it were, crammed
57 VII | living: there is nothing that is harder to learn. Of the
58 VII | some of them we have seen that mere boys have mastered
59 VII | have mastered so thoroughly that they could even play the
60 VII | departed from life confessing that they did not yet know—still
61 VII | from him, and it follows that the life of such a man is
62 VII | grudgingly, he found nothing that was worthy to be taken in
63 VII | exchange for his time. And so that man had time enough, but
64 VII | reason for you to suppose that these people are not sometimes
65 VII | self. Of how many days has that defendant robbed you? Of
66 VII | robbed you? Of how many that candidate? Of how many that
67 VII | that candidate? Of how many that old woman wearied with burying
68 VII(15) | various types of occupati that have been sketchily presented.
69 VII | her heirs?16 Of how many that man who is shamming sickness
70 VII | legacy-hunters? Of how many that very powerful friend who
71 VII | your life; you will see that very few, and those the
72 VII | have been left for you. That man who had prayed for the
73 VII | will this year be over!" That man gives games,18 and,
74 VII(17) | The rods that were the symbol of high
75 VII | shall I be rid of them?" That advocate is lionized throughout
76 VII | place with a great crowd that stretches farther than he
77 VII | what new pleasure is there that any hour can now bring?
78 VII | reason for you to think that any man has lived long because
79 VII | what if you should think that that man had had a long
80 VII | if you should think that that man had had a long voyage
81 VII | by a succession of winds that raged from different quarters,
82 VIII | in the case of the years that have passed, how alarmed
83 VIII | easy to dispense an amount that is assured, no matter how
84 VIII | how small it may be; but that must be guarded more carefully
85 VIII | reason for you to suppose that these people do not know
86 VIII | they have a habit of saying that they are ready to give them
87 VIII | result of their giving is that they themselves suffer loss
88 VIII | the removal of something that is lost without being noticed
89 IX | busily engaged in order that they may be able to live
90 IX | wastes to-day. You dispose of that which lies in the hands
91 IX | hands of Fortune, you let go that which lies in your own.
92 IX | goal do you aim? All things that are still to come lie in
93 IX | and, as from a torrent that rushes by and will not always
94 IX | upon infinite delay, in that he says, not "the fairest
95 IX | and about this very day that is flying. Is there, then,
96 IX | Is there, then, any doubt that for hapless mortals, that
97 IX | that for hapless mortals, that is, for men who are engrossed,
98 IX | unexpectedly, they did not notice that it was drawing nearer day
99 IX | traveller, and he finds that he has reached the end of
100 IX | journey before he was aware that he was approaching it, just
101 X | me by which I could prove that busy men find life very
102 X | old-fashioned kind, used to say that we must fight against the
103 X | not with artifice, and that the battle-line must be
104 X | by inflicting pinpricks; that sophistry is not serviceable,
105 X | but crushed. Yet, in order that the victims of them nay
106 X | particular fault, I say that they must be instructed,
107 X | divided into three periods—that which has been, that which
108 X | periods—that which has been, that which is, that which will
109 X | has been, that which is, that which will be. Of these
110 X | is the part of our time that is sacred and set apart,
111 X | no time to do. The mind that is untroubled and tranquil
112 X | brief, so brief, indeed, that to some there seems to be
113 X | alone, and it is so brief that it cannot be grasped, and
114 XI | more years; they pretend that they are younger than they
115 XI | terror do they die, feeling that they are being dragged out
116 XI | leaving it. They cry out that they have been fools, because
117 XI | have not really lived, and that they will live henceforth
118 XI | scattered in this direction and that, none of it is committed
119 XII | reason for you to suppose that I mean only those whom the
120 XII | only those whom the dogs22 that have at length been let
121 XII(22) | Apparently watch-dogs that were let in at nightfall,
122 XII | keeps busy in seeking gain that is disreputable and that
123 XII | that is disreputable and that will one day fester. Even
124 XII | own worry; we should say that these are living, not in
125 XII | idleness.24 Would you say that that man is at leisure25
126 XII | idleness.24 Would you say that that man is at leisure25 who
127 XII | his Corinthian bronzes, that the mania of a few makes
128 XII | shame I we labour with vices that are not even Roman) watching
129 XII | Tell me, would you say that those men are at leisure
130 XII | drawn from this side and that toward the forehead? How
131 XII | than upright? Would you say that these are at leisure who
132 XII | all the privacies of life that they can neither eat nor
133 XII | lassitude of a pampered mind that they cannot find out by
134 XII | they are hungry! I hear that one of these pampered people—
135 XII | pampered people—provided that you can call it pampering
136 XII | now seated?" Do you think that this man, who does not know
137 XII | doing. After this imagine that the mimes26 fabricate many
138 XII | clever in this one direction, that by now we can charge the
139 XII | mimes with neglect. To think that there is anyone who is so
140 XII | who is so lost in luxury that he takes another's word
141 XII | is sick, nay, he is dead; that man is at leisure, who has
142 XII | half alive, who, in order that he may know the postures
143 XII(26) | popular mimes, or low farces, that were often censured for
144 XIII | one will have any doubt that those are laborious triflers
145 XIII | Roman general to do this or that; Duilius was the first who
146 XIII | the ancient fashion, boats that carry provisions up the
147 XIII | have some point—the fact that Valerius Corvinus was the
148 XIII | interested also in this—the fact that Lucius Sulla was the first
149 XIII | exhibited in chains, and that javelin-throwers were sent
150 XIII | any useful purpose to know that Pompey was the first to
151 XIII | they fight to the death? That is not enough! Are they
152 XIII | Are they torn to pieces? That is not enough! Let them
153 XIII | bulk! Better would it be that these things pass into oblivion
154 XIII | and be jealous of an act that was nowise human.29 O, what
155 XIII | shed more. he then believed that he was beyond the power
156 XIII(29)| Hist. viii. 21) reports that the people were so moved
157 XIII(29)| people were so moved by pity that they rose in a body and
158 XIII | have digressed, and to show that some people bestow useless
159 XIII | man I mentioned related that Metellus, when he triumphed
160 XIII | to be led before his car; that Sulla was the last of the
161 XIII | profitable to know this than that Mount Aventine, according
162 XIII | reasons, either because that was the place to which the
163 XIII | Remus took his auspices on that spot—and, in turn, countless
164 XIII | countless other reports that are either crammed with
165 XIII | sort? For though you grant that they tell these things in
166 XIII | friend Fabianus used to say that at times he was doubtful
167 XIV | their own; all the years that have gone ore them are an
168 XIV | of things most beautiful that have been wrested from darkness
169 XIV | venal greeting to houses that are very far apart—out of
170 XIV | passing out through a hall that is crowded with clients,
171 XIV(32) | The New Academy taught that certainty of knowledge was
172 XIV | slumber33 in order to wait on that of another, the right name
173 XIV | But we may fairly say that they alone are engaged in
174 XV | you do not draw the utmost that you can desire. What happiness,
175 XV | himself. ~ We are wont to say that it was not in our power
176 XV | parents who fell to our lot, that they have been given to
177 XV | Honours, monuments, all that ambition has commanded by
178 XV | to ruin; there is nothing that the lapse of time does not
179 XV | close at hand, and things that are far off we are more
180 XV | confined by the same bounds that shut others in. He alone
181 XVI | for the future have a life that is very brief and troubled;
182 XVI | wretches perceive too late that for such a long while they
183 XVI | reason to think it any proof that they find life long. In
184 XVI | have no reason to think that this is any proof that they
185 XVI | think that this is any proof that they are living a long time—
186 XVI | living a long time—the fact that the day often seems to them
187 XVI | seems to them long, the fact that they complain that the hours
188 XVI | fact that they complain that the hours pass slowly until
189 XVI | want to skip over the days that lie between. All postponement
190 XVI | in wine! It is this also that accounts for the madness
191 XVI | in which they represent that Jupiter under the enticement
192 XVII | such fear. And why is it that even their joys are uneasy
193 XVII | in behalf of the prayers that have turned out well we
194 XVII | prayers. For everything that comes to us from chance
195 XVII | take no account of time that will never more return.
196 XVII | man he had scorned honours that rivalled those of the gods,
197 XVIII | slumbers and the pleasures that are dear to the crowd. That
198 XVIII | that are dear to the crowd. That is not to rest; you will
199 XVIII | the corn-market. Recall that keen mind of yours, which
200 XVIII | subjects, from a service that is indeed honourable but
201 XVIII | happy life, and reflect that in all your training in
202 XVIII | were not aiming at this—that it might be safe to entrust
203 XVIII | feeling) because he knew that the Roman people were alive41
204 XVIII | threatened with the worst evil that can befall men even during
205 XVIII | and the general revolution that follows famine. What then
206 XVIII | concealed the great evil that lurked in the vitals of
207 XIX | greater things! Think you that it is just the same whether
208 XIX | transport it, in seeing that it does not become heated
209 XIX | body; what the principle is that upholds all the heaviest
210 XIX | of life there awaits much that is good to know—the love
211 XIX | who labour at engrossments that are not even their own,
212 XIX | regulate their sleep by that of another, their walk by
213 XX | all their years, in order that they may have one year reckoned
214 XX | possessed by the unhappy thought that they have but toiled for
215 XX | even arrange for things that lie beyond life—huge masses
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