XIV. Of all men they alone
are at leisure who take time for philosophy, they alone really live; for they
are not content to be good guardians of their own lifetime only. They annex
ever age to their own; all the years that have gone ore them are an addition to
their store. Unless we are most ungrateful, all those men, glorious fashioners
of holy thoughts, were born for us; for us they have prepared a way of life. By
other men's labours we are led to the sight of things most beautiful that have
been wrested from darkness and brought into light; from no age are we shut out,
we have access to all ages, and if it is our wish, by greatness of mind, to
pass beyond the narrow limits of human weakness, there is a great stretch of
time through which we may roam. We may argue with Socrates, we may
doubt32 with Carneades, find peace with Epicurus, overcome human nature
with the Stoics, exceed it with the Cynics. Since Nature allows us to enter
into fellowship with every age, why should we not turn from this paltry and
fleeting span of time and surrender ourselves with all our soul to the past,
which is boundless, which is eternal, which we share with our betters?
Those who rush about in the performance of social duties, who give themselves
and others no rest, when they have fully indulged their madness, when they have
every day crossed everybody's threshold, and have left no open door unvisited,
when they have carried around their venal greeting to houses that are very far
apart—out of a city so huge and torn by such varied desires, how few will they
be able to see? How many will there be who either from sleep or self-indulgence
or rudeness will keep them out! How many who, when they have tortured them with
long waiting, will rush by, pretending to be in a hurry! How many will avoid
passing out through a hall that is crowded with clients, and will make their
escape through some concealed door as if it were not more discourteous to
deceive than to exclude. How many, still half asleep and sluggish from last
night's debauch, scarcely lifting their lips in the midst of a most insolent
yawn, manage to bestow on yonder poor wretches, who break their own
slumber33 in order to wait on that of another, the right name only
after it has been whispered to them a thousand times!
But we may fairly say that they alone are engaged in the true duties of life
who shall wish to have Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus, and all the other high
priests of liberal studies, and Aristotle and Theophrastus, as their most
intimate friends every day. No one of these will be "not at home," no
one of these will fail to have his visitor leave more happy and more devoted to
himself than when he came, no one of these will allow anyone to leave him with
empty hands; all mortals can meet with them by night or by day.
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