To His Steward
_He upbraids his levity for contemning a country life, which had been
his choice, and being eager to return to Rome_.
Steward of my woodlands and little farm that restores me to myself,
which you despise, [though formerly] inhabited by five families, and
wont to send five good senators to Varia: let us try, whether I with
more fortitude pluck the thorns out of my mind, or you out of my ground:
and whether Horace or his estate be in a better condition.
Though my affection and solicitude for Lamia, mourning for his brother,
lamenting inconsolably for his brother's loss, detain me; nevertheless
my heart and soul carry me thither and long to break through those
barriers that obstruct my way. I pronounce him the happy man who dwells
in the country, you him [who lives] in the city. He to whom his
neighbor's lot is agreeable, must of consequence dislike his own. Each
of us is a fool for unjustly blaming the innocent place. The mind is in
fault, which never escapes from itself. When you were a drudge at every
one's beck, you tacitly prayed for the country: and now, [being
appointed] my steward, you wish for the city, the shows, and the baths.
You know I am consistent with myself, and loth to go, whenever
disagreeable business drags me to Rome. We are not admirers of the same
things: henoe you and I disagree. For what you reckon desert and
inhospitable wilds, he who is of my way of thinking calls delightful
places; and dislikes what you esteem pleasant. The bagnio, I perceive,
and the greasy tavern raise your inclination for the city: and this,
because my little spot will sooner yield frankincense and pepper than
grapes; nor is there a tavern near, which can supply you with wine; nor
a minstrel harlot, to whose thrumming you may dance, cumbersome to the
ground: and yet you exercise with plowshares the fallows that have been
a long while untouched, you take due care of the ox when unyoked, and
give him his fill with leaves stripped [from the boughs]. The sluice
gives an additional trouble to an idle fellow, which, if a shower fall,
must be taught by many a mound to spare the sunny meadow.
Come now, attend to what hinders our agreeing. [Me,] whom fine garments
and dressed locks adorned, whom you know to have pleased venal Cynara
without a present, whom [you have seen] quaff flowing Falernian from
noon--a short supper [now] delights, and a nap upon the green turf by
the stream side; nor is it a shame to have been gay, but not to break
off that gayety. There there is no one who reduces my possessions with
envious eye, nor poisons them with obscure malice and biting slander;
the neighbors smile at me removing clods and stones. You had rather be
munching your daily allowance with the slaves in town; you earnestly
pray to be of the number of these: [while my] cunning foot-boy envies
you the use of the firing, the flocks and the garden. The lazy ox wishes
for the horse's trappings: the horse wishes to go to plow. But I shall
be of opinion, that each of them ought contentedly to exercise that art
which he understands.
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