TO LOLLIUS.
_He prefers Homer to all the philosophers, as a moral writer, and
advises an early cultivation of virtue_.
While you, great Lollius, declaim at Rome, I at Praeneste have perused
over again the writer of the Trojan war; who teaches more clearly, and
better than Chrysippus and Crantor, what is honorable, what shameful,
what profitable, what not so. If nothing hinders you, hear why I have
thus concluded. The story is which, on account of Paris's intrigue,
Greece is stated to be wasted in a tedious war with the barbarians,
contains the tumults of foolish princes and people. Antenor gives his
opinion for cutting off the cause of the war. What does Paris? He can
not be brought to comply, [though it be in order] that he may reign
safe, and live happy. Nestor labors to compose the differences between
Achilles and Agamemnon: love inflames one; rage both in common. The
Greeks suffer for what their princes act foolishly. Within the walls of
Ilium, and without, enormities are committed by sedition, treachery,
injustice, and lust, and rage.
Again, to show what virtue and what wisdom can do, he has propounded
Ulysses an instructive pattern: who, having subdued Troy, wisely got an
insight into the constitutions and customs of many nations; and, while
for himself and his associates he is contriving a return, endured many
hardships on the spacious sea, not to be sunk by all the waves of
adversity. You are well acquainted with the songs of the Sirens, and
Circe's cups: of which, if he had foolishly and greedily drunk along
with his attendants, he had been an ignominious and senseless slave
under the command of a prostitute: he had lived a filthy dog, or a hog
delighting in mire.
We are a mere number and born to consume the fruits of the earth; like
Penelope's suitors, useless drones; like Alcinous' youth, employed above
measure in pampering their bodies; whose glory was to sleep till
mid-day, and to lull their cares to rest by the sound of the harp.
Robbers rise by night, that they may cut men's throats; and will not you
awake to save yourself? But, if you will not when you are in health, you
will be forced to take exercise when you are in a dropsy; and unless
before day you call for a book with a light, unless you brace your mind
with study and honest employments, you will be kept awake and tormented
with envy or with love. For why do you hasten to remove things that hurt
your eyes, but if any thing gnaws your mind, defer the time of curing it
from year to year? He has half the deed done, who has made a beginning.
Boldly undertake the study of true wisdom: begin it forthwith. He who
postpones the hour of living well, like the hind [in the fable], waits
till [all the water in] the river be run off: whereas it flows, and will
flow, ever rolling on.
Money is sought, and a wife fruitful in bearing children, and wild
woodlands are reclaimed by the plow. [To what end all this?] He, that
has got a competency, let him wish for no more. Not a house and farm,
nor a heap of brass and gold, can remove fevers from the body of their
sick master, or cares from his mind. The possessor must be well, if he
thinks of enjoying the things which he has accumulated. To him that is a
slave to desire or to fear, house and estate do just as much good as
paintings to a sore-eyed person, fomentations to the gout, music to ears
afflicted with collected matter. Unless the vessel be sweet, whatever
you pour into it turns sour. Despise pleasures, pleasure bought with
pain is hurtful. The covetous man is ever in want; set a certain limit
to your wishes. The envious person wastes at the thriving condition of
another: Sicilian tyrants never invented a greater torment than envy. He
who will not curb his passion, will wish that undone which his grief and
resentment suggested, while he violently plies his revenge with unsated
rancor. Rage is a short madness. Rule your passion, which commands, if
it do not obey; do you restrain it with a bridle, and with fetters. The
groom forms the docile horse, while his neck is yet tender, to go the
way which his rider directs him: the young hound, from the time that he
barked at the deer's skin in the hall, campaigns it in the woods. Now,
while you are young, with an untainted mind Imbibe instruction: now
apply yourself to the best [masters of morality]. A cask will long
preserve the flavor, with which when new it was once impregnated. But if
you lag behind, or vigorously push on before, I neither wait for the
loiterer, nor strive to overtake those that precede me.
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