TO QUINCTIUS.
_He describes to Quinctius the form, situation, and advantages of his
country house: then declares that probity consists in the consciousness
of good works; liberty, in probity_.
Ask me not, my best Quinctius, whether my farm maintains its master with
corn-fields, or enriches him with olives, or with fruits, or meadow
land, or the elm tree clothed with vines: the shape and situation of my
ground shall be described to you at large.
There is a continued range of mountains, except where they are separated
by a shadowy vale; but in such a manner, that the approaching sun views
it on the right side, and departing in his flying car warms the left.
You would commend its temperature. What? If my [very] briers produce in
abundance the ruddy cornels and damsens? If my oak and holm tree
accommodate my cattle with plenty of acorns, and their master with a
copious shade? You would say that Tarentum, brought nearer [to Rome],
shone in its verdant beauty. A fountain too, deserving to give name to a
river, insomuch that Hebrus does not surround Thrace more cool or more
limpid, flows salubrious to the infirm head, salubrious to the bowels.
These sweet, yea now (if you will credit me) these delightful retreats
preserve me to you in a state of health [even] in the September season.
You live well, if you take care to support the character which you bear.
Long ago, all Rome has proclaimed you happy: but I am apprehensive, lest
you should give more credit concerning yourself to any one than
yourself; and lest you should imagine a man happy, who differs from the
wise and good; or, because the people pronounce you sound and perfectly
well, lest you dissemble the lurking fever at meal-times, until a
trembling seize your greased hands. The false modesty of fools conceals
ulcers [rather than have them cured]. If any one should mention battles
which you had fought by land and sea, and in such expressions as these
should soothe your listening ears: "May Jupiter, who consults the safety
both of you and of the city, keep it in doubt, whether the people be
more solicitous for your welfare, or you for the people's;" you might
perceive these encomiums to belong [only] to Augustus when you suffer
yourself to be termed a philosopher, and one of a refined life; say,
pr'ythee, would you answer [to these appellations] in your own name? To
be sure--I like to be called a wise and good man, as well as you. He who
gave this character to-day, if he will, can take it away to-morrow: as
the same people, if they have conferred the consulship on an unworthy
person, may take it away from him: "Resign; it is ours," they cry: I do
resign it accordingly, and chagrined withdraw. Thus if they should call
me rogue, deny me to be temperate, assert that I had strangled my own
father with a halter; shall I be stung, and change color at these false
reproaches? Whom does false honor delight, or lying calumny terrify,
except the vicious and sickly-minded? Who then is a good man? He who
observes the decrees of the senate, the laws and rules of justice; by
whose arbitration many and important disputes are decided; by whose
surety private property, and by whose testimony causes are safe. Yet
[perhaps] his own family and all the neighborhood observe this man,
specious in a fair outside, [to be] polluted within. If a slave should
say to me, "I have not committed a robbery, nor run away:" "You have
your reward; you are not galled with the lash," I reply. "I have not
killed any man:" "You shall not [therefore] feed the carrion crows on
the cross." I am a good man, and thrifty: your Sabine friend denies, and
contradicts the fact. For the wary wolf dreads the pitfall, and the hawk
the suspected snares, and the kite the concealed hook. The good, [on the
contrary,] hate to sin from the love of virtue; you will commit no crime
merely for the fear of punishment. Let there be a prospect of escaping,
you will confound sacred and profane things together. For, when from a
thousand bushels of beans you filch one, the loss in that case to me is
less, but not your villainy. The honest man, whom every forum and every
court of justice looks upon with reverence, whenever he makes an
atonement to the gods with a wine or an ox; after he has pronounced in a
clear distinguishable voice, "O father Janus, O Apollo;" moves his lips
as one afraid of being heard; "O fair Laverna put it in my power to
deceive; grant me the appearance of a just and upright man: throw a
cloud of night over my frauds." I do not see how a covetous man can be
better, how more free than a slave, when he stoops down for the sake of
a penny, stuck in the road [for sport]. For he who will be covetous,
will also be anxious: but he that lives in a state of anxiety, will
never in my estimation be free. He who is always in a hurry, and
immersed in the study of augmenting his fortune, has lost the arms, and
deserted the post of virtue. Do not kill your captive, if you can sell
him: he will serve you advantageously: let him, being inured to
drudgery, feed [your cattle], and plow; let him go to sea, and winter in
the midst of the waves; let him be of use to the market, and import corn
and provisions. A good and wise man will have courage to say, "Pentheus,
king of Thebes, what indignities will you compel me to suffer and
endure. 'I will take away your goods:' my cattle, I suppose, my land, my
movables and money: you may take them. 'I will confine you with
handcuffs and fetters under a merciless jailer.' The deity himself will
discharge me, whenever I please." In my opinion, this is his meaning; I
will die. Death is the ultimate boundary of human matters.
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