Ep. 31.1Agnōscō Lūcīlium meum;I recognise my Lucilius; Ep. 31.1incipit, quem prōmīserat, exhibēre.he is beginning to show himself the man he promised to be. Ep. 31.1Sequere illum impetum animī, quō ad optima quaeque calcātīs populāribus bonīs ībās.Follow that impulse of spirit with which you were heading towards all that is best, trampling underfoot the goods of the crowd. Ep. 31.1Nōn dēsīderō maiōrem meliōremque tē fierī quam mōliēbāris.I do not wish you to become greater or better than you were striving to be. Ep. 31.1Fundāmenta tua multum locī occupāvērunt;Your foundations have taken up a great deal of ground; Ep. 31.1tantum effice, quantum cōnātus es, et illa quae tēcum in animō tulistī, trāctā.only complete as much as you have attempted, and carry out the plans which you have borne in your mind. Ep. 31.2Ad summam sapiēns eris, sī clūseris aurēs, quibus cēram parum est obdere;In short, you will be wise if you stop your ears, and for this it is not enough to plug them with wax; Ep. 31.2firmiōre spissāmentō opus est quam in sociīs ūsum Vlixem ferunt.you need a stronger stopping than the one they say Ulysses used for his comrades.
Ep. 31.2Illa vōx, quae timēbātur, erat blanda, nōn tamen pūblica, at haec, quae timenda est, nōn ex ūnō scopulō, sed ex omnī terrārum parte circumsonat.That voice which was feared was alluring, but not universal; this one, which must be feared, resounds not from a single rock but from every part of the earth. Ep. 31.2Praetervehere itaque nōn ūnum locum īnsidiōsā voluptāte suspectum, sed omnēs urbēs.Sail past, then, not one place suspected for its treacherous pleasure, but all cities. Ep. 31.2Surdum tē amantissimīs tuīs praestā;Make yourself deaf to those who love you most; Ep. 31.2bonō animō mala precantur.with good intentions they pray for bad things. Ep. 31.2Et sī esse vīs fēlīx, deōs ōrā, nē quid tibi ex hīs, quae optantur, ēveniat.And if you want to be happy, pray to the gods that none of the things wished for you may come to pass. Ep. 31.3Nōn sunt ista bona, quae in tē istī volunt congerī;Those things which these people want heaped upon you are not goods; Ep. 31.3ūnum bonum est, quod beātae vītae causa et firmāmentum est, sibi fīdere.there is one good, which is the cause and foundation of a happy life: to trust oneself.
Ep. 31.3Hoc autem contingere nōn potest, nisi contemptus est labor et in eōrum numerō habitus, quae neque bona sunt neque mala.But this cannot happen unless toil is despised and counted among the things that are neither good nor bad. Ep. 31.3Fierī enim nōn potest, ut ūna ūlla rēs modo mala sit, modo bona, modo levis et perferenda, modo expavēscenda.For it is impossible for any one thing to be now bad, now good, now light and bearable, now terrifying. Ep. 31.4Labor bonum nōn est.Toil is not a good. Ep. 31.4Quid ergō est bonum?What then is good? Ep. 31.4Labōris contemptiō.Contempt of toil. Ep. 31.4Itaque in vānum operōsōs culpāverim.So I would blame those who busy themselves to no purpose. Ep. 31.4Rūrsus ad honesta nītentēs, quantō magis incubuerint minusque sibi vincī ac strigāre permīserint, adprobābō et clāmābō: "Tantō melior, surge et īnspīrā et clīvum istum ūnō, sī potes, spīritū exsuperā."Those, on the other hand, who strive towards honourable things, the more they apply themselves and the less they allow themselves to be beaten and to falter, the more I shall approve, and I shall shout: 'So much the better! Rise, draw breath, and get over that hill in one breath, if you can.' Ep. 31.5Generōsōs animōs labor nūtrit.Toil nourishes noble spirits.
Ep. 31.5Nōn est ergō, quod ex illō vōtō vetere parentum tuōrum ēligās, quid contingere tibi velīs, quid optēs;There is no reason, then, for you to choose from that old prayer of your parents what you would wish to befall you, what you would pray for; Ep. 31.5et in tōtum iam per maxima āctō virō turpe est etiamnunc deōs fatīgāre.and in general, for a man who has already passed through the greatest things, it is shameful to be still wearying the gods. Ep. 31.5Quid vōtīs opus est?What need is there of prayers? Ep. 31.5Fac tē ipse fēlīcem.Make yourself happy. Ep. 31.5Faciēs autem, sī intellēxeris bona esse, quibus admixta virtūs est, turpia, quibus malitia coniūncta est.And you will do so if you understand that those things are good with which virtue is mixed, and those shameful with which vice is joined. Ep. 31.5Quemadmodum sine mixtūrā lūcis nihil splendidum est, nihil ātrum, nisi quod tenebrās habet aut aliquid in sē trāxit obscūrī, quemadmodum sine adiūtōriō ignis nihil calidum est, nihil sine āere frīgidum;Just as without a mixture of light nothing is bright, and nothing is black unless it holds darkness or has drawn into itself something dark, and just as without the aid of fire nothing is hot, and nothing cold without air; Ep. 31.5ita honesta et turpia virtūtis ac malitiae societās efficit.so it is partnership with virtue or with vice that makes things honourable or shameful.
Ep. 31.6Quid ergō est bonum?What then is good? Ep. 31.6Rērum scientia.Knowledge of things. Ep. 31.6Quid malum est?What is bad? Ep. 31.6Rērum imperītia.Ignorance of things. Ep. 31.6Ille prūdēns atque artifex prō tempore quaeque repellet aut ēliget.The man of wisdom and skill will reject or choose each thing as the occasion requires. Ep. 31.6Sed nec quae repellit timet, nec mīrātur quae ēlēgit, sī modo magnus illī et invictus animus est.But he neither fears what he rejects nor admires what he has chosen, provided his spirit is great and unconquerable. Ep. 31.6Summittī tē ac dēprimī vetō.I forbid you to give in and be cast down. Ep. 31.6Labōrem sī nōn recūsēs, parum est;If you do not refuse toil, it is not enough; Ep. 31.6posce.demand it. Ep. 31.7"Quid ergō?"'What then?' Ep. 31.7inquis, "labor frīvolus et supervacuus et quem humilēs causae ēvocāvērunt, nōn est malus?"you say, 'is toil that is trivial and superfluous, and called forth by petty causes, not bad?' Ep. 31.7Nōn magis quam ille, quī pulchrīs rēbus inpenditur, quoniam animī est ipsa tolerantia, quae sē ad dūra et aspera hortātur ac dīcit: "Quid cessās?No more than toil spent on noble things, since endurance itself belongs to the mind, which urges itself on to hard and rough things and says: 'Why do you hang back?
Ep. 31.7Nōn est virī timēre sūdōrem."It is not for a man to fear sweat.' Ep. 31.8Hūc et illud accēdat, ut perfecta virtūs sit, aequālitās ac tenor vītae per omnia cōnsonāns sibi, quod nōn potest esse, nisi rērum scientia contingit et ars, per quam hūmāna ac dīvīna nōscantur.Let this too be added, so that virtue may be perfect: an evenness and tenor of life consistent with itself throughout, which cannot exist unless one attains knowledge of things and the art through which things human and divine are known. Ep. 31.8Hoc est summum bonum.This is the highest good. Ep. 31.8Quod sī occupās, incipis deōrum socius esse, nōn supplex.If you seize it, you begin to be the gods' companion, not their suppliant. Ep. 31.9"Quōmodo," inquis, "istō pervenītur?"'How,' you ask, 'does one get there?' Ep. 31.9Nōn per Poenīnum Grāiumve montem nec per dēserta Candāviae, nec Syrtēs tibi nec Scylla aut Charybdis adeundae sunt, quae tamen omnia trānsīstī prōcūrātiunculae pretiō;Not over the Pennine or Graian Alps, nor through the wastes of Candavia, nor do you have to face the Syrtes or Scylla or Charybdis, though you have passed through all of them for the price of a petty procuratorship; Ep. 31.9tūtum iter est, iūcundum est, ad quod nātūra tē īnstrūxit.the road is safe, it is pleasant, the road for which nature has equipped you.
Ep. 31.9Dedit tibi illa, quae sī nōn dēserueris, pār deō surgēs.She has given you things such that, if you do not desert them, you will rise up equal to a god. Ep. 31.10Parem autem tē deō pecūnia nōn faciet;But money will not make you equal to a god; Ep. 31.10deus nihil habet.a god has nothing. Ep. 31.10Praetexta nōn faciet;A bordered toga will not do it; Ep. 31.10deus nūdus est.a god is naked. Ep. 31.10Fāma nōn faciet nec ostentātiō tuī et in populōs nōminis dīmissa nōtitia;Fame will not do it, nor display of yourself and knowledge of your name spread abroad among the nations; Ep. 31.10nēmō nōvit deum, multī dē illō male exīstimant, et inpūne.no one knows a god, many think ill of him, and with impunity. Ep. 31.10Nōn turba servōrum lectīcam tuam per itinera urbāna ac peregrīna portantium;Nor will a crowd of slaves carrying your litter along the roads of the city and of foreign parts; Ep. 31.10deus ille maximus potentissimusque ipse vehit omnia.that god, the greatest and most powerful, himself carries all things. Ep. 31.10Nē fōrma quidem et vīrēs beātum tē facere possunt;Not even beauty and strength can make you happy; Ep. 31.10nihil hōrum patitur vetustātem.none of these endures age.
Ep. 31.11Quaerendum est, quod nōn fīat in diēs eius, quoi nōn possit obstārī.We must seek something which does not grow worse day by day, and which cannot be hindered. Ep. 31.11Quid hoc est?What is this? Ep. 31.11Animus, sed hic rēctus, bonus, magnus.The mind, but a mind that is upright, good and great. Ep. 31.11Quid aliud vocēs hunc quam deum in corpore hūmānō hospitantem?What else would you call it but a god lodging as a guest in a human body? Ep. 31.11Hic animus tam in equitem Rōmānum quam in lībertīnum, quam in servum potest cadere.Such a mind may fall to a Roman knight as readily as to a freedman, or to a slave. Ep. 31.11Quid est enim eques Rōmānus aut lībertīnus aut servus?For what is a Roman knight, or a freedman, or a slave? Ep. 31.11Nōmina ex ambitiōne aut ex iniūriā nāta.Names born of ambition or of injustice. Ep. 31.11Subsilīre in caelum ex angulō licet.One may leap up to heaven from a corner. Ep. 31.11Exurge modo "et tē quoque dignum Finge deō."Only rise up 'and fashion yourself, too, worthy of a god.' Ep. 31.11Fingēs autem nōn aurō vel argentō;But you will not fashion yourself out of gold or silver; Ep. 31.11nōn potest ex hāc māteriā imāgō deō exprimī similis: cōgitā illōs, cum propitiī essent, fictilēs fuisse.an image like a god cannot be shaped from this material: remember that the gods, when they were kindly, were made of clay.
Ep. 31.11Valē.Farewell.