Ep. 50.1Epistulam tuam accēpī post multōs mēnsēs quam mīserās.I received your letter many months after you had sent it. Ep. 50.1Supervacuum itaque putāvī ab eō, quī adferēbat, quid agerēs quaerere.So I thought it superfluous to ask the man who brought it what you were doing. Ep. 50.1Valdē enim bonae memoriae est, sī meminit!He must have a very good memory indeed if he remembers! Ep. 50.1Et tamen spērō tē sīc iam vīvere, ut ubicumque eris, sciam quid agās.And yet I hope that you are now living in such a way that, wherever you are, I shall know what you are doing. Ep. 50.1Quid enim aliud agis quam ut meliōrem tē ipse cottīdiē faciās, ut aliquid ex errōribus pōnās, ut intellegās tua vitia esse, quae putās rērum?For what else are you doing than making yourself better each day, laying aside some of your errors, understanding that the faults you think belong to circumstances are your own? Ep. 50.1Quaedam enim locīs et temporibus adscrībimus.For some things we attribute to places and times. Ep. 50.1At illa, quōcumque trānsierimus, secūtūra sunt.But those faults will follow us wherever we go.
Ep. 50.2Harpastēn, uxōris meae fatuam, scīs hērēditārium onus in domō meā remānsisse.You know that Harpaste, my wife's female fool, has stayed on in my house as an inherited burden. Ep. 50.2Ipse enim āversissimus ab istīs prōdigiīs sum;For I myself have the strongest aversion to these freaks; Ep. 50.2sī quandō fatuō dēlectārī volō, nōn est mihi longē quaerendus;if ever I wish to be amused by a fool, I do not have to look far; Ep. 50.2mē rīdeō.I laugh at myself. Ep. 50.2Haec fatua subitō dēsiit vidēre.This fool suddenly lost her sight. Ep. 50.2Incrēdibilem rem tibi narrō, sed vēram: nescit esse sē caecam.I am telling you an incredible thing, but a true one: she does not know that she is blind. Ep. 50.2Subinde paedagōgum suum rogat ut migret.Again and again she asks her attendant to move house. Ep. 50.2Ait domum tenebricōsam esse.She says the house is dark. Ep. 50.3Hoc quod in illā rīdēmus, omnibus nōbīs accidere liqueat tibi;Let it be clear to you that what we laugh at in her happens to us all; Ep. 50.3nēmō sē avārum esse intellegit, nēmō cupidum.no one understands that he is greedy, no one that he is covetous.
Ep. 50.3Caecī tamen ducem quaerunt, nōs sine duce errāmus et dīcimus: "Nōn ego ambitiōsus sum, sed nēmō aliter Rōmae potest vīvere.Yet the blind look for a guide; we wander without a guide and say: 'It is not I who am ambitious, but no one can live otherwise at Rome. Ep. 50.3Nōn ego sūmptuōsus sum, sed urbs ipsa magnās inpēnsās exigit Nōn est meum vitium, quod īrācundus sum, quod nōndum cōnstituī certum genus vītae;It is not I who am extravagant, but the city itself demands great expense. It is not my fault that I am irascible, that I have not yet settled on a definite way of life; Ep. 50.3adulēscentia haec facit."it is youth that does this.' Ep. 50.4Quid nōs dēcipimus?Why do we deceive ourselves? Ep. 50.4Nōn est extrīnsecus malum nostrum;Our trouble is not outside us; Ep. 50.4intrā nōs est, in visceribus ipsīs sedet, et ideō difficulter ad sānitātem pervenīmus, quia nōs aegrōtāre nescīmus.it is within us, it sits in our very vitals, and the reason we reach health with difficulty is that we do not know we are sick. Ep. 50.4Sī cūrārī coeperimus, quandō tot morbōrum tantās vīrēs discutiēmus?Even if we begin to be cured, when shall we shake off such great strength in so many diseases?
Ep. 50.4Nunc vērō nē quaerimus quidem medicum, quī minus negōtiī habēret, sī adhibērētur ad recēns vitium.As it is, we do not even look for a doctor, who would have less work if he were called in to a fresh fault. Ep. 50.4Sequerentur tenērī et rudēs animī rēcta mōnstrantem.Tender and untrained minds would follow one who pointed out what is right. Ep. 50.5Nēmō difficulter ad nātūram redūcitur, nisi quī ab illā dēfēcit.No one is brought back to nature with difficulty except one who has deserted her. Ep. 50.5Ērubēscimus discere bonam mentem;We blush to learn good sense; Ep. 50.5at mehercules, sī turpe est magistrum huius reī quaerere, illud dēspērandum est, posse nōbīs cāsū tantum bonum induere.but, by Hercules, if it is shameful to seek a teacher of this thing, we must give up hope that so great a good can be instilled in us by chance. Ep. 50.5Labōrandum est, et ut vērum dīcam, nē labor quidem magnus est, sī modo, ut dīxī, ante animum nostrum fōrmāre incipimus et recorrigere, quam indūrēscat prāvitās eius.We must work at it, and, to tell the truth, the work is not even great, provided only, as I have said, that we begin to shape and correct our mind before its depravity hardens.
Ep. 50.5Sed nec indūrāta dēspērō.But even when it has hardened I do not despair. Ep. 50.6Nihil est, quod nōn expugnet pertināx opera et intenta ac dīligēns cūra;There is nothing which persistent effort and intent and diligent care do not overcome; Ep. 50.6rōbora in rēctum quamvīs flexa revocābis.you will bring oak timbers back to straightness, however bent. Ep. 50.6Curvātās trabēs calor explicat et aliter nātae in id finguntur, quod ūsus noster exigit;Heat straightens curved beams, and wood that grew otherwise is shaped into what our need demands; Ep. 50.6quantō facilius animus accipit fōrmam, flexibilis et omnī ūmōre obsequentior.how much more easily does the mind take on a shape, pliant as it is and more yielding than any liquid. Ep. 50.6Quid enim est aliud animus quam quōdam modō sē habēns spīritus?For what else is the mind but breath in a certain state? Ep. 50.6Vidēs autem tantō spīritum esse faciliōrem omnī aliā māteriā, quantō tenuior est.And you see that breath is more manageable than any other material in proportion as it is finer. Ep. 50.7Illud, mī Lūcīlī, nōn est quod tē inpediat, quō minus dē nōbīs bene spērēs, quod malitia nōs iam tenet, quod diū in possessiōne nostrī est;There is no reason, my Lucilius, why it should prevent you from having good hopes of us that wickedness already holds us, that it has long been in possession of us; Ep. 50.7ad nēminem ante bona mēns vēnit quam mala.good sense comes to no one before bad.
Ep. 50.7Omnēs praeoccupātī sumus.We have all been taken over in advance. Ep. 50.7Virtūtēs discere vitia dēdiscere est.To learn virtues is to unlearn vices. Ep. 50.8Eō maiōre animō ad ēmendātiōnem nostrī dēbēmus accēdere, quod semel trāditī nōbīs bonī perpetua possessiō est;With all the greater spirit ought we to set about correcting ourselves because a good, once handed to us, is ours to possess for ever; Ep. 50.8nōn dēdiscitur virtūs.virtue is not unlearned. Ep. 50.8Contrāria enim male in aliēnō haerent, ideō dēpellī et exturbārī possunt;For opposites cling badly in alien ground, and so they can be driven out and expelled; Ep. 50.8fidēliter sedent, quae in locum suum veniunt.things that come into their own place stay faithfully. Ep. 50.8Virtūs secundum nātūram est, vitia inimīca et īnfesta sunt.Virtue is in accordance with nature; vices are hostile and inimical to it. Ep. 50.9Sed quemadmodum virtūtēs receptae exīre nōn possunt facilisque eārum tūtēla est, ita initium ad illās eundī arduum, quia hoc proprium inbēcillae mentis atque aegrae est, formīdāre inexperta.But just as virtues, once received, cannot depart, and are easily guarded, so the first steps towards them are hard, because it is characteristic of a weak and sick mind to dread what it has not tried.
Ep. 50.9Itaque cōgenda est, ut incipiat;And so it must be forced to make a beginning; Ep. 50.9deinde nōn est acerba medicīna.after that the medicine is not bitter. Ep. 50.9Prōtinus enim dēlectat, dum sānat.For it gives pleasure even as it heals. Ep. 50.9Aliōrum remediōrum post sānitātem voluptās est, philosophia pariter et salūtāris et dulcis est.With other remedies the pleasure comes after recovery; philosophy is at once wholesome and sweet. Ep. 50.9Valē.Farewell.