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22. On the Futility of Half-Way Measures
You understand by this time
that you must withdraw yourself from those showy and depraved
pursuits; but you still wish to know how this may be accomplished.
There are certain things which can be pointed out only by someone
who is present. The physician cannot prescribe by letter the
proper time for eating or bathing; he must feel the pulse.
There is an old adage about gladiators,- that they plan their fight
in the ring; as they intently watch, something in the adversary's
glance, some movement of his hand, even some slight bending of his
body, gives a warning. We can formulate general rules
and commit them to writing, as to what is usually done, or ought to
be done; such advice may be given, not only to our absent friends,
but also to succeeding generations. In regard, however, to
that second "question,-when or how your plan is to be carried
out,-no one will advise at long range; we must take counsel in the
presence of the actual situation. You must be not only present
in the body, but watchful in mind, if you would avail yourself of
the fleeting opportunity. Accordingly, look about you for the
opportunity; if you see it, grasp it, and with all your energy and
with all your strength devote yourself to this task,-to rid yourself
of those business duties.
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Now listen carefully to the opinion which I shall offer; it is my
opinion that you should withdraw either from that kind of existence,
or else from existence all together. But I likewise maintain
that you should take a gentle path, that you may loosen rather than
cut the knot which you have bungled so badly in tying,-provided that
if there shall be no other way of loosening it, you may actually cut
it. No man is so faint-hearted that he would rather hang in
suspense for ever than drop once for all. Meanwhile,-and this
is of first importance,-do not hamper yourself; be content with the
business into which you have lowered yourself, or, as you prefer to
have people think, have tumbled. There is no reason why you
should be struggling on to something further; if you do, you will
lose all grounds of excuse, and men will see that it was not a
tumble. The usual explanation which men offer is wrong:
"I was compelled to do it." But no one is compelled
to pursue prosperity at top speed; it means something to call a
halt,-even if one does not offer resistance,-instead of pressing
eagerly after favouring fortune. Shall you then be put out
with me, if I not only come to advise you, but also call in others
to advise you,-wiser heads than my own, men before whom I am wont to
lay any problem upon which I am pondering? Read the letter of Epicurus
which bears on this matter; it is addressed to Idomeneus. The
writer asks him to hasten as fast as he can, and beat a retreat
before some stronger influence comes between and takes from him the
liberty to withdraw. But he also adds that one should attempt
nothing except at the time when it can be attempted suitably and
seasonably. Then, when the long-sought occasion comes, let him
be up and doing. Epicurus forbids us to doze when we are not
in too great a hurry before the time, nor too dilatory when the time
arrives. |
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Now, I suppose, you are looking for a Stoic motto also. There
is really no reason why anyone should slander that school to you on
the ground of its rashness; as a matter of fact, its caution is
greater than its courage. You are perhaps expecting the sect
to utter such words as these: "It is base to flinch under a
burden. Wrestle with the duties which you have once
undertaken. No man is brave and earnest if he avoids danger,
if his spirit does not grow with the very difficulty of his
task." Words like these will indeed be spoken to you, if
only your perseverance shall have an object that is worth while, if
only you will not have to do or to suffer anything unworthy of a
good man; besides, a good man will not waste himself upon mean and
discreditable work or be busy merely for the sake of being busy.
Neither will he, as you imagine, become so involved in ambitious
schemes that he will have continually to endure their ebb and flow.
Nay, when he sees the dangers, uncertainties, and hazards in which
he was formerly tossed about, he will withdraw,-not turning his back
to the foe, but falling back little by little to a safe position.
From business, however, my dear Lucilius, it is easy to escape, if
only you will despise the rewards of business. We are held
back and kept from escaping by thoughts like these: "What then?
Shall I leave behind me these great prospects? Shall I have no
slaves at my side? no retinue for my litter? no crowd in
my reception-room?" |
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Hence men leave such advantages as these with reluctance; they love
the reward of their hardships, but curse the hardships themselves.
Men complain about their ambitions as they complain about their
mistresses; in other words, if you penetrate their real feelings,
you will find, not hatred, but bickering. Search the minds of
those who cry down what they have desired, who talk about escaping
from things which they are unable to do without; you will comprehend
that they are lingering of their own free will in a situation which
they declare they find it hard and wretched to endure. It is
so, my dear Lucilius; there are a few men whom slavery holds fast,
but there are many more who hold fast to slavery. |
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If, however, you intend to be rid of this slavery; if freedom is
genuinely pleasing in your eyes; and if you seek counsel for this
one purpose,-that you may have the good fortune to accomplish this
purpose without perpetual annoyance,-how can the whole company of
Stoic thinkers fail to approve your course? Zeno, Chrysippus,
and all their kind will give you advice that is temperate,
honourable, and suitable. But is you keep turning round and
looking about, in order to see how much you may carry away with you,
and how much money you may keep to equip yourself for the life of
leisure, you will never find a way out. No man can swim ashore
and take his baggage with him. Rise to a higher life, with the
favour of the gods; but let it not be favour of such a kind as the
gods give to men when with kind and genial faces they bestow
magnificent ills, justified in so doing by the one fact that the
things which irritate and torture have been bestowed in answer to
prayer. |
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I was just putting the seal upon this letter; but it must be broken
again, in order that it may go to you with its customary
contribution, bearing with it some noble word. And lo, here is
one that occurs to my mind; I do not know whether its truth or its
nobility of utterance is the greater. "Spoken by
whom?" you ask. By Epicurus; for I am still
appropriating other men's belongings. The words are:
"Everyone goes out of life just as if he had but lately entered
it." Take anyone off his guard, - young, old, or
middle-aged; you will find that all are equally afraid of death, and
equally ignorant of life. No thought in the quotation given
above pleases me more than that it taunts old men with being
infants. "No one," he says, "leaves this world
in a different manner from one who has just been born."
That is not true; for we are worse when we die than when we were
born; but it is our fault, and not what of Nature. Nature
should scold us, saying: "What does this mean? I brought
you into the world without desires or fears, free from superstition,
treachery and the other curses. Go forth as you were when you
entered!" |
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A man has caught the message of wisdom, if he can die as free from
care as he was at birth; but as it is, we are all a-flutter at the
approach of the dreaded end. Our fails us, our cheeks blanch;
our tears fall, though they are unavailing. But what is baser
than to fret at the very threshold of peace? The reason,
however, is, that we are stripped of all our goods, we have
jettisoned our cargo of life and are in distress; for no part of it
has been packed in the hold; it has been heaved overboard and has
drifted away. Men do not care how nobly they live, but only
how long, although it is within the reach of every man to live
nobly, but within no man's power to live long. Farewell. |
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