Skip to main content
Read page text
page 202
– DRAWN FROM LIFE – regions; philosophers and country bumpkins – the two extremes – meet in peace of mind and happiness. Fœlix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. Fortunatus et ille Deos qui novit agrestes, Panaque, sylvanumque senem, nymphasque sorores. [Blessed the man who can find out causes, who can trample down all fears of inexorable Fate and the howls of the close-fisted Underworld: blessed, too, he who knows the rustic gods, Pan, old Sylvanus and the sister nymphs.] The infancies of all things are feeble and weak. We must keep our eyes open at their beginnings; you cannot find the danger then because it is so small: once it has grown, you cannot find the cure. While chasing ambition I would have had to face, every day, thousands of irritations harder to digest than the difficulty I had in putting a stop to my natural inclination towards it. jure perhorrui Late conspicuum tollere verticem. [I was right to abhor raising my head and attracting attention.] All public deeds are liable to ambiguous and diverse interpretations since so many heads are judging them. Now about this municipal office of mine (and I 178
page 203
– On Restraining Your Will – am delighted to say a word about it, not that it is worth it but to show how I behave in such matters): some say that I bore myself as a man who shows too little passion and whose zeal was too slack. As far as appearances go, they were not all that wrong: I assay keeping my soul and my thoughts in repose: ‘Cum semper natura, tum etiam aetate jam quietus’ [Always tranquil by nature, I now am also so by my age]; if they turn riotous from some deep and disturbing impression that, in truth, is against my intention. Yet from this natural languor of mine one should not draw evidence of incapacity (since lack of worry and lack of wit are two different things) and even less of ingratitude or of lack of appreciation towards those citizens who went to every available extreme to please me, both before and after they knew me – for they did far more for me in re-electing me to office than in electing me in the first place. I wish them all possible good: and indeed, if the occasion had arisen, there is nothing that I would have spared in their service. I bestirred myself as much for them as I do for myself. They are a fine people, good brave fightingmen, able therefore to accept discipline and obedience and to serve a good cause when well led. People also say that my period of office passed without trace or mark. Good. They accuse me of being dilatory at a time when nearly everyone else was convicted of doing too much. I paw the ground when my will bolts away with me: but that trait is the enemy of perseverance. Should anyone wish to use me as I am, 179

Page Text

View plaintext

– DRAWN FROM LIFE –

regions; philosophers and country bumpkins – the two extremes – meet in peace of mind and happiness.

Fœlix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, Atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari. Fortunatus et ille Deos qui novit agrestes, Panaque, sylvanumque senem, nymphasque sorores. [Blessed the man who can find out causes, who can trample down all fears of inexorable Fate and the howls of the close-fisted Underworld: blessed, too, he who knows the rustic gods, Pan, old Sylvanus and the sister nymphs.]

The infancies of all things are feeble and weak. We must keep our eyes open at their beginnings; you cannot find the danger then because it is so small: once it has grown, you cannot find the cure. While chasing ambition I would have had to face, every day, thousands of irritations harder to digest than the difficulty I had in putting a stop to my natural inclination towards it.

jure perhorrui Late conspicuum tollere verticem. [I was right to abhor raising my head and attracting attention.]

All public deeds are liable to ambiguous and diverse interpretations since so many heads are judging them. Now about this municipal office of mine (and I

178

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content