“Est aliquid quò tendis, et in quod dirigis arcum?
An passim sequeris corvos, testâve, lutove,
Securus quò pes ferat, atque ex tempore vivis?”
Is there anything to which thou tendest, and against which thou
directest thy bow?
Or dost thou pursue crows, at random, with pottery or clay,
Careless whither thy feet bear thee, and live _ex tempore_?
The bad sense is always a secondary one. Language does not appear to
have justice done it, but is obviously cramped and narrowed in its
significance, when any meanness is described. The truest construction
is not put upon it. What may readily be fashioned into a rule of
wisdom, is here thrown in the teeth of the sluggard, and constitutes
the front of his offence. Universally, the innocent man will come forth
from the sharpest inquisition and lecturing, the combined din of
reproof and commendation, with a faint sound of eulogy in his ears. Our
vices always lie in the direction of our virtues, and in their best
estate are but plausible imitations of the latter. Falsehood never
attains to the dignity of entire falseness, but is only an inferior
sort of truth; if it were more thoroughly false, it would incur danger
of becoming true.
“Securus quo pes ferat, atque ex tempore _vivit_,”
is then the motto of a wise man. For first, as the subtle discernment
of the language would have taught us, with all his negligence he is
still secure; but the sluggard, notwithstanding his heedlessness, is
insecure.
The life of a wise man is most of all extemporaneous, for he lives out
of an eternity which includes all time. The cunning mind travels
further back than Zoroaster each instant, and comes quite down to the
present with its revelation. The utmost thrift and industry of thinking
give no man any stock in life; his credit with the inner world is no
better, his capital no larger. He must try his fortune again to-day as
yesterday. All questions rely on the present for their solution. Time
measures nothing but itself. The word that is written may be postponed,
but not that on the lip. If this is what the occasion says, let the
occasion say it. All the world is forward to prompt him who gets up to
live without his creed in his pocket.