But as I proceed with my discourse, I shall show that not all those
things which seem to be evils are such. For the present, I affirm that
the conditions you call hard, adverse, and terrible, are in the first
place best for those very persons whom they befall; and in the second,
for all men, since the gods are more concerned for mankind as a whole
than for the individual; and lastly; that they happen either with their
approval, or to men who are worthy of them, if without their approval.
To these propositions I shall add that such things take place in the
fixed order of the world and rightly happen to the good, in virtue of
the same law which makes them good. From this point of view I shall then
convince you that you never need feel pity for the good man; for though
he may be called unfortunate, he never is so.
2. The most difficult of the affirmations I have made seems to be the
first, to wit, that it is for our own good these very things happen
which we dread and shudder at. Is it good for anybody, you say, to be
driven into exile, to see his children reduced to want, to bear a wife
to the grave, to be disgraced, maimed? If you are surprised that this
should result in good to any one, then you will be surprised that
persons are sometimes cured by cutting and burning not the less than by
hunger and thirst. But if you will reflect that as remedial measures,
the bones have to be laid bare or taken out, veins to be extracted, and
even members to be amputated, because they cannot be allowed to remain
attached to it without detriment to the whole body; you will also admit
that some unpleasant things are an advantage to those whom they befall,
no less than that some things which are accounted good and are sought
after, are an injury to those who find pleasure in them, such as eating
and drinking to excess and other things that kill by the gratification
they afford.
3. Among the many noteworthy sayings of our friend Demetrius there is
one that is fresh in my mind and keeps sounding and ringing in my ears.
“There is no being,” says he, “more unfortunate than the man who never
felt adversity.” For he has never had an opportunity to test himself.
Though everything may have come to him when he wished it or even before
he wished it, the gods have nevertheless not thought well of him. They
have adjudged him unworthy of a struggle with adversity lest he be
overcome by it, for it avoids all cowards as if saying, Why should I
choose such an antagonist? he lays down his arms forthwith; there is no
need of all my strength against him; he is beaten by a feeble onset; he
cannot bear even a look.
4. Let another be selected for the struggle. It is a shame to fight with
a man who wants to be beaten. A gladiator regards it as a disgrace to be
pitted against an inferior antagonist for he knows there is no glory in
overcoming one who is vanquished without danger. Adversity does
likewise; it seeks out foemen worthy of their antagonist and passes by
some with disdain. It always attacks the doughtiest and boldest for a
trial of its strength.
5. It tries Mucius with fire, Fabricius with poverty, Regulus with
torture, Socrates with poison, Cato with death. It is misfortune alone
that finds noble examples. Is Mucius to be commiserated because he put
his hand into an enemy’s fire and punished himself for his mistake?
because he vanquished with a burned hand a king whom he could not
vanquish with it armed? Would he have been happier if he had warmed it
in the bosom of a mistress?
6. Is Fabricius to be pitied because he tilled his own field when not
engaged in public duties? because he waged war against riches as well as
against Pyrrhus? because he ate, by his own fireside, the same roots and
herbs that his triumphant old age pulled up on his farm? Can we say that
he would have been happier if he had filled his stomach with fish from a
far off strand and with exotic birds? or if he had stimulated his jaded
and nauseated stomach with oysters from the Upper and the Lower sea? or
if he had encircled with a huge pile of different fruits, the finest
game captured at the cost of many a huntsman’s life?
7. Is Rutilius unfortunate because those who condemned him decided a
case against themselves for all time to come? because he was more
willing to be deprived of his country than to be recalled from exile?
because he alone dared to deny anything to the dictator Sulla, and when
invited to return, not only refused, but fled farther? “Let those manage
affairs,” said he, “whom thy good fortune keeps in Rome! Let them look
upon the pool of blood in the Forum and the heads of senators floating
on the Servilian lake,—for that was the field of carnage of those
proscribed by Sulla—and the bands of assassins roaming through the city,
and the many thousands of Roman citizens slain in one place after
pledges of immunity had been given, yes, because of those very pledges!
Let those look upon these things who are not able to endure exile.”
8. Shall we say that Sulla is to be congratulated because, when he
descends to the Forum, a way is opened for him with the sword? because
he allows the heads of men of consular rank to be shown him in public,
and paid the price of their slaughter by the hand of the quaestor and
from the fisc? And he who did these things is the same man that enacted
the Cornelian law! Let us return to Regulus. What injury did his destiny
do him by making him, the well-known exemplar of good faith, an exemplar
of patient endurance? Nails pierce his skin, and whatever way he lays
down his weary body he lies on a wound, while his open eyes doom him to
perpetual wakefulness.
9. The greater the anguish, the greater will be the glory. Wouldst thou
know how little he regretted the high value he set on fortitude? Heal
his wounds and send him back to the senate—he will give the same advice
(as before). Dost thou think Maecenas happier when a prey to the
torments of love and when grieving over the daily repulses of a wayward
wife, he courts sleep amid the sound of symphonies softly sounding in
the distance? Though he stupify himself with wine, and seek diversion in
the murmur of waters, or trick his troubled mind with a thousand
pastimes, he lies awake on his bed of down no less than the other on his
bed of torture. But for the former there is the solace that he is
enduring hardness for a noble purpose, and he can look away from his
pain to its cause; the latter, surfeited with pleasures, weighed down by
an excess of good fortune, is more tormented by the cause of his
sufferings than by the sufferings themselves.
10. Not yet has vice so completely taken possession of the human race as
to make it doubtful that the majority, if they had the choice of their
lot, would prefer that of Regulus to that of Maecenas. Or, if there
should be anybody who had presumption enough to say that he had rather
be born a Maecenas than a Regulus, the same person, even though he might
not openly admit it, would also rather be born a Terentia. Do you
pronounce Socrates unfortunate because he drained the executioner’s cup
as if it had been the draught of immortality, and discoursed about death
up to the moment it overtook him? Was his lot an unhappy one because his
blood congealed and his vital force stopped by the gradually advancing
rigor of death?
11. How much more is he to be envied than those who are served from
goblets studded with gems, for whom a male prostitute, accustomed to
submit to every kind of abuse, whose virility is gone or at least
doubtful, dissolves the snow that floats in a golden chalice? Whatever
they drink they vomit up, to their chagrin, and taste again mixed with
bile; but he willingly and with joy drains the poisonous draught. For
Cato it is sufficient that the unanimous verdict of mankind has raised
him to the pinnacle of felicity; him destiny selected as one who was
fitted to contend against everything that is to be dreaded.
12. Is the enmity of the powers that be a serious matter? let him be
opposed at the same time by Pompey, Caesar, Crassus. Is it hard to bear
when one is less honored than worse men? let him be sacrificed for
Vatinius. Is it a hard thing to be involved in civil wars? throughout
the whole world let him fight for the good cause, equally renowned for
his misfortunes as for his bravery. Is it hard to take one’s own life?
let him do it. What do I wish to prove by these things? I would have all
men know that those vicissitudes of which Cato was deemed worthy, cannot
be regarded as evils.