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+Produced by David Reed
+
+
+
+
+
+TREATISES ON FRIENDSHIP AND OLD AGE
+
+By Marcus Tullius Cicero
+
+
+Translated by E. S. Shuckburgh
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTORY NOTE
+
+MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, the greatest of Roman orators and the chief
+master of Latin prose style, was born at Arpinum, Jan. 3, 106 B.C.
+His father, who was a man of property and belonged to the class of
+the "Knights," moved to Rome when Cicero was a child; and the future
+statesman received an elaborate education in rhetoric, law, and
+philosophy, studying and practising under some of the most noted
+teachers of the time. He began his career as an advocate at the age of
+twenty-five, and almost immediately came to be recognized not only as a
+man of brilliant talents but also as a courageous upholder of justice in
+the face of grave political danger. After two years of practice he left
+Rome to travel in Greece and Asia, taking all the opportunities that
+offered to study his art under distinguished masters. He returned to
+Rome greatly improved in health and in professional skill, and in 76
+B. C. was elected to the office of quaestor. He was assigned to the
+province of Lilybaeum in Sicily, and the vigor and justice of his
+administration earned him the gratitude of the inhabitants. It was at
+their request that he undertook in 70 B. C. the Prosecution of Verres,
+who as Praetor had subjected the Sicilians to incredible extortion and
+oppression; and his successful conduct of this case, which ended in the
+conviction and banishment of Verres, may be said to have launched him
+on his political career. He became aedile in the same year, in 67 B.C.
+praetor, and in 64 B. C. was elected consul by a large majority. The
+most important event of the year of his consulship was the conspiracy of
+Catiline. This notorious criminal of patrician rank had conspired with
+a number of others, many of them young men of high birth but dissipated
+character, to seize the chief offices of the state, and to extricate
+themselves from the pecuniary and other difficulties that had resulted
+from their excesses, by the wholesale plunder of the city. The plot was
+unmasked by the vigilance of Cicero, five of the traitors were summarily
+executed, and in the overthrow of the army that had been gathered in
+their support Catiline himself perished. Cicero regarded himself as the
+savior of his country, and his country for the moment seemed to give
+grateful assent.
+
+But reverses were at hand. During the existence of the political
+combination of Pompey, Caesar, and Crassus, known as the first
+triumvirate, P. Clodius, an enemy of Cicero's, proposed a law banishing
+"any one who had put Roman citizens to death without trial." This was
+aimed at Cicero on account of his share in the Catiline affair, and in
+March, 58 B. C., he left Rome. The same day a law was passed by which
+he was banished by name, and his property was plundered and destroyed,
+a temple to Liberty being erected on the site of his house in the city.
+During his exile Cicero's manliness to some extent deserted him. He
+drifted from place to place, seeking the protection of officials against
+assassination, writing letters urging his supporters to agitate for
+his recall, sometimes accusing them of lukewarmness and even treachery,
+bemoaning the ingratitude of his country or regretting the course
+of action that had led to his outlawry, and suffering from extreme
+depression over his separation from his wife and children and the wreck
+of his political ambitions. Finally in August, 57 B. C., the decree
+for his restoration was passed, and he returned to Rome the next month,
+being received with immense popular enthusiasm. During the next few
+years the renewal of the understanding among the triumvirs shut Cicero
+out from any leading part in politics, and he resumed his activity in
+the law-courts, his most important case being, perhaps, the defence of
+Milo for the murder of Clodius, Cicero's most troublesome enemy. This
+oration, in the revised form in which it has come down to us, is ranked
+as among the finest specimens of the art of the orator, though in its
+original form it failed to secure Milo's acquittal. Meantime, Cicero was
+also devoting much time to literary composition, and his letters show
+great dejection over the political situation, and a somewhat wavering
+attitude towards the various parties in the state. In 55 B. C. he went
+to Cilicia in Asia Minor as proconsul, an office which he administered
+with efficiency and integrity in civil affairs and with success in
+military. He returned to Italy in the end of the following year, and he
+was publicly thanked by the senate for his services, but disappointed in
+his hopes for a triumph. The war for supremacy between Caesar and Pompey
+which had for some time been gradually growing more certain, broke out
+in 49 B.C., when Caesar led his army across the Rubicon, and Cicero
+after much irresolution threw in his lot with Pompey, who was overthrown
+the next year in the battle of Pharsalus and later murdered in Egypt.
+Cicero returned to Italy, where Caesar treated him magnanimously,
+and for some time he devoted himself to philosophical and rhetorical
+writing. In 46 B.C. he divorced his wife Terentia, to whom he had been
+married for thirty years and married the young and wealthy Publilia in
+order to relieve himself from financial difficulties; but her also
+he shortly divorced. Caesar, who had now become supreme in Rome, was
+assassinated in 44 B.C., and though Cicero was not a sharer in the
+conspiracy, he seems to have approved the deed. In the confusion which
+followed he supported the cause of the conspirators against Antony;
+and when finally the triumvirate of Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus was
+established, Cicero was included among the proscribed, and on December
+7, 43 B.C., he was killed by agents of Antony. His head and hand were
+cut off and exhibited at Rome.
+
+The most important orations of the last months of his life were the
+fourteen "Philippics" delivered against Antony, and the price of this
+enmity he paid with his life.
+
+To his contemporaries Cicero was primarily the great forensic and
+political orator of his time, and the fifty-eight speeches which have
+come down to us bear testimony to the skill, wit, eloquence, and passion
+which gave him his pre-eminence. But these speeches of necessity deal
+with the minute details of the occasions which called them forth, and
+so require for their appreciation a full knowledge of the history,
+political and personal, of the time. The letters, on the other hand,
+are less elaborate both in style and in the handling of current events,
+while they serve to reveal his personality, and to throw light upon
+Roman life in the last days of the Republic in an extremely vivid
+fashion. Cicero as a man, in spite of his self-importance, the
+vacillation of his political conduct in desperate crises, and the
+whining despondency of his times of adversity, stands out as at bottom
+a patriotic Roman of substantial honesty, who gave his life to check the
+inevitable fall of the commonwealth to which he was devoted. The evils
+which were undermining the Republic bear so many striking resemblances
+to those which threaten the civic and national life of America to-day
+that the interest of the period is by no means merely historical.
+
+As a philosopher, Cicero's most important function was to make his
+countrymen familiar with the main schools of Greek thought. Much of
+this writing is thus of secondary interest to us in comparison with his
+originals, but in the fields of religious theory and of the application
+of philosophy to life he made important first-hand contributions. From
+these works have been selected the two treatises, on Old Age and on
+Friendship, which have proved of most permanent and widespread interest
+to posterity, and which give a clear impression of the way in which
+a high-minded Roman thought about some of the main problems of human
+life.
+
+
+
+
+ON FRIENDSHIP
+
+
+THE augur Quintus Mucius Scaevola used to recount a number of stories
+about his father-in-law Galus Laelius, accurately remembered and
+charmingly told; and whenever he talked about him always gave him the
+title of "the wise" without any hesitation. I had been introduced by my
+father to Scaevola as soon as I had assumed the _toga virilis_, and I
+took advantage of the introduction never to quit the venerable man's
+side as long as I was able to stay and he was spared to us. The
+consequence was that I committed to memory many disquisitions of his,
+as well as many short pointed apophthegms, and, in short, took as much
+advantage of his wisdom as I could. When he died, I attached myself
+to Scaevola the Pontifex, whom I may venture to call quite the most
+distinguished of our countrymen for ability and uprightness. But of this
+latter I shall take other occasions to speak. To return to Scaevola the
+augur. Among many other occasions I particularly remember one. He was
+sitting on a semicircular garden-bench, as was his custom, when I and
+a very few intimate friends were there, and he chanced to turn the
+conversation upon a subject which about that time was in many people's
+mouths. You must remember, Atticus, for you were very intimate
+with Publius Sulpicius, what expressions of astonishment, or even
+indignation, were called forth by his mortal quarrel, as tribune, with
+the consul Quintus Pompeius, with whom he had formerly lived on terms of
+the closest intimacy and affection. Well, on this occasion, happening
+to mention this particular circumstance, Scaevola detailed to us a
+discourse of Laelius on friendship delivered to himself and Laelius's
+other son-in-law Galus Fannius, son of Marcus Fannius, a few days after
+the death of Africanus. The points of that discussion I committed to
+memory, and have arranged them in this book at my own discretion. For
+I have brought the speakers, as it were, personally on to my stage to
+prevent the constant "said I" and "said he" of a narrative, and to give
+the discourse the air of being orally delivered in our hearing.
+
+You have often urged me to write something on Friendship, and I
+quite acknowledged that the subject seemed one worth everybody's
+investigation, and specially suited to the close intimacy that has
+existed between you and me. Accordingly I was quite ready to benefit the
+public at your request.
+
+As to the _dramatis personae_. In the treatise on Old Age, which I
+dedicated to you, I introduced Cato as chief speaker. No one, I thought,
+could with greater propriety speak on old age than one who had been an
+old man longer than any one else, and had been exceptionally vigorous
+in his old age. Similarly, having learnt from tradition that of all
+friendships that between Gaius Laelius and Publius Scipio was the most
+remarkable, I thought Laelius was just the person to support the chief
+part in a discussion on friendship which Scaevola remembered him to have
+actually taken. Moreover, a discussion of this sort gains somehow in
+weight from the authority of men of ancient days, especially if they
+happen to have been distinguished. So it comes about that in reading
+over what I have myself written I have a feeling at times that it is
+actually Cato that is speaking, not I.
+
+Finally, as I sent the former essay to you as a gift from one old man to
+another, so I have dedicated this _On Friendship_ as a most affectionate
+friend to his friend. In the former Cato spoke, who was the oldest and
+wisest man of his day; in this Laelius speaks on friendship--Laelius,
+who was at once a wise man (that was the title given him) and eminent
+for his famous friendship. Please forget me for a while; imagine Laelius
+to be speaking.
+
+Gaius Fannius and Quintus Mucius come to call on their father-in-law
+after the death of Africanus. They start the subject; Laelius answers
+them. And the whole essay on friendship is his. In reading it you will
+recognise a picture of yourself.
+
+2. _Fannius_. You are quite right, Laelius! there never was a better or
+more illustrious character than Africanus. But you should consider that
+at the present moment all eyes are on you. Everybody calls you "the
+wise" _par excellence_, and thinks you so. The same mark of respect was
+lately paid Cato, and we know that in the last generation Lucius Atilius
+was called "the wise." But in both cases the word was applied with
+a certain difference. Atilius was so called from his reputation as a
+jurist; Cato got the name as a kind of honorary title and in extreme old
+age because of his varied experience of affairs, and his reputation
+for foresight and firmness, and the sagacity of the opinions which he
+delivered in senate and forum. You, however, are regarded as wise in
+a somewhat different sense not alone on account of natural ability and
+character, but also from your industry and learning; and not in the
+sense in which the vulgar, but that in which scholars, give that title.
+In this sense we do not read of any one being called wise in Greece
+except one man at Athens; and he, to be sure, had been declared by the
+oracle of Apollo also to be "the supremely wise man." For those who
+commonly go by the name of the Seven Sages are not admitted into the
+category of the wise by fastidious critics. Your wisdom people believe
+to consist in this, that you look upon yourself as self-sufficing and
+regard the changes and chances of mortal life as powerless to affect
+your virtue. Accordingly they are always asking me, and doubtless also
+our Scaevola here, how you bear the death of Africanus. This curiosity
+has been the more excited from the fact that on the Nones of this month,
+when we augurs met as usual in the suburban villa of Decimus Brutus for
+consultation, you were not present, though it had always been your
+habit to keep that appointment and perform that duty with the utmost
+punctuality.
+
+_Scaevola_. Yes, indeed, Laelius, I am often asked the question
+mentioned by Fannius. But I answer in accordance with what I have
+observed: I say that you bear in a reasonable manner the grief which
+you have sustained in the death of one who was at once a man of the most
+illustrious character and a very dear friend. That of course you could
+not but be affected--anything else would have been wholly unnatural in a
+man of your gentle nature--but that the cause of your non-attendance at
+our college meeting was illness, not melancholy.
+
+_Laelius_. Thanks, Scaevola! You are quite right; you spoke the exact
+truth. For in fact I had no right to allow myself to be withdrawn from
+a duty which I had regularly performed, as long as I was well, by any
+personal misfortune; nor do I think that anything that can happen will
+cause a man of principle to intermit a duty. As for your telling me,
+Fannius, of the honourable appellation given me (an appellation to
+which I do not recognise my title, and to which I make no claim), you
+doubtless act from feelings of affection; but I must say that you seem
+to me to do less than justice to Cato. If any one was ever "wise,"--of
+which I have my doubts,--he was. Putting aside everything else, consider
+how he bore his son's death! I had not forgotten Paulus; I had seen with
+my own eyes Gallus. But they lost their sons when mere children; Cato
+his when he was a full-grown man with an assured reputation. Do not
+therefore be in a hurry to reckon as Cato's superior even that same
+famous personage whom Apollo, as you say, declared to be "the wisest."
+Remember the former's reputation rests on deeds, the latter's on words.
+
+3. Now, as far as I am concerned (I speak to both of you now), believe
+me the case stands thus. If I were to say that I am not affected by
+regret for Scipio, I must leave the philosophers to justify my conduct,
+but in point of fact I should be telling a lie. Affected of course I am
+by the loss of a friend as I think there will never be again, such as
+I can fearlessly say there never was before. But I stand in no need of
+medicine. I can find my own consolation, and it consists chiefly in my
+being free from the mistaken notion which generally causes pain at the
+departure of friends. To Scipio I am convinced no evil has befallen: mine
+is the disaster, if disaster there be; and to be severely distressed at
+one's own misfortunes does not show that you love your friend, but that
+you love yourself.
+
+As for him, who can say that all is not more than well? For, unless he
+had taken the fancy to wish for immortality, the last thing of which he
+ever thought, what is there for which mortal man may wish that he did
+not attain? In his early manhood he more than justified by extraordinary
+personal courage the hopes which his fellow-citizens had conceived of
+him as a child. He never was a candidate for the consulship, yet was
+elected consul twice: the first time before the legal age; the second at
+a time which, as far as he was concerned, was soon enough, but was near
+being too late for the interests of the State. By the overthrow of two
+cities which were the most bitter enemies of our Empire, he put an end
+not only to the wars then raging, but also to the possibility of others
+in the future. What need to mention the exquisite grace of his manners,
+his dutiful devotion to his mother, his generosity to his sisters, his
+liberality to his relations, the integrity of his conduct to every
+one? You know all this already. Finally, the estimation in which his
+fellow-citizens held him has been shown by the signs of mourning which
+accompanied his obsequies. What could such a man have gained by the
+addition of a few years? Though age need not be a burden,--as I remember
+Cato arguing in the presence of myself and Scipio two years before he
+died,--yet it cannot but take away the vigour and freshness which Scipio
+was still enjoying. We may conclude therefore that his life, from the
+good fortune which had attended him and the glory he had obtained, was
+so circumstanced that it could not be bettered, while the suddenness
+of his death saved him the sensation of dying. As to the manner of his
+death it is difficult to speak; you see what people suspect. Thus much,
+however, I may say: Scipio in his lifetime saw many days of supreme
+triumph and exultation, but none more magnificent than his last, on
+which, upon the rising of the Senate, he was escorted by the senators
+and the people of Rome, by the allies, and by the Latins, to his own
+door. From such an elevation of popular esteem the next step seems
+naturally to be an ascent to the gods above, rather than a descent to
+Hades.
+
+4. For I am not one of these modern philosophers who maintain that our
+souls perish with our bodies, and that death ends all. With me ancient
+opinion has more weight: whether it be that of our own ancestors, who
+attributed such solemn observances to the dead, as they plainly would
+not have done if they had believed them to be wholly annihilated; or
+that of the philosophers who once visited this country, and who by their
+maxims and doctrines educated Magna Graecia, which at that time was in a
+flourishing condition, though it has now been ruined; or that of the man
+who was declared by Apollo's oracle to be "most wise," and who used to
+teach without the variation which is to be found in most philosophers
+that "the souls of men are divine, and that when they have quitted the
+body a return to heaven is open to them, least difficult to those who
+have been most virtuous and just." This opinion was shared by Scipio.
+Only a few days before his death--as though he had a presentiment
+of what was coming--he discoursed for three days on the state of the
+republic. The company consisted of Philus and Manlius and several
+others, and I had brought you, Scaevola, along with me. The last part of
+his discourse referred principally to the immortality of the soul; for
+he told us what he had heard from the elder Africanus in a dream. Now if
+it be true that in proportion to a man's goodness the escape from what
+may be called the prison and bonds of the flesh is easiest, whom can
+we imagine to have had an easier voyage to the gods than Scipio? I am
+disposed to think, therefore, that in his case mourning would be a sign
+of envy rather than of friendship. If, however, the truth rather is that
+the body and soul perish together, and that no sensation remains, then
+though there is nothing good in death, at least there is nothing bad.
+Remove sensation, and a man is exactly as though he had never been born;
+and yet that this man was born is a joy to me, and will be a subject of
+rejoicing to this State to its last hour.
+
+Wherefore, as I said before, all is as well as possible with him. Not so
+with me; for as I entered life before him, it would have been fairer
+for me to leave it also before him. Yet such is the pleasure I take
+in recalling our friendship, that I look upon my life as having been a
+happy one because I have spent it with Scipio. With him I was associated
+in public and private business; with him I lived in Rome and served
+abroad; and between us there was the most complete harmony in our
+tastes, our pursuits, and our sentiments, which is the true secret of
+friendship. It is not therefore in that reputation for wisdom mentioned
+just now by Fannius--especially as it happens to be groundless--that
+I find my happiness so much, as in the hope that the memory of our
+friendship will be lasting. What makes me care the more about this is
+the fact that in all history there are scarcely three or four pairs of
+friends on record; and it is classed with them that I cherish a hope of
+the friendship of Scipio and Laelius being known to posterity.
+
+_Fannius_. Of course that must be so, Laelius. But since you have
+mentioned the word friendship, and we are at leisure, you would be doing
+me a great kindness, and I expect Scaevola also, if you would do as it
+is your habit to do when asked questions on other subjects, and tell
+us your sentiments about friendship, its nature, and the rules to be
+observed in regard to it.
+
+_Scaevola_. I shall of course be delighted. Fannius has anticipated the
+very request I was about to make. So you will be doing us both a great
+favour.
+
+5. _Laelius_. I should certainly have no objection if I felt confidence
+in myself. For the theme is a noble one, and we are (as Fannius has
+said) at leisure. But who am I? and what ability have I? What you
+propose is all very well for professional philosophers, who are used,
+particularly if Greeks, to have the subject for discussion proposed to
+them on the spur of the moment. It is a task of considerable difficulty,
+and requires no little practice. Therefore for a set discourse on
+friendship you must go, I think, to professional lecturers. All I can
+do is to urge on you to regard friendship as the greatest thing in the
+world; for there is nothing which so fits in with our nature, or is so
+exactly what we want in prosperity or adversity.
+
+But I must at the very beginning lay down this principle--_friendship
+can only exist between good men_. I do not, however, press this
+too closely, like the philosophers who push their definitions to a
+superfluous accuracy. They have truth on their side, perhaps, but it is
+of no practical advantage. Those, I mean, who say that no one but the
+"wise" is "good." Granted, by all means. But the "wisdom" they mean is
+one to which no mortal ever yet attained. We must concern ourselves
+with the facts of everyday life as we find it--not imaginary and
+ideal perfections. Even Gaius Fannius, Manius Curius, and Tiberius
+Coruncanius, whom our ancestors decided to be "wise," I could never
+declare to be so according to their standard. Let them, then, keep
+this word "wisdom" to themselves. Everybody is irritated by it; no one
+understands what it means. Let them but grant that the men I mentioned
+were "good." No, they won't do that either. No one but the "wise" can be
+allowed that title, say they. Well, then, let us dismiss them and manage
+as best we may with our own poor mother wit, as the phrase is.
+
+We mean then by the "good" _those whose actions and lives leave no
+question as to their honour, purity, equity, and liberality; who are
+free from greed, lust, and violence; and who have the courage of their
+convictions_. The men I have just named may serve as examples. Such men
+as these being generally accounted "good," let us agree to call them so,
+on the ground that to the best of human ability they follow nature as
+the most perfect guide to a good life.
+
+Now this truth seems clear to me, that nature has so formed us that
+a certain tie unites us all, but that this tie becomes stronger from
+proximity. So it is that fellow-citizens are preferred in our affections
+to foreigners, relations to strangers; for in their case Nature herself
+has caused a kind of friendship to exist, though it is one which lacks
+some of the elements of permanence. Friendship excels relationship in
+this, that whereas you may eliminate affection from relationship, you
+cannot do so from friendship. Without it relationship still exists in
+name, friendship does not. You may best understand this friendship by
+considering that, whereas the merely natural ties uniting the human race
+are indefinite, this one is so concentrated, and confined to so narrow a
+sphere, that affection is ever shared by two persons only or at most by
+a few.
+
+6. Now friendship may be thus defined: a complete accord on all subjects
+human and divine, joined with mutual goodwill and affection. And with
+the exception of wisdom, I am inclined to think nothing better than this
+has been given to man by the immortal gods. There are people who give
+the palm to riches or to good health, or to power and office, many even
+to sensual pleasures. This last is the ideal of brute beasts; and of the
+others we may say that they are frail and uncertain, and depend less on
+our own prudence than on the caprice of fortune. Then there are those
+who find the "chief good" in virtue. Well, that is a noble doctrine. But
+the very virtue they talk of is the parent and preserver of friendship,
+and without it friendship cannot possibly exist.
+
+Let us, I repeat, use the word virtue in the ordinary acceptation and
+meaning of the term, and do not let us define it in high-flown language.
+Let us account as good the persons usually considered so, such as
+Paulus, Cato, Gallus, Scipio, and Philus. Such men as these are good
+enough for everyday life; and we need not trouble ourselves about those
+ideal characters which are nowhere to be met with.
+
+Well, between men like these the advantages of friendship are almost
+more than I can say. To begin with, how can life be worth living, to use
+the words of Ennius, which lacks that repose which is to be found in the
+mutual good-will of a friend? What can be more delightful than to
+have some one to whom you can say everything with the same absolute
+confidence as to yourself? Is not prosperity robbed of half its value if
+you have no one to share your joy? On the other hand, misfortunes
+would be hard to bear if there were not some one to feel them even more
+acutely than yourself. In a word, other objects of ambition serve for
+particular ends--riches for use, power for securing homage, office for
+reputation, pleasure for enjoyment, health for freedom from pain and
+the full use of the functions of the body. But friendship embraces
+innumerable advantages. Turn which way you please, you will find it at
+hand. It is everywhere; and yet never out of place, never unwelcome.
+Fire and water themselves, to use a common expression, are not of more
+universal use than friendship. I am not now speaking of the common
+or modified form of it, though even that is a source of pleasure and
+profit, but of that true and complete friendship which existed
+between the select few who are known to fame. Such friendship enhances
+prosperity, and relieves adversity of its burden by halving and sharing
+it.
+
+7. And great and numerous as are the blessings of friendship, this
+certainly is the sovereign one, that it gives us bright hopes for the
+future and forbids weakness and despair. In the face of a true friend a
+man sees as it were a second self. So that where his friend is he is;
+if his friend be rich, he is not poor; though he be weak, his friend's
+strength is his; and in his friend's life he enjoys a second life
+after his own is finished. This last is perhaps the most difficult to
+conceive. But such is the effect of the respect, the loving remembrance,
+and the regret of friends which follow us to the grave. While they take
+the sting out of death, they add a glory to the life of the survivors.
+Nay, if you eliminate from nature the tie of affection, there will be an
+end of house and city, nor will so much as the cultivation of the soil
+be left. If you don't see the virtue of friendship and harmony, you may
+learn it by observing the effects of quarrels and feuds. Was any family
+ever so well established, any State so firmly settled, as to be beyond
+the reach of utter destruction from animosities and factions? This may
+teach you the immense advantage of friendship.
+
+They say that a certain philosopher of Agrigentum, in a Greek poem,
+pronounced with the authority of an oracle the doctrine that whatever in
+nature and the universe was unchangeable was so in virtue of the binding
+force of friendship; whatever was changeable was so by the solvent power
+of discord. And indeed this is a truth which everybody understands and
+practically attests by experience. For if any marked instance of loyal
+friendship in confronting or sharing danger comes to light, every one
+applauds it to the echo. What cheers there were, for instance, all
+over the theatre at a passage in the new play of my friend and guest
+Pacuvius; where the king, not knowing which of the two was Orestes,
+Pylades declared himself to be Orestes, that he might die in his stead,
+while the real Orestes kept on asserting that it was he. The audience
+rose _en masse_ and clapped their hands. And this was at an incident in
+fiction: what would they have done, must we suppose, if it had been in
+real life? You can easily see what a natural feeling it is, when men
+who would not have had the resolution to act thus themselves, shewed how
+right they thought it in another.
+
+I don't think I have any more to say about friendship. If there is any
+more, and I have no doubt there is much, you must, if you care to do so,
+consult those who profess to discuss such matters.
+
+_Fannius_. We would rather apply to you. Yet I have often consulted
+such persons, and have heard what they had to say with a certain
+satisfaction. But in your discourse one somehow feels that there is a
+different strain.
+
+_Scaevola_. You would have said that still more, Fannius, if you had
+been present the other day in Scipio's pleasure-grounds when we had
+the discussion about the State. How splendidly he stood up for justice
+against Philus's elaborate speech.
+
+_Fannius_. Ah! it was naturally easy for the justest of men to stand up
+for justice.
+
+_Scaevola_. Well, then, what about friendship? Who could discourse on
+it more easily than the man whose chief glory is a friendship maintained
+with the most absolute fidelity, constancy, and integrity?
+
+8. _Laclius_. Now you are really using force. It makes no difference
+what kind of force you use: force it is. For it is neither easy nor
+right to refuse a wish of my sons-in-law, particularly when the wish is
+a creditable one in itself.
+
+Well, then, it has very often occurred to me when thinking about
+friendship, that the chief point to be considered was this: is it
+weakness and want of means that make friendship desired? I mean, is its
+object an interchange of good offices, so that each may give that in
+which he is strong, and receive that in which he is weak? Or is it not
+rather true that, although this is an advantage naturally belonging to
+friendship, yet its original cause is quite other, prior in time, more
+noble in character, and springing more directly from our nature itself?
+The Latin word for friendship--_amicitia_--is derived from that for
+love--_amor_; and love is certainly the prime mover in contracting
+mutual affection. For as to material advantages, it often happens
+that those are obtained even by men who are courted by a mere show
+of friendship and treated with respect from interested motives. But
+friendship by its nature admits of no feigning, no pretence: as far
+as it goes it is both genuine and spontaneous. Therefore I gather that
+friendship springs from a natural impulse rather than a wish for help:
+from an inclination of the heart, combined with a certain instinctive
+feeling of love, rather than from a deliberate calculation of the
+material advantage it was likely to confer. The strength of this
+feeling you may notice in certain animals. They show such love to their
+offspring for a certain period, and are so beloved by them, that they
+clearly have a share in this natural, instinctive affection. But of
+course it is more evident in the case of man: first, in the natural
+affection between children and their parents, an affection which only
+shocking wickedness can sunder; and next, when the passion of love has
+attained to a like strength--on our finding, that is, some one person
+with whose character and nature we are in full sympathy, because we
+think that we perceive in him what I may call the beacon-light of
+virtue. For nothing inspires love, nothing conciliates affection, like
+virtue. Why, in a certain sense we may be said to feel affection even
+for men we have never seen, owing to their honesty and virtue. Who, for
+instance, fails to dwell on the memory of Gaius Fabricius and Manius
+Curius with some affection and warmth of feeling, though he has never
+seen them? Or who but loathes Tarquinius Superbus, Spurius Cassius,
+Spurius Maelius? We have fought for empire in Italy with two great
+generals, Pyrrhus and Hannibal. For the former, owing to his probity, we
+entertain no great feelings of enmity: the latter, owing to his cruelty,
+our country has detested and always will detest.
+
+9. Now, if the attraction of probity is so great that we can love it not
+only in those whom we have never seen, but, what is more, actually in an
+enemy, we need not be surprised if men's affections are roused when they
+fancy that they have seen virtue and goodness in those with whom a close
+intimacy is possible. I do not deny that affection is strengthened by
+the actual receipt of benefits, as well as by the perception of a wish
+to render service, combined with a closer intercourse. When these are
+added to the original impulse of the heart, to which I have alluded,
+a quite surprising warmth of feeling springs up. And if any one thinks
+that this comes from a sense of weakness, that each may have some one
+to help him to his particular need, all I can say is that, when he
+maintains it to be born of want and poverty, he allows to friendship an
+origin very base, and a pedigree, if I may be allowed the expression,
+far from noble. If this had been the case, a man's inclination to
+friendship would be exactly in proportion to his low opinion of his own
+resources. Whereas the truth is quite the other way. For when a man's
+confidence in himself is greatest, when he is so fortified by virtue and
+wisdom as to want nothing and to feel absolutely self-dependent, it
+is then that he is most conspicuous for seeking out and keeping up
+friendships. Did Africanus, for example, want anything of me? Not
+the least in the world! Neither did I of him. In my case it was
+an admiration of his virtue, in his an opinion, may be, which he
+entertained of my character, that caused our affection. Closer intimacy
+added to the warmth of our feelings. But though many great material
+advantages did ensue, they were not the source from which our affection
+proceeded. For as we are not beneficent and liberal with any view
+of extorting gratitude, and do not regard an act of kindness as an
+investment, but follow a natural inclination to liberality; so we look
+on friendship as worth trying for, not because we are attracted to it by
+the expectation of ulterior gain, but in the conviction that what it has
+to give us is from first to last included in the feeling itself.
+
+Far different is the view of those who, like brute beasts, refer
+everything to sensual pleasure. And no wonder. Men who have degraded
+all their powers of thought to an object so mean and contemptible can of
+course raise their eyes to nothing lofty, to nothing grand and divine.
+Such persons indeed let us leave out of the present question. And let
+us accept the doctrine that the sensation of love and the warmth of
+inclination have their origin in a spontaneous feeling which arises
+directly the presence of probity is indicated. When once men have
+conceived the inclination, they of course try to attach themselves to
+the object of it, and move themselves nearer and nearer to him. Their
+aim is that they may be on the same footing and the same level in regard
+to affection, and be more inclined to do a good service than to ask a
+return, and that there should be this noble rivalry between them.
+Thus both truths will be established. We shall get the most important
+material advantages from friendship; and its origin from a natural
+impulse rather than from a sense of need will be at once more dignified
+and more in accordance with fact. For if it were true that its material
+advantages cemented friendship, it would be equally true that any change
+in them would dissolve it. But nature being incapable of change, it
+follows that genuine friendships are eternal.
+
+So much for the origin of friendship. But perhaps you would not care to
+hear any more.
+
+_Fannius_. Nay, pray go on; let us have the rest, Laelius. I take on
+myself to speak for my friend here as his senior.
+
+_Scaevola_. Quite right! Therefore, pray let us hear.
+
+10. _Loelius_. Well, then, my good friends, listen to some conversations
+about friendship which very frequently passed between Scipio and myself.
+I must begin by telling you, however, that he used to say that the most
+difficult thing in the world was for a friendship to remain unimpaired
+to the end of life. So many things might intervene: conflicting
+interests; differences of opinion in politics; frequent changes in
+character, owing sometimes to misfortunes, sometimes to advancing years.
+He used to illustrate these facts from the analogy of boyhood, since
+the warmest affections between boys are often laid aside with the boyish
+toga; and even if they did manage to keep them up to adolescence, they
+were sometimes broken by a rivalry in courtship, or for some other
+advantage to which their mutual claims were not compatible. Even if the
+friendship was prolonged beyond that time, yet it frequently received a
+rude shock should the two happen to be competitors for office. For while
+the most fatal blow to friendship in the majority of cases was the lust
+of gold, in the case of the best men it was a rivalry for office and
+reputation, by which it had often happened that the most violent enmity
+had arisen between the closest friends.
+
+Again, wide breaches and, for the most part, justifiable ones were
+caused by an immoral request being made of friends, to pander to a man's
+unholy desires or to assist him in inflicting a wrong. A refusal, though
+perfectly right, is attacked by those to whom they refuse compliance
+as a violation of the laws of friendship. Now the people who have no
+scruples as to the requests they make to their friends, thereby allow
+that they are ready to have no scruples as to what they will do for
+their friends; and it is the recriminations of such people which
+commonly not only quench friendships, but give rise to lasting enmities.
+"In fact," he used to say, "these fatalities overhang friendship in such
+numbers that it requires not only wisdom but good luck also to escape
+them all."
+
+11. With these premises, then, let us first, if you please, examine
+the question--how far ought personal feeling to go in friendship? For
+instance: suppose Coriolanus to have had friends, ought they to have
+joined him in invading his country? Again, in the case of Vecellinus
+or Spurius Maelius, ought their friends to have assisted them in their
+attempt to establish a tyranny? Take two instances of either line of
+conduct. When Tiberius Gracchus attempted his revolutionary measures he
+was deserted, as we saw, by Quintus Tubero and the friends of his own
+standing. On the other hand, a friend of your own family, Scaevola,
+Gaius Blossius of Cumae, took a different course. I was acting as
+assessor to the consuls Laenas and Rupilius to try the conspirators,
+and Blossius pleaded for my pardon on the ground that his regard for
+Tiberius Gracchus had been so high that he looked upon his wishes as
+law. "Even if he had wished you to set fire to the Capitol?" said I.
+"That is a thing," he replied, "that he never would have wished." "Ah,
+but if he had wished it?" said I. "I would have obeyed." The wickedness
+of such a speech needs no comment. And in point of fact he was as good
+and better than his word for he did not wait for orders in the audacious
+proceedings of Tiberius Gracchus, but was the head and front of them,
+and was a leader rather than an abettor of his madness. The result
+of his infatuation was that he fled to Asia, terrified by the special
+commission appointed to try him, joined the enemies of his country, and
+paid a penalty to the republic as heavy as it was deserved. I conclude,
+then, that the plea of having acted in the interests of a friend is not
+a valid excuse for a wrong action. For, seeing that a belief in a man's
+virtue is the original cause of friendship, friendship can hardly remain
+if virtue he abandoned. But if we decide it to be right to grant our
+friends whatever they wish, and to ask them for whatever we wish,
+perfect wisdom must be assumed on both sides if no mischief is to
+happen. But we cannot assume this perfect wisdom; for we are speaking
+only of such friends as are ordinarily to be met with, whether we have
+actually seen them or have been told about them--men, that is to say, of
+everyday life. I must quote some examples of such persons, taking care
+to select such as approach nearest to our standard of wisdom. We read,
+for instance, that Papus Aemilius was a close friend of Gaius Luscinus.
+History tells us that they were twice consuls together, and colleagues
+in the censorship. Again, it is on record that Manius Curius and
+Tiberius Coruncanius were on the most intimate terms with them and with
+each other. Now, we cannot even suspect that any one of these men ever
+asked of his friend anything that militated against his honour or his
+oath or the interests of the republic. In the case of such men as these
+there is no point in saying that one of them would not have obtained
+such a request if he had made it; for they were men of the most
+scrupulous piety, and the making of such a request would involve a
+breach of religious obligation no less than the granting it. However,
+it is quite true that Gaius Carbo and Gaius Cato did follow Tiberius
+Gracchus; and though his brother Caius Gracchus did not do so at the
+time, he is now the most eager of them all.
+
+12. We may then lay down this rule of friendship--neither ask nor
+consent to do what is wrong. For the plea "for friendship's sake" is a
+discreditable one, and not to be admitted for a moment. This rule
+holds good for all wrong-doing, but more especially in such as involves
+disloyalty to the republic. For things have come to such a point with
+us, my dear Fannius and Scaevola, that we are bound to look somewhat far
+ahead to what is likely to happen to the republic. The constitution, as
+known to our ancestors, has already swerved somewhat from the regular
+course and the lines marked out for it. Tiberius Gracchus made an
+attempt to obtain the power of a king, or, I might rather say, enjoyed
+that power for a few months. Had the Roman people ever heard or seen
+the like before? What the friends and connexions that followed him, even
+after his death, have succeeded in doing in the case of Publius Scipio
+I cannot describe without tears. As for Carbo, thanks to the punishment
+recently inflicted on Tiberius Gracchus, we have by hook or by crook
+managed to hold out against his attacks. But what to expect of the
+tribuneship of Caius Gracchus I do not like to forecast. One thing
+leads to another; and once set going, the downward course proceeds with
+ever-increasing velocity. There is the case of the ballot: what a blow
+was inflicted first by the lex Gabinia, and two years afterwards by the
+lex Cassia! I seem already to see the people estranged from the Senate,
+and the most important affairs at the mercy of the multitude. For you
+may be sure that more people will learn how to set such things in motion
+than how to stop them. What is the point of these remarks? This: no one
+ever makes any attempt of this sort without friends to help him. We
+must therefore impress upon good men that, should they become inevitably
+involved in friendships with men of this kind, they ought not to
+consider themselves under any obligation to stand by friends who are
+disloyal to the republic. Bad men must have the fear of punishment
+before their eyes: a punishment not less severe for those who follow
+than for those who lead others to crime. Who was more famous and
+powerful in Greece than Themistocles? At the head of the army in the
+Persian war he had freed Greece; he owed his exile to personal envy: but
+he did not submit to the wrong done him by his ungrateful country as
+he ought to have done. He acted as Coriolanus had acted among us twenty
+years before. But no one was found to help them in their attacks upon
+their fatherland. Both of them accordingly committed suicide.
+
+We conclude, then, not only that no such confederation of evilly
+disposed men must be allowed to shelter itself under the plea of
+friendship, but that, on the contrary, it must be visited with the
+severest punishment, lest the idea should prevail that fidelity to a
+friend justifies even making war upon one's country. And this is a case
+which I am inclined to think, considering how things are beginning to
+go, will sooner or later arise. And I care quite as much what the state
+of the constitution will be after my death as what it is now.
+
+13. Let this, then, be laid down as the first law of friendship, that
+_we should ask from friends, and do for friends', only what is good_.
+But do not let us wait to be asked either: let there be ever an eager
+readiness, and an absence of hesitation. Let us have the courage to give
+advice with candour. In friendship, let the influence of friends who
+give good advice be paramount; and let this influence be used to enforce
+advice not only in plain-spoken terms, but sometimes, if the case
+demands it, with sharpness; and when so used, let it be obeyed.
+
+I give you these rules because I believe that some wonderful opinions
+are entertained by certain persons who have, I am told, a reputation for
+wisdom in Greece. There is nothing in the world, by the way, beyond the
+reach of their sophistry. Well, some of them teach that we should avoid
+very close friendships, for fear that one man should have to endure the
+anxieties of several. Each man, say they, has enough and to spare on his
+own hands; it is too bad to be involved in the cares of other people.
+The wisest course is to hold the reins of friendship as loose as
+possible; you can then tighten or slacken them at your will. For the
+first condition of a happy life is freedom from care, which no one's
+mind can enjoy if it has to travail, so to speak, for others besides
+itself. Another sect, I am told, gives vent to opinions still less
+generous. I briefly touched on this subject just now. They affirm that
+friendships should be sought solely for the sake of the assistance they
+give, and not at all from motives of feeling and affection; and that
+therefore just in proportion as a man's power and means of support are
+lowest, he is most eager to gain friendships: thence it comes that weak
+women seek the support of friendship more than men, the poor more than
+the rich, the unfortunate rather than those esteemed prosperous. What
+noble philosophy! You might just as well take the sun out of the sky as
+friendship from life; for the immortal gods have given us nothing better
+or more delightful.
+
+But let us examine the two doctrines. What is the value of this
+"freedom from care"? It is very tempting at first sight, but in practice
+it has in many cases to be put on one side. For there is no business
+and no course of action demanded from us by our honour which you can
+consistently decline, or lay aside when begun, from a mere wish to
+escape from anxiety. Nay, if we wish to avoid anxiety we must avoid
+virtue itself, which necessarily involves some anxious thoughts in
+showing its loathing and abhorrence for the qualities which are opposite
+to itself--as kindness for ill-nature, self-control for licentiousness,
+courage for cowardice. Thus you may notice that it is the just who are
+most pained at injustice, the brave at cowardly actions, the temperate
+at depravity. It is then characteristic of a rightly ordered mind to be
+pleased at what is good and grieved at the reverse. Seeing then that the
+wise are not exempt from the heart-ache (which must be the case unless
+we suppose all human nature rooted out of their hearts), why should we
+banish friendship from our lives, for fear of being involved by it
+in some amount of distress? If you take away emotion, what difference
+remains I don't say between a man and a beast, but between a man and a
+stone or a log of wood, or anything else of that kind?
+
+Neither should we give any weight to the doctrine that virtue is
+something rigid and unyielding as iron. In point of fact it is in regard
+to friendship, as in so many other things, so supple and sensitive that
+it expands, so to speak, at a friend's good fortune, contracts at his
+misfortunes. We conclude then that mental pain which we must often
+encounter on a friend's account is not of sufficient consequence to
+banish friendship from our life, any more than it is true that the
+cardinal virtues are to be dispensed with because they involve certain
+anxieties and distresses.
+
+14. Let me repeat then, "the clear indication of virtue, to which a
+mind of like character is naturally attracted, is the beginning of
+friendship." When that is the case the rise of affection is a necessity.
+For what can be more irrational than to take delight in many objects
+incapable of response, such as office, fame, splendid buildings, and
+personal decoration, and yet to take little or none in a sentient being
+endowed with virtue, which has the faculty of loving or, if I may use
+the expression, loving back? For nothing is really more delightful than
+a return of affection, and the mutual interchange of kind feeling
+and good offices. And if we add, as we may fairly do, that nothing so
+powerfully attracts and draws one thing to itself as likeness does to
+friendship, it will at once be admitted to be true that the good love
+the good and attach them to themselves as though they were united by
+blood and nature. For nothing can be more eager, or rather greedy, for
+what is like itself than nature. So, my dear Fannius and Scaevola, we
+may look upon this as an established fact, that between good men there
+is, as it were of necessity, a kindly feeling, which is the source of
+friendship ordained by nature. But this same kindliness affects the many
+also. For that is no unsympathetic or selfish or exclusive virtue, which
+protects even whole nations and consults their best interests. And that
+certainly it would not have done had it disdained all affection for the
+common herd.
+
+Again, the believers in the "interest" theory appear to me to destroy
+the most attractive link in the chain of friendship. For it is not so
+much what one gets by a friend that gives one pleasure, as the warmth
+of his feeling; and we only care for a friend's service if it has been
+prompted by affection. And so far from its being true that lack of means
+is a motive for seeking friendship, it is usually those who being most
+richly endowed with wealth and means, and above all with virtue (which,
+after all, is a man's best support), are least in need of another, that
+are most openhanded and beneficent. Indeed I am inclined to think that
+friends ought at times to be in want of something. For instance, what
+scope would my affections have had if Scipio had never wanted my advice
+or co-operation at home or abroad? It is not friendship, then, that
+follows material advantage, but material advantage friendship.
+
+15. We must not therefore listen to these superfine gentlemen when they
+talk of friendship, which they know neither in theory nor in practice.
+For who, in heaven's name, would choose a life of the greatest wealth
+and abundance on condition of neither loving or being beloved by any
+creature? That is the sort of life tyrants endure. They, of course, can
+count on no fidelity, no affection, no security for the goodwill of
+any one. For them all is suspicion and anxiety; for them there is no
+possibility of friendship. Who can love one whom he fears, or by whom he
+knows that he is feared? Yet such men have a show of friendship offered
+them, but it is only a fair-weather show. If it ever happen that they
+fall, as it generally does, they will at once understand how friendless
+they are. So they say Tarquin observed in his exile that he never knew
+which of his friends were real and which sham, until he had ceased to
+be able to repay either. Though what surprises me is that a man of his
+proud and overbearing character should have a friend at all. And as it
+was his character that prevented his having genuine friends, so it often
+happens in the case of men of unusually great means--their very wealth
+forbids faithful friendships. For not only is Fortune blind herself;
+but she generally makes those blind also who enjoy her favours. They are
+carried, so to speak, beyond themselves with self-conceit and self-will;
+nor can anything be more perfectly intolerable than a successful fool.
+You may often see it. Men who before had pleasant manners enough undergo
+a complete change on attaining power of office. They despise their old
+friends: devote themselves to new.
+
+Now, can anything be more foolish than that men who have all the
+opportunities which prosperity, wealth, and great means can bestow,
+should secure all else which money can buy--horses, servants, splendid
+upholstering, and costly plate--but do not secure friends, who are, if
+I may use the expression, the most valuable and beautiful furniture
+of life? And yet, when they acquire the former, they know not who will
+enjoy them, nor for whom they may be taking all this trouble; for they
+will one and all eventually belong to the strongest: while each man has
+a stable and inalienable ownership in his friendships. And even if those
+possessions, which are, in a manner, the gifts of fortune, do prove
+permanent, life can never be anything but joyless which is without the
+consolations and companionship of friends.
+
+16. To turn to another branch of our subject. We must now endeavour
+to ascertain what limits are to be observed in friendship--what is the
+boundary-line, so to speak, beyond which our affection is not to go. On
+this point I notice three opinions, with none of which I agree. One is
+_that we should love our friend just as much as we love ourselves, and
+no more; another, that our affection to them should exactly correspond
+and equal theirs to us; a third, that a man should be valued at exactly
+the same rate as he values himself_. To not one of these opinions do I
+assent. The first, which holds that our regard for ourselves is to be
+the measure of our regard for our friend, is not true; for how many
+things there are which we would never have done for our own sakes, but
+do for the sake of a friend! We submit to make requests from unworthy
+people, to descend even to supplication; to be sharper in invective,
+more violent in attack. Such actions are not creditable in our own
+interests, but highly so in those of our friends. There are many
+advantages too which men of upright character voluntarily forego, or
+of which they are content to be deprived, that their friends may enjoy
+them rather than themselves.
+
+The second doctrine is that which limits friendship to an exact equality
+in mutual good offices and good feelings. But such a view reduces
+friendship to a question of figures in a spirit far too narrow and
+illiberal, as though the object were to have an exact balance in
+a debtor and creditor account. True friendship appears to me to be
+something richer and more generous than that comes to; and not to be so
+narrowly on its guard against giving more than it receives. In such a
+matter we must not be always afraid of something being wasted or running
+over in our measure, or of more than is justly due being devoted to our
+friendship.
+
+But the last limit proposed is the worst, namely, that a friend's
+estimate of himself is to be the measure of our estimate of him. It
+often happens that a man has too humble an idea of himself, or takes too
+despairing a view of his chance of bettering his fortune. In such a case
+a friend ought not to take the view of him which he takes of himself.
+Rather he should do all he can to raise his drooping spirits, and lead
+him to more cheerful hopes and thoughts.
+
+We must then find some other limit. But I must first mention the
+sentiment which used to call forth Scipio's severest criticism. He often
+said that no one ever gave utterance to anything more diametrically
+opposed to the spirit of friendship than the author of the dictum, "You
+should love your friend with the consciousness that you may one day
+hate him." He could not be induced to believe that it was rightfully
+attributed to Bias, who was counted as one of the Seven Sages. It was
+the sentiment of some person with sinister motives or selfish ambition,
+or who regarded everything as it affected his own supremacy. How can a
+man be friends with another, if he thinks it possible that he may be his
+enemy? Why, it will follow that he must wish and desire his friend
+to commit as many mistakes as possible, that he may have all the
+more handles against him; and, conversely, that he must be annoyed,
+irritated, and jealous at the right actions or good fortune of his
+friends. This maxim, then, let it be whose it will, is the utter
+destruction of friendship. The true rule is to take such care in the
+selection of our friends as never to enter upon a friendship with a man
+whom we could under any circumstances come to hate. And even if we are
+unlucky in our choice, we must put up with it--according to Scipio--in
+preference to making calculations as to a future breach.
+
+17. The real limit to be observed in friendship is this: the characters
+of two friends must be stainless. There must be complete harmony of
+interests, purpose, and aims, without exception. Then if the case arises
+of a friend's wish (not strictly right in itself) calling for support in
+a matter involving his life or reputation, we must make some concession
+from the straight path--on condition, that is to say, that extreme
+disgrace is not the consequence. Something must be conceded to
+friendship. And yet we must not be entirely careless of our reputation,
+nor regard the good opinion of our fellow-citizens as a weapon which we
+can afford to despise in conducting the business of our life, however
+lowering it may be to tout for it by flattery and smooth words. We must
+by no means abjure virtue, which secures us affection.
+
+But to return again to Scipio, the sole author of the discourse on
+friendship. He used to complain that there was nothing on which men
+bestowed so little pains: that every one could tell exactly how many
+goats or sheep he had, but not how many friends; and while they took
+pains in procuring the former, they were utterly careless in selecting
+friends, and possessed no particular marks, so to speak, or tokens by
+which they might judge of their suitability for friendship. Now the
+qualities we ought to look out for in making our selection are firmness,
+stability, constancy. There is a plentiful lack of men so endowed, and
+it is difficult to form a judgment without testing. Now this testing
+can only be made during the actual existence of the friendship; for
+friendship so often precedes the formation of a judgment, and makes a
+previous test impossible. If we are prudent then, we shall rein in our
+impulse to affection as we do chariot horses. We make a preliminary
+trial of horses. So we should of friendship; and should test our
+friends' characters by a kind of tentative friendship. It may often
+happen that the untrustworthiness of certain men is completely displayed
+in a small money matter; others who are proof against a small sum are
+detected if it be large. But even if some are found who think it mean
+to prefer money to friendship, where shall we look for those who put
+friendship before office, civil or military promotions, and political
+power, and who, when the choice lies between these things on the one
+side and the claims of friendship on the other, do not give a strong
+preference to the former? It is not in human nature to be indifferent
+to political power; and if the price men have to pay for it is the
+sacrifice of friendship, they think their treason will be thrown into
+the shade by the magnitude of the reward. This is why true friendship
+is very difficult to find among those who engage in politics and the
+contest for office. Where can you find the man to prefer his friend's
+advancement to his own? And to say nothing of that, think how grievous
+and almost intolerable it is to most men to share political disaster.
+You will scarcely find anyone who can bring himself to do that. And
+though what Ennius says is quite true,--" the hour of need shews the
+friend indeed,"--yet it is in these two ways that most people betray
+their untrustworthiness and inconstancy, by looking down on friends when
+they are themselves prosperous, or deserting them in their distress. A
+man, then, who has shewn a firm, unshaken, and unvarying friendship in
+both these contingencies we must reckon as one of a class the rarest in
+the world, and all but superhuman.
+
+18. Now, what is the quality to look out for as a warrant for the
+stability and permanence of friendship? It is loyalty. Nothing that
+lacks this can be stable. We should also in making our selection look
+out for simplicity, a social disposition, and a sympathetic nature,
+moved by what moves us. These all contribute to maintain loyalty.
+You can never trust a character which is intricate and tortuous.
+Nor, indeed, is it possible for one to be trustworthy and firm who is
+unsympathetic by nature and unmoved by what affects ourselves. We may
+add, that he must neither take pleasure in bringing accusations against
+us himself, nor believe them when they are brought. All these contribute
+to form that constancy which I have been endeavouring to describe.
+And the result is, what I started by saying, that friendship is only
+possible between good men.
+
+Now there are two characteristic features in his treatment of his
+friends that a good (which may be regarded as equivalent to a wise) man
+will always display. First, he will be entirely without any make-believe
+or pretence of feeling; for the open display even of dislike is
+more becoming to an ingenuous character than a studied concealment of
+sentiment. Secondly, he will not only reject all accusations brought
+against his friend by another, but he will not be suspicious himself
+either, nor be always thinking that his friend has acted improperly.
+Besides this, there should be a certain pleasantness in word and
+manner which adds no little flavour to friendship. A gloomy temper and
+unvarying gravity may be very impressive; but friendship should be a
+little less unbending, more indulgent and gracious, and more inclined to
+all kinds of good-fellowship and good-nature.
+
+19. But here arises a question of some little difficulty. Are there any
+occasions on which, assuming their worthiness, we should prefer new to
+old friends, just as we prefer young to aged horses? The answer admits
+of no doubt whatever. For there should be no satiety in friendship, as
+there is in other things. The older the sweeter, as in wines that keep
+well. And the proverb is a true one, "You must eat many a peck of salt
+with a man to be thorough friends with him." Novelty, indeed, has its
+advantage, which we must not despise. There is always hope of fruit,
+as there is in healthy blades of corn. But age too must have its proper
+position; and, in fact, the influence of time and habit is very great.
+To recur to the illustration of the horse which I have just now used.
+Every one likes _ceteris paribus_ to use the horse to which he has been
+accustomed, rather than one that is untried and new. And it is not
+only in the case of a living thing that this rule holds good, but
+in inanimate things also; for we like places where we have lived the
+longest, even though they are mountainous and covered with forest. But
+here is another golden rule in friendship: _put yourself on a level with
+your friend_. For it often happens that there are certain superiorities,
+as for example Scipio's in what I may call our set. Now he never assumed
+any airs of superiority over Philus, or Rupilius, or Mummius, or
+over friends of a lower rank still. For instance, he always shewed a
+deference to his brother Quintus Maximus because he was his senior, who,
+though a man no doubt of eminent character, was by no means his equal.
+He used also to wish that all his friends should be the better for his
+support. This is an example we should all follow. If any of us have any
+advantage in personal character, intellect, or fortune, we should be
+ready to make our friends sharers and partners in it with ourselves.
+For instance, if their parents are in humble circumstances, if their
+relations are powerful neither in intellect nor means, we should supply
+their deficiencies and promote their rank and dignity. You know the
+legends of children brought up as servants in ignorance of their
+parentage and family. When they are recognized and discovered to be
+the sons of gods or kings, they still retain their affection for the
+shepherds whom they have for many years looked upon as their parents.
+Much more ought this to be so in the case of real and undoubted parents.
+For the advantages of genius and virtue, and in short, of every kind of
+superiority, are never realized to their fullest extent until they are
+bestowed upon our nearest and dearest.
+
+20. But the converse must also be observed. For in friendship and
+relationship, just as those who possess any superiority must put
+themselves on an equal footing with those who are less fortunate, so
+these latter must not be annoyed at being surpassed in genius, fortune,
+or rank. But most people of that sort are forever either grumbling at
+something, or harping on their claims; and especially if they consider
+that they have services of their own to allege involving zeal and
+friendship and some trouble to themselves. People who are always
+bringing up their services are a nuisance. The recipient ought to
+remember them; the performer should never mention them. In the case of
+friends, then, as the superior are bound to descend, so are they bound
+in a certain sense to raise those below them. For there are people who
+make their friendship disagreeable by imagining themselves undervalued.
+This generally happens only to those who think that they deserve to
+be so; and they ought to be shewn by deeds as well as by words the
+groundlessness of their opinion. Now the measure of your benefits should
+be in the first place your own power to bestow, and in the second place
+the capacity to bear them on the part of him on whom you are bestowing
+affection and help. For, however great your personal prestige may be,
+you cannot raise all your friends to the highest offices of the State.
+For instance, Scipio was able to make Publius Rupilius consul, but not
+his brother Lucius. But granting that you can give anyone anything you
+choose, you must have a care that it does not prove to be beyond his
+powers. As a general rule, we must wait to make up our mind about
+friendships till men's characters and years have arrived at their full
+strength and development. People must not, for instance, regard as fast
+friends all whom in their youthful enthusiasm for hunting or football
+they liked for having the same tastes. By that rule, if it were a mere
+question of time, no one would have such claims on our affections as
+nurses and slave-tutors. Not that they are to be neglected, but they
+stand on a different ground. It is only these mature friendships that
+can be permanent. For difference of character leads to difference of
+aims, and the result of such diversity is to estrange friends. The sole
+reason, for instance, which prevents good men from making friends with
+bad, or bad with good, is that the divergence of their characters and
+aims is the greatest possible.
+
+Another good rule in friendship is this: do not let an excessive
+affection hinder the highest interests of your friends. This very
+often happens. I will go again to the region of fable for an instance.
+Neoptolemus could never have taken Troy if he had been willing to listen
+to Lycomedes, who had brought him up, and with many tears tried to
+prevent his going there. Again, it often happens that important business
+makes it necessary to part from friends: the man who tries to baulk it,
+because he thinks that he cannot endure the separation, is of a weak
+and effeminate nature, and on that very account makes but a poor friend.
+There are, of course, limits to what you ought to expect from a friend
+and to what you should allow him to demand of you. And these you must
+take into calculation in every case.
+
+21. Again, there is such a disaster, so to speak, as having to break off
+friendship. And sometimes it is one we cannot avoid. For at this point
+the stream of our discourse is leaving the intimacies of the wise and
+touching on the friendship of ordinary people. It will happen at times
+that an outbreak of vicious conduct affects either a man's friends
+themselves or strangers, yet the discredit falls on the friends. In
+such cases friendships should be allowed to die out gradually by an
+intermission of intercourse. They should, as I have been told that Cato
+used to say, rather be unstitched than torn in twain; unless, indeed,
+the injurious conduct be of so violent and outrageous a nature as
+to make an instant breach and separation the only possible course
+consistent with honour and rectitude. Again, if a change in character
+and aim takes place, as often happens, or if party politics produces an
+alienation of feeling (I am now speaking, as I said a short time ago, of
+ordinary friendships, not of those of the wise), we shall have to be on
+our guard against appearing to embark upon active enmity while we only
+mean to resign a friendship. For there can be nothing more discreditable
+than to be at open war with a man with whom you have been intimate.
+Scipio, as you are aware, had abandoned his friendship for Quintus
+Pompeius on my account; and again, from differences of opinion in
+politics, he became estranged from my colleague Metellus. In both cases
+he acted with dignity and moderation, shewing that he was offended
+indeed, but without rancour.
+
+Our first object, then, should be to prevent a breach; our second, to
+secure that, if it does occur, our friendship should seem to have died
+a natural rather than a violent death. Next, we should take care that
+friendship is not converted into active hostility, from which flow
+personal quarrels, abusive language, and angry recriminations. These
+last, however, provided that they do not pass all reasonable limits
+of forbearance, we ought to put up with, and, in compliment to an old
+friendship, allow the party that inflicts the injury, not the one that
+submits to it, to be in the wrong. Generally speaking, there is but one
+way of securing and providing oneself against faults and inconveniences
+of this sort--not to be too hasty in bestowing our affection, and not to
+bestow it at all on unworthy objects.
+
+Now, by "worthy of friendship" I mean those who have in themselves the
+qualities which attract affection. This sort of man is rare; and indeed
+all excellent things are rare; and nothing in the world is so hard to
+find as a thing entirely and completely perfect of its kind. But most
+people not only recognize nothing as good in our life unless it is
+profitable, but look upon friends as so much stock, caring most for
+those by whom they hope to make most profit. Accordingly they never
+possess that most beautiful and most spontaneous friendship which must
+be sought solely for itself without any ulterior object. They fail
+also to learn from their own feelings the nature and the strength of
+friendship. For every one loves himself, not for any reward which such
+love may bring, but because he is dear to himself independently of
+anything else. But unless this feeling is transferred to another, what
+a real friend is will never be revealed; for he is, as it were, a
+second self. But if we find these two instincts shewing themselves in
+animals,--whether of the air or the sea or the land, whether wild or
+tame,--first, a love of self, which in fact is born in everything that
+lives alike; and, secondly, an eagerness to find and attach themselves
+to other creatures of their own kind; and if this natural action is
+accompanied by desire and by something resembling human love, how much
+more must this be the case in man by the law of his nature? For man not
+only loves himself, but seeks another whose spirit he may so blend with
+his own as almost to make one being of two.
+
+22. But most people unreasonably, not to speak of modesty, want such
+a friend as they are unable to be themselves, and expect from their
+friends what they do not themselves give. The fair course is first to be
+good yourself, and then to look out for another of like character. It
+is between such that the stability in friendship of which we have been
+talking can be secured; when, that is to say, men who are united by
+affection learn, first of all, to rule those passions which enslave
+others, and in the next place to take delight in fair and equitable
+conduct, to bear each other's burdens, never to ask each other for
+anything inconsistent with virtue and rectitude, and not only to serve
+and love but also to respect each other. I say "respect"; for if respect
+is gone, friendship has lost its brightest jewel. And this shows the
+mistake of those who imagine that friendship gives a privilege to
+licentiousness and sin. Nature has given us friendship as the handmaid
+of virtue, not as a partner in guilt: to the end that virtue, being
+powerless when isolated to reach the highest objects, might succeed in
+doing so in union and partnership with another. Those who enjoy in the
+present, or have enjoyed in the past, or are destined to enjoy in the
+future such a partnership as this, must be considered to have secured
+the most excellent and auspicious combination for reaching nature's
+highest good. This is the partnership, I say, which combines moral
+rectitude, fame, peace of mind, serenity: all that men think desirable
+because with them life is happy, but without them cannot be so. This
+being our best and highest object, we must, if we desire to attain it,
+devote ourselves to virtue; for without virtue we can obtain neither
+friendship nor anything else desirable. In fact, if virtue be neglected,
+those who imagine themselves to possess friends will find out their
+error as soon as some grave disaster forces them to make trial of them.
+Wherefore, I must again and again repeat, you must satisfy your judgment
+before engaging your affections: not love first and judge afterwards. We
+suffer from carelessness in many of our undertakings: in none more than
+in selecting and cultivating our friends. We put the cart before the
+horse, and shut the stable door when the steed is stolen, in defiance
+of the old proverb. For, having mutually involved ourselves in a
+long-standing intimacy or by actual obligations, all on a sudden some
+cause of offence arises and we break off our friendships in full career.
+
+23. It is this that makes such carelessness in a matter of supreme
+importance all the more worthy of blame. I say "supreme importance,"
+because friendship is the one thing about the utility of which everybody
+with one accord is agreed. That is not the case in regard even to virtue
+itself; for many people speak slightingly of virtue as though it were
+mere puffing and self-glorification. Nor is it the case with riches.
+Many look down on riches, being content with a little and taking
+pleasure in poor fare and dress, And as to the political offices for
+which some have a burning desire--how many entertain such a contempt
+for them as to think nothing in the world more empty and trivial!
+
+And so on with the rest; things desirable in the eyes of some are
+regarded by very many as worthless. But of friendship all think alike to
+a man, whether those have devoted themselves to politics, or those who
+delight in science and philosophy, or those who follow a private way of
+life and care for nothing but their own business, or those lastly who
+have given themselves body and soul to sensuality--they all think, I
+say, that without friendship life is no life, if they want some part
+of it, at any rate, to be noble. For friendship, in one way or another,
+penetrates into the lives of us all, and suffers no career to be
+entirely free from its influence. Though a man be of so churlish and
+unsociable a nature as to loathe and shun the company of mankind, as we
+are told was the case with a certain Timon at Athens, yet even he cannot
+refrain from seeking some one in whose hearing he may disgorge the
+venom of his bitter temper. We should see this most clearly, if it were
+possible that some god should carry us away from these haunts of men,
+and place us somewhere in perfect solitude, and then should supply us in
+abundance with everything necessary to our nature, and yet take from us
+entirely the opportunity of looking upon a human being. Who could steel
+himself to endure such a life? Who would not lose in his loneliness the
+zest for all pleasures? And indeed this is the point of the observation
+of, I think, Archytas of Tarentum. I have it third hand; men who were my
+seniors told me that their seniors had told them. It was this: "If a man
+could ascend to heaven and get a clear view of the natural order of
+the universe, and the beauty of the heavenly bodies, that wonderful
+spectacle would give him small pleasure, though nothing could be
+conceived more delightful if he had but had some one to whom to tell
+what he had seen." So true it is that nature abhors isolation, and ever
+leans upon something as a stay and support; and this is found in its
+most pleasing form in our closest friend.
+
+24. But though Nature also declares by so many indications what her wish
+and object and desire is, we yet in a manner turn a deaf ear and will
+not hear her warnings. The intercourse between friends is varied and
+complex, and it must often happen that causes of suspicion and offence
+arise, which a wise man will sometimes avoid, at other times remove,
+at others treat with indulgence. The one possible cause of offence
+that must be faced is when the interests of your friend and your own
+sincerity are at stake. For instance, it often happens that friends need
+remonstrance and even reproof. When these are administered in a kindly
+spirit they ought to be taken in good part. But somehow or other there
+is truth in what my friend Terence says in his _Andria_:
+
+Compliance gets us friends, plain speaking hate.
+
+Plain speaking is a cause of trouble, if the result of it is resentment,
+which is poison of friendship; but compliance is really the cause of
+much more trouble, because by indulging his faults it lets a friend
+plunge into headlong ruin. But the man who is most to blame is he who
+resents plain speaking and allows flattery to egg him on to his ruin. On
+this point, then, from first to last there is need of deliberation and
+care. If we remonstrate, it should be without bitterness; if we reprove,
+there should be no word of insult. In the matter of compliance (for I
+am glad to adopt Terence's word), though there should be every courtesy,
+yet that base kind which assists a man in vice should be far from us,
+for it is unworthy of a free-born man, to say nothing of a friend. It is
+one thing to live with a tyrant, another with a friend. But if a man's
+ears are so closed to plain speaking that he cannot bear to hear the
+truth from a friend, we may give him up in despair. This remark of
+Cato's, as so many of his did, shews great acuteness: "There are people
+who owe more to bitter enemies than to apparently pleasant friends:
+the former often speak the truth, the latter never." Besides, it is a
+strange paradox that the recipients of advice should feel no annoyance
+where they ought to feel it, and yet feel so much where they ought not.
+They are not at all vexed at having committed a fault, but very angry at
+being reproved for it. On the contrary, they ought to be grieved at the
+crime and glad of the correction.
+
+25. Well, then, if it is true that to give and receive advice--the
+former with freedom and yet without bitterness, the latter with patience
+and without irritation--is peculiarly appropriate to genuine friendship,
+it is no less true that there can be nothing more utterly subversive of
+friendship than flattery, adulation, and base compliance. I use as many
+terms as possible to brand this vice of light-minded, untrustworthy men,
+whose sole object in speaking is to please without any regard to truth.
+In everything false pretence is bad, for it suspends and vitiates our
+power of discerning the truth. But to nothing it is so hostile as to
+friendship; for it destroys that frankness without which friendship is
+an empty name. For the essence of friendship being that two minds become
+as one, how can that ever take place if the mind of each of the separate
+parties to it is not single and uniform, but variable, changeable, and
+complex? Can anything be so pliable, so wavering, as the mind of a man
+whose attitude depends not only on another's feeling and wish, but on
+his very looks and nods?
+
+     If one says "No," I answer "No";
+     If "Yes," I answer "Yes."
+     In fine, I've laid this task upon myself
+     To echo all that's said--
+
+to quote my old friend Terence again. But he puts these words into the mouth of
+a Gnatho. To admit such a man into one's intimacy at all is a sign of
+folly. But there are many people like Gnatho, and it is when they
+are superior either in position or fortune or reputation that their
+flatteries become mischievous, the weight of their position making up
+for the lightness of their character. But if we only take reasonable
+care, it is as easy to separate and distinguish a genuine from a
+specious friend as anything else that is coloured and artificial from
+what is sincere and genuine. A public assembly, though composed of men
+of the smallest possible culture, nevertheless will see clearly
+the difference between a mere demagogue (that is, a flatterer and
+untrustworthy citizen) and a man of principle, standing, and solidity.
+It was by this kind of flattering language that Gaius Papirius the
+other day endeavoured to tickle the ears of the assembled people, when
+proposing his law to make the tribunes re-eligible. I spoke against it.
+But I will leave the personal question. I prefer speaking of Scipio.
+Good heavens! how impressive his speech was, what a majesty there was
+in it! You would have pronounced him, without hesitation, to be no mere
+henchman of the Roman people, but their leader. However, you were there,
+and moreover have the speech in your hands. The result was that a law
+meant to please the people was by the people's votes rejected. Once
+more to refer to myself, you remember how apparently popular was the law
+proposed by Gaius Licinius Crassus "about the election to the College
+of Priests" in the consulship of Quintus Maximus, Scipio's brother, and
+Lucius Mancinus. For the power of filling up their own vacancies on
+the part of the colleges was by this proposal to be transferred to the
+people. It was this man, by the way, who began the practice of turning
+towards the forum when addressing the people. In spite of this, however,
+upon my speaking on the conservative side, religion gained an easy
+victory over his plausible speech. This took place in my praetorship,
+five years before I was elected consul, which shows that the cause
+was successfully maintained more by the merits of the case than by the
+prestige of the highest office.
+
+26. Now, if on a stage, such as a public assembly essentially is,
+where there is the amplest room for fiction and half-truths, truth
+nevertheless prevails if it be but fairly laid open and brought into
+the light of day, what ought to happen in the case of friendship, which
+rests entirely on truthfulness? Friendship, in which, unless you both
+see and show an open breast, to use a common expression, you can neither
+trust nor be certain of anything--no, not even of mutual affection,
+since you cannot be sure of its sincerity. However, this flattery,
+injurious as it is, can hurt no one but the man who takes it in and
+likes it. And it follows that the man to open his ears widest to
+flatterers is he who first flatters himself and is fondest of himself. I
+grant you that Virtue naturally loves herself; for she knows herself
+and perceives how worthy of love she is. But I am not now speaking of
+absolute virtue, but of the belief men have that they possess virtue.
+The fact is that fewer people are endowed with virtue than wish to be
+thought to be so. It is such people that take delight in flattery.
+When they are addressed in language expressly adapted to flatter their
+vanity, they look upon such empty persiflage as a testimony to the truth
+of their own praises. It is not then properly friendship at all when the
+one will not listen to the truth, and the other is prepared to lie. Nor
+would the servility of parasites in comedy have seemed humorous to us
+had there been no such things as braggart captains. "Is Thais really
+much obliged to me?" It would have been quite enough to answer "Much,"
+but he must needs say "Immensely." Your servile flatterer always
+exaggerates what his victim wishes to be put strongly. Wherefore,
+though it is with those who catch at and invite it that this flattering
+falsehood is especially powerful, yet men even of soldier and steadier
+character must be warned to be on the watch against being taken in by
+cunningly disguised flattery. An open flatterer any one can detect,
+unless he is an absolute fool the covert insinuation of the cunning
+and the sly is what we have to be studiously on our guard against. His
+detection is not by any means the easiest thing in the world, for
+he often covers his servility under the guise of contradiction, and
+flatters by pretending to dispute, and then at last giving in and
+allowing himself to be beaten, that the person hoodwinked may think
+himself to have been the clearer-sighted. Now what can be more degrading
+than to be thus hoodwinked? You must be on your guard against this
+happening to you, like the man in the _Heiress_:
+
+     How have I been befooled! no drivelling dotards
+     On any stage were e'er so p1ayed upon.
+
+For even on the stage we have no grosser representation of folly than
+that of short-sighted and credulous old men. But somehow or other I have
+strayed away from the friendship of the perfect, that is of the "wise"
+(meaning, of course, such "wisdom" as human nature is capable of), to
+the subject of vulgar, unsubstantial friendships. Let us then return to
+our original theme, and at length bring that, too, to a conclusion.
+
+27. Well, then, Fannius and Mucius, I repeat what I said before. It
+is virtue, virtue, which both creates and preserves friendship. On
+it depends harmony of interest, permanence, fidelity. When Virtue has
+reared her head and shewn the light of her countenance, and seen and
+recognised the same light in another, she gravitates towards it, and in
+her turn welcomes that which the other has to shew; and from it springs
+up a flame which you may call love or friendship as you please. Both
+words are from the same root in Latin; and love is just the cleaving
+to him whom you love without the prompting of need or any view to
+advantage--though this latter blossoms spontaneously on friendship,
+little as you may have looked for it. It is with such warmth of feeling
+that I cherished Lucius Paulus, Marcus Cato, Galus Gallus, Publius
+Nasica, Tiberius Gracchus, my dear Scipio's father-in-law. It shines
+with even greater warmth when men are of the same age, as in the case of
+Scipio and Lucius Furius, Publius Rupilius, Spurius Mummius, and myself.
+_En revanche_, in my old age I find comfort in the affection of young
+men, as in the case of yourselves and Quintus Tubero: nay more, I
+delight in the intimacy of such a very young man as Publius Rutilius and
+Aulus Verginius. And since the law of our nature and of our life is that
+a new generation is for ever springing up, the most desirable thing is
+that along with your contemporaries, with whom you started in the
+race, you may also teach what is to us the goal. But in view of
+the instability and perishableness of mortal things, we should be
+continually on the look-out for some to love and by whom to be loved;
+for if we lose affection and kindliness from our life, we lose all that
+gives it charm. For me, indeed, though torn away by a sudden stroke,
+Scipio still lives and ever wilt live. For it was the virtue of the man
+that I loved, and that has not suffered death. And it is not my eyes
+only, because I had all my life a personal experience of it, that never
+lose sight of it: it will shine to posterity also with undimmed glory.
+No one will ever cherish a nobler ambition or a loftier hope without
+thinking his memory and his image the best to put before his eyes. I
+declare that of all the blessings which either fortune or nature has
+bestowed upon me I know none to compare with Scipio's friendship. In
+it I found sympathy in public, counsel in private business; in it too a
+means of spending my leisure with unalloyed delight. Never, to the best
+of my knowledge, did I offend him even in the most trivial point; never
+did I hear a word from him I could have wished unsaid. We had one house,
+one table, one style of living; and not only were we together on foreign
+service, but in our tours also and country sojourns. Why speak of
+our eagerness to be ever gaining some knowledge, to be ever learning
+something, on which we spent all our leisure hours far from the gaze of
+the world? If the recollection and memory of these things had perished
+with the man, I could not possibly have endured the regret for one so
+closely united with me in life and affection. But these things have not
+perished; they are rather fed and strengthened by reflexion and memory.
+Even supposing me to have been entirely bereft of them, still my time
+of life of itself brings me no small consolation: for I cannot have much
+longer now to bear this regret; and everything that is brief ought to be
+endurable, however severe.
+
+This is all I had to say on friendship. One piece of advice on parting.
+Make up your minds to this. Virtue (without which friendship is
+impossible) is first; but next to it, and to it alone, the greatest of
+all things is Friendship.
+
+
+
+
+ON OLD AGE
+
+
+     1. And should my service, Titus, ease the weight
+     Of care that wrings your heart, and draw the sting
+     Which rankles there, what guerdon shall there he?
+
+FOR I may address you, Atticus, in the lines in which Flamininus was
+addressed by the man,
+
+     who, poor in wealth, was rich in honour's gold,
+
+though I am well assured that you are not, as Flamininus was,
+
+     kept on the rack of care by night and day.
+
+For I know how well ordered and equable your mind is, and am fully aware
+that it was not a surname alone which you brought home with you from
+Athens, but its culture and good sense. And yet I have an idea that you
+are at times stirred to the heart by the same circumstances as myself.
+To console you for these is a more serious matter, and must be put off
+to another time. For the present I have resolved to dedicate to you an
+essay on Old Age. For from the burden of impending or at least advancing
+age, common to us both, I would do something to relieve us both though
+as to yourself I am fully aware that you support and will support it,
+as you do everything else, with calmness and philosophy. But directly I
+resolved to write on old age, you at once occurred to me as deserving
+a gift of which both of us might take advantage. To myself, indeed, the
+composition of this book has been so delightful, that it has not only
+wiped away all the disagreeables of old age, but has even made it
+luxurious and delightful too. Never, therefore, can philosophy be
+praised as highly as it deserves considering that its faithful disciple
+is able to spend every period of his life with unruffled feelings.
+However, on other subjects I have spoken at large, and shall often speak
+again: this book which I herewith send you is on Old Age. I have put the
+whole discourse not, as Alisto of Cos did, in the mouth of Tithonus--for
+a mere fable would have lacked conviction--but in that of Marcus Cato
+when he was an old man, to give my essay greater weight. I represent
+Laelius and Scipio at his house expressing surprise at his carrying
+his years so lightly, and Cato answering them. If he shall seem to shew
+somewhat more learning in this discourse than he generally did in his
+own books, put it down to the Greek literature of which it is known that
+he became an eager student in his old age. But what need of more? Cato's
+own words will at once explain all I feel about old age.
+
+
+M. Cato. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (the younger). Gaius
+Laelius.
+
+2. _Scipio_. Many a time have I in conversation with my friend Gaius
+Laelius here expressed my admiration, Marcus Cato, of the eminent,
+nay perfect, wisdom displayed by you indeed at all points, but above
+everything because I have noticed that old age never seemed a burden to
+you, while to most old men it is so hateful that they declare themselves
+under a weight heavier than Aetna.
+
+_Cato_. Your admiration is easily excited, it seems, my dear Scipio
+and Laelius. Men, of course, who have no resources in themselves for
+securing a good and happy life find every age burdensome. But those who
+look for all happiness from within can never think anything bad which
+nature makes inevitable. In that category before anything else comes
+old age, to which all wish to attain, and at which all grumble when
+attained. Such is Folly's inconsistency and unreasonableness! They say
+that it is stealing upon them faster than they expected. In the first
+place, who compelled them to hug an illusion? For in what respect did
+old age steal upon manhood faster than manhood upon childhood? In the
+next place, in what way would old age have been less disagreeable to
+them if they were in their eight-hundredth year than in their eightieth?
+For their past, however long, when once it was past, would have no
+consolation for a stupid old age. Wherefore, if it is your wont to
+admire my wisdom--and I would that it were worthy of your good opinion
+and of my own surname of Sapiens--it really consists in the fact that I
+follow Nature, the best of guides, as I would a god, and am loyal to
+her commands. It is not likely, if she has written the rest of the play
+well, that she has been careless about the last act like some idle poet.
+But after all some "last" was inevitable, just as to the berries of a
+tree and the fruits of the earth there comes in the fulness of time a
+period of decay and fall. A wise man will not make a grievance of this.
+To rebel against nature--is not that to fight like the giants with the
+gods?
+
+_Laelius_. And yet, Cato, you will do us a very great favour (I venture
+to speak for Scipio as for myself) if--since we all hope, or at least
+wish, to become old men--you would allow us to learn from you in good
+time before it arrives, by what methods we may most easily acquire the
+strength to support the burden of advancing age.
+
+_Cato_. I will do so without doubt, Laelius, especially if, as you say,
+it will be agreeable to you both.
+
+_Laelius_ We do wish very much, Cato, if it is no trouble to you, to
+be allowed to see the nature of the bourne which you have reached after
+completing a long journey, as it were, upon which we too are bound to
+embark.
+
+3. _Cato_. I will do the best I can, Laelius. It has often been my
+fortune to bear the complaints of my contemporaries--like will to like,
+you know, according to the old proverb--complaints to which men like C.
+Salinator and Sp. Albinus, who were of consular rank and about my time,
+used to give vent. They were, first, that they had lost the pleasures of
+the senses, without which they did not regard life as life at all; and,
+secondly, that they were neglected by those from whom they had been used
+to receive attentions. Such men appear to me to lay the blame on the
+wrong thing. For if it had been the fault of old age, then these same
+misfortunes would have befallen me and all other men of advanced years.
+But I have known many of them who never said a word of complaint against
+old age; for they were only too glad to be freed from the bondage of
+passion, and were not at all looked down upon by their friends. The fact
+is that the blame for all complaints of that kind is to be charged
+to character, not to a particular time of life. For old men who are
+reasonable and neither cross-grained nor churlish find old age tolerable
+enough: whereas unreason and churlishness cause uneasiness at every time
+of life.
+
+_Laelius_ It is as you say, Cato. But perhaps some one may suggest that
+it is your large means, wealth, and high position that make you think
+old age tolerable: whereas such good fortune only falls to few.
+
+_Cato_. There is something in that, Laelius, but by no means all. For
+instance, the story is told of the answer of Themistocles in a wrangle
+with a certain Seriphian, who asserted that he owed his brilliant
+position to the reputation of his country, not to his own. "If I had
+been a Seriphian," said he, "even I should never have been famous, nor
+would you if you had been an Athenian." Something like this may be said
+of old age. For the philosopher himself could not find old age easy
+to bear in the depths of poverty, nor the fool feel it anything but a
+burden though he were a millionaire. You may be sure, my dear Scipio
+and Laelius, that the arms best adapted to old age are culture and the
+active exercise of the virtues. For if they have been maintained at
+every period--if one has lived much as well as long--the harvest they
+produce is wonderful, not only because they never fail us even in our
+last days (though that in itself is supremely important), but also
+because the consciousness of a well-spent life and the recollection of
+many virtuous actions are exceedingly delightful.
+
+4. Take the case of Q. Fabius Maximus, the man, I mean, who recovered
+Tarentum. When I was a young man and he an old one, I was as much
+attached to him as if he had been my contemporary. For that great man's
+serious dignity was tempered by courteous manners, nor had old age made
+any change in his character. True, he was not exactly an old man when my
+devotion to him began, yet he was nevertheless well on in life; for his
+first consulship fell in the year after my birth. When quite a stripling
+I went with him in his fourth consulship as a soldier in the ranks, on
+the expedition against Capua, and in the fifth year after that against
+Tarentum. Four years after that I was elected Quaestor, holding office
+in the consulship of Tuditanus and Cethegus, in which year, indeed,
+he as a very old man spoke in favour of the Cincian law "on gifts and
+fees."
+
+Now this man conducted wars with all the spirit of youth when he was far
+advanced in life, and by his persistence gradually wearied out Hannibal,
+when rioting in all the confidence of youth. How brilliant are those
+lines of my friend Ennius on him!
+
+     For us, down beaten by the storms of fate,
+     One man by wise delays restored the State.
+     Praise or dispraise moved not his constant mood,
+     True to his purpose, to his country's good!
+     Down ever-lengthening avenues of fame
+     Thus shines and shall shine still his glorious name.
+
+Again what vigilance, what profound skill did he show in the capture of
+Tarentum! It was indeed in my hearing that he made the famous retort to
+Salinator, who had retreated into the citadel after losing the town: "It
+was owing to me, Quintus Fabius, that you retook Tarentum." "Quite so,"
+he replied with a laugh; "for had you not lost it, I should never have
+recovered it." Nor was he less eminent in civil life than in war. In his
+second consulship, though his colleague would not move in the matter, he
+resisted as long as he could the proposal of the tribune C. Flaminius
+to divide the territory of the Picenians and Gauls in free allotments in
+defiance of a resolution of the Senate. Again, though he was an augur,
+he ventured to say that whatever was done in the interests of the State
+was done with the best possible auspices, that any laws proposed against
+its interest were proposed against the auspices. I was cognisant of much
+that was admirable in that great man, but nothing struck me with greater
+astonishment than the way in which he bore the death of his son--a man
+of brilliant character and who had been consul. His funeral speech
+over him is in wide circulation, and when we read it, is there any
+philosopher of whom we do not think meanly? Nor in truth was he only
+great in the light of day and in the sight of his fellow-citizens;
+he was still more eminent in private and at home. What a wealth of
+conversation! What weighty maxims! What a wide acquaintance with ancient
+history! What an accurate knowledge of the science of augury! For a
+Roman, too, he had a great tincture of letters. He had a tenacious
+memory for military history of every sort, whether of Roman or
+foreign wars. And I used at that time to enjoy his conversation with a
+passionate eagerness, as though I already divined, what actually turned
+out to be the case, that when he died there would be no one to teach me
+anything.
+
+5. What then is the purpose of such a long disquisition on Maximus? It
+is because you now see that an old age like his cannot conscientiously
+be called unhappy. Yet it is after all true that everybody cannot be a
+Scipio or a Maximus, with stormings of cities, with battles by land and
+sea, with wars in which they themselves commanded, and with triumphs to
+recall. Besides this there is a quiet, pure, and cultivated life which
+produces a calm and gentle old age, such as we have been told Plato's
+was, who died at his writing-desk in his eighty-first year; or like that
+of Isocrates, who says that he wrote the book called The Panegyric in
+his ninety-fourth year, and who lived for five years afterwards; while
+his master Gorgias of Leontini completed a hundred and seven years
+without ever relaxing his diligence or giving up work. When some one
+asked him why he consented to remain so long alive--"I have no fault,"
+said he, "to find with old age." That was a noble answer, and worthy of
+a scholar. For fools impute their own frailties and guilt to old age,
+contrary to the practice of Ennui, whom I mentioned just now. In the
+lines--
+
+     Like some brave steed that oft before
+     The Olympic wreath of victory bore,
+     Now by the weight of years oppressed,
+     Forgets the race, and takes his rest--
+
+he compares his own old age to that of a high-spirited and successful
+race-horse. And him indeed you may very well remember. For the present
+consuls Titus Flamininus and Manius Acilius were elected in the
+nineteenth year after his death; and his death occurred in the
+consulship of Caepio and Philippus, the latter consul for the second
+time: in which year I, then sixty-six years old, spoke in favour of
+the Voconian law in a voice that was still strong and with lungs
+still sound; while be, though seventy years old, supported two burdens
+considered the heaviest of all--poverty and old age--in such a way as to
+be all but fond of them.
+
+The fact is that when I come to think it over, I find that there are
+four reasons for old age being thought unhappy: First, that it withdraws
+us from active employments; second, that it enfeebles the body; third,
+that it deprives us of nearly all physical pleasures; fourth, that it is
+the next step to death. Of each of these reasons, if you will allow me,
+let us examine the force and justice separately.
+
+6. OLD AGE WITHDRAWS US FROM ACTIVE EMPLOYMENTS. From which of them? Do
+you mean from those carried on by youth and bodily strength? Are
+there then no old men's employments to be after all conducted by the
+intellect, even when bodies are weak? So then Q. Maximus did
+nothing; nor L. Aemilius--our father, Scipio, and my excellent son's
+father-in-law! So with other old men--the Fabricii, the Guru and
+Coruncanii--when they were supporting the State by their advice and
+influence, they were doing nothing! To old age Appius Claudius had the
+additional disadvantage of being blind; yet it was he who, when the
+Senate was inclining towards a peace with Pyrrhus and was for making a
+treaty, did not hesitate to say what Ennius has embalmed in the verses:
+
+     Whither have swerved the souls so firm of yore?
+     Is sense grown senseless? Can feet stand no more?
+
+And so on in a tone of the most passionate vehemence. You know the
+poem, and the speech of Appius himself is extant. Now, he delivered
+it seventeen years after his second consulship, there having been an
+interval of ten years between the two consulships, and he having been
+censor before his previous consulship. This will show you that at the
+time of the war with Pyrrhus he was a very old man. Yet this is the
+story handed down to us.
+
+There is therefore nothing in the arguments of those who say that old
+age takes no part in public business. They are like men who would say
+that a steersman does nothing in sailing a ship, because, while some
+of the crew are climbing the masts, others hurrying up and down the
+gangways, others pumping out the bilge water, he sits quietly in the
+stern holding the tiller. He does not do what young men do; nevertheless
+he does what is much more important and better. The great affairs of
+life are not performed by physical strength, or activity, or nimbleness
+of body, but by deliberation, character, expression of opinion. Of these
+old age is not only not deprived, but, as a rule, has them in a greater
+degree. Unless by any chance I, who as a soldier in the ranks, as
+military tribune, as legate, and as consul have been employed in various
+kinds of war, now appear to you to be idle because not actively engaged
+in war. But I enjoin upon the Senate what is to be done, and how.
+Carthage has long been harbouring evil designs, and I accordingly
+proclaim war against her in good time. I shall never cease to entertain
+fears about her till I hear of her having been levelled with the ground.
+The glory of doing that I pray that the immortal gods may reserve
+for you, Scipio, so that you may complete the task begun by your
+grand-father, now dead more than thirty-two years ago; though all years
+to come will keep that great man's memory green. He died in the year
+before my censorship, nine years after my consulship, having been
+returned consul for the second time in my own consulship. If then he had
+lived to his hundredth year, would he have regretted having lived to be
+old? For he would of course not have been practising rapid marches, nor
+dashing on a foe, nor hurling spears from a distance, nor using swords
+at close quarters--but only counsel, reason, and senatorial eloquence.
+And if those qualities had not resided in us _seniors_, our ancestors
+would never have called their supreme council a Senate. At Sparta,
+indeed, those who hold the highest magistracies are in accordance with
+the fact actually called "elders." But if you will take the trouble
+to read or listen to foreign history, you will find that the mightiest
+States have been brought into peril by young men, have been supported
+and restored by old. The question occurs in the poet Naevius's _Sport_:
+
+     Pray, who are those who brought your State
+     With such despatch to meet its fate?
+
+There is a long answer, but this is the chief point:
+
+     A crop of brand-new orators we grew,
+     And foolish, paltry lads who thought they knew.
+
+For of course rashness is the note of youth, prudence of old age.
+
+7. But, it is said, memory dwindles. No doubt, unless you keep it in
+practice, or if you happen to be somewhat dull by nature. Themistocles
+had the names of all his fellow-citizens by heart. Do you imagine that
+in his old age he used to address Aristides as Lysimachus? For my part,
+I know not only the present generation, but their fathers also, and
+their grandfathers. Nor have I any fear of losing my memory by reading
+tombstones, according to the vulgar superstition. On the contrary, by
+reading them I renew my memory of those who are dead and gone. Nor, in
+point of fact, have I ever heard of any old man forgetting where he had
+hidden his money. They remember everything that interests them: when to
+answer to their bail, business appointments, who owes them money, and
+to whom they owe it. What about lawyers, pontiffs, augurs, philosophers,
+when old? What a multitude of things they remember! Old men retain their
+intellects well enough, if only they keep their minds active and fully
+employed. Nor is that the case only with men of high position and
+great office: it applies equally to private life and peaceful pursuits.
+Sophocles composed tragedies to extreme old age; and being believed to
+neglect the care of his property owing to his devotion to his art, his
+sons brought him into court to get a judicial decision depriving him of
+the management of his property on the ground of weak intellect--just as
+in our law it is customary to deprive a paterfamilias of the management
+of his property if he is squandering it. There--upon the old poet is
+said to have read to the judges the play he had on hand and had just
+composed--the _Oedipus Coloneus_--and to have asked them whether they
+thought that the work of a man of weak intellect. After the reading he
+was acquitted by the jury. Did old age then compel this man to become
+silent in his particular art, or Homer, Hesiod, Simonides, or Isocrates
+and Gorgias whom I mentioned before, or the founders of schools of
+philosophy, Pythagoras, Democritus, Plato, Xenocrates, or later Zeno and
+Cleanthus, or Diogenes the Stoic, whom you too saw at Rome? Is it not
+rather the case with all these that the active pursuit of study only
+ended with life?
+
+But, to pass over these sublime studies, I can name some rustic Romans
+from the Sabine district, neighbours and friends of my own,
+without whose presence farm work of importance is scarcely ever
+performed--whether sowing, or harvesting or storing crops. And yet in
+other things this is less surprising; for no one is so old as to think
+that he may not live a year. But they bestow their labour on what they
+know does not affect them in any case:
+
+     He plants his trees to serve a race to come,
+
+as our poet Statius says in his Comrades. Nor indeed would a farmer,
+however old, hesitate to answer any one who asked him for whom he was
+planting: "For the immortal gods, whose will it was that I should not
+merely receive these things from my ancestors, but should also hand them
+on to the next generation."
+
+8. That remark about the old man is better than the following:
+
+     If age brought nothing worse than this,
+     It were enough to mar our bliss,
+     That he who bides for many years
+     Sees much to shun and much for tears.
+
+Yes, and perhaps much that gives him pleasure too. Besides, as to
+subjects for tears, he often comes upon them in youth as well.
+
+A still more questionable sentiment in the same Caecilius is:
+
+     No greater misery can of age be told
+     Than this: be sure, the young dislike the old.
+
+Delight in them is nearer the mark than dislike. For just as old men, if
+they are wise, take pleasure in the society of young men of good parts,
+and as old age is rendered less dreary for those who are courted and
+liked by the youth, so also do young men find pleasure in the maxims of
+the old, by which they are drawn to the pursuit of excellence. Nor do
+I perceive that you find my society less pleasant than I do yours. But
+this is enough to show you how, so far from being listless and sluggish,
+old age is even a busy time, always doing and attempting something, of
+course of the same nature as each man's taste had been in the previous
+part of his life. Nay, do not some even add to their stock of learning?
+We see Solon, for instance, boasting in his poems that he grows old
+"daily learning something new." Or again in my own case, it was only
+when an old man that I became acquainted with Greek literature, which in
+fact I absorbed with such avidity--in my yearning to quench, as it were,
+a long-continued thirst--that I became acquainted with the very facts
+which you see me now using as precedents. When I heard what Socrates had
+done about the lyre I should have liked for my part to have done that
+too, for the ancients used to learn the lyre but, at any rate, I worked
+hard at literature.
+
+9. Nor, again, do I now MISS THE BODILY STRENGTH OF A YOUNG MAN (for
+that was the second point as to the disadvantages of old age) any more
+than as a young man I missed the strength of a bull or an elephant. You
+should use what you have, and whatever you may chance to be doing, do
+it with all your might. What could be weaker than Milo of Croton's
+exclamation? When in his old age he was watching some athletes
+practising in the course, he is said to have looked at his arms and to
+have exclaimed with tears in his eyes: "Ah well! these are now as good
+as dead." Not a bit more so than yourself, you trifler! For at no time
+were you made famous by your real self, but by chest and biceps. Sext.
+Aelius never gave vent to such a remark, nor, many years before him,
+Titus Coruncanius, nor, more recently, P. Crassus--all of them learned
+juris-consults in active practice, whose knowledge of their profession
+was maintained to their last breath. I am afraid an orator does lose
+vigour by old age, for his art is not a matter of the intellect alone,
+but of lungs and bodily strength. Though as a rule that musical ring
+in the voice even gains in brilliance in a certain way as one grows
+old--certainly I have not yet lost it, and you see my years. Yet
+after all the style of speech suitable to an old man is the quiet and
+unemotional, and it often happens that the chastened and calm delivery
+of an old man eloquent secures a hearing. If you cannot attain to that
+yourself, you might still instruct a Scipio and a Laelius. For what is
+more charming than old age surrounded by the enthusiasm of youth? Shall
+we not allow old age even the strength to teach the young, to train
+and equip them for all the duties of life? And what can be a nobler
+employment? For my part, I used to think Publius and Gnaeus Scipio and
+your two grandfathers, L. Aemilius and P. Africanus, fortunate men when
+I saw them with a company of young nobles about them. Nor should we
+think any teachers of the fine arts otherwise than happy, however much
+their bodily forces may have decayed and failed. And yet that same
+failure of the bodily forces is more often brought about by the vices of
+youth than of old age; for a dissolute and intemperate youth hands down
+the body to old age in a worn-out state. Xenophon's Cyrus, for instance,
+in his discourse delivered on his death-bed and at a very advanced age,
+says that he never perceived his old age to have become weaker than his
+youth had been. I remember as a boy Lucius Metellus, who having been
+created Pontifex Maximus four years after his second consulship, held
+that office twenty-two years, enjoying such excellent strength of body
+in the very last hours of his life as not to miss his youth. I need not
+speak of myself; though that indeed is an old man's way and is generally
+allowed to my time of life. Don't you see in Homer how frequently Nestor
+talks of his own good qualities? For he was living through a third
+generation; nor had he any reason to fear that upon saying what was true
+about himself he should appear either over vain or talkative. For, as
+Homer says, "from his lips flowed discourse sweeter than honey," for
+which sweet breath he wanted no bodily strength. And yet, after all, the
+famous leader of the Greeks nowhere wishes to have ten men like Ajax,
+but like Nestor: if he could get them, he feels no doubt of Troy shortly
+falling.
+
+10. But to return to my own case: I am in my eighty-fourth year. I could
+wish that I had been able to make the same boast as Cyrus; but, after
+all, I can say this: I am not indeed as vigorous as I was as a private
+soldier in the Punic war, or as quaestor in the same war, or as consul
+in Spain, and four years later when as a military tribune I took part in
+the engagement at Thermopylae under the consul Manius Acilius Glabrio;
+but yet, as you see, old age has not entirely destroyed my muscles, has
+not quite brought me to the ground. The Senate-house does not find all
+my vigour gone, nor the rostra, nor my friends, nor my clients, nor
+my foreign guests. For I have never given in to that ancient and
+much-praised proverb:
+
+     Old when young
+     Is old for long.
+
+For myself, I had rather be an old man a somewhat shorter time than
+an old man _before_ my time. Accordingly, no one up to the present has
+wished to see me, to whom I have been denied as engaged. But, it may
+be said, I have less strength than either of you. Neither have you the
+strength of the centurion T. Pontius: is he the more eminent man on that
+account? Let there be only a proper husbanding of strength, and let each
+man proportion his efforts to his powers. Such an one will assuredly not
+be possessed with any great regret for his loss of strength. At Olympia
+Milo is said to have stepped into the course carrying a live ox on
+his shoulders. Which then of the two would you prefer to have given to
+you--bodily strength like that, or intellectual strength like that of
+Pythagoras? In fine, enjoy that blessing when you have it; when it is
+gone, don't wish it back--unless we are to think that young men should
+wish their childhood back, and those somewhat older their youth! The
+course of life is fixed, and nature admits of its being run but in one
+way, and only once; and to each part of our life there is something
+specially seasonable; so that the feebleness of children, as well as
+the high spirit of youth, the soberness of maturer years, and the ripe
+wisdom of old age--all have a certain natural advantage which should
+be secured in its proper season. I think you are informed, Scipio, what
+your grandfather's foreign friend Masinissa does to this day, though
+ninety years old. When he has once begun a journey on foot he does not
+mount his horse at all; when on horseback he never gets off his horse.
+By no rain or cold can he be induced to cover his head. His body is
+absolutely free from unhealthy humours, and so he still performs all
+the duties and functions of a king. Active exercise, therefore, and
+temperance can preserve some part of one's former strength even in old
+age.
+
+11. Bodily strength is wanting to old age; but neither is bodily
+strength demanded from old men. Therefore, both by law and custom,
+men of my time of life are exempt from those duties which cannot be
+supported without bodily strength. Accordingly not only are we not
+forced to do what we cannot do; we are not even obliged to do as much
+as we can. But, it will be said, many old men are so feeble that they
+cannot perform any duty in life of any sort or kind. That is not a
+weakness to be set down as peculiar to old age: it is one shared by ill
+health. How feeble was the son of P. Africanus, who adopted you! What
+weak health he had, or rather no health at all! If that had not been
+the case, we should have had in him a second brilliant light in the
+political horizon; for he had added a wider cultivation to his father's
+greatness of spirit. What wonder, then, that old men are eventually
+feeble, when even young men cannot escape it? My dear Laelius and
+Scipio, we must stand up against old age and make up for its drawbacks
+by taking pains. We must fight it as we should an illness. We must look
+after our health, use moderate exercise, take just enough food and drink
+to recruit, but not to overload, our strength. Nor is it the body alone
+that must be supported, but the intellect and soul much more. For they
+are like lamps: unless you feed them with oil, they too go out from
+old age. Again, the body is apt to get gross from exercise; but the
+intellect becomes nimbler by exercising itself. For what Caecilius means
+by "old dotards of the comic stage" are the credulous, the forgetful,
+and the slipshod. These are faults that do not attach to old age as
+such, but to a sluggish, spiritless, and sleepy old age. Young men are
+more frequently wanton and dissolute than old men; but yet, as it is not
+all young men that are so, but the bad set among them, even so senile
+folly--usually called imbecility--applies to old men of unsound
+character, not to all. Appius governed four sturdy sons, five daughters,
+that great establishment, and all those clients, though he was both old
+and blind. For he kept his mind at full stretch like a bow, and never
+gave in to old age by growing slack. He maintained not merely an
+influence, but an absolute command over his family: his slaves feared
+him, his sons were in awe of him, all loved him. In that family, indeed,
+ancestral custom and discipline were in full vigour. The fact is that
+old age is respectable just as long as it asserts itself, maintains its
+proper rights, and is not enslaved to any one. For as I admire a young
+man who has something of the old man in him, so do I an old one who has
+something of a young man. The man who aims at this may possibly become
+old in body--in mind he never will. I am now engaged in composing the
+seventh book of my _Origins_. I collect all the records of antiquity.
+The speeches delivered in all the celebrated cases which I have defended
+I am at this particular time getting into shape for publication. I am
+writing treatises on augural, pontifical, and civil law. I am, besides,
+studying hard at Greek, and after the manner of the Pythagoreans--to
+keep my memory in working order--I repeat in the evening whatever I have
+said, heard, or done in the course of each day. These are the exercises
+of the intellect, these the training grounds of the mind: while I sweat
+and labour on these I don't much feel the loss of bodily strength. I
+appear in court for my friends; I frequently attend the Senate and bring
+motions before it on my own responsibility, prepared after deep and
+long reflection. And these I support by my intellectual, not my bodily
+forces. And if I were not strong enough to do these things, yet I should
+enjoy my sofa--imagining the very operations which I was now unable to
+perform. But what makes me capable of doing this is my past life. For a
+man who is always living in the midst of these studies and labours
+does not perceive when old age creeps upon him. Thus, by slow and
+imperceptible degrees life draws to its end. There is no sudden
+breakage; it just slowly goes out.
+
+12. The third charge against old age is that it LACKS SENSUAL PLEASURES.
+What a splendid service does old age render, if it takes from us the
+greatest blot of youth! Listen, my dear young friends, to a speech of
+Archytas of Tarentum, among the greatest and most illustrious of men,
+which was put into my hands when as a young man I was at Tarentum
+with Q. Maximus. "No more deadly curse than sensual pleasure has been
+inflicted on mankind by nature, to gratify which our wanton appetites
+are roused beyond all prudence or restraint. It is a fruitful source of
+treasons, revolutions, secret communications with the enemy. In fact,
+there is no crime, no evil deed, to which the appetite for sensual
+pleasures does not impel us. Fornications and adulteries, and every
+abomination of that kind, are brought about by the enticements of
+pleasure and by them alone. Intellect is the best gift of nature or
+God: to this divine gift and endowment there is nothing so inimical
+as pleasure. For when appetite is our master, there is no place for
+self-control; nor where pleasure reigns supreme can virtue hold its
+ground. To see this more vividly, imagine a man excited to the highest
+conceivable pitch of sensual pleasure. It can be doubtful to no one that
+such a person, so long as he is under the influence of such excitation
+of the senses, will be unable to use to any purpose either intellect,
+reason, or thought. Therefore nothing can be so execrable and so fatal
+as pleasure; since, when more than ordinarily violent and lasting, it
+darkens all the light of the soul."
+
+These were the words addressed by Archytas to the Samnite Caius Pontius,
+father of the man by whom the consuls Spurius Postumius and Titus
+Veturius were beaten in the battle of Caudium. My friend Nearchus of
+Tarentum, who had remained loyal to Rome, told me that he had heard them
+repeated by some old men; and that Plato the Athenian was present, who
+visited Tarentum, I find, in the consulship of L. Camillus and Appius
+Claudius.
+
+What is the point of all this? It is to show you that, if we were unable
+to scorn pleasure by the aid of reason and philosophy, we ought to have
+been very grateful to old age for depriving us of all inclination for
+that which it was wrong to do. For pleasure hinders thought, is a foe to
+reason, and, so to speak, blinds the eyes of the mind. It is, moreover,
+entirely alien to virtue. I was sorry to have to expel Lucius, brother
+of the gallant Titus Flamininus, from the Senate seven years after his
+consulship; but I thought it imperative to affix a stigma on an act of
+gross sensuality. For when he was in Gaul as consul, he had yielded to
+the entreaties of his paramour at a dinner-party to behead a man who
+happened to be in prison condemned on a capital charge. When his brother
+Titus was Censor, who preceded me, he escaped; but I and Flaccus could
+not countenance an act of such criminal and abandoned lust, especially
+as, besides the personal dishonour, it brought disgrace on the
+Government.
+
+13. I have often been told by men older than myself, who said that they
+had heard it as boys from old men, that Gaius Fabricius was in the
+habit of expressing astonishment at having heard, when envoy at the
+headquarters of king Pyrrhus, from the Thessalian Cineas, that there was
+a man of Athens who professed to be a "philosopher," and affirmed that
+everything we did was to be referred to pleasure. When he told this to
+Manius Curius and Publius Decius, they used to remark that they wished
+that the Samnites and Pyrrhus himself would hold the same opinion. It
+would be much easier to conquer them, if they had once given themselves
+over to sensual indulgences. Manius Curius had been intimate with
+P. Decius, who four years before the former's consulship had devoted
+himself to death for the Republic. Both Fabricius and Coruncanius knew
+him also, and from the experience of their own lives, as well as from
+the action of P. Decius, they were of opinion that there did exist
+something intrinsically noble and great, which was sought for its own
+sake, and at which all the best men aimed, to the contempt and neglect
+of pleasure. Why then do I spend so many words on the subject of
+pleasure? Why, because, far from being a charge against old age, that it
+does not much feel the want of any pleasures, it is its highest praise.
+
+But, you will say, it is deprived of the pleasures of the table, the
+heaped up board, the rapid passing of the wine-cup. Well, then, it is
+also free from headache, disordered digestion, broken sleep. But if we
+must grant pleasure something, since we do not find it easy to resist
+its charms,--for Plato, with happy inspiration, calls pleasure "vice's
+bait," because of course men are caught by it as fish by a hook,--yet,
+although old age has to abstain from extravagant banquets, it is still
+capable of enjoying modest festivities. As a boy I often used to see
+Gaius Duilius the son of Marcus, then an old man, returning from
+a dinner-party. He thoroughly enjoyed the frequent use of torch and
+flute-player, distinctions which he had assumed though unprecedented in
+the case of a private person. It was the privilege of his glory. But why
+mention others? I will come back to my own case. To begin with, I have
+always remained a member of a "club"--clubs, you know, were established
+in my quaestorship on the reception of the Magna Mater from Ida. So I
+used to dine at their feast with the members of my club--on the whole
+with moderation, though there was a certain warmth of temperament
+natural to my time of life; but as that advances there is a daily
+decrease of all excitement. Nor was I, in fact, ever wont to measure
+my enjoyment even of these banquets by the physical pleasures they gave
+more than by the gathering and conversation of friends. For it was
+a good idea of our ancestors to style the presence of guests at a
+dinner-table--seeing that it implied a community of enjoyment--a
+_convivium_, "a living together." It is a better term than the Greek
+words which mean "a drinking together," or, "an eating together." For
+they would seem to give the preference to what is really the least
+important part of it.
+
+14. For myself, owing to the pleasure I take in conversation, I enjoy
+even banquets that begin early in the afternoon, and not only in company
+with my contemporaries--of whom very few survive--but also with men
+of your age and with yourselves. I am thankful to old age, which has
+increased my avidity for conversation, while it has removed that for
+eating and drinking. But if anyone does enjoy these--not to seem to have
+proclaimed war against all pleasure without exception, which is perhaps
+a feeling inspired by nature--I fail to perceive even in these very
+pleasures that old age is entirely without the power of appreciation.
+For myself, I take delight even in the old-fashioned appointment of
+master of the feast; and in the arrangement of the conversation, which
+according to ancestral custom is begun from the last place on the
+left-hand couch when the wine is brought in; as also in the cups which,
+as in Xenophon's banquet, are small and filled by driblets; and in the
+contrivance for cooling in summer, and for warming by the winter sun or
+winter fire. These things I keep up even among my Sabine countrymen, and
+every day have a full dinner-party of neighbours, which we prolong as
+far into the night as we can with varied conversation.
+
+But you may urge--there is not the same tingling sensation of pleasure
+in old men. No doubt; but neither do they miss it so much. For nothing
+gives you uneasiness which you do not miss. That was a fine answer of
+Sophocles to a man who asked him, when in extreme old age, whether he
+was still a lover. "Heaven forbid!" he replied; "I was only too glad to
+escape from that, as though from a boorish and insane master." To
+men indeed who are keen after such things it may possibly appear
+disagreeable and uncomfortable to be without them; but to jaded
+appetites it is pleasanter to lack than to enjoy. However, he cannot be
+said to lack who does not want: my contention is that not to want is the
+pleasanter thing.
+
+But even granting that youth enjoys these pleasures with more zest; in
+the first place, they are insignificant things to enjoy, as I have said;
+and in the second place, such as age is not entirely without, if it
+does not possess them in profusion. Just as a man gets greater pleasure
+from Ambivius Turpio if seated in the front row at the theatre than if
+he was in the last, yet, after all, the man in the last row does get
+pleasure; so youth, because it looks at pleasures at closer quarters,
+perhaps enjoys itself more, yet even old age, looking at them from
+a distance, does enjoy itself well enough. Why, what blessings are
+these--that the soul, having served its time, so to speak, in the
+campaigns of desire and ambition, rivalry and hatred, and all the
+passions, should live in its own thoughts, and, as the expression goes,
+should dwell apart! Indeed, if it has in store any of what I may call
+the food of study and philosophy, nothing can be pleasanter than an
+old age of leisure. We were witnesses to C. Gallus--a friend of your
+father's, Scipio--intent to the day of his death on mapping out the sky
+and land. How often did the light surprise him while still working out
+a problem begun during the night! How often did night find him busy on
+what he had begun at dawn! How he delighted in predicting for us solar
+and lunar eclipses long before they occurred! Or again in studies of
+a lighter nature, though still requiring keenness of intellect, what
+pleasure Naevius took in his _Punic War_! Plautus in his _Truculentus_
+and _Pseudolus_! I even saw Livius Andronicus, who, having produced
+a play six years before I was born--in the consulship of Cento and
+Tuditanus--lived till I had become a young man. Why speak of Publius
+Licinius Crassus's devotion to pontifical and civil law, or of the
+Publius Scipio of the present time, who within these last few days
+has been created Pontifex Maximus? And yet I have seen all whom I have
+mentioned ardent in these pursuits when old men. Then there is Marcus
+Cethegus, whom Ennius justly called "Persuasion's Marrow"--with what
+enthusiasm did we see him exert himself in oratory even when quite old!
+What pleasures are there in feasts, games, or mistresses comparable to
+pleasures such as these? And they are all tastes, too, connected with
+learning, which in men of sense and good education grow with their
+growth. It is indeed an honourable sentiment which Solon expresses in a
+verse which I have quoted before--that he grew old learning many a fresh
+lesson every day. Than that intellectual pleasure none certainly can be
+greater.
+
+15. I come now to the pleasures of the farmer, in which I take amazing
+delight. These are not hindered by any extent of old age, and seem to
+me to approach nearest to the ideal wise man's life. For he has to deal
+with the earth, which never refuses its obedience, nor ever returns
+what it has received without usury; sometimes, indeed, with less, but
+generally with greater interest. For my part, however, it is not merely
+the thing produced, but the earth's own force and natural productiveness
+that delight me. For received in its bosom the seed scattered broadcast
+upon it, softened and broken up, she first keeps it concealed therein
+(hence the harrowing which accomplishes this gets its name from a word
+meaning "to hide"); next, when it has been warmed by her heat and close
+pressure, she splits it open and draws from it the greenery of the
+blade. This, supported by the fibres of the root, little by little grows
+up, and held upright by its jointed stalk is enclosed in sheaths, as
+being still immature. When it has emerged from them it produces an ear
+of corn arranged in order, and is defended against the pecking of the
+smaller birds by a regular palisade of spikes.
+
+Need I mention the starting, planting, and growth of vines? I can never
+have too much of this pleasure--to let you into the secret of what gives
+my old age repose and amusement. For I say nothing here of the natural
+force which all things propagated from the earth possess--the earth
+which from that tiny grain in a fig, or the grape-stone in a grape, or
+the most minute seeds of the other cereals and plants, produces such
+huge trunks and boughs. Mallet-shoots, slips, cuttings, quicksets,
+layers--are they not enough to fill anyone with delight and
+astonishment? The vine by nature is apt to fall, and unless supported
+drops down to the earth; yet in order to keep itself upright it embraces
+whatever it reaches with its tendrils as though they were hands. Then
+as it creeps on, spreading itself in intricate and wild profusion, the
+dresser's art prunes it with the knife and prevents it growing a forest
+of shoots and expanding to excess in every direction. Accordingly at the
+beginning of spring in the shoots which have been left there protrudes
+at each of the joints what is termed an eye. From this the grape emerges and
+shows itself; which, swollen by the juice of the earth and the heat
+of the sun, is at first very bitter to the taste, but afterwards grows
+sweet as it matures; and being covered with tendrils is never without a
+moderate warmth, and yet is able to ward off the fiery heat of the sun.
+Can anything be richer in product or more beautiful to contemplate?
+It is not its utility only, as I said before, that charms me, but the
+method of its cultivation and the natural process of its growth: the
+rows of uprights, the cross-pieces for the tops of the plants, the tying
+up of the vines and their propagation by layers, the pruning, to which
+I have already referred, of some shoots, the setting of others. I need
+hardly mention irrigation, or trenching and digging the soil, which much
+increase its fertility. As to the advantages of manuring I have spoken
+in my book on agriculture. The learned Hesiod did not say a single word
+on this subject, though he was writing on the cultivation of the soil;
+yet Homer, who in my opinion was many generations earlier, represents
+Laertes as softening his regret for his son by cultivating and manuring
+his farm. Nor is it only in cornfields and meadows and vineyards and
+plantations that a farmer's life is made cheerful. There are the garden
+and the orchard, the feeding of sheep, the swarms of bees, endless
+varieties of flowers. Nor is it only planting out that charms: there
+is also grafting--surely the most ingenious invention ever made by
+husbandmen.
+
+16. I might continue my list of the delights of country life; but even
+what I have said I think is somewhat over long. However, you must
+pardon me; for farming is a very favourite hobby of mine, and old age is
+naturally rather garrulous--for I would not be thought to acquit it of
+all faults.
+
+Well, it was in a life of this sort that Manius Curius, after
+celebrating triumphs over the Samnites, the Sabines, and Pyrrhus, spent
+his last days. When I look at his villa--for it is not far from my
+own--I never can enough admire the man's own frugality or the spirit of
+the age. As Curius was sitting at his hearth the Samnites, who brought
+him a large sum of gold, were repulsed by him; for it was not, he
+said, a fine thing in his eyes to possess gold, but to rule those who
+possessed it. Could such a high spirit fail to make old age pleasant?
+
+But to return to farmers--not to wander from my own metier. In those
+days there were senators, _i. e_. old men, on their farms. For L.
+Quinctius Cincinnatus was actually at the plough when word was brought
+him that he had been named Dictator. It was by his order as Dictator,
+by the way, that C. Servilius Ahala, the Master of the Horse, seized
+and put to death Spurius Maelius when attempting to obtain royal power.
+Curius as well as other old men used to receive their summonses to
+attend the Senate in their farm-houses, from which circumstance the
+summoners were called _viatores_ or "travellers." Was these men's old
+age an object of pity who found their pleasure in the cultivation of the
+land? In my opinion, scarcely any life can be more blessed, not alone
+from its utility (for agriculture is beneficial to the whole human
+race), but also as much from the mere pleasure of the thing, to which
+I have already alluded, and from the rich abundance and supply of all
+things necessary for the food of man and for the worship of the gods
+above. So, as these are objects of desire to certain people, let us
+make our peace with pleasure. For the good and hard-working farmer's
+wine-cellar and oil-store, as well as his larder, are always well
+filled, and his whole farm-house is richly furnished. It abounds in
+pigs, goats, lambs, fowls, milk, cheese, and honey. Then there is the
+garden, which the farmers themselves call their "second flitch." A zest
+and flavour is added to all these by hunting and fowling in spare hours.
+Need I mention the greenery of meadows, the rows of trees, the beauty
+of vineyard and olive-grove? I will put it briefly: nothing can either
+furnish necessaries more richly, or present a fairer spectacle, than
+well-cultivated land. And to the enjoyment of that, old age does not
+merely present no hindrance--it actually invites and allures to it. For
+where else can it better warm itself, either by basking in the sun or by
+sitting by the fire, or at the proper time cool itself more wholesomely
+by the help of shade or water? Let the young keep their arms then to
+themselves, their horses, spears, their foils and ball, their swimming
+baths and running path. To us old men let them, out of the many forms of
+sport, leave dice and counters; but even that as they choose, since old
+age can be quite happy without them.
+
+17. Xenophon's books are very useful for many purposes. Pray go on
+reading them with attention, as you have ever done. In what ample
+terms is agriculture lauded by him in the book about husbanding one's
+property, which is called _Oceonomicus_! But to show you that he thought
+nothing so worthy of a prince as the taste for cultivating the soil, I
+will translate what Socrates says to Critobulus in that book:
+
+"When that most gallant Lacedaemonian Lysander came to visit the Persian
+prince Cyrus at Sardis, so eminent for his character and the glory of
+his rule, bringing him presents from his allies, he treated Lysander
+in all ways with courteous familiarity and kindness, and, among other
+things, took him to see a certain park carefully planted. Lysander
+expressed admiration of the height of the trees and the exact
+arrangement of their rows in the quincunx, the careful cultivation
+of the soil, its freedom from weeds, and the sweetness of the odours
+exhaled from the flowers, and went on to say that what he admired was
+not the industry only, but also the skill of the man by whom this had
+been planned and laid out. Cyrus replied: 'Well, it was I who planned
+the whole thing these rows are my doing, the laying out is all mine;
+many of the trees were even planted by own hand.' Then Lysander, looking
+at his purple robe, the brilliance of his person, and his adornment
+Persian fashion with gold and many jewels, said: 'People are quite
+right, Cyrus, to call you happy, since the advantages of high fortune
+have been joined to an excellence like yours.'"
+
+This kind of good fortune, then, it is in the power of old men to enjoy;
+nor is age any bar to our maintaining pursuits of every other kind, and
+especially of agriculture, to the very extreme verge of old age. For
+instance, we have it on record that M. Valerius Corvus kept it up to his
+hundredth year, living on his land and cultivating it after his active
+career was over, though between his first and sixth consulships there
+was an interval of six and forty years. So that he had an official
+career lasting the number of years which our ancestors defined as coming
+between birth and the beginning of old age. Moreover, that last period
+of his old age was more blessed than that of his middle life, inasmuch
+as he had greater influence and less labour. For the crowning grace of
+old age is influence.
+
+How great was that of L. Caecilius Metellus! How great that of Atilius
+Calatinus, over whom the famous epitaph was placed, "Very many classes
+agree in deeming this to have been the very first man of the nation"!
+The line cut on his tomb is well known. It is natural, then, that a man
+should have had influence, in whose praise the verdict of history is
+unanimous. Again, in recent times, what a great man was Publius Crassus,
+Pontifex Maximus, and his successor in the same office, M. Lepidus! I
+need scarcely mention Paulus or Africanus, or, as I did before, Maximus.
+It was not only their senatorial utterances that had weight: their least
+gesture had it also. In fact, old age, especially when it has enjoyed
+honours, has an influence worth all the pleasures of youth put together.
+
+18. But throughout my discourse remember that my panegyric applies to
+an old age that has been established on foundations laid by youth. From
+which may be deduced what I once said with universal applause, that
+it was a wretched old age that had to defend itself by speech. Neither
+white hairs nor wrinkles can at once claim influence in themselves: it
+is the honourable conduct of earlier days that is rewarded by possessing
+influence at the last. Even things generally regarded as trifling and
+matters of course--being saluted, being courted, having way made for
+one, people rising when one approaches, being escorted to and from the
+forum, being referred to for advice--all these are marks of respect,
+observed among us and in other States--always most sedulously where the
+moral tone is highest. They say that Lysander the Spartan, whom I have
+mentioned before, used to remark that Sparta was the most dignified home
+for old age; for that nowhere was more respect paid to years, no-where
+was old age held in higher honour. Nay, the story is told of how when
+a man of advanced years came into the theatre at Athens when the games
+were going on, no place was given him anywhere in that large assembly
+by his own countrymen; but when he came near the Lacedaemonians, who as
+ambassadors had a fixed place assigned to them, they rose as one man out
+of respect for him, and gave the veteran a seat. When they were greeted
+with rounds of applause from the whole audience, one of them remarked:
+
+"The Athenians know what is right, but will not do it." There are many
+excellent rules in our augural college, but among the best is one which
+affects our subject--that precedence in speech goes by seniority; and
+augurs who are older are preferred only to those who have held higher
+office, but even to those who are actually in possession of imperium.
+What then are the physical pleasures to be compared with the reward of
+influence? Those who have employed it with distinction appear to me to
+have played the drama of life to its end, and not to have broken down in
+the last act like unpractised players.
+
+But, it will be said, old men are fretful, fidgety, ill-tempered, and
+disagreeable. If you come to that, they are also avaricious. But these
+are faults of character, not of the time of life. And, after all,
+fretfulness and the other faults I mentioned admit of some excuse--not,
+indeed, a complete one, but one that may possibly pass muster: they
+think themselves neglected, looked down upon, mocked, Besides with
+bodily weakness every rub is a source of pain. Yet all these faults are
+softened both by good character and good education. Illustrations of
+this may be found in real life, as also on the stage in the case of
+the brothers in the _Adeiphi_. What harshness in the one, what gracious
+manners in the other The fact is that, just as it is not every wine, so
+it is not every life, that turns sour from keeping, Serious gravity I
+approve of in old age, but, as in other things, it must be within due
+limits: bitterness I can in no case approve. What the object of senile
+avarice may be I cannot conceive. For can there be anything more absurd
+than to seek more journey money, the less there remains of the journey?
+
+19. There remains the fourth reason, which more than anything else
+appears to torment men of my age and keep them in a flutter--THE
+NEARNESS OF DEATH, which, it must be allowed, cannot be far from an old
+man. But what a poor dotard must he be who has not learnt in the course
+of so long a life that death is not a thing to be feared? Death, that is
+either to be totally disregarded, if it entirely extinguishes the soul,
+or is even to be desired, if it brings him where he is to exist forever.
+A third alternative, at any rate, cannot possibly be discovered. Why
+then should I be afraid if I am destined either not to be miserable
+after death or even to be happy? After all, who is such a fool as to
+feel certain--however young he may be--that he will be alive in the
+evening? Nay, that time of life has many more chances of death than
+ours, Young men more easily contract diseases; their illnesses are more
+serious; their treatment has to be more severe. Accordingly, only a few
+arrive at old age. If that were not so, life would be conducted better
+and more wisely; for it is in old men that thought, reason, and prudence
+are to be found; and if there had been no old men, States would never
+have existed at all. But I return to the subject of the imminence of
+death. What sort of charge is this against old age, when you see that it
+is shared by youth? I had reason in the case of my excellent son--as you
+had, Scipio, in that of your brothers, who were expected to attain the
+highest honours--to realise that death is common to every time of life.
+Yes, you will say; but a young man expects to live long; an old man
+cannot expect to do so. Well, he is a fool to expect it. For what can be
+more foolish than to regard the uncertain as certain, the false as true?
+"An old man has nothing even to hope." Ah, but it is just there that
+he is in a better position than a young man, since what the latter only
+hopes he has obtained. The one wishes to live long; the other has lived
+long.
+
+And yet, good heaven! what is "long" in a man's life? For grant
+the utmost limit: let us expect an age like that of the King of the
+Tartessi. For there was, as I find recorded, a certain Agathonius at
+Gades who reigned eighty years and lived a hundred and twenty. But to my
+mind nothing seems even long in which there is any "last," for when that
+arrives, then all the past has slipped away--only that remains to which
+you have attained by virtue and righteous actions. Hours indeed, and
+days and months and years depart, nor does past time ever return, nor
+can the future be known. Whatever time each is granted for life, with
+that he is bound to be content. An actor, in order to earn approval,
+is not bound to perform the play from beginning to end; let him only
+satisfy the audience in whatever act he appears. Nor need a wise man go
+on to the concluding "plaudite." For a short term of life is long enough
+for living well and honourably. But if you go farther, you have no more
+right to grumble than farmers do because the charm of the spring season
+is past and the summer and autumn have come. For the word "spring" in a
+way suggests youth, and points to the harvest to be: the other seasons
+are suited for the reaping and storing of the crops. Now the harvest of
+old age is, as I have often said, the memory and rich store of blessings
+laid up in easier life. Again, all things that accord with nature are to
+be counted as good. But what can be more in accordance with nature
+than for old men to die? A thing, indeed, which also befalls young men,
+though nature revolts and fights against it. Accordingly, the death of
+young men seems to me like putting out a great fire with a deluge of
+water; but old men die like a fire going out because it has burnt down
+of its own nature without artificial means. Again, just as apples when
+unripe are torn from trees, but when ripe and mellow drop down, so it
+is violence that takes life from young men, ripeness from old. This
+ripeness is so delightful to me, that, as I approach nearer to death,
+I seem as it were to be sighting land, and to be coming to port at last
+after a long voyage.
+
+20. Again, there is no fixed borderline for old age, and you are making
+a good and proper use of it as long as you can satisfy the call of duty
+and disregard death. The result of this is, that old age is even more
+confident and courageous than youth. That is the meaning of Solon's
+answer to the tyrant Pisistratus. When the latter asked him what he
+relied upon in opposing him with such boldness, he is said to have
+replied, "On my old age." But that end of life is the best, when,
+without the intellect or senses being impaired, Nature herself takes
+to pieces her own handiwork which she also put together. Just as the
+builder of a ship or a house can break them up more easily than any one
+else, so the nature that knit together the human frame can also
+best unfasten it. Moreover, a thing freshly glued together is always
+difficult to pull asunder; if old, this is easily done.
+
+The result is that the short time of life left to them is not to be
+grasped at by old men with greedy eagerness, or abandoned without cause.
+Pythagoras forbids us, without an order from our commander, that is God,
+to desert life's fortress and outpost. Solon's epitaph, indeed, is that
+of a wise man, in which he says that he does not wish his death to be
+unaccompanied by the sorrow and lamentations of his friends. He wants, I
+suppose, to be beloved by them. But I rather think Ennius says better:
+
+None grace me with their tears, nor weeping loud Make sad my funeral
+rites!
+
+He holds that a death is not a subject for mourning when it is followed
+by immortality.
+
+Again, there may possibly be some sensation of dying and that only for
+a short time, especially in the case of an old man: after death, indeed,
+sensation is either what one would desire, or it disappears altogether.
+But to disregard death is a lesson which must be studied from our youth
+up; for unless that is learnt, no one can have a quiet mind. For die we
+certainly must, and that too without being certain whether it may not be
+this very day. As death, therefore, is hanging over our head every hour,
+how can a man ever be unshaken in soul if he fears it?
+
+But on this theme I don't think I need much enlarge: when I remember
+what Lucius Brutus did, who was killed while defending his country; or
+the two Decii, who spurred their horses to a gallop and met a voluntary
+death; or M. Atilius Regulus, who left his home to confront a death of
+torture, rather than break the word which he had pledged to the enemy;
+or the two Scipios, who determined to block the Carthaginian advance
+even with their own bodies; or your grandfather Lucius Paulus, who
+paid with his life for the rashness of his colleague in the disgrace at
+Cannae; or M. Marcellus, whose death not even the most bloodthirsty of
+enemies would allow to go without the honour of burial. It is enough to
+recall that our legions (as I have recorded in my _Origins_) have
+often marched with cheerful and lofty spirit to ground from which they
+believed that they would never return. That, therefore, which young
+men--not only uninstructed, but absolutely ignorant--treat as of no
+account, shall men who are neither young nor ignorant shrink from in
+terror? As a general truth, as it seems to me, it is weariness of all
+pursuits that creates weariness of life. There are certain pursuits
+adapted to childhood: do young men miss them? There are others suited
+to early manhood: does that settled time of life called "middle age" ask
+for them? There are others, again, suited to that age, but not looked
+for in old age. There are, finally, some which belong to Old age.
+Therefore, as the pursuits of the earlier ages have their time for
+disappearing, so also have those of old age. And when that takes place,
+a satiety of life brings on the ripe time for death.
+
+21. For I do not see why I should not venture to tell you my personal
+opinion as to death, of which I seem to myself to have a clearer vision
+in proportion as I am nearer to it. I believe, Scipio and Laelius, that
+your fathers--those illustrious men and my dearest friends--are still
+alive, and that too with a life which alone deserves the name. For as
+long as we are imprisoned in this framework of the body, we perform a
+certain function and laborious work assigned us by fate. The soul, in
+fact, is of heavenly origin, forced down from its home in the highest,
+and, so to speak, buried in earth, a place quite opposed to its divine
+nature and its immortality. But I suppose the immortal gods to have sown
+souls broadcast in human bodies, that there might be some to survey
+the world, and while contemplating the order of the heavenly bodies to
+imitate it in the unvarying regularity of their life. Nor is it only
+reason and arguments that have brought me to this belief, but the great
+fame and authority of the most distinguished philosophers. I used to
+be told that Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans--almost natives of
+our country, who in old times had been called the Italian school of
+philosophers--never doubted that we had souls drafted from the universal
+Divine intelligence. I used besides to have pointed out to me the
+discourse delivered by Socrates on the last day of his life upon the
+immortality of the soul--Socrates who was pronounced by the oracle at
+Delphi to be the wisest of men. I need say no more. I have convinced
+myself, and I hold--in view of the rapid movement of the soul, its vivid
+memory of the past and its prophetic knowledge of the future, its many
+accomplishments, its vast range of knowledge, its numerous discoveries
+--that a nature embracing such varied gifts cannot itself be mortal.
+And since the soul is always in motion and yet has no external source of
+motion, for it is self-moved, I conclude that it will also have no end
+to its motion, because it is not likely ever to abandon itself. Again,
+since the nature of the soul is not composite, nor has in it any
+admixture that is not homogeneous and similar, I conclude that it is
+indivisible, and, if indivisible, that it cannot perish. It is again
+a strong proof of men knowing most things before birth, that when mere
+children they grasp innumerable facts with such speed as to show that
+they are not then taking them in for the first time, but remembering and
+recalling them. This is roughly Plato's argument.
+
+22. Once more in Xenophon we have the elder Cyrus on his deathbed
+speaking as follows:--
+
+"Do not suppose, my dearest sons, that when I have left you I shall be
+nowhere and no one. Even when I was with you, you did not see my soul,
+but knew that it was in this body of mine from what I did. Believe then
+that it is still the same, even though you see it not. The honours paid
+to illustrious men had not continued to exist after their death, had
+the souls of these very men not done something to make us retain our
+recollection of them beyond the ordinary time. For myself, I never could
+be persuaded that souls while in mortal bodies were alive, and died
+directly they left them; nor, in fact, that the soul only lost all
+intelligence when it left the unintelligent body. I believe rather that
+when, by being liberated from all corporeal admixture, it has begun to
+be pure and undefiled, it is then that it becomes wise. And again,
+when man's natural frame is resolved into its elements by death, it is
+clearly seen whither each of the other elements departs: for they all go
+to the place from which they came: but the soul alone is invisible alike
+when present and when departing. Once more, you see that nothing is so
+like death as sleep. And yet it is in sleepers that souls most clearly
+reveal their divine nature; for they foresee many events when they are
+allowed to escape and are left free. This shows what they are likely to
+be when they have completely freed themselves from the fetters of the
+body. Wherefore, if these things are so, obey me as a god. But if my
+soul is to perish with my body, nevertheless do you from awe of the
+gods, who guard and govern this fair universe, preserve my memory by the
+loyalty and piety of your lives."
+
+23. Such are the words of the dying Cyrus. I will now, with your good
+leave, look at home. No one, my dear Scipio, shall ever persuade me that
+your father Paulus and your two grandfathers Paulus and Africanus, or
+the father of Africanus, or his uncle, or many other illustrious men
+not necessary to mention, would have attempted such lofty deeds as to be
+remaindered by posterity, had they not seen in their minds that future
+ages concerned them. Do you suppose--to take an old man's privilege of
+a little self-praise--that I should have been likely to undertake
+such heavy labours by day and night, at home and abroad, if I had been
+destined to have the same limit to my glory as to my life? Had it not
+been much better to pass an age of ease and repose without any labour
+or exertion? But my soul, I know not how, refusing to be kept down, ever
+fixed its eyes upon future ages, as though from a conviction that it
+would begin to live only when it had left the body. But had it not been
+the case that souls were immortal, it would not have been the souls of
+all the best men that made the greatest efforts after an immortality of
+fame.
+
+Again, is there not the fact that the wisest man ever dies with the
+greatest cheerfulness, the most unwise with the least? Don't you think
+that the soul which has the clearer and longer sight sees that it is
+starting for better things, while the soul whose vision is dimmer does
+not see it? For my part, I am transported with the desire to see your
+fathers, who were the object of my reverence and affection. Nor is it
+only those whom I knew that I long to see; it is those also of whom I
+have been told and have read, whom I have myself recorded in my history.
+When I am setting out for that, there is certainly no one who will find
+it easy to draw me back, or boil me up again like second Pelios. Nay, if
+some god should grant me to renew my childhood from my present age and
+once more to be crying in my cradle, I would firmly refuse; nor should
+I in truth be willing, after having, as it were, run the full course, to
+be recalled from the winning--crease to the barriers. For what blessing
+has life to offer? Should we not rather say what labour? But granting
+that it has, at any rate it has after all a limit either to enjoyment
+or to existence. I don't wish to depreciate life, as many men and good
+philosophers have often done; nor do I regret having lived, for I have
+done so in a way that lets me think that I was not born in vain. But I
+quit life as I would an inn, not as I would a home. For nature has given
+us a place of entertainment, not of residence.
+
+Oh glorious day when I shall set out to join that heavenly conclave and
+company of souls, and depart from the turmoil and impurities of
+this world! For I shall not go to join only those whom I have before
+mentioned, but also my son Cato, than whom no better man was ever born,
+nor one more conspicuous for piety. His body was burnt by me, though
+mine ought, on the contrary, to have been burnt by him; but his spirit,
+not abandoning, but ever looking back upon me, has certainly gone
+whither he saw that I too must come. I was thought to bear that loss
+heroically, not that I really bore it without distress, but I found my
+own consolation in the thought that the parting and separation between
+us was not to be for long.
+
+It is by these means, my dear Scipio,--for you said that you and Laelius
+were wont to express surprise on this point,--that my old age sits
+lightly on me, and is not only not oppressive but even delightful.
+But if I am wrong in thinking the human soul immortal, I am glad to be
+wrong; nor will I allow the mistake which gives me so much pleasure
+to be wrested from me as long as I live. But if when dead, as some
+insignificant philosophers think, I am to be without sensation, I am not
+afraid of dead philosophers deriding my errors. Again, if we are not to
+be immortal, it is nevertheless what a man must wish--to have his
+life end at its proper time. For nature puts a limit to living as to
+everything else. Now, old age is as it were the playing out of the
+drama, the full fatigue of which we should shun, especially when we also
+feel that we have had more than enough of it.
+
+This is all I had to say on old age. I pray that you may arrive at it,
+that you may put my words to a practical test.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Treatises on Friendship and Old Age, by
+Marcus Tullius Cicero
+
+*** 
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