Cicero's Tusculan Disputations
immortal Gods, or of nature, the common parent of all. For it is not by
hazard or without design that we have been born and situated as we
have. On the contrary, beyond all doubt there is a certain power which
consults the happiness of human nature; and this would neither have
produced nor provided for a being which, after having gone through the
labors of life, was to fall into eternal misery by death. Let us rather
infer that we have a retreat and haven prepared for us, which I wish we
could crowd all sail and arrive at; but though the winds should not
serve, and we should be driven back, yet we shall to a certainty arrive
at that point eventually, though somewhat later. But how can that be
miserable for one which all must of necessity undergo? I have given you
a peroration, that you might not think I had overlooked or neglected
anything.
_A._ I am persuaded you have not; and, indeed, that peroration has
confirmed me.
_M._ I am glad it has had that effect. But it is now time to consult
our health. To-morrow, and all the time we continue in this Tusculan
villa, let us consider this subject; and especially those portions of
it which may ease our pain, alleviate our fears, and lessen our
desires, which is the greatest advantage we can reap from the whole of
philosophy.
* * * * *
BOOK II.
ON BEARING PAIN.
I. Neoptolemus, in Ennius, indeed, says that the study of philosophy
was expedient for him; but that it required limiting to a few subjects,
for that to give himself up entirely to it was what he did not approve
of. And for my part, Brutus, I am perfectly persuaded that it is
expedient for me to philosophize; for what can I do better, especially
as I have no regular occupation? But I am not for limiting my
philosophy to a few subjects, as he does; for philosophy is a matter in
which it is difficult to acquire a little knowledge without acquainting
yourself with many, or all its branches, nor can you well take a few
subjects without selecting them out of a great number; nor can any one,
who has acquired the knowledge of a few points, avoid endeavoring with
the same eagerness to understand more. But still, in a busy life, and
in one mainly occupied with military matters, such as that of
Neoptolemus was at that time, even that limited degree of acquaintance
with philosophy may be of great use, and may yield fruit, not perhaps
so plentiful as a thorough knowledge of the whole of philosophy, but
yet such as in some degree may at times deliver us from the dominion of
our desires, our sorrows, and our fears; just as the effect of that
discussion which we lately maintained in my Tusculan villa seemed to be
that a great contempt of death was engendered, which contempt is of no
small efficacy towards delivering the mind from fear; for whoever
dreads what cannot be avoided can by no means live with a quiet and
tranquil mind. But he who is under no fear of death, not only because
it is a thing absolutely inevitable but also because he is persuaded
that death itself hath nothing terrible in it, provides himself with a
very great resource towards a happy life. However, I am not tolerant
that many will argue strenuously against us; and, indeed, that is a
thing which can never be avoided, except by abstaining from writing at
all. For if my Orations, which were addressed to the judgment and
approbation of the people (for that is a popular art, and the object of
oratory is popular applause), have been criticised by some people who
are inclined to withhold their praise from everything but what they are
persuaded they can attain to themselves, and who limit their ideas of
good speaking by the hopes which they conceive of what they themselves
may attain to, and who declare, when they are overwhelmed with a flow
of words and sentences, that they prefer the utmost poverty of thought
and expression to that plenty and copiousness (from which arose the
Attic kind of oratory, which they who professed it were strangers to,
though they have now been some time silenced, and laughed out of the
very courts of justice), what may I not expect, when at present I
cannot have the least countenance from the people by whom I used to be
upheld before? For philosophy is satisfied with a few judges, and of
her own accord industriously avoids the multitude, who are jealous of
it, and utterly displeased with it; so that, should any one undertake
to cry down the whole of it, he would have the people on his side;
while, if he should attack that school which I particularly profess, he
would have great assistance from those of the other philosophers.
II. But I have answered the detractors of philosophy in general, in my
Hortensius. And what I had to say in favor of the Academics, is, I
think, explained with sufficient accuracy in my four books of the
Academic Question.
But yet I am so far from desiring that no one should write against me,
that it is what I most earnestly wish; for philosophy would never have
been in such esteem in Greece itself, if it had not been for the
strength which it acquired from the contentions and disputations of the
most learned men; and therefore I recommend all men who have abilities
to follow my advice to snatch this art also from declining Greece, and
to transport it to this city; as our ancestors by their study and
industry have imported all their other arts which were worth having.
Thus the praise of oratory, raised from a low degree, is arrived at
such perfection that it must now decline, and, as is the nature of all
things, verge to its dissolution in a very short time. Let philosophy,
then, derive its birth in Latin language from this time, and let us
lend it our assistance, and bear patiently to be contradicted and
refuted; and although those men may dislike such treatment who are
bound and devoted to certain predetermined opinions, and are under such
obligations to maintain them that they are forced, for the sake of
consistency, to adhere to them even though they do not themselves
wholly approve of them; we, on the other hand, who pursue only
probabilities, and who cannot go beyond that which seems really likely,
can confute others without obstinacy, and are prepared to be confuted
ourselves without resentment. Besides, if these studies are ever
brought home to us, we shall not want even Greek libraries, in which
there is an infinite number of books, by reason of the multitude of
authors among them; for it is a common practice with many to repeat the
same things which have been written by others, which serves no purpose
but to stuff their shelves; and this will be our case, too, if many
apply themselves to this study.
III. But let us excite those, if possible, who have had a liberal
education, and are masters of an elegant style, and who philosophize
with reason and method.
For there is a certain class of them who would willingly be called
philosophers, whose books in our language are said to be numerous, and
which I do not despise; for, indeed, I never read them: but still,
because the authors themselves declare that they write without any
regularity, or method, or elegance, or ornament, I do not care to read
what must be so void of entertainment. There is no one in the least
acquainted with literature who does not know the style and sentiments
of that school; wherefore, since they are at no pains to express
themselves well, I do not see why they should be read by anybody except
by one another. Let them read them, if they please, who are of the same
opinions; for in the same manner as all men read Plato and the other
Socratics, with those who sprung from them, even those who do not agree
with their opinions, or are very indifferent about them; but scarcely
any one except their own disciples take Epicurus or Metrodorus into
their hands; so they alone read these Latin books who think that the
arguments contained in them are sound. But, in my opinion, whatever is
published should be recommended to the reading of every man of
learning; and though we may not succeed in this ourselves, yet
nevertheless we must be sensible that this ought to be the aim of every
writer. And on this account I have always been pleased with the custom
of the Peripatetics and Academics, of disputing on both sides of the
question; not solely from its being the only method of discovering what
is probable on every subject, but also because it affords the greatest
scope for practising eloquence; a method that Aristotle first made use
of, and afterward all the Aristotelians; and in our own memory Plilo,
whom we have often heard, appointed one time to treat of the precepts
of the rhetoricians, and another for philosophical discussion, to which
custom I was brought to conform by my friends at my Tusculum; and
accordingly our leisure time was spent in this manner. And therefore,
as yesterday before noon we applied ourselves to speaking, and in the
afternoon went down into the Academy, the discussions which were held
there I have acquainted you with, not in the manner of a narration, but
in almost the very same words which were employed in the debate.
IV. The discourse, then, was introduced in this manner while we were
walking, and it was commenced by some such an opening as this:
_A._ It is not to be expressed how much I was delighted, or rather
edified, by your discourse of yesterday. For although I am conscious to
myself that I have never been too fond of life, yet at times, when I
have considered that there would be an end to this life, and that I
must some time or other part with all its good things, a certain dread
and uneasiness used to intrude itself on my thoughts; but now, believe
me, I am so freed from that kind of uneasiness that there is nothing
that I think less worth any regard.
_M._ I am not at all surprised at that, for it is the effect of
philosophy, which is the medicine of our souls; it banishes all
groundless apprehensions, frees us from desires, and drives away fears:
but it has not the same influence over all men; it is of very great
influence when it falls in with a disposition well adapted to it. For
not only does Fortune, as the old proverb says, assist the bold, but
reason does so in a still greater degree; for it, by certain precepts,
as it were, strengthens even courage itself. You were born naturally
great and soaring, and with a contempt for all things which pertain to
man alone; therefore a discourse against death took easy possession of
a brave soul. But do you imagine that these same arguments have any
force with those very persons who have invented, and canvassed, and
published them, excepting indeed some very few particular persons? For
how few philosophers will you meet with whose life and manners are
conformable to the dictates of reason! who look on their profession,
not as a means of displaying their learning, but as a rule for their
own practice! who follow their own precepts, and comply with their own
decrees! You may see some of such levity and such vanity, that it would
have been better for them to have been ignorant; some covetous of
money, some others eager for glory, many slaves to their lusts; so that
their discourses and their actions are most strangely at variance; than
which nothing in my opinion can be more unbecoming: for just as if one
who professed to teach grammar should speak with impropriety, or a
master of music sing out of tune, such conduct has the worst appearance
in these men, because they blunder in the very particular with which
they profess that they are well acquainted. So a philosopher who errs
in the conduct of his life is the more infamous because he is erring in
the very thing which he pretends to teach, and, while he lays down
rules to regulate life by, is irregular in his own life.