Laudator Temporis Acti

Augustine, Sermons 306.3 (Patrologia Latina, vol. 38, col. 1401; tr. Edmund Hill):

Every human being, though, of whatever kind or quality, wishes to be happy. There isn't anybody who doesn't want that, and want it in such a way as to want it above everything else; or rather, in such a way, that whoever wants other things wants them for the sake of this one thing. People are carried away by the most diverse longings, and one longs for this, another for that. There are different modes of life in the human race; and in the great variety of modes of life, one has chosen and taken to one way, another to another. There is nobody, however, whatever mode of life may have been chosen, who does not long for a happy life. So a happy life is the common aim of all; but how one gets to it, how one makes one's way to it, what route one follows in order to arrive at it, that's what the argument is about. And thus if we were to look for the happy or blessed life on earth, I don't know whether we could find it; not because what we are looking for is bad, but because we are not looking for it in its own place.

One man says, "Happy are those who join the army." Another denies this, and says, "Happy, yes, but those who have a plot of land to cultivate."' This too is contradicted by another, who says, "Happy are those who spend their time in the public eye in the courts, and defend cases, and control the life and death of people with their tongues." This too is contradicted by another, who says, "Happy, yes, but those who are the judges, who have the authority to try cases and decide them." Someone else denies this, and says, "Happy are those who sail the seas, learn about many countries, make big profits." You can see, dearly beloved, how in this great variety of modes of life there isn't one thing that pleases everybody; and yet the happy life pleases everybody. How can this be, that while no one form of life is pleasing to all, the happy life is pleasing to all?

---

Omnis autem homo, qualiscumque sit, beatus vult esse. Hoc nemo est qui non velit, atque ita velit, ut prae caeteris velit; imo quicumque vult caetera, propter hoc unum velit. Diversis cupiditatibus homines rapiuntur, et alius cupit hoc, alius illud: diversa genera sunt vivendi, in genere humano; et in multitudine generum vivendi alius aliud elegit et capessit: nemo est tamen quocumque genere vitae electo, qui non beatam vitam cupiat. Beata ergo vita, omnium est communis possessio: sed qua veniatur ad eam, qua tendatur, quo itinere tento perveniatur, inde controversia est. Ac per hoc si quaeramus beatam vitam in terris, nescio utrum invenire possimus: non quia malum est quod quaerimus, sed quia non in loco suo quaerimus.

Alius dicit: Beati qui militant. Negat alius, et dicit: Beati, sed qui agrum colunt. Et hoc negat alius, et dicit: Beati qui in foro populari claritate versantur, causasque defendunt, vitam mortemque hominum lingua moderantur. Et hoc alius negat, et dicit: Beati, sed qui iudicant, qui potestatem habent audiendi et discernendi. Negat hoc alius, et dicit: Beati qui navigant, multas regiones discunt, multa colligunt lucra. Videtis, carissimi, in omni ista multitudine generum vivendi non placere unum omnibus: et tamen beata vita placet omnibus. Quid est hoc, ut cum omnibus non placeat quaecumque vita, omnibus placeat beata vita?

Augustine isn't mentioned in the Index Locorum of William H. Race, The Classical Priamel from Homer to Boethius (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982).

Related posts:

• Every Humour Hath His Adjunct Pleasure
• Suum Cuique
• Archilochus, Fragment 19 West
• Priamel (from the movie Johnny Guitar)
• Book Lovers
• A Priamel by Asclepiades
• Monday's Child Again?
• Different Strokes for Different Folks
• Attraction
• Priamel
• Suos Cuique Mos
• Individual Differences