Laudator Temporis Acti

Why shall one man envy another? Why shall he admire those who have great possessions, or those who are stationed in places of power, especially if they be both strong and prone to anger? For what will they do to us? As for what they have power to do, we shall pay no heed thereto; as for the things we care about, over them they have no power. Who, then, will ever again be ruler over the man who is thus disposed?

διὰ τί ἄλλος ἄλλῳ φθονήσει; διὰ τί πολλὰ κεκτημένους θαυμάσει ἢ τοὺς ἐν δυνάμει τεταγμένους, μάλιστ᾿ ἂν καὶ ἰσχυροὶ ὦσιν καὶ ὀργίλοι; τί γὰρ ἡμῖν ποιήσουσιν; ἃ δύνανται ποιῆσαι, τούτων οὐκ ἐπιστρεψόμεθα· ὧν ἡμῖν μέλει, ταῦτα οὐ δύνανται. τίς οὖν ἔτι ἄρξει τοῦ οὕτως διακειμένου;

Dilettantes, dilettantes! This is what those who pursue knowledge or art out of love for them and joy in them, ‘for their pleasure’, are disparagingly called by those who are in it for profit, because they are delighted only by the money that can be earned through them. This disparagement is based on their wretched conviction that no one would seriously engage in something unless need, hunger or some other such craving spurred them on. The public is of the same spirit and therefore the same opinion; this explains their general respect for the ‘professionals’ and their mistrust of dilettantes. In truth, on the other hand, for the dilettante a subject is his end, but for the professional man as such it is merely the means; but only he will pursue something with total seriousness who has a direct stake in it and who occupies himself with it out of love, and pursues it ‘with love’. Mankind’s greatest achievements have always flowed from such men, not from paid servants.

Dilettanten, Dilettanten! — so werden Die, welche eine Wissenschaft oder Kunst, aus Liebe zu ihr und Freude an ihr, per il loro diletto, treiben, mit Geringschätzung genannt von Denen, die sich des Gewinnes halber darauf gelegt haben; weil sie nur das Geld delektirt, das damit zu verdienen ist. Diese Geringschätzung beruht auf ihrer niederträchtigen Ueberzeugung, daß Keiner eine Sache ernstlich angreifen werde, wenn ihn nicht Noth, Hunger, oder sonst welche Gier dazu anspornt. Das Publikum ist des selben Geistes und daher der selben Meinung: hieraus entspringt sein durchgängiger Nespekt vor den „Leuten vom Fach" und sein Mißtrauen gegen Dilettanten. In Wahrheit hingegen ist dem Dilettanten die Sache Zweck, dem Manne vom Fach, als solchem, bloß Mittel; nur Der aber wird eine Sache mit ganzem Ernste treiben, dem unmittelbar an ihr gelegen ist und der sich aus Liebe zu ihr damit beschäftigt, sie con amore treibt. Von Solchen, und nicht von den Lohndienern, ist stets das Größte ausgegangen.

As soon as you have fed your fill to-day, you sit lamenting about the morrow, wherewithal you shall be fed.

ὅταν χορτασθῆτε σήμερον, κάθησθε κλάοντες περὶ τῆς αὔριον, πόθεν φάγητε.

Give us this day our daily bread.

τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον.

He knew the rich, their bad taste, the self-indulgence which ultimately made them its slaves, and their meanness, which often far exceeded that of poorer men. He knew what their houses looked like from the inside, with their golden ceilings, marble statues, couches of ivory with soft cushions upon them, their innumerable hangings and their curtains of silk, and the crowds of musicians that would be gathered before their doors on any occasion that offered a pretext—a birthday, a banquet or a wedding.⁵⁸ He had seen those pretentious monuments beside the road⁵⁹—those tall mausoleums which caused Jerome to ask whether corpses really needed silk and marble before they could lie down and rot in comfort.⁶⁰ And he asks his hearers whether they could tell a rich man's bones from those of a poor one if they could see them under the ground. Where, then, is rank? Augustine tells men that they should reflect on the state in which they were born: it is one of nakedness, and the nakedness of the rich is the same as the nakedness of the poor.⁶¹

58. SE 51, 5; IP, 41, 9.

59. IP, 48, 1, 13; DCM, 2, 4 (marmoreum tumulum).

60. Vita Pauli, 17; cf. 12 (PL 23, 29-30 and 26).

61. SE, 289, 6; Ps lxxii.13.

For most scholars by far their pursuit of knowledge is a means, not an end; for this reason they will never achieve anything great in it, because what is required here is that the individual who practises in a field of knowledge regard it as an end and everything else, even his very existence, merely as a means. For everything that someone practises not for its own sake he practises only halfway, and true excellence in works of any kind can only be attained by that which is produced for its own sake and not as a means to further ends. Likewise only those will rise to the level of new and great insights who have the achievement of their own knowledge as the immediate object of their studies, and are unconcerned about anyone else's. But scholars as a rule study for the purpose of being able to teach and write, which is why their head resembles a stomach and bowels from which food emerges undigested. And this is the very reason why their teaching and writing will be of little use. For you cannot nourish others with undigested waste, but only with milk that has been secreted from one's own blood.

Den bei Weitem allermeisten Gelehrten ist ihre Wissenschaft Mittel, nicht Zweck. Darum werden sie nie etwas Großes darin leisten; weil hiezu erfordert ist, daß sie Dem, der sie treibt, Zweck sei und alles Andere, ja, sein Dasein selbst, nur Mittel. Denn Alles, was man nicht seiner selbst wegen treibt, treibt man nur halb, und die wahre Vortrefflichkeit kann, bei Werken jeder Art, nur Das erlangen, was seiner selbst wegen hervorgebracht wurde und nicht als Mittel zu ferneren Zwecken. Eben so wird zu neuen und großen Grundeinsichten nur Der es bringen, der zum unmittelbaren Zweck seiner Studien Erlangung eigener Erkenntniß hat, unbekümmert um fremde. Die Gelehrten aber, wie sie in der Regel sind, studieren zu dem Zweck, lehren und schreiben zu können. Daher gleicht ihr Kopf einem Magen und Gedärmen, daraus die Speisen unverdaut wieder abgehn. Eben deshalb wird auch ihr Lehren und Schreiben wenig nützen. Denn Andere nähren kann man nicht mit unverdauten Abgängen, sondern nur mit der Milch, die aus dem eigenen Blute sich abgesondert hat.

O Italy, let it be in your heart
to honor the ancients; for this land
has no such men today,
and no one to honor.
Turn back, my country,
look back on that infinity of immortals,
and weep with shame;
for grieving without shame is senseless:
turn back and be ashamed and shake yourself awake
and let the memory of those ancestors
and what feebly followed stab you.

O Italia, a cor ti stia
Far ai passati onor; che d’altrettali
Oggi vedove son le tue contrade,
Nè v’è chi d’onorar ti si convegna.        10
Volgiti indietro, e guarda, o patria mia,
Quella schiera infinita d’immortali,
E piangi e di te stessa ti disdegna;
Che senza sdegno omai la doglia è stolta:
Volgiti e ti vergogna e ti riscuoti,        15
E ti punga una volta
Pensier degli avi nostri e de’ nepoti.

Some time later Abraham was told, "Milkah is also a mother; she has borne sons to your brother Nahor: Uz the firstborn, Buz his brother, Kemuel (the father of Aram), Kesed, Hazo, Pildash, Jidlaph and Bethuel."

The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard.

Mrs. Garth, like more celebrated educators, had her favorite ancient paths, and in a general wreck of society would have tried to hold her "Lindley Murray" above the waves.

In this life we are all mortal men and the last day of this life is always uncertain for every man. In infancy our hopes are fixed on childhood, in childhood we look to adolescence, in adolescence we look forward to manhood, in manhood to middle age, and in middle age to old age. Whether this will be our lot we do not know, but it is what we hope for. Old age, however, has no other period to expect. How long old age itself will last is hidden from man, but it is certain that there is no other age to follow old age.

omnes in hac vita mortales sumus, et dies huius vitae ultimus, omni homini est semper incertus: verumtamen in infantia speratur pueritia; et in pueritia speratur adolescentia; et in adolescentia speratur iuventus; et in iuventute speratur gravitas; et in gravitate speratur senectus: utrum contingat incertum est; est tamen quod speretur. senectus autem aliam aetatem quam speret, non habet: incertum est etiam ipsa senectus quamdiu sit homini; illud tamen certum est, nullam remanere aetatem quae possit succedere senectuti.

"Yes, but my nose is running." What have you hands for, then, slave? Is it not that you may wipe your nose? "Is it reasonable, then, that there should be running noses in the world? " — And how much better it would be for you to wipe your nose than to find fault!

"Ναί· ἀλλ ̓ αἱ μύξαι μου ῥέουσιν." τίνος οὖν ἕνεκα χεῖρας ἔχεις, ἀνδράποδον; οὐχ ἵνα καὶ ἀπομύσσῃς σεαυτόν; —Τοῦτο οὖν εὔλογον μύξας γίνεσθαι ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ; — Καὶ πόσῳ κρεῖττον ἀπομύξασθαί σε ἢ ἐγκαλεῖν;

• "Food. Curated" (a television show)
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When we see the many and manifold institutions of teaching and learning and the great throng of pupils and masters, one could think that the human race is quite keen about insight and truth. But here appearance is deceiving. The masters teach in order to earn money and they do not strive for truth, but for its appearance and standing; the pupils do not learn in order to attain knowledge and insight, but in order to babble and give themselves airs. Thus a new generation like this appears every thirty years, a wide-eyed child, knowing nothing and in all haste summarily devouring the results of human knowledge accumulated over thousands of years, and then claiming to be smarter than all the past. For this purpose he attends universities and reaches for books, moreover for the newest ones as his contemporaries and peers. Everything has to be brief and new, just as he is new!

Wenn man die vielen und mannigfaltigen Anstalten zum Lehren und Lernen und das so große Gedränge von Schülern und Meistern sieht, könnte man glauben, daß es dem Menschen geschlechte gar sehr um Einsicht und Wahrheit zu thun sei. Aber auch hier trügt der Schein. Jene lehren, um Geld zu verdienen und streben nicht nach Weisheit, sondern nach dem Schein und Kredit derselben: und Diese lernen nicht, um Kenntniß und Einsicht zu erlangen, sondern um schwätzen zu können und sich ein Ansehn zu geben. Alle dreißig Jahre nämlich tritt so ein neues Geschlecht auf, ein Kuck in die Welt, der von nichts weiß und nun die Resultate des durch die Jahrtausende angesammelten menschlichen Wissens, summarisch, in aller Geschwindigkeit in sich fressen und dann klüger als alle Vergangen heit seyn will. Zu diesem Zweck bezieht er Universitäten und greift nach den Büchern, und zwar nach den neuesten, als seinen Zeit- und Altersgenossen. Nur Alles kurz und neu! wie er selbst neu ist.

The inscription on the sarcophagus of King Ahiram of Gebal, for example, is written in a language almost identical with Hebrew. Its translation runs: 'Ittobaal (Ethbaal), son of Ahiram, king of Gebal, made this coffin for Ahiram his father as an abode for ever. And if any king among kings or governor among governors pitches a camp against Gebal and uncovers this coffin, let the sceptre of his authority be broken and the throne of his kingdom be overthrown, but let peace rule over Gebal. Whoso effaces this writing, let his seed perish'.

And the Lord said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee.

Now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the land of thy kindred.

It is because of this kinship with the flesh that those of us who incline toward it become like wolves, faithless and treacherous and hurtful, and others like lions, wild and savage and untamed; but most of us become foxes, that is to say, rascals of the animal kingdom. For what else is a slanderous and malicious man but a fox, or something even more rascally and degraded? Take heed, therefore, and beware that you become not one of these rascally creatures.

διὰ ταύτην τὴν συγγένειαν οἱ μὲν ἀποκλίναντες λύκοις ὅμοιοι γινόμεθα, ἄπιστοι καὶ ἐπίβουλοι καὶ βλαβεροί, οἱ δὲ λέουσιν, ἄγριοι καὶ θηριώδεις καὶ ἀνήμεροι, οἱ πλείους δ ̓ ἡμῶν ἀλώπεκες καὶ ὡς ἐν ζῴοις ἀτυχήματα. τί γάρ ἐστιν ἄλλο λοίδορος καὶ κακοήθης ἄνθρωπος ἢ ἀλώπηξ ἤ τι ἄλλο ἀτυχέστερον καὶ ταπεινότερον; ὁρᾶτε οὖν καὶ προσέχετε, μή τι τούτων ἀποβῆτε τῶν ἀτυχημάτων.

Some will look back with amusement from our age of boundless terrestrial spaces and teeming populations at these operations of Lilliput, these miniature battles, like those of Virgil's bees. But if we focus our microscopes more sharply or, better, if we do not blur our mental vision by always seeing big, we shall find in the story of this tiny Achaean League principles that govern, or ought to govern, our own democracies. These principles are stated by Polybius.³ Freedom of speech is one; equality and humanity, the love of one's fellow beings, are the others. And what are these — παρρησία, ἰσότης, φιλανθρωπία — but the only temporarily abandoned motto of liberté, égalité, fraternité?

³ The Histories, with an English translation by W.R. Paton (Loeb Classical Library, 1922), II 38. 6-9.

My mind is thoroughly exhausted from too much study of Aratus' Phaenomena; it is time I had some fun, and went out into the fields to play. Good Heavens! Who would want to praise those who, glued to a book, never have any interest in living?

What use to us is studying, except to exhaust us? And to pile care upon care on to us, who will perhaps become, either this morning or this evening, the victim of black Orcus? Orcus who is so pitiless that he does not pardon anyone.

Corydon, go on ahead, find out where good wine is on sale; chill the bottle, look for a shady arbour where I can recline; don't buy me any meat, because, however tasty it may be, I hate meat in Summer.

Buy apricots, melons, artichokes, strawberries, and some cream — that's what I like in Summer, when, beside a stream, I eat to the sound of the water, stretched out on the bank, or in a lonely cave.

Now while I am hale and hearty I want to laugh without stopping, for fear that one of these days illness may say to me, 'I have defeated you now: die, my merry friend, you have lived too long.'

J'ay l'esprit tout ennuyé
D'avoir trop estudié
Les Phenomenes d'Arate:
Il est temps que je m'esbate
Et que j'aille aux champs jouer.        5
Bons dieux! qui voudroit louer
Ceux qui, collez sur un livre,
N'ont jamais soucy de vivre?

Que nous sert l'estudier,
Sinon de nous ennuyer?        10
Et soin dessus soin accroistre,
A nous qui serons peut-estre,
Ou ce matin, ou ce soir,
Victime de l'Orque noir,
De l'Orque qui ne pardonne,        15
Tant il est fier, à personne.

Corydon, marche devant;
Sçache où le bon vin se vend:
Fay refraischir la bouteille,
Cerche une ombrageuse treille        20
Pour souz elle me coucher.
Ne m'achete point de chair,
Car, tant soit elle friande,
L'Esté je hay la viande.

Achete des abricôs,        25
Des pompons, des artichôs,
Des fraises et de la crème:
C'est en Esté ce que j'aime,
Quand sur le bord d'un ruisseau
Je les mange au bruit de l'eau,        30
Estendu sur le rivage
Ou dans un antre sauvage.

Ores que je suis dispos,
Je veux boire sans repos,
De peur que la maladie        35
Un de ces jours ne me die,
Je t'ay maintenant veincu:
Meurs, galland, c'est trop vescu.

It is not necessary at this point to amplify the unstable conditions of changing events. For whatever is made by the hand and work of man collapses and is consumed by the passage of time, as the capture of Babylon confirms.

exaggerare hoc loco mutabilium rerum instabiles status non opus est: quidquid enim est opere et manu factum, labi et consumi vetustate, Babylon capta confirmat.

The claim of Demosthenes to be ranked among the heroic men of the past rests above all on the constancy and sincerity with which he defended the noblest cause known to the Greeks — that of Hellenic liberty; and only those who have failed to recognise that most of what was best in the Greek, and, above all, in the Athenian character sprang from and was bound up with political liberty, can seriously censure his choice. If any cause was, to a Greek, worth fighting for to the death, that for which Demosthenes fought and died was pre-eminently so.

Resist your time — take a foothold outside it — see other times and ask yourself whether the time of our ancestors is fit for us.