LAISSONS à part cette longue comparaison de la vie solitaire à l’actiue. Et quant à ce beau mot, dequoy se couure l’ambition et l’auarice, Que nous ne sommes pas naiz pour nostre particulier, ains pour le publicq; rapportons nous en hardiment à ceux qui sont en la danse; et qu’ils se battent la conscience, si au contraire, les estats, les charges, et cette tracasserie du monde, ne se recherche plustost, pour tirer du publicq son profit particulier. Les mauuais moyens par où on s’y pousse en nostre siecle, montrent bien que la fin n’en vaut gueres. Respondons à l’ambition que c’est elle mesme qui nous donne goust de la solitude. Car que fuit elle tant que la societé?
Let us leave aside that long comparison between the solitary life and the active one. And as for that fine saying with which ambition and avarice cloak themselves, that we are born not for our private good but for the public, let us boldly appeal to those who are in the dance; and let them search their consciences whether, on the contrary, ranks, offices and all this bustle of the world are not sought rather to draw private profit from the public. The bad means by which people push themselves forward in our age show clearly that the end is hardly worth much. Let us answer ambition that it is ambition itself that gives us a taste for solitude. For what does it shun so much as company?
que cherche elle tant que ses coudées franches? Il y a dequoy bien et mal faire par tout. Toutesfois si le mot de Bias est vray, que la pire part c’est la plus grande, ou ce que dit l’Ecclesiastique, que de mille il n’en est pas vn bon: Rari quippe boni: numero vix sunt totidem quot / Thebarum portæ, vel diuitis ostia Nili: la contagion est tres-dangereuse en la presse. Il faut ou imiter les vitieux, ou les haïr. Tous les deux sont dangereux; et de leur ressembler, par ce qu’ils sont beaucoup, et d’en haïr beaucoup par ce qu’ils sont dissemblables.
What does it seek so much as elbowroom? There is room for doing good and evil everywhere. Yet if Bias’s saying is true, that the worse part is the larger, or what Ecclesiastes says, that out of a thousand there is not one good: For good men are rare: there are hardly as many / as the gates of Thebes or the mouths of the rich Nile, then contagion is very dangerous in a crowd. We must either imitate the vicious or hate them. Both are dangerous: to resemble them, because they are many, and to hate many of them, because they are unlike us.
Et les marchands, qui vont en mer, ont raison de regarder, que ceux qui se mettent en mesme vaisseau, ne soyent dissolus, blasphemateurs, meschans: estimants telle societé infortunée. Parquoy Bias plaisamment, à ceux qui passoient auec luy le danger d’vne grande tourmente, et appelloient le secours des Dieux: Taisez vous, feit-il, qu’ils ne sentent point que vous soyez icy auec moy. Et d’vn plus pressant exemple: Albuquerque Vice-Roy en l’Inde, pour Emanuel Roy de Portugal, en vn extreme peril de fortune de mer, print sur ses espaules vn ieune garçon pour cette seule fin, qu’en la societé de leur peril, son innocence luy seruist de garant, et de recommandation enuers la faueur diuine, pour le mettre à bord.
And merchants who go to sea are right to make sure that those who board the same ship are not dissolute, blasphemers or wicked men, since they regard such company as unlucky. That is why Bias said wittily to those who were going through the danger of a great storm with him and calling on the gods for help: “Be quiet, so that they do not notice you are here with me.” And a more pressing example: Albuquerque, viceroy in India for Manuel, king of Portugal, in extreme peril at sea, took a young boy on his shoulders for this one purpose: that, sharing the peril, the boy’s innocence might serve him as surety and recommendation to divine favor, and bring him safe to shore.
Ce n’est pas que le sage ne puisse par tout viure content, voire et seul, en la foule d’vn palais: mais s’il est à choisir, il en fuira, dit-il, mesmes la veue. Il portera s’il est besoing cela, mais s’il est en luy, il eslira cecy. Il ne luy semble point suffisamment s’estre desfait des vices, s’il faut encores qu’il conteste auec ceux d’autruy. Charondas chastioit pour mauuais ceux qui estoient conuaincus de hanter mauuaise compagnie. Il n’est rien si dissociable et sociable que l’homme: l’vn par son vice, l’autre par sa nature. Et Antisthenes ne me semble auoir satisfait à celuy, qui luy reprochoit sa conuersation auec les meschants, en disant, que les medecins viuent bien entre les malades.
It is not that the wise man cannot live contented anywhere, even alone in the crowd of a palace; but if he has the choice, he will shun even the sight of it, he says. He will put up with the one if need be, but if it is up to him he will choose the other. It does not seem to him that he has sufficiently rid himself of vices if he must still contend with those of others. Charondas punished as wicked those convicted of keeping bad company. There is nothing so unsociable and so sociable as man: the one by his vice, the other by his nature. And Antisthenes does not seem to me to have satisfied the man who reproached him for associating with the wicked, when he said that doctors live well enough among the sick.
Car s’ils seruent à la santé des malades, ils deteriorent la leur, par la contagion, la veuë continuelle, et pratique des maladies.
For if they serve the health of the sick, they impair their own through contagion and through constantly seeing and handling diseases.
Or la fin, ce crois-ie, en est tout’vne, d’en viure plus à loisir et à son aise. Mais on n’en cherche pas tousiours bien le chemin. Souuent on pense auoir quitté les affaires, on ne les a que changez. Il n’y a guere moins de tourment au gouuernement d’vne famille que d’vn estat entier. Où que l’ame soit empeschée, elle y est toute. Et pour estre les occupations domestiques moins importantes, elles n’en sont pas moins importunes. D’auantage, pour nous estre deffaicts de la Cour et du marché, nous ne sommes pas deffaits des principaux tourmens de nostre vie.
Now the aim, I believe, is the same in every case: to live more at leisure and at ease. But people do not always look for the right road to it. Often they think they have left business behind, when they have only exchanged it. There is hardly less torment in governing a family than an entire state. Wherever the soul is occupied, it is wholly occupied. And though domestic occupations are less important, they are no less importunate. Moreover, though we have rid ourselves of the court and the marketplace, we have not rid ourselves of the principal torments of our life.
Ratio et prudentia curas, / Non locus effusi latè maris arbiter, aufert. L’ambition, l’auarice, l’irresolution, la peur et les concupiscences, ne nous abandonnent point pour changer de contrée: Et post equitem sedet atra cura. Elles nous suiuent souuent iusques dans les cloistres, et dans les escoles de Philosophie. Ny les desers, ny les rochers creusez, ny la here, ny les ieusnes, ne nous en démeslent: Hæret lateri lethalis arundo.
It is reason and wisdom that take away cares, / not a place commanding a wide view of the sea. Ambition, avarice, irresolution, fear and lusts do not leave us when we change our country: And behind the horseman sits black care. They often follow us even into cloisters and schools of philosophy. Neither deserts, nor caves hollowed out of rock, nor hair shirts, nor fasts can disentangle us from them: The deadly arrow clings to her side.
On disoit à Socrates, que quelqu’vn ne s’estoit aucunement amendé en son voyage: Ie croy bien, dit-il, il s’estoit emporté auecques soy. Quid terras alio calentes / Sole mutamus? patria quis exsul / Se quoque fugit? Si on ne se descharge premierement et son ame, du faix qui la presse, le remuement la fera fouler dauantage; comme en vn nauire, les charges empeschent moins, quand elles sont rassises. Vous faictes plus de mal que de bien au malade de luy faire changer de place. Vous ensachez le mal en le remuant: comme les pals s’enfoncent plus auant, et s’affermissent en les branslant et secouant.
Someone told Socrates that a certain man had not improved at all by his travels. “I can well believe it,” he said; “he took himself along with him.” Why do we exchange our land for lands warmed / by another sun? What exile from his country / has ever escaped himself as well? If we do not first unburden ourselves and our soul of the weight that oppresses it, moving about will only make it press harder; just as on a ship, cargo is less of a hindrance when it is settled. You do a sick man more harm than good by moving him. You lodge the illness deeper by stirring it, just as stakes sink further in and grow firmer when you shake and work them.
Parquoy ce n’est pas assez de s’estre escarté du peuple; ce n’est pas assez de changer de place, il se faut escarter des conditions populaires, qui sont en nous: il se faut sequestrer et r’auoir de soy. Rupi iam vincula, dicas: / Nam luctata canis nodum arripit; attamen illa / Cùm fugit, à collo trahitur pars longa catenæ. Nous emportons nos fers quand et nous. Ce n’est pas vne entiere liberté, nous tous tournons encore la veuë vers ce que nous auons laissé; nous en auons la fantasie pleine. *Nisi purgatum est pectus, quæ prælia nobis / Atque pericula tunc ingratis insinuandum? / Quantæ conscindunt hominem cuppedinis acres / Sollicitum curæ? quantique perinde timores? / Quidue superbia, spurcitia, ac petulantia, quantas / Efficiunt clades?
Therefore it is not enough to have withdrawn from the crowd; it is not enough to change place; we must withdraw from the crowd’s dispositions that are within us; we must sequester ourselves and take possession of ourselves again. “I have broken my chains,” you say. / So does a dog that struggles snap its knot; yet as / it runs off, a long length of chain trails from its neck. We carry our irons along with us. It is not complete freedom; we still turn our eyes back toward what we have left behind; our imagination is full of it. *Unless the heart is purged, what battles / and perils must we then enter against our will! / How many sharp cares of desire tear / the anxious man, and how many fears as well! / And pride, filth and wantonness—what havoc / they cause!
quid luxus desidiésque?*
and what of luxury and sloth?*
Withdrawing into oneself
True solitude is inward: keep a back shop of one’s own, free of every tie.
Nostre mal nous tient en l’ame: or elle ne se peut eschapper à elle mesme, In culpa est animus, qui se non effugit vnquam, Ainsin il la faut ramener et retirer en soy. C’est la vraye solitude, et qui se peut ioüir au milieu des villes et des cours des Roys; mais elle se iouyt plus commodément à part. Or puis que nous entreprenons de viure seuls, et de nous passer de compagnie, faisons que nostre contentement despende de nous: desprenons nous de toutes les liaisons qui nous attachent à autruy: gaignons sur nous, de pouuoir à bon escient viure seuls, et y viure à nostr’aise.
Our ill has its grip on our soul, and the soul cannot escape from itself: The fault lies in the mind, which never escapes itself. So we must bring it back and withdraw it into itself. That is true solitude, and it can be enjoyed in the midst of cities and the courts of kings; but it is enjoyed more comfortably apart. Now since we are undertaking to live alone and to do without company, let us make our contentment depend on ourselves; let us free ourselves from all the ties that bind us to others; let us win from ourselves the power to live truly alone, and to live so at our ease.
Stilpon estant eschappé de l’embrasement de sa ville, où il auoit perdu femme, enfans, et cheuance; Demetrius Poliorcetes, le voyant en vne si grande ruine de sa patrie, le visage non effrayé, luy demanda, s’il n’auoit pas eu du dommage; il respondit que non, et qu’il n’y auoit Dieu mercy rien perdu de sien. C’est ce que le Philosophe Antisthenes disoit plaisamment, Que l’homme se deuoit pourueoir de munitions, qui flottassent sur l’eau, et peussent à nage auec luy eschapper du naufrage. Certes l’homme d’entendement n’a rien perdu, s’il a soy mesme.
Stilpo had escaped from the burning of his city, where he had lost wife, children and goods. Demetrius Poliorcetes, seeing him with an unshaken face amid such great ruin of his country, asked him whether he had not suffered loss. He replied no, and that, thank God, he had lost nothing of his own. That is what the philosopher Antisthenes meant when he said wittily that a man should provide himself with provisions that would float on the water and could swim with him to escape from shipwreck. Certainly the man of understanding has lost nothing if he has himself.
Quand la ville de Nole fut ruinée par les Barbares, Paulinus qui en estoit Euesque, y ayant tout perdu, et leur prisonnier, prioit ainsi Dieu; Seigneur garde moy de sentir cette perte: car tu sçais qu’ils n’ont encore rien touché de ce qui est à moy. Les richesses qui le faisoyent riche, et les biens qui le faisoient bon, estoyent encore en leur entier. Voyla que c’est de bien choisir les thresors qui se puissent affranchir de l’iniure: et de les cacher en lieu, où personne n’aille, et lequel ne puisse estre trahi que par nous mesmes. Il faut auoir femmes, enfans, biens, et sur tout de la santé, qui peut, mais non pas s’y attacher en maniere que nostre heur en despende.
When the city of Nola was ruined by the barbarians, Paulinus, its bishop, having lost everything there and being their prisoner, prayed to God thus: “Lord, keep me from feeling this loss, for you know that they have not yet touched anything that is mine.” The riches that made him rich and the goods that made him good were still intact. That is what it means to choose well the treasures that can be safe from harm, and to hide them in a place where no one goes and which can be betrayed only by ourselves. We should have wives, children, goods, and above all health, if we can; but not be so attached to them that our happiness depends on them.
Il se faut reseruer vne arriere-boutique, toute nostre, toute franche, en laquelle nous establissions nostre vraye liberté et principale retraicte et solitude. En cette-cy faut-il prendre nostre ordinaire entretien, de nous à nous mesmes, et si priué, que nulle accointance ou communication de chose estrangere y trouue place: discourir et y rire, comme sans femme, sans enfans, et sans biens, sans train, et sans valetz: afin que quand l’occasion aduiendra de leur perte, il ne nous soit pas nouueau de nous en passer.
We must keep back for ourselves a back shop all our own, entirely free, in which to establish our real liberty and our principal retreat and solitude. Here our ordinary conversation must be between us and ourselves, and so private that no outside acquaintance or communication can find a place in it; here we must reason and laugh as if we had no wife, no children, no goods, no retinue and no servants, so that when the time comes to lose them, it will be nothing new to us to do without them.
Nous auons vne ame contournable en soy mesme; elle se peut faire compagnie, elle a dequoy assaillir et dequoy deffendre, dequoy receuoir, et dequoy donner: ne craignons pas en cette solitude, nous croupir d’oisiueté ennuyeuse, In solis sis tibi turba locis. La vertu se contente de soy: sans discipline, sans paroles, sans effects.
We have a soul that can turn in upon itself; it can keep itself company; it has the means to attack and the means to defend, the means to receive and the means to give. Let us not fear that in this solitude we shall stagnate in wearisome idleness: In lonely places, be a crowd to yourself. Virtue is content with itself, without discipline, without words, without deeds.
En noz actions accoustumees, de mille il n’en est pas vne qui nous regarde. Celuy que tu vois grimpant contremont les ruines de ce mur, furieux et hors de soy, en bute de tant de harquebuzades: et cet autre tout cicatricé, transi et pasle de faim, deliberé de creuer plustost que de luy ouurir la porte; penses-tu qu’ils y soyent pour eux? pour tel à l’aduenture, qu’ils ne virent onques, et qui ne se donne aucune peine de leur faict, plongé cependant en l’oysiueté et aux delices. Cettuy-cy tout pituiteux, chassieux et crasseux, que tu vois sortir apres minuict d’vn estude, penses-tu qu’il cherche parmy les liures, comme il se rendra plus homme de bien, plus content et plus sage? nulles nouuelles.
In our usual actions, not one in a thousand concerns ourselves. That man you see climbing up the ruins of that wall, furious and beside himself, the target of so many arquebus shots; and that other one, covered in scars, numb and pale with hunger, determined to die rather than open the gate to him—do you think they are there for themselves? They are there perhaps for someone they have never seen, who takes no trouble over what they are doing, sunk meanwhile in idleness and pleasures. This fellow, all phlegm, bleary-eyed and grimy, whom you see coming out of his study after midnight—do you think he is searching among his books for how to become a better man, more contented and wiser? Not a bit of it.
Il y mourra, ou il apprendra à la posterité la mesure des vers de Plaute, et la vraye orthographe d’vn mot Latin. Qui ne contre-change volontiers la santé, le repos, et la vie, à la reputation et à la gloire? la plus inutile, vaine et fauce monnoye, qui soit en nostre vsage. Nostre mort ne nous faisoit pas assez de peur, chargeons nous encores de celle de nos femmes, de noz enfans, et de nos gens. Noz affaires ne nous donnoyent pas assez de peine, prenons encores à nous tourmenter, et rompre la teste, de ceux de noz voisins et amis. *Vah!
He will die at it, or else he will teach posterity the meter of Plautus’s verses and the correct spelling of a Latin word. Who does not gladly exchange health, rest and life for reputation and glory—the most useless, vain and false coin in circulation among us? Our own death did not frighten us enough; let us burden ourselves besides with that of our wives, our children and our household. Our own affairs did not give us enough trouble; let us take on, besides, tormenting ourselves and racking our brains over those of our neighbors and friends. *Ah!
quemquámne hominem in animum instituere, aut / Parare, quod sit charius, quàm ipse est sibi?* La solitude me semble auoir plus d’apparence, et de raison, à ceux qui ont donné au monde leur aage plus actif et fleurissant, à l’exemple de Thales. C’est assez vescu pour autruy, viuons pour nous au moins ce bout de vie: ramenons à nous, et à nostre aise nos pensées et nos intentions. Ce n’est pas vne legere partie que de faire seurement sa retraicte; elle nous empesche assez sans y mesler d’autres entreprinses.
that any man should set his heart on, or / acquire, something dearer to him than he is to himself!* Solitude seems to me more plausible and reasonable for those who have given the world their most active and flourishing years, following the example of Thales. We have lived enough for others; let us live for ourselves at least this tail end of life; let us bring our thoughts and intentions back to ourselves and our own ease. It is no small matter to make a safe retreat; it keeps us busy enough without mixing other undertakings with it.
Puis que Dieu nous donne loisir de disposer de notre deslogement; preparons nous y; plions bagage; prenons de bon’heure congé de la compagnie; despétrons nous de ces violentes prinses, qui nous engagent ailleurs, et esloignent de nous.
Since God gives us leisure to arrange our departure, let us prepare for it; let us pack our bags; let us take leave of the company in good time; let us break free of those violent grips that engage us elsewhere and draw us away from ourselves.
Il faut desnoüer ces obligations si fortes: et meshuy aymer cecy et cela, mais n’espouser rien que soy. C’est à dire, le reste soit à nous: mais non pas ioint et colé en façon, qu’on ne le puisse desprendre sans nous escorcher, et arracher ensemble quelque piece du nostre. La plus grande chose du monde c’est de sçauoir estre à soy. Il est temps de nous desnoüer de la societé, puis que nous n’y pouuons rien apporter. Et qui ne peut prester, qu’il se deffende d’emprunter. Nos forces nous faillent: retirons les, et resserrons en nous. Qui peut renuerser et confondre en soy les offices de tant d’amitiez, et de la compagnie, qu’il le face.
We must untie these strong bonds, and from now on love this and that, but be wedded to nothing but ourselves. That is to say, let the rest be ours, but not joined and glued to us so tightly that it cannot be detached without flaying us and tearing away a piece of us along with it. The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. It is time to untie ourselves from society, since we can bring nothing to it. And let him who cannot lend refrain from borrowing. Our strength is failing us; let us draw it back and gather it within ourselves. Whoever can turn upside down and merge within himself the offices of so many friendships and of company, let him do so.
En cette cheute, qui le rend inutile, poisant, et importun aux autres, qu’il se garde d’estre importun à soy mesme, et poisant et inutile. Qu’il se flatte et caresse, et sur tout se regente, respectant et craignant sa raison et sa conscience: si qu’il ne puisse sans honte, broncher en leur presence. Rarum est enim, vt satis se quisque vereatur.
In this decline, which makes him useless, burdensome and troublesome to others, let him take care not to be troublesome to himself, or burdensome and useless. Let him pamper and caress himself, and above all govern himself, respecting and fearing his reason and his conscience, so that he cannot stumble in their presence without shame. For it is rare for anyone to respect himself enough.
Socrates dit, que les ieunes se doiuent faire instruire; les hommes s’exercer à bien faire: les vieux se retirer de toute occupation ciuile et militaire, viuants à leur discretion, sans obligation à certain office. Il y a des complexions plus propres à ces preceptes de la retraite les vnes que les autres. Celles qui ont l’apprehension molle et lasche, et vn’ affection et volonté delicate, et qui ne s’asseruit et ne s’employe pas aysément, desquels ie suis, et par naturelle condition et par discours, ils se plieront mieux à ce conseil, que les ames actiues et occupées, qui embrassent tout, et s’engagent par tout, qui se passionnent de toutes choses: qui s’offrent, qui se presentent, et qui se donnent à toutes occasions.
Socrates says that the young should get instruction; grown men should practice doing good; old men should withdraw from all civil and military occupation, living as they please, without obligation to any fixed office. Some temperaments are better suited than others to these precepts of retirement. Those whose apprehension is soft and slack, and whose affection and will are delicate and do not readily submit or commit themselves—and I am one of them, both by natural disposition and by reasoning—will bend more easily to this advice than active and busy souls, which embrace everything and engage themselves everywhere, which grow passionate about everything, which offer themselves, present themselves and give themselves on every occasion.
Il se faut seruir de ces commoditez accidentales et hors de nous, en tant qu’elles nous sont plaisantes; mais sans en faire nostre principal fondement. Ce ne l’est pas; ny la raison, ny la nature ne le veulent. Pourquoy contre ses loix asseruirons nous nostre contentement à la puissance d’autruy?
We should make use of these accidental advantages outside ourselves insofar as they are pleasant to us, but without making them our main foundation. They are not that; neither reason nor nature wants it so. Why, against their laws, should we enslave our contentment to the power of others?
D’anticiper aussi les accidens de fortune, se priuer des commoditez qui nous sont en main, comme plusieurs ont faict par deuotion, et quelques Philosophes par discours, se seruir soy-mesmes, coucher sur la dure, se creuer les yeux, ietter ses richesses emmy la riuiere, rechercher la douleur (ceux-là pour par le tourment de cette vie, en acquerir la beatitude d’vne autre: ceux-cy pour s’estans logez en la plus basse marche, se mettre en seureté de nouuelle cheute) c’est l’action d’vne vertu excessiue. Les natures plus roides et plus fortes facent leur cachette mesmes, glorieuse et exemplaire.
Then again, to anticipate the accidents of fortune; to deprive ourselves of the advantages we have in hand, as many have done out of devotion and some philosophers by reasoning; to wait on ourselves, sleep on the hard ground, put out our own eyes, throw our riches into the river, seek out pain (the former in order to win, through the torment of this life, the bliss of another; the latter in order, having settled on the lowest step, to secure themselves against a new fall)—that is the action of an excessive virtue. Let the tougher and stronger natures make even their hiding place glorious and exemplary.
Tuta et paruula laudo, / Cúm res deficiunt, satis inter vilia fortis: / Verùm, vbi quid melius contingit et vnctius, idem / Hos sapere, et solos aio benè viuere, quorum / Conspicitur nitidis fundata pecunia villis. Il y a pour moy assez affaire sans aller si auant. Il me suffit souz la faueur de la fortune, me preparer à sa défaueur; et me representer estant à mon aise, le mal aduenir, autant que l’imagination y peut attaindre: tout ainsi que nous nous accoustumons aux iouxtes et tournois, et contrefaisons la guerre en pleine paix.
I praise a safe and modest lot / when means are lacking, brave enough amid cheap things; / but when something better and richer comes my way, I too / say that they alone are wise and live well whose / money is seen invested in handsome country houses. There is enough for me to do without going so far. It is enough for me, while I enjoy fortune’s favor, to prepare for her disfavor, and, while at my ease, to picture the evil to come as far as imagination can reach; just as we train ourselves with jousts and tournaments and imitate war in the midst of peace.
Ie n’estime point Arcesilaus le Philosophe moins reformé, pour le sçauoir auoir vsé d’vtensiles d’or et d’argent, selon que la condition de sa fortune le luy permettoit: et l’estime mieux, que s’il s’en fust demis, de ce qu’il en vsoit moderément et liberalement.
I do not consider the philosopher Arcesilaus any less reformed because I know he used utensils of gold and silver, as the state of his fortune allowed him; and I esteem him more for using them moderately and generously than if he had given them up.
Ie voy iusques à quels limites va la necessité naturelle: et considerant le pauure mendiant à ma porte, souuent plus enioué et plus sain que moy, ie me plante en sa place: i’essaye de chausser mon ame à son biaiz. Et courant ainsi par les autres exemples, quoy que ie pense la mort, la pauureté, le mespris, et la maladie à mes talons, ie me resous aisément de n’entrer en effroy, de ce qu’vn moindre que moy prend auec telle patience. Et ne veux croire que la bassesse de l’entendement, puisse plus que la vigueur, ou que les effects du discours, ne puissent arriuer aux effects de l’accoustumance.
I see how far natural necessity goes; and considering the poor beggar at my door, often merrier and healthier than I am, I put myself in his place; I try to fit my soul to his last. And running through other examples in this way, though I imagine death, poverty, contempt and sickness at my heels, I easily resolve not to be terrified of what a lesser man than I accepts with such patience. And I refuse to believe that a lowly understanding can do more than a vigorous one, or that the effects of reasoning cannot match the effects of habit.
Et cognoissant combien ces commoditez accessoires tiennent à peu, ie ne laisse pas en pleine iouyssance, de supplier Dieu pour ma souueraine requeste, qu’il me rende content de moy-mesme, et des biens qui naissent de moy. Ie voy des ieunes hommes gaillards, qui portent nonobstant dans leurs coffres vne masse de pillules, pour s’en seruir quand le rhume les pressera; lequel ils craignent d’autant moins, qu’ils en pensent auoir le remede en main. Ainsi faut il faire: et encore si on se sent subiect à quelque maladie plus forte, se garnir de ces medicamens qui assoupissent et endorment la partie.
And knowing how little these accessory comforts hang by, I do not fail, even in full enjoyment of them, to beg God, as my supreme request, to make me content with myself and with the goods that are born of me. I see sturdy young men who nevertheless carry a mass of pills in their trunks, to use when a cold comes upon them; and they fear it all the less because they think they have the remedy at hand. That is what we must do; and further, if we feel ourselves subject to some more serious illness, we should provide ourselves with those medicines that numb and put to sleep the affected part.
How to live in retirement
Choose easy occupations, spare one’s health, and hold on to the pleasures that remain.
L’occupation qu’il faut choisir à vne telle vie, ce doit estre vne occupation non penible ny ennuyeuse; autrement pour neant ferions nous estat d’y estre venuz chercher le seiour. Cela depend du goust particulier d’vn chacun. Le mien ne s’accommode aucunement au ménage. Ceux qui l’aiment, ils s’y doiuent addonner auec moderation, Conentur sibi res, non se submittere rebus. C’est autrement vn office seruile que la mesnagerie, comme le nomme Saluste. Elle a des parties plus excusables, comme le soing des iardinages que Xenophon attribue à Cyrus.
The occupation to choose for such a life must be one that is neither laborious nor tedious; otherwise there would be no point in our having come there in search of rest. That depends on each person’s particular taste. Mine does not take at all to household management. Those who like it should devote themselves to it in moderation: Let them try to subject things to themselves, not themselves to things. Otherwise household management is a servile office, as Sallust calls it. It has more excusable parts, such as the care of gardens that Xenophon attributes to Cyrus.
Et se peut trouuer vn moyen, entre ce bas et vil soing, tendu et plein de solicitude, qu’on voit aux hommes qui s’y plongent du tout; et cette profonde et extreme nonchalance laissant tout aller à l’abandon, qu’on voit en d’autres: Democriti pecus edit agellos / Cultáque, dum peregrè est animus sine corpore velox. Mais oyons le conseil que donne le ieune Pline à Cornelius Rufus son amy, sur ce propos de la solitude: Ie te conseille en cette pleine et grasse retraicte, où tu es, de quitter à tes gens ce bas et abiect soing du mesnage, et t’addonner à l’estude des lettres, pour en tirer quelque chose qui soit toute tienne.
And a middle way can be found between that low and mean care, tense and full of anxiety, which we see in men who plunge into it entirely, and that deep and extreme carelessness that lets everything go to ruin, which we see in others: Democritus’s flock eats up his fields / and crops, while his swift mind travels abroad without his body. But let us hear the advice that the younger Pliny gives his friend Cornelius Rufus on this subject of solitude: “I advise you, in that full and rich retreat where you are, to leave to your servants that low and abject care of the household, and devote yourself to the study of letters, so as to draw from it something that is entirely your own.”
Il entend la reputation: d’vne pareille humeur à celle de Cicero, qui dit vouloir employer sa solitude et seiour des affaires publiques, à s’en acquerir par ses escrits vne vie immortelle. Vsque adeóne / Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc, sciat alter? Il semble, que ce soit raison, puis qu’on parle de se retirer du monde, qu’on regarde hors de luy. Ceux-cy ne le font qu’à demy. Ils dressent bien leur partie, pour quand ils n’y seront plus: mais le fruit de leur dessein, ils pretendent le tirer encore lors, du monde, absens, par vne ridicule contradiction.
He means reputation—in a humor like that of Cicero, who says he wants to use his solitude and his rest from public affairs to win himself an immortal life through his writings. Is your knowing nothing at all / unless someone else knows that you know it? It seems reasonable, since we are talking about withdrawing from the world, that we should look outside it. These people do it only halfway. They arrange their affairs well for when they will no longer be in the world; but the fruit of their design they still expect to draw from the world then, when they are absent—a ridiculous contradiction.
L’imagination de ceux qui par deuotion, cerchent la solitude, remplissants leur courage, de la certitude des promesses diuines, en l’autre vie, est bien plus sainement assortie. Ils se proposent Dieu, obiect infini en bonté et en puissance. L’ame a dequoy y rassasier ses desirs, en toute liberté. Les afflictions, les douleurs, leur viennent à profit, employées à l’acquest d’vne santé et resiouyssance eternelle. La mort, à souhait: passage à vn si parfaict estat. L’aspreté de leurs regles est incontinent applanie par l’accoustumance: et les appetits charnels, rebutez et endormis par leur refus: car rien ne les entretient que l’vsage et l’exercice. Cette seule fin, d’vne autre vie heureusement immortelle, merite loyalement que nous abandonnions les commoditez et douceurs de cette vie nostre.
The notion held by those who seek solitude out of devotion, filling their hearts with the certainty of God’s promises in the other life, is far more soundly matched. They set before themselves God, an object infinite in goodness and in power. There the soul has the means to satisfy its desires in complete freedom. Afflictions and sufferings turn to their profit, since they are spent on acquiring an everlasting health and joy. Death is welcome to them: a passage to so perfect a state. The harshness of their rules is soon smoothed out by habit, and their carnal appetites are rebuffed and lulled to sleep by being refused, for nothing keeps those appetites alive but use and exercise. This single end, another life of blissful immortality, truly deserves that we give up the comforts and sweetness of this life of ours.
Et qui peut embraser son ame de l’ardeur de cette viue foy et esperance, reellement et constamment, il se bastit en la solitude, vne vie voluptueuse et delicieuse, au delà de toute autre sorte de vie.
And whoever can set his soul on fire with the ardor of this living faith and hope, really and constantly, builds himself in solitude a life of pleasure and delight beyond any other kind of life.
Ny la fin donc ny le moyen de ce conseil ne me contente: nous retombons tousiours de fieure en chaud mal. Cette occupation des liures, est aussi penible que toute autre; et autant ennemie de la santé, qui doit estre principalement considerée. Et ne se faut point laisser endormir au plaisir qu’on y prend: c’est ce mesme plaisir qui perd le mesnager, l’auaricieux, le voluptueux, et l’ambitieux. Les sages nous apprennent assez, à nous garder de la trahison de noz appetits; et à discerner les vrays plaisirs et entiers, des plaisirs meslez et bigarrez de plus de peine.
So neither the end nor the means of this advice satisfies me: we keep falling from one fever into a worse one. This occupation with books is as laborious as any other, and as much an enemy to health, which ought to be our chief consideration. And we must not let ourselves be lulled by the pleasure we take in it: it is this same pleasure that ruins the man absorbed in his estate, the miser, the sensualist and the ambitious man. The sages teach us well enough to guard against the treachery of our appetites, and to tell true and whole pleasures from pleasures that are mixed and streaked with a greater share of pain.
Car la pluspart des plaisirs, disent ils, nous chatouillent et embrassent pour nous estrangler, comme faisoyent les larrons que les Ægyptiens appelloyent Philistas: et si la douleur de teste nous venoit auant l’yuresse, nous nous garderions de trop boire; mais la volupté, pour nous tromper, marche deuant, et nous cache sa suitte. Les liures sont plaisans: mais si de leur frequentation nous en perdons en fin la gayeté et la santé, nos meilleures pieces, quittons les. Ie suis de ceux qui pensent leur fruit ne pouuoir contrepeser cette perte.
For most pleasures, they say, tickle and embrace us only to strangle us, like the thieves the Egyptians called Philistae; and if the headache came before the drunkenness, we would take care not to drink too much. But pleasure, to deceive us, walks in front and hides what follows her. Books are pleasant; but if by keeping company with them we end up losing our cheerfulness and our health, the best things we have, let us leave them. I am one of those who think that their fruit cannot outweigh that loss.
Comme les hommes qui se sentent de long temps affoiblis par quelque indisposition, se rengent à la fin à la mercy de la medecine; et se font desseigner par art certaines regles de viure, pour ne les plus outrepasser: aussi celuy qui se retire ennuié et desgousté de la vie commune, doit former cette-cy, aux regles de la raison; l’ordonner et renger par premeditation et discours.
Men who have long felt themselves weakened by some ailment end up putting themselves at the mercy of medicine, and have its skill lay down certain rules of living for them, so as never to overstep them again. In the same way, the man who withdraws, weary and disgusted with ordinary life, should shape this new life by the rules of reason, ordering and arranging it by forethought and reasoning.
Il doit auoir prins congé de toute espece de trauail, quelque visage qu’il porte; et fuïr en general les passions, qui empeschent la tranquillité du corps et de l’ame; et choisir la route qui est plus selon son humeur: Vnusquisque sua nouerit ire via. Au mesnage, à l’estude, à la chasse, et tout autre exercice, il faut donner iusques aux derniers limites du plaisir; et garder de s’engager plus auant, ou la peine commence à se mesler parmy. Il faut reseruer d’embesoignement et d’occupation, autant seulement, qu’il en est besoing, pour nous tenir en haleine, et pour nous garantir des incommoditez que tire apres soy l’autre extremité d’vne lasche oysiueté et assoupie.
He must have taken leave of every kind of toil, whatever face it wears; he must shun in general the passions that disturb the tranquillity of body and soul, and choose the road that best suits his temperament: Let each one know his own way to go. In managing the household, in study, in hunting and every other exercise, we should go as far as the last limits of pleasure, and take care not to engage further, where pain begins to mingle in. We should keep only as much business and occupation as we need to keep ourselves in trim, and to protect ourselves from the troubles that the other extreme, slack and drowsy idleness, brings in its train.
Il y a des sciences steriles et épineuses, et la plus part forgées pour la presse: il les faut laisser à ceux qui sont au seruice du monde. Ie n’ayme pour moy, que des liures ou plaisans et faciles; qui me chatouillent; ou ceux qui me consolent, et conseillent à regler ma vie et ma mort. Tacitum syluas inter reptare salubres, / Curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonòque est.
There are sterile and thorny branches of learning, most of them devised for the busy crowd: they should be left to those who are in the service of the world. For my part, I love only books that are either pleasant and easy, that tickle me, or those that console me and counsel me how to order my life and my death. To stroll in silence among the healthful woods, / Pondering whatever is worthy of a wise and good man.
Les gens plus sages peuuent se forger vn repos tout spirituel, ayant l’ame forte et vigoureuse. Moy qui l’ay commune, il faut que i’ayde à me soustenir par les commoditez corporelles. Et l’aage m’ayant tantost desrobé celles qui estoient plus à ma fantasie, i’instruis et aiguise mon appetit à celles qui restent plus sortables à cette autre saison. Il faut retenir à tout nos dents et nos griffes, l’vsage des plaisirs de la vie, que nos ans nous arrachent des poings, les vns apres les autres: Carpamus dulcia, nostrum est / Quod viuis, cinis et manes et fabula fies.
Wiser people, having a strong and vigorous soul, can forge themselves a wholly spiritual repose. I, whose soul is ordinary, must help hold myself up with bodily comforts. And since age has lately robbed me of those that were most to my fancy, I am training and sharpening my appetite for those that remain, which better suit this later season. We must hold on tooth and claw to the enjoyment of life’s pleasures, which our years snatch from our grasp one after another. Let us pluck life’s sweets; the time you live is ours; / You will become ash, a shade, a tale.
Glory has no place in retreat
Pliny and Cicero seek fame from retirement; Epicurus and Seneca advise giving it up.
Or quant à la fin que Pline et Cicero nous proposent, de la gloire, c’est bien loing de mon conte. La plus contraire humeur à la retraicte, c’est l’ambition. La gloire et le repos sont choses qui ne peuuent loger en mesme giste: à ce que ie voy, ceux-cy n’ont que les bras et les iambes hors de la presse; leur ame, leur intention y demeure engagée plus que iamais. Tun’, vetule, auriculis alienis colligis escas? Ils se sont seulement reculez pour mieux sauter, et pour d’vn plus fort mouuement faire vne plus viue faucée dans la trouppe.
Now as for the end that Pliny and Cicero propose to us, glory, that is far from my reckoning. The temperament most contrary to retirement is ambition. Glory and repose are things that cannot lodge under the same roof. As far as I can see, these men have only their arms and legs out of the crowd; their soul, their intention, remains caught up in it more than ever. Are you, old man, gathering food for other people’s ears? They have only stepped back to jump the better, and to make, with a stronger momentum, a livelier charge into the throng.
Vous plaist-il voir comme ils tirent court d’vn grain? Mettons au contrepoix, l’aduis de deux philosophes, et de deux sectes tres-differentes, escriuans l’vn à Idomeneus, l’autre à Lucilius leurs amis, pour du maniement des affaires et des grandeurs, les retirer à la solitude. Vous auez, disent-ils, vescu nageant et flottant iusques à present, venez vous en mourir au port. Vous auez donné le reste de vostre vie à la lumiere, donnez cecy à l’ombre. Il est impossible de quitter les occupations, si vous n’en quittez le fruit; à cette cause desfaictes vous de tout soing de nom et de gloire. Il est danger que la lueur de voz actions passées, ne vous esclaire que trop, et vous suiue iusques dans vostre taniere.
Would you like to see how they fall short by a hair? Let us set against them the advice of two philosophers of two very different schools, one writing to Idomeneus, the other to Lucilius, their friends, to draw them away from the handling of affairs and high office into solitude. You have lived until now, they say, swimming and floating; come and die in the harbor. You have given the rest of your life to the light; give this part to the shade. It is impossible to give up your occupations unless you give up their fruits; for this reason, rid yourself of all concern for name and glory. There is a danger that the glow of your past actions may light you up only too well and follow you right into your den.
Quittez auecq les autres voluptez, celle qui vient de l’approbation d’autruy. Et quant à vostre science et suffisance, ne vous chaille, elle ne perdra pas son effect, si vous en valez mieux vous mesme. Souuienne vous de celuy, à qui comme on demandast, à quoy faire il se pénoit si fort en vn art, qui ne pouuoit venir à la cognoissance de guere de gens: I’en ay assez de peu, respondit-il, i’en ay assez d’vn, i’en ay assez de pas vn. Il disoit vray: vous et vn compagnon estes assez suffisant theatre l’vn à l’autre, ou vous à vous-mesmes. Que le peuple vous soit vn, et vn vous soit tout le peuple.
Along with the other pleasures, give up the one that comes from the approval of others. And as for your learning and ability, do not worry: they will not lose their effect if you yourself are the better for them. Remember the man who was asked why he took such pains over an art that could come to the knowledge of hardly anyone. “A few are enough for me,” he replied; “one is enough for me; none at all is enough for me.” He spoke the truth: you and one companion are theater enough for each other, or you for yourself. Let the people be one to you, and let one be the whole people to you.
C’est vne lâche ambition de vouloir tirer gloire de son oysiueté, et de sa cachette. Il faut faire comme les animaux, qui effacent la trace, à la porte de leur taniere. Ce n’est plus ce qu’il vous faut chercher, que le monde parle de vous, mais comme il faut que vous parliez à vous-mesmes. Retirez vous en vous, mais preparez vous premierement de vous y receuoir: ce seroit folie de vous fier à vous mesmes, si vous ne vous sçauez gouuerner.
It is a mean ambition to want to draw glory from one’s idleness and one’s hiding place. We must do as the animals do that wipe out their tracks at the entrance of their den. What you must seek is no longer that the world should talk about you, but how you should talk to yourself. Withdraw into yourself, but first prepare yourself to receive yourself there: it would be folly to trust yourself if you do not know how to govern yourself.
Il y a moyen de faillir en la solitude, comme en la compagnie: iusques à ce que vous vous soyez rendu tel, deuant qui vous n’osiez clocher, et iusques à ce que vous ayez honte et respect de vous mesmes, obuersentur species honestæ animo: presentez vous tousiours en l’imagination Caton, Phocion, et Aristides, en la presence desquels les fols mesme cacheroient leurs fautes, et establissez les contrerolleurs de toutes vos intentions.
One can go wrong in solitude as in company. Until you have made yourself someone before whom you would not dare to limp, and until you feel shame and respect for yourself, let honorable images be kept before the mind: always picture Cato, Phocion and Aristides, in whose presence even fools would hide their faults, and make them the overseers of all your intentions.
Si elles se detraquent, leur reuerence vous remettra en train: ils vous contiendront en cette voye, de vous contenter de vous mesmes, de n’emprunter rien que de vous, d’arrester et fermir vostre ame en certaines et limitées cogitations, où elle se puisse plaire: et ayant entendu les vrays biens, desquels on iouyt à mesure qu’on les entend, s’en contenter, sans desir de prolongement de vie ny de nom. Voyla le conseil de la vraye et naifue philosophie, non d’vne philosophie ostentatrice et parliere, comme est celle des deux premiers.
If your intentions go astray, your reverence for these men will set you back on course. They will keep you on this path: to be content with yourself, to borrow nothing except from yourself, to stop and settle your soul on definite and limited thoughts in which it can take pleasure; and, having understood the true goods, which we enjoy in proportion as we understand them, to be content with them, without any desire to prolong either life or name. That is the advice of true and natural philosophy, not of a showy and talkative philosophy like that of the first two.