CHAPTER XII
LIFE
I THE JOY OF YOUTH RUFINUS
Let us bathe, Prodice, and garland ourselves, and drain unmixed wine, lifting larger cups; little is our life of gladness, then old age will stop the rest, and death is the end.
II THE USE OF LIFE NICARCHUS
Must I not die? what matters it to me whether I depart to Hades gouty or fleet of foot? for many will carry me; let me become lame, for hardly on their account need I ever cease from revelling.
III VAIN RICHES ANTIPHANES
Thou reckonest, poor wretch; but advancing time breeds white old age even as it does interest; and neither having drunk, nor bound a flower on thy brows, nor ever known myrrh nor a delicate darling, thou shalt be dead, leaving thy great treasury in its wealth, out of those many coins carrying with thee but the one.
IV MINIMUM CREDULA POSTERO PALLADAS
All human must pay the debt of death, nor is there any mortal who knows whether he shall be alive to-morrow; learning this clearly, O man, make thee merry, keeping the wine-god close by thee for oblivion of death, and take thy pleasure with the Paphian while thou drawest thy ephemeral life; but all else give to Fortune's control.
V DONEC HODIE AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Drink and be merry; for what is to-morrow or what the future? no man knows. Run not, labour not; as thou canst, give, share, consume, be mortal-minded; to be alive and not to be alive are no way at all apart. All life is such, only the turn of the scale; if thou art beforehand, it is thine; and if thou diest, all is another's, and thou hast nothing.
VI REQUIESCE ANIMA MIMNERMUS
Be young, dear my soul: soon will others be men, and I being dead shall be dark earth.
VII ONE EVENT MARCUS ARGENTARIUS
Five feet shalt thou possess as thou liest dead, nor shalt see the pleasant things of life nor the beams of the sun; then joyfully lift and drain the unmixed cup of wine, O Cincius, holding a lovely wife in thine arms; and if philosophy say that thy mind is immortal, know that Cleanthes and Zeno went down to deep Hades.
VIII THE PASSING OF YOUTH APOLLONIDES
Thou slumberest, O comrade; but the cup itself cries to thee, "Awake; do not make thy pleasure in the rehearsal of death." Spare not, Diodorus, slipping greedily into wine, drink deep, even to the tottering of the knee. Time shall be when we shall not drink, long and long; nay come, make haste; prudence already lays her hand on our temples.
IX THE HIGHWAY TO DEATH ANTIPATER OF SIDON
Men skilled in the stars call me brief-fated; I am, but I care not, O Seleucus. There is one descent for all to Hades; and if ours comes quicker, the sooner shall we look on Minos. Let us drink; for surely wine is a horse for the high-road, when foot-passengers take a by-path to Death.
X BEFORE THE DELUGE STRATO
Drink now and love, Damocrates, since not for ever shall we drink nor for ever hold fast our delight; let us crown our heads with garlands and perfume ourselves, before others bring these offerings to our graves. Now rather let my bones drink wine inside me; when they are dead, let Deucalion's deluge sweep them away.
XI FLEETING DAWN ASCLEPIADES
Let us drink an unmixed draught of wine; dawn is an hand-breadth; are we waiting to see the bed-time lamp once again? Let us drink merrily; after no long time yet, O luckless one, we shall sleep through the long night.
XII OUTRE-TOMBE JULIANUS AEGYPTUS
Often I sang this, and even out of the grave will I cry it: "Drink, before you put on this raiment of dust."
XIII EARTH TO EARTH ZONAS
Give me the sweet cup wrought of the earth from which I was born, and under which I shall lie dead.
XIV THE COFFIN-MAKER AUTHOR UNKNOWN
I would have liked to be rich as Croesus of old was rich, and to be king of great Asia; but when I look on Nicanor the coffin-maker, and know for what he is making these flute-cases of his, sprinkling my flour and wetting it with my jug of wine, I sell all Asia for ointments and garlands.
XV RETURNING SPRING PHILODEMUS
Now is rose-time and peas are in season, and the heads of early cabbage, O Sosylus, and the milky maena, and fresh-curdled cheese, and the soft-springing leaves of curled lettuces; and do we neither pace the foreland nor climb to the outlook, as always, O Sosylus, we did before? for Antagoras and Bacchius too frolicked yesterday, and now to-day we bear them forth for burial.
XVI A LIFE'S WANDERING AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Know ye the flowery fields of the Cappadocian nation? thence I was born of good parents: since I left them I have wandered to the sunset and the dawn; my name was Glaphyrus, and like my mind. I lived out my sixtieth year in perfect freedom; I know both the favour of Fortune and the bitterness of life.
XVII ECCE MYSTERIUM BIANOR
This man, inconsiderable, mean, yes, a slave, this man is loved, and is lord of another's soul.
XVIII THE SHADOW OF LIFE THEOGNIS
Fools and children are mankind to weep the dead, and not the flower of youth perishing.
XIX THE SHADOW OF DEATH AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Those who have left the sweet light I bewail no longer, but those who live ever in expectation of death.
XX PARTA QUIES PALLADAS
Expectation of death is woful grief, and this is the gain of a mortal when he perishes; weep not then for him who departs from life, for after death there is no other accident.
XXI THE CLOSED ACCOUNT PHILETAS
I weep not for thee, O dearest of friends; for thou knewest many fair things; and again God dealt thee thy lot of ill.
XXII THE VOYAGE OF LIFE PALLADAS
Life is a dangerous voyage; for tempest-tossed in it we often strike rocks more pitiably than shipwrecked men; and having Chance as pilot of life, we sail doubtfully as on the sea, some on a fair voyage, and others contrariwise; yet all alike we put into the one anchorage under earth.
XXIII DAILY BIRTH PALLADAS
Day by day we are born as night retires, no more possessing aught of our former life, estranged from our course of yesterday, and beginning to-day the life that remains. Do not then call thyself, old man, abundant in years; for to-day thou hast no share in what is gone.
XXIV THE LIMIT OF VISION AUTHOR UNKNOWN
Now we flourish as before others did, and soon others will, whose children we shall never see.
XXV THE BREATH OF LIFE PALLADAS
Breathing thin air into our nostrils we live and look on the torch of the sun, all we who live what is called life; and are as organs, receiving our spirits from quickening airs. If one then chokes that little breath with his hand, he robs us of life, and brings us down to Hades. Thus being nothing we wax high in hardihood, feeding on air from a little breath.
XXVI TWO ETERNITIES LEONIDAS OF TARENTUM
Infinite, O man, was the foretime until thou camest to thy dawn, and what remains is infinite on through Hades: what share is left for life but the bigness of a pinprick, and tinier than a pinprick if such there be? Little is thy life and afflicted; for not even so it is sweet, but more loathed than hateful death.
XXVII THE LORD OF LANDS AMMIANUS
Though thou pass beyond thy landmarks even to the pillars of Heracles, the share of earth that is equal to all men awaits thee, and thou shalt lie even as Irus, having nothing more than thine obolus, mouldering into a land that at last is not thine.
XXVIII THE PRICE OF RICHES PALLADAS
Thou art rich, and what of it in the end? as thou departest, dost thou drag thy riches with thee, pulling them into the coffin? Thou gatherest riches at expense of time, and thou canst not heap up more exceeding measures of life.
XXIX THE DARKNESS OF DAWN AMMIANUS
Morning by morning passes; then, while we heed not, suddenly the Dark One will be come, and, some by decaying, and some by parching, and some by swelling, will lead us all to the one pit.
XXX NIL EXPEDIT PALLADAS
Naked I came on earth, and naked I depart under earth, and why do I vainly labour, seeing the naked end?
XXXI THE WAY OF THE WORLD LUCIAN
Mortal is what belongs to mortals, and all things pass by us; and if not, yet we pass by them.
XXXII THE SUM OF KNOWLEDGE AUTHOR UNKNOWN
I was not, I came to be; I was, I am not: that is all; and who shall say more, will lie: I shall not be.
XXXIII NIHILISM GLYCON
All is laughter, and all is dust, and all is nothing; for out of unreason is all that is.
XXXIV NEPENTHE AUTHOR UNKNOWN
How was I born? whence am I? why did I come? to go again: how can I learn anything, knowing nothing? Being nothing, I was born; again I shall be as I was before; nothing and nothing-worth is the human race. But come, serve to me the joyous fountain of Bacchus; for this is the drug counter-charming ills.
XXXV THE SLAUGHTER-HOUSE PALLADAS
We all are watched and fed for Death as a herd of swine butchered wantonly.
XXXVI LACRIMAE RERUM PALLADAS
Weeping I was born and having wept I die, and I found all my living amid many tears. O tearful, weak, pitiable race of men, dragged under earth and mouldering away!
XXXVII THE WORLD'S WORTH AESOPUS
How might one escape thee, O life, without dying? for thy sorrows are numberless, and neither escape nor endurance is easy. For sweet indeed are thy beautiful things of nature, earth, sea, stars, the orbs of moon and sun; but all else is fears and pains, and though one have a good thing befal him, there succeeds it an answering Nemesis.
XXXVIII PIS-ALLER THEOGNIS
Of all things not to be born into the world is best, nor to see the beams of the keen sun; but being born, as swiftly as may be to pass the gates of Hades, and lie under a heavy heap of earth.
XXXIX THE SORROW OF LIFE POSIDIPPUS
What path of life may one hold? In the market-place are strifes and hard dealings, in the house cares; in the country labour enough, and at sea terror; and abroad, if thou hast aught, fear, and if thou art in poverty, vexation. Art married? thou wilt not be without anxieties; unmarried? thy life is yet lonelier. Children are troubles; a childless life is a crippled one. Youth is foolish, and grey hairs again feeble. In the end then the choice is of one of these two, either never to be born, or, as soon as born, to die.
XL THE JOY OF LIFE METRODORUS
Hold every path of life. In the market-place are honours and prudent dealings, in the house rest; in the country the charm of nature, and at sea gain; and abroad, if thou hast aught, glory, and if thou art in poverty, thou alone knowest it. Art married? so will thine household be best; unmarried? thy life is yet lighter. Children are darlings; a childless life is an unanxious one: youth is strong, and grey hairs again reverend. The choice is not then of one of the two, either never to be born or to die; for all things are good in life.
XLI QUIETISM PALLADAS
Why vainly, O man, dost thou labour and disturb everything when thou art slave to the lot of thy birth? Yield thyself to it, strive not with Heaven, and, accepting thy fortune, be content with rest.
XLII EQUANIMITY PALLADAS
If that which bears all things bears thee, bear thou and be borne; and if thou art indignant and vexest thyself, even so that which bears all things bears thee.
XLIII THE RULES OF THE GAME PALLADAS
All life is a stage and a game: either learn to play it, laying by seriousness, or bear its pains.
XLIV THE ONE HOPE PAULUS SILENTIARIUS
It is not living that has essential delight, but throwing away out of the breast cares that silver the temples. I would have wealth sufficient for me, and the excess of maddening care for gold ever eats away the spirit; thus among men thou wilt find often death better than life, as poverty than wealth. Knowing this, do thou make straight the paths of thine heart, looking to our one hope, Wisdom.
XLV AMOR MYSTICUS MARIANUS
Where is that backward-bent bow of thine, and the reeds that leap from thy hand and stick fast in mid-heart? where are thy wings? where they grievous torch? and why carriest thou three crowns in thy hands, and wearest another on thy head? I spring not from the common Cyprian, O stranger, I am not from earth, the offspring of wild joy; but I light the torch of learning in pure human minds, and lead the soul upwards into heaven. And I twine crowns of the four virtues; whereof carrying these, one from each, I crown myself with the first, the crown of Wisdom.
XLVI THE LAST WORD PALLADAS
Thou talkest much, O man, and thou art laid in earth after a little: keep silence, and while thou yet livest, meditate on death.