Letter 10

So it is, I do not change my opinion: flee the multitude, flee the few, flee even a single companion. I have no one with whom I should wish you shared. And see what an opinion of you I hold: I dare to entrust you to yourself. Crates, as they say, the pupil of this very Stilbo whom I mentioned in my last letter, when he had seen a young man walking apart by himself, asked what he was doing there alone. "I am talking with myself," he said. To which Crates replied: "Take care, I beg you, and pay close heed; you are talking with a bad man."

We are accustomed to keep watch over the man who is in mourning or in fear, lest he make a bad use of his solitude. There is no one among the unwise who ought to be left to himself; then it is that they hatch evil plans, then they contrive future dangers either for others or for themselves, then they marshal their wicked desires, then the mind lays bare whatever it was concealing through fear or shame, then it whets its boldness, inflames its lust, goads its anger. In short, the one advantage that solitude has—to confide in no one, to fear no informer—is lost upon the fool; he betrays himself. See, then, what I hope for you—nay, what I pledge to myself, for hope is the name of an uncertain good: I find no one with whom I would rather have you be than with yourself.

I recall how high-spiritedly you flung out certain words, how full of strength. I congratulated myself at once and said: "These did not come from the tip of the lips; these utterances have a foundation. This man is not one of the crowd; he looks toward his own salvation."

So speak, so live; see that nothing weighs you down. As for your old vows, you may release the gods from them; undertake fresh ones. Pray for a sound mind, for good health of the soul, and then of the body. Why should you not make these vows often? Boldly ask the god; you will be asking him for nothing that belongs to another.

But, to send my letter as is my custom with some little gift, here is a true saying that I found in Athenodorus: "Know that you are freed from all desires when you have come to the point of asking the god for nothing that you could not ask openly." For now, how great is the madness of men! They whisper the most shameful prayers to the gods; if anyone draws near to listen, they fall silent. And what they are unwilling for a man to know, they tell to a god. See, then, whether this may not be wholesomely enjoined: so live with men as if a god saw you; so speak with the god as if men were listening. Farewell.