Letter 33

You desire that to these letters, as to the earlier ones, some sayings of our great men be added. They were not occupied with little flowers; their whole texture is manly. Know that there is unevenness wherever the parts that stand out are conspicuous. A single tree is no object of wonder where the whole forest has risen to the same height.

With sayings of this sort poems are filled, and histories are filled. Therefore do not suppose them to belong to Epicurus; they are common property, and most of all ours. But in him they are the more noted, because they come between only rarely, because they are unexpected, because it is a marvel that something brave should be said by a man who professed softness. For so most men judge. To my mind Epicurus is brave too, though he wears long sleeves. Courage and industry and a spirit ready for war are found among the Persians as well as among the high-girt.

There is no reason, then, for you to demand selected and oft-repeated passages; among our men whatever is excerpted in others runs continuous. We have, therefore, no such eye-catching wares, nor do we deceive the buyer, who when he has entered will find nothing except what hangs displayed at the front. We permit men to take their samples from wherever they please.

Suppose we wished to separate out single maxims from the throng; to whom shall we assign them? To Zeno, or to Cleanthes, or to Chrysippus, or to Panaetius, or to Posidonius? We are not under a king; each man asserts his own freedom. Among those others, whatever Hermarchus said, whatever Metrodorus, is referred to one man. All that anyone has spoken in that fellowship was uttered under the lead and auspices of one. We cannot, I say—though we try—draw out anything from so great a multitude of things all equal. "It is the poor man who counts his flock." Wherever you cast your eye, that will meet you which might stand out, were it not read among its peers.

Therefore lay aside that hope, that you can taste in summary fashion the genius of the greatest men; they must be inspected whole, handled whole. The matter is carried on, and through its own lineaments the work of genius is woven, from which nothing can be drawn off without ruin. Nor do I refuse that you consider the single limbs, provided you consider them in the man himself. She is not beautiful whose leg or arm is praised, but she whose whole face takes away admiration from the single parts.

If, however, you press the demand, I shall not deal with you so beggarly, but it shall be done with a full hand; there is a vast crowd of them lying about everywhere; they are to be picked up, not gathered. For they do not drop out one by one, but flow. They are continuous and woven together among themselves. Nor do I doubt that they confer much benefit on those still untrained and listening from without; for single sayings sink in more easily when they are circumscribed and shut up after the manner of a verse.

For this reason we give boys maxims to learn by heart, and those things which the Greeks call chriae, because a boyish mind can grasp them, which as yet cannot grasp more. But for a man of assured progress it is shameful to go catching little flowers, to prop himself on a very few most familiar sayings, and to stand by his memory; let him now lean on himself. Let him say such things, not hold them by rote. For it is shameful for an old man, or one with old age in sight, to draw his wisdom from a notebook. "This Zeno said"—and you, what? "This Cleanthes"—and you, what? How long will you move under another's command? Take charge and say something that may be handed down to memory. Bring forth something of your own as well.

And so all those men, never authors, always interpreters, hiding under another's shadow, I think have nothing noble in them, since they have never dared at any time to do what they had long learned. They have exercised their memory on the works of others. But it is one thing to remember, another to know. To remember is to guard a thing entrusted to memory. But to know, on the contrary, is to make each thing one's own, and not to depend on the model and look back so often to the master.

"This Zeno said, this Cleanthes." Let there be some difference between you and the book. How long will you learn? Now teach as well. "Why should I listen to what I can read?" "The living voice," he says, "does much." Not, indeed, this voice that is lent in another's words and discharges the office of a clerk.

Add now that those men who never come into their own guardianship follow their predecessors, first, in a matter in which everyone has broken away from his predecessor; and next, they follow them in a matter which is still under inquiry. But nothing will ever be discovered if we are content with what has been discovered. Besides, he who follows another discovers nothing, nay, does not even seek.

"What then? Shall I not walk in the footsteps of my forebears?" I will indeed use the old road, but if I find one nearer and more level, I will open this. Those who set these matters in motion before us are not our masters, but our guides. Truth lies open to all; it has not yet been taken into possession. Much of it has been left even for those to come. Farewell.