29. Now, since it is so,
cease, I pray you, cease to rate trifling and unimportant things at
immense values. Cease to place man in the upper ranks, since he
is of the lowest; and in the highest orders, seeing that his person
only is taken account of,3592
| 3592
Capite cum censeatur. |
that he is needy,
poverty-stricken in
his
house and dwelling,
3593
| 3593
Lit., “poor in hearth, and of a poor hut.” |
and
was never entitled to be
declared of illustrious descent. For while, as just men and
upholders of
righteousness, you should have
subdued pride and
arrogance, by the evils
3594
| 3594
So the ms., reading malis,
for which Ursinus suggested alis, “on the wings of
which.” |
of which we are all uplifted and puffed
up with empty
vanity; you not only hold that these evils arise
naturally, but—and this is much worse—you have also added
causes by which vice should increase, and
wickedness remain
incorrigible. For what man is there, although of a disposition
which ever
shuns what is of bad repute and shameful, who, when he hears
it said by very
wise men that the
soul is
immortal, and not subject to
the
decrees of the fates,
3595
would not throw himself
headlong into all kinds of vice,
and
fearlessly
3596
| 3596
The ms. reads securus,
intrepidus—“heedless, fearless;” the former word,
however, being marked as a gloss. It is rejected in all edd.,
except LB. |
engage in and
set about
unlawful things?
who would not, in short, gratify his
desires in all things demanded by his unbridled
lust, strengthened even
further by its
security and
freedom from
punishment?
3597
| 3597
Lit., “by the freedom of impunity.” |
For what will
hinder him from
doing so? The
fear of a
power above and
divine judgment?
And how shall he be overcome by any
fear or dread who has been
persuaded that he is
immortal, just as the
supreme God Himself, and
that no sentence can be pronounced upon him by
God, seeing that there
is the same immortality in both, and that the one immortal being cannot
be troubled by the other, which is
only its equal?
3598
| 3598
Lit., “the one (immortality)…in respect of the equality of
condition of the other”—nec in alterius (immortalitatis)
altera (immortalitatas) possit æqualitate conditionis vexari;
the reference being clearly to the immediately preceding clause, with
which it is so closely connected logically and grammatically.
Orelli, however, would supply anima, ἀπὸ
τοῦ κοινοῦ, as he
puts it, of which nothing need be said. Meursius, with customary
boldness, emends nec vi alterius altera, “nor by the power
of one can the other,” etc. |
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