Sublime

« Il nous faut choisir un homme vertueux et l'avoir constamment devant nos yeux, afin de vivre comme en sa présence et d'agir en tout comme s'il nous voyait. » Voilà, cher Lucilius, un précepte d’Épicure ; c'est un surveillant, un gouverneur qu'il nous impose, et avec raison.

76

“Indeed, if you find anything in human life better than justice, truth, self-control, courage—in short, anything better than the sufficiency of your own mind, which keeps you acting according to the demands of true reason and accepting what fate gives you outside of your own power of choice—I tell you, if you can see anything better than this, turn

il se vend au plaisir, quand il pense l'acheter.

for to the good poor man old age cannot be a light burden, nor can a bad rich man ever have peace with himself.

56

leisure. He used to beguile his labours with this consolation,

Confucius says truly, "Virtue does not remain as an abandoned orphan; it must of necessity have neighbors."