On Tranquillity of Mind Chapter 8

Transeamus ad patrimonia, maximam humanarum aerumnarum materiam ; nam si omnia alia quibus angimur compares, mortes, aegrotationes, metus, desideria, dolorum laborumque patientiam, eum iis quae nobis mala pecunia nostra exhibet, haec pars multum praegravabit. Itaque cogitandum est, quanto levior dolor sit non habere quam perdere ; et intellegemus paupertati eo minorem tormentorum quo minorem damnorum esse materiam. Erras enim, si putas animosius detrimenta divites ferre ; maximis minimisque corporibus par est dolor vulneris. Bion eleganter ait non minus molestum esse calvis quam comatis pilos velli. Idem scias licet de pauperibus locupletibusque, par illis esse tormentum ; utrique enim pecunia sua obhaesit nec sine sensu revelli potest. Tolerabilius autem est, ut dixi, faciliusque non adquirere quam amittere, ideoque laetiores videbis, quos numquam fortuna respexit, quam quos deseruit. Vidit hoc Diogenes, vir ingentis animi, et effecit, ne quid sibi eripi posset. Tu istud paupertatem, inopiam, egestatem voca, quod voles ignominiosum securitati nomen impone. Putabo hunc non esse felicem, si quem mihi alium inveneris, cui nihil pereat. Aut ego fallor, aut regnum est inter avaros, circumscriptores, latrones, plagiarios unum esse, cui noceri non possit. Si quis de felicitate Diogenis dubitat, potest idem dubitare et de deorum immortalium statu, an parum beate degant, quod illis nec praedia nec horti sint nec alieno colono rura pretiosa nec grande in foro faenus. Non te pudet, quisquis divitiis adstupes ? Respice agedum mundum ; nudos videbis deos, omnia dantis, nihil habentis. Hunc tu pauperem putas an dis immortalibus similem, qui se fortuitis omnibus exuit ? Feliciorem tu Demetrium Pompeianum vocas, quem non puduit locupletiorem esse Pompeio ? Numerus illi cotidie servorum velut imperatori exercitus referebatur, cui iam dudum divitiae esse debuerant duo vicarii et cella laxior. At Diogeni servus unicus fugit nec eum reducere, eum monstraretur, tanti putavit. " Turpe est," inquit, " Manen sine Diogene posse vivere, Diogenen sine Mane non posse." Videtur mihi dixisse : " Age tuum negotium, fortuna; nihil apud Diogenen iam tui est. Fugit mihi servus, immo liber abii ! " Familia petit vestiarium victumque ; tot ventres avidissimorum animalium tuendi sunt, emenda vestis et custodiendae rapacissimae manus et flentium detestantiumque ministeriis utendum. Quanto ille felicior, qui nihil ulli debet, nisi cui facillime negat, sibi! Sed quoniam non est nobis tantum roboris, angustanda certe sunt patrimonia, ut minus ad iniurias fortunae simus expositi. Habiliora sunt corpora in bello illa, quae in arma sua contrahi possunt, quam quae superfunduntur et undique magnitudo sua vulneribus obicit. Optimus pecuniae modus est, qui nec in paupertatem cadit, nec procul a paupertate discedit.

Let us now pass on to the consideration of property, that most fertile source of human sorrows: for if you compare all the other ills from which we suffer - deaths, sicknesses, fears, regrets, endurance of pains and labours - with those miseries which our money inflicts upon us, the latter will far outweigh all the others. Reflect, then, how much less a grief it is never to have had any money than to have lost it: we shall thus understand that the less poverty has to lose, the less torment it has with which to afflict us: for you are mistaken if you suppose that the rich bear their losses with greater spirit than the poor: a wound causes the same amount of pain to the greatest and the smallest body. It was a neat saying of Bion’s, “that it hurts bald men as much as hairy men to have their hairs pulled out”: you may be assured that the same thing is true of rich and poor people, that their suffering is equal: for their money clings to both classes, and cannot be torn away without their feeling it: yet it is more endurable, as I have said, and easier not to gain property than to lose it, and therefore you will find that those upon whom Fortune has never smiled are more cheerful than those whom she has deserted. Diogenes, a man of infinite spirit, perceived this, and made it impossible that anything should be taken from him. Call this security from loss poverty, want, necessity, or any contemptuous name you please: I shall consider such a man to be happy, unless you find me another who can lose nothing. If I am not mistaken, it is a royal attribute among so many misers, sharpers, and robbers, to be the one man who cannot be injured. If any one doubts the happiness of Diogenes, he would doubt whether the position of the immortal gods was one of sufficient happiness. because they have no farms or gardens, no valuable estates let to strange tenants, and no large loans in the money market. Are you not ashamed of yourself, you who gaze upon riches with astonished admiration? Look upon the universe: you will see the gods quite bare of property, and possessing nothing though they give everything. Do you think that this man who has stripped himself of all fortuitous accessories is a pauper, or one like to the immortal gods? Do you call Demetrius, Pompeius’s freedman, a happier man, he who was not ashamed to be richer than Pompeius, who was daily furnished with a list of the number of his slaves, as a general is with that of his army, though he had long deserved that all his riches should consist of a pair of underlings, and a roomier cell than the other slaves? But Diogenes’s only slave ran away from him, and when he was pointed out to Diogenes, he did not think him worth fetching back. “It is a shame,” he said, “that Manes should be able to live without Diogenes, and that Diogenes should not be able to live without Manes.” He seems to me to have said, “Fortune, mind your own business: Diogenes has nothing left that belongs to you. Did my slave run away? nay, he went away from me as a free man.” A household of slaves requires food and clothing: the bellies of so many hungry creatures have to be filled: we must buy raiment for them, we must watch their most thievish hands, and we must make use of the services of people who weep and execrate us. How far happier is he who is indebted to no man for anything except for what he can deprive himself of with the greatest ease! Since we, however, have not such strength of mind as this, we ought at any rate to diminish the extent of our property, in order to be less exposed to the assaults of fortune: those men whose bodies can be within the shelter of their armour, are more fitted for war than those whose huge size everywhere extends beyond it, and exposes them to wounds: the best amount of property to have is that which is enough to keep us from poverty, and which yet is not far removed from it.

Passons à la propriété, source la plus féconde des tribulations humaines . Car si tu mets dans la balance d’un côté tous nos autres tourments, morts, maladies, craintes, regrets, douleurs et travaux à subir, et de l’autre les maux qu’enfante l’intérêt, ce dernier côté l’emportera de beaucoup. Il faut songer ici combien c’est un plus léger chagrin de ne pas posséder que de perdre ; et nous comprendrons que la pauvreté est d’autant moins en butte aux regrets cuisants, qu’elle a moins de dommages à craindre. C’est une erreur de penser que le riche endure plus courageusement les pertes que le pauvre : les plus grands corps sentent aussi bien que les plus petits la souffrance des blessures. Bion dit ingénieusement : « Il est aussi aux têtes chevelues qu’aux têtes chauves de se sentir épiler. » Il en est de même, sache-le bien, du riche et du pauvre : la perte est pénible à l’un comme à l’autre ; leur argent faisait corps avec eux : la séparation ne s’opère pas sans déchirement. Au reste, il est plus supportable, je le répète, et plus aisé de ne pas acquérir que de se voir dépouiller ; et tu trouveras des visages plus riants chez ceux que la fortune ne visita jamais que chez ceux qu’elle a délaissés. Il l’avait compris, ce Diogène, cette âme grande et virile ; et il s’arrangea de manière que rien ne pût lui être ravi. Appelle cela pauvreté, dénûment, détresse, flétris cette sécurité de tel nom que tu voudras, je veux croire que là n’est pas le bonheur, si tu me montres quelque autre état à l’abri des spoliations. Ou je me trompe, ou c’est être roi parmi tant d’hommes cupides et fourbes, parmi tant de larrons et de pirates, que d’être le seul à qui l’on ne puisse faire tort. Si l’on conteste la félicité de Diogène, que l’on doute aussi de la condition des dieux immortels et s’ils peuvent vivre heureux sans métairies, sans jardins, sans riches campagnes peuplées de colons étrangers, sans argent à gros intérêts sur la place. Ne rougis-tu pas, ô homme ! de t’ébahir ainsi devant les richesses ? Lève tes regards vers le ciel : tu verras les dieux nus, donnant tout, ne se réservant rien. Appelleras-tu pauvre, plutôt que semblable aux dieux, l’homme qui s’est dépouillé des dons du hasard ? L’homme heureux, selon toi, sera-ce un Démétrius, cet affranchi de Pompée, qui n’eut pas honte d’être plus opulent que son maître ? Chaque jour la liste de ses esclaves, comme à un général les rôles de son armée, était apportée à cet homme, qui, dès le principe, eût dû se trouver riche avec deux esclaves suppléants et un bouge moins étroit. Diogène, lui, n’avait qu’un serviteur, lequel prit la fuite : on lui indiqua où il était ; il ne crut point que ce fût la peine de se le faire ramener. « Ce serait une honte, dit-il, que Manès pût vivre sans Diogène, et que Diogène ne pût vivre sans Manès. » Je m’imagine l’entendre ajouter ; « Fortune ! va faire ailleurs de tes tours : il n’y a plus rien à toi chez Diogène. Mon esclave s’est enfui ; je dis mal : c’est un homme libre qui est parti. » Une troupe d’esclaves exige le vêtement et la nourriture : il faut fournir aux nombreux estomacs de la plus vorace des engeances, lui acheter des habits, surveiller toutes ces mains si rapaces, enfin tirer parti d’êtres qui ne servent qu’en pleurant et en maudissant. Combien est plus heureux l’homme qui n’a de frais à faire que pour celui qu’il coûte le moins de refuser, c’est-à-dire que pour lui-même ! Mais n’ayant pas cette force en nous, ayons de moins amples patrimoines : nous serons moins exposés aux injures du sort. Les tailles moyennes, qui peuvent se ramasser sous le bouclier, valent mieux à la guerre que celles qui dépassent les autres, et qui offrent en tous sens une grande surface aux blessures. La vraie mesure de fortune est celle qui, sans tomber dans la pauvreté, ne s’en éloigne pas de beaucoup.