Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 22

Quintum genus est eorum, quae communiter sunt; haec incipiunt ad nos pertinere; hic sunt omnia, homines, pecora, res. Sextum genus eorum, quae quasi sunt: tamquam inane, tamquam tempus. Quaecumque videmus aut tangimus, Plato in illis non numerat, quae esse proprie putat. Fluunt enim et in assidua deminutione atque adiectione sunt. Nemo nostrum idem est in senectute, qui fuit iuvenis; nemo nostrum est idem mane, qui fuit pridie. Corpora nostra rapiuntur fluminum more. Quicquid vides, currit cum tempore. Nihil ex iis, quae videmus, manet. Ego ipse, dum loquor mutari ista, mutatus sum.

Le cinquième genre comprend les êtres qui existent communément, et ceci commence à nous concerner : là se trouve tout ce qui peuple le monde, hommes, animaux et choses. Le sixième genre désigne ce qui n’a qu’une quasi-existence, comme le vide, le temps.

Tout ce qui se voit et se touche, Platon l’exclut du rang des êtres qu’il juge avoir une existence propre. Car tout cela passe et va sans cesse du plus au moins, du moins au plus. Nul de nous n’est sur ses vieux ans ce qu’il était dans sa jeunesse ; nul n’est au matin ce qu’il fut la veille. Nous sommes emportés loin de nous, comme le fleuve loin de sa source ; tout ce que tu vois
fuit du même pas que le temps ; rien de ce qui frappe nos yeux n’est permanent. Et moi, à l’instant où je dis que tout change, je ne suis déjà plus le même.

The fifth class is made up of the things which exist in the usual sense of the term. These things are the first that have to do with us; here we have all such things as men, cattle, and things. In the sixth class goes all that which has a fictitious existence, like void, or time. Whatever is concrete to the sight or touch, Plato does not include among the things which he believes to be existent in the strict sense of the term. These things are the first that have to do with us: here we have all such things as men, cattle, and things. For they are in a state of flux, constantly diminishing or increasing. None of us is the same man in old age that he was in youth; nor the same on the morrow as on the day preceding. Our bodies are hurried along like flowing waters; every visible object accompanies time in its flight; of the things which we see, nothing is fixed. Even I myself, as I comment on this change, am changed myself.