Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 3

Quemadmodum qui iaculari discit, destinatum locum captat et manum format ad derigenda quae mittet, eum hanc vim ex disciplina et exercitatione percepit, quocumque vult illa utitur, didicit enim non hoc aut illud ferire, sed quodcumque voluerit: sic qui se ad totam vitam instruxit, non desiderat particulatim admoneri, doctus in totum, non enim quomodo cum uxore aut cum filio viveret, sed quomodo bene viveret. In hoc est et quomodo cum uxore ac liberis vivat.

Celui qui apprend à lancer le javelot se choisit un point de mire, et sa main se forme à bien diriger le trait ; quand il a acquis ce talent par les leçons et l’exercice, partout où il veut il en fait usage : car ce n’est pas tel ou tel objet qu’il sait frapper, mais tous ceux qu’il voudra. De même l’homme instruit des devoirs de la vie en général n’a pas besoin d’avis partiels, quand le tout lui est familier : ce qu’il sait, ce n’est pas la manière de vivre avec sa femme ou son fils, mais celle de bien vivre, qui renferme aussi les deux premières.

Just as the student of javelin-throwing keeps aiming at a fixed target and thus trains the hand to give direction to the missile, and when, by instruction and practice, he has gained the desired ability he can then employ it against any target he wishes (having learned to strike not any random object, but precisely the object at which he has aimed), - he who has equipped himself for the whole of life does not need to be advised concerning each separate item, because he is now trained to meet his problem as a whole; for he knows not merely how he should live with his wife or his son, but how he should live aright. In this knowledge there is also included the proper way of living with wife and children.