De la brièveté de la vie Chapitre 3

Omnia licet, quae umquam ingenia fulserunt, in hoc unum consentiant, numquam satis hanc humanarum mentium caliginem mirabuntur. Praedia sua occupari a nullo patiuntur et, si exigua contentio est de modo finium, ad lapides et arma discurrunt; in vitam suam incedere alios sinunt, immo vero ipsi etiam possessores eius futuros inducunt. Nemo invenitur, qui pecuniam suam dividere velit; vitam unusquisque quam multis distribuit ! Adstricti sunt in continendo patrimonio, simul ad iacturam temporis ventum est, profusissimi in eo, cuius unius honesta avaritia est. Libet itaque ex seniorum turba comprendere aliquem: " Pervenisse te ad ultimum aetatis humanae videmus, centesimus tibi vel supra premitur annus ; agedum, ad computationem aetatem tuam revoca. Duc, quantum ex isto tempore creditor, quantum amica, quantum rex, quantum cliens abstuleris quantum lis uxoria, quantum servorum coercitio, quantum officiosa per urbem discursatio. Adice morbos, quos manu fecimus, adice et quod sine usu iacuit ; videbis te pauciores annos habere quam numeras. Repete memoria tecum, quando certus consilii fueris, quotus quisque dies ut destinaveras processerit, quando tibi usus tui fuerit, quando in statu suo vultus, quando animus intrepidus, quid tibi in tam longo aevo facti operis sit, quam multi vitam tuam diripuerint te non sentiente quid perderes, quantum vanus dolor, stulta laetitia, avida cupiditas, blanda conversatio abstulerit, quam exiguum tibi de tuo relictum sit ; intelleges te immaturum mori." Quid ergo est in causa ? Tamquam semper victuri vivitis, numquam vobis fragilitas vestra succurrit, non observatis, quantum iam temporis transierit ; velut ex pleno et abundanti perditis, cum interim fortasse ille ipse qui alicui vel homini vel rei donatur dies ultimus sit. Omnia tamquam mortales timetis, omnia tamquam immortales concupiscitis. Audies plerosque dicentes: " A quinquagesimo anno in otium secedam, sexagesimus me annus ab officiis dimittet." Et quem tandem longioris vitae praedem accipis ? Quis ista sicut disponis ire patietur ? Non pudet te reliquias vitae tibi reservare et id solum tempus bonae menti destinare, quod in nullam rem conferri possit ? Quam serum est tune vivere incipere, cum desinendum est ! Quae tam stulta mortalitatis oblivio in quinquagesimum et sexagesimum annum differre sana consilia et inde velle vitam inchoare, quo pauci perduxerunt !

Were all the brightest intellects of all time to employ themselves on this one subject, they never could sufficiently express their wonder at this blindness of men’s minds: men will not allow any one to establish himself upon their estates, and upon the most trifling dispute about the measuring of boundaries, they betake themselves to stones and cudgels: yet they allow others to encroach upon their lives, nay, they themselves actually lead others in to take possession of them. You cannot find any one who wants to distribute his money; yet among how many people does every one distribute his life? men covetously guard their property from waste, but when it comes to waste of time, they are most prodigal of that of which it would become them to be sparing. Let us take one of the elders, and say to him, “We perceive that you have arrived at the extreme limits of human life: you are in your hundredth year, or even older. Come now, reckon up your whole life in black and white: tell us how much of your time has been spent upon your creditors, how much on your mistress, how much on your king, how much on your clients, how much in quarrelling with your wife, how much in keeping your slaves in order, how much in running up and down the city on business. Add to this the diseases which we bring upon us with our own hands, and the time which has laid idle without any use having been made of it; you will see that you have not lived as many years as you count. Look back in your memory and see how often you have been consistent in your projects, how many days passed as you intended them to do when you were at your own disposal, how often you did not change colour and your spirit did not quail, how much work you have done in so long a time, how many people have without your knowledge stolen parts of your life from you, how much you have lost, how large a part has been taken up by useless grief, foolish gladness, greedy desire, or polite conversation; how little of yourself is left to you: you will then perceive that you will die prematurely.” What, then, is the reason of this? It is that people live as though they would live for ever: you never remember your human frailty; you never notice how much of your time has already gone by: you spend it as though you had an abundant and overflowing store of it, though all the while that day which you devote to some man or to some thing is perhaps your last. You fear everything, like mortals as you are, and yet you desire everything as if you were immortals. You will hear many men say, “After my fiftieth year I will give myself up to leisure: my sixtieth shall be my last year of public office”: and what guarantee have you that your life will last any longer? who will let all this go on just as you have arranged it? are you not ashamed to reserve only the leavings of your life for yourself, and appoint for the enjoyment of your own right mind only that time which you cannot devote to any business? How late it is to begin life just when we have to be leaving it! What a foolish forgetfulness of our mortality, to put off wholesome counsels until our fiftieth or sixtieth year, and to choose that our lives shall begin at a point which few of us ever reach.

Ne crois donc pas qu’on te doive rien pour de tels offices : lorsqu’en effet tu les rendais, c’était, non par désir de te donner à autrui, mais par impuissance de rester avec toi. Quand les plus brillants génies qui furent jamais s’uniraient en ce point, ils ne pourraient s’émerveiller assez d’un tel aveuglement de l’esprit humain. On ne laisse envahir ses champs par qui que ce soit ; au plus mince différend sur les limites, on a recours aux pierres et aux armes ; mais sur sa vie on laisse empiéter qui le veut ; bien plus : soi-même on introduit les usurpateurs. Vous ne trouvez personne qui veuille partager son argent avec vous : entre combien de gens n’éparpille-t-on pas son existence ? Sévères économes de nos patrimoines, s’agit-il de dépenser le temps, nous sommes prodigues à l’excès du seul bien dont il serait beau d’être avare . Volontiers prendrais-je dans la foule des vieillards le premier venu pour lui dire : « Te voici arrivé au dernier période de la vie humaine ; cent ans ou plus pèsent sur ta tête : voyons, rappelle ton passé, fais-lui rendre compte. Dis ce que t’en a dérobé un créancier, une maîtresse, un plaideur, un client, tes querelles conjugales, l’ordre à maintenir parmi tes gens, tes courses officieuses par la ville. Ajoute les maladies qui furent ton ouvrage, et tout le temps que tu laissas stérile, tu te verras plus pauvre d’années que tu n’en supputes. Repasse en ta mémoire combien de fois tu as été fixe dans tes projets ; combien de jours ont eu l’emploi que tu leur destinais ; quel usage tu as fait de ton être ; quand ton front est demeuré calme et ton âme exempte de trouble ; quelle œuvre dans un si long a été par toi menée à fin ; que de gens ont mis ta vie au pillage quand toi tu ne sentais pas ce que tu perdais ; combien les vaines douleurs, les folles joies, les avides calculs, les conversations décevantes ont absorbé de tes moments : vois le peu qui t’est resté de ton lot ; tu reconnaîtras que tu meurs trop jeune. »