EPISTLE LXXXIX.
object arises in each case from the worth of the object, being languid or more eager as the case may be, according as the objects which arouse it are worth seeking.
16. The natural side of philosophy is twofold: bodily and non-bodily.[1] Each is divided into its own grades of importance, so to speak. The topic concerning bodies deals, first, with these two grades: the creative and the created[2]; and the created things are the elements. Now this very topic of the elements, as some writers hold, is integral[3]; as others hold, it is divided into matter, the cause which moves all things, and the elements.
17. It remains for me to divide rational philosophy into its parts. Now all speech is either continuous, or split up between questioner and answerer. It has been agreed upon that the former should be called rhetoric, and the latter dialectic. Rhetoric deals with words, and meanings, and arrangement. Dialectic is divided into two parts: words and their meanings, that is, into things which are said, and the words in which they are said. Then comes a subdivision of each—and it is of vast extent. Therefore I shall stop at this point, and
But treat the climax of the story;[4]
for if I should take a fancy to give the subdivisions, my letter would become a debater’s handbook! 18. I am not trying to discourage you, excellent Lucilius, from reading on this subject, provided only that you promptly relate to conduct all that you have read.
It is your conduct that you must hold in check; you must rouse what is languid in you, bind fast what has become relaxed, conquer what is obstinate, persecute your appetites, and the appetites of man-
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