Link to an image of this page [I5v p138]
De le vie humaine.
XCVI.
Plore plus qu’onques tu ne fis,
Heraclite, il en est ta saison.
Les gents sont en tous maux conflits:
Vertus n’ont ça bas plus maison.
Ris, Democrite avec raison:
Link to an image of this page [I6r p139]
Car chacun fol veut demeurer:
Tandis penseray l’achoison,
Si je devray rire, ou pleurer.[1]
commentaires.
Le Philosophe Heraclite estoit Ephesien. Il escri-
vit tout expres des livres si obscurs, que les plus do-
ctes n’y pouvoyent mordre: & pource fut il surnom-
mé le tenebreux. Il
ploroit tousjours, principalement
quand il sortoit de la maison: car toutes les choses
mondaines ne luy sembloyent que miseres & angois-
ses. Il y avoit un autre Philosophe, qui
s’appelloit
Democrite, & estoit de
Thrace. Cestuy-cy estoit
merveilleusement bien versé en toute espece de Phi-
losophie: & pour encor plus promptement & subti-
lement recercher les secrets de nature, & discourir
sur iceux, il se priva soy mesme de la veuë. Cestuy-cy
se rioit & mocquoit continuellement de tout ce que
les hommes faisoyent, disant que ce
n’estoit autre
qu’inepties & badinages Mais maintenant, ô Hera-
clite, lamente toy & pleure plus amerement que ja-
mais les incommodités de la vie humaine: car, au
temps où nous sommes, elle est farcie de beaucoup plus
de maux & de miseres, que jamais elle ne fut. Mais
plustost toy,
Democrite, pren toy à rire plus fort que
jamais: car le monde est devenu plus ridicule & plus
inepte, que jamais il ne fut.
1. This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 9.148. For Heraclitus, cf. [FALe052]. For the contrast between the despairing tears of Heraclitus (who withdrew from human society) and the sardonic laughter of Democritus when faced with the folly of men, see, among many sources, e.g. Juvenal, Satires 10, 28ff.
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