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[87]
For it creeps
imperceptibly, I know not how, into every life, and
suffers no mode of existence to be devoid of its
presence.
Nay, even if anyone were of a nature so savage
and fierce as to shun and loathe the society of men
—such, for example, as tradition tells us a certain
Timon of Athens once was—yet even such a man
could not refrain from seeking some person before
whom he might pour out the venom of his embittered
soul. Moreover, the view just expressed might
best be appraised if such a thing as this could happen:
suppose that a god should remove us from these
haunts of men and put us in some solitary place,
and, while providing us there in plenteous abundance
with all material things for which our nature yearns,
should take from us altogether the power to gaze
upon our fellow men—who would be such a man of
iron as to be able to endure that sort of a life?
And who is there from whom solitude would not
snatch the enjoyment of every pleasure?
Cicero: De Senectute De Amicitia De Divinatione. With An English Translation. William Armistead Falconer. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1923.
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