Book 3, Chapter 1

1 What reason, Brutus, am I to give for this: although we consist of soul and body, an art has been sought out for treating and protecting the body, and its usefulness has been hallowed by attributing its discovery to the immortal gods; yet medicine for the soul was neither so eagerly desired before its discovery, nor so diligently practiced after it became known, nor so widely welcomed and approved, but has even been viewed by many with suspicion and hatred? Is it because we judge the body’s heaviness and pain with the soul, but do not feel the soul’s illness through the body? The result is that the soul passes judgment on itself precisely when the very faculty that judges is sick.

2 If nature had made us capable of looking into her and seeing her clearly, and of completing life’s journey with her as our best guide, there would certainly be no need to seek out reasoning and instruction. As it is, she has given us little sparks, which we quickly extinguish, corrupted as we are by bad habits and opinions, until nature’s light is nowhere visible. For the seeds of the virtues are inborn in our minds; if they were allowed to grow, nature herself would lead us to a happy life. Instead, the moment we are brought into the light and taken up in someone’s arms, we find ourselves amid every kind of corruption and the deepest confusion of opinion, so that we seem almost to have drunk in error with our nurse’s milk. Then, when we have been given back to our parents and afterward handed over to teachers, we are steeped in so many errors that truth yields to falsehood, and nature herself to settled opinion.

1 Brutus, what explanation can I give for this? We consist of mind and body. People have developed an art for caring for and protecting the body, and its benefits have earned it recognition as an invention of the immortal gods. But before a treatment for the mind was discovered, people didn’t feel the same need for it. After it became known, they didn’t give it the same attention. Not as many people welcome or approve of it; more actually distrust and dislike it. Is that because we use our minds to judge bodily discomfort and pain, but don’t feel mental illness in our bodies? That leaves the mind judging itself just when the instrument it uses to judge is sick.

2 If nature had enabled us to see her for ourselves and understand her fully, she would have been the best possible guide through life. Nobody would then have needed reasoned teaching. But what we actually receive from her is a few little sparks. Corrupted very quickly by bad habits and beliefs, we extinguish them; not a trace of nature’s light is left. Virtue’s seeds are there in us from birth. Given the chance to develop, they would allow nature herself to bring us to happiness. Instead, from the time we come into the world and someone picks us up, we live amid every kind of wickedness and the most completely distorted opinions. Error seems almost to reach us through the milk we drink from our nurse. Then they return us to our parents and entrust us to teachers. We soak up error in so many forms that falsehood defeats truth, and entrenched beliefs defeat nature herself.