Remarks

We rush to complete what we have yet to complete, fearful of the fate of Theophrastus.

“Theophrastus, on his deathbed, is said to have accused nature of having given long lives to deer and ravens, to whom it had no interest, and to men, to whom it had been most useful, such short lives; if their age had been longer, it would have been that they would have been instructed in all the perfect arts and all the learning of human life. He therefore complained that he was extinguished just as he had begun to see these things.”

Theophrastus autem moriens accusasse naturam dicitur, quod cervis et corni- cibus vitam diuturnam, quorum id nihil interesset, hominibus, quorum maxime interfuisset, tam exiguam vitam dedisset; quorum si aetas potuisset esse longinquior, futurum fuisse ut omnibus perfectis artibus omni doctrina hominum vita erudiretur. querebatur igitur se tum, cum ilia videre coepisset, extingui.

Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 3.69

Note: Theophrastus (c. 287-271 BC) was the colleague of Aristotle and successor of the Lyceum, Aristotle’s school of philosophy.