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7. It is wonderful, however, since the will to obtain and retain
blessedness is one in all, whence comes, on the other hand, such a
variety and diversity of wills concerning that blessedness itself; not
that any one is unwilling to have it, but that all do not know it.
For if all knew it, it would not be thought by some to be in goodness
of mind; by others, in pleasure of body; by others, in both; and by
some in one thing, by others in another. For as men find special
delight in this thing or that, so have they placed in it their idea of
a blessed life. How, then, do all love so warmly what not all know?
Who can love what he does not know? a subject which I have already
discussed in the preceding books. Why, therefore, is blessedness
loved by all, when it is not known by all? Is it perhaps that all
know what it is itself, but all do not know where it is to be found,
and that the dispute arises from this? as if, forsooth, the business
was about some place in this world, where every one ought to will to
live who wills to live blessedly; and as if the question where
blessedness is were not implied in the question what it is. For
certainly, if it is in the pleasure of the body, he is blessed who
enjoys the pleasure of the body; if in goodness of mind, he has it who
enjoys this; if in both, he who enjoys both. When, therefore, one
says, to live blessedly is to enjoy the pleasure of the body; but
another, to live blessedly is to enjoy goodness of mind; is it not,
that either both know, or both do not know, what a blessed life is?
How, then, do both love it, if no one can love what he does not
know? Or is that perhaps false which we have assumed to be most true
and most certain, viz. that all men will to live blessedly? For if
to live blessedly is, for argument's sake, to live according to
goodness of mind, how does he will to live blessedly who does not will
this? Should we not say more truly, That man does not will to live
blessedly, because he does not wish to live according to goodness,
which alone is to live blessedly? Therefore all men do not will to
live blessedly; on the contrary, few wish it; if to live blessedly is
nothing else but to live according to goodness of mind, which many do
not will to do. Shall we, then, hold that to be false of which the
Academic Cicero himself did not doubt (although Academics doubt
every thing), who, when he wanted in the dialogue Hortensius to find
some certain thing, of which no one doubted, from which to start his
argument, says, We certainly all will to be blessed? Far be it from
me to say this is false. But what then? Are we to say that,
although there is no other way of living blessedly than living according
to goodness of mind, yet even he who does not will this, wills to live
blessedly? This, indeed, seems too absurd. For it is much as if we
should say, Even he who does not will to live blessedly, wills to
live blessedly. Who could listen to, who could endure, such a
contradiction? And yet necessity thrusts us into this strait, if it
is both true that all will to live blessedly, and yet all do not will
to live in that way in which alone one can live blessedly.
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