On this path, many good things await you. You'll learn to love and practice virtue. You'll forget your destructive passions. You'll discover how to live well and how to die well. You'll find deep peace.
In this course of life there await you many good things, such as love and practice of the virtues, forgetfulness of passions, knowledge of how to live and die, deep repose.
Turn to these quieter, safer, and more important activities. Do you really think there's any comparison between making sure grain gets stored in public warehouses without being stolen or ruined by careless importers — checking that it doesn't get moldy or overheated, that it weighs what it should — and starting to study sacred, divine knowledge? This knowledge will teach you what the gods are made of, what brings them pleasure, where they live, what they look like. It will show you what changes await your soul, where nature will place us when we leave our bodies, what force holds the heaviest parts of our universe in the center and suspends lighter things above, what puts fire at the very top and makes the stars follow their paths — along with countless other wonders. Won't you stop crawling around on the ground and lift your mind's eye to these great questions? While your blood still flows strong and before your knees grow weak, you should choose the better path.
Betake yourself to these quieter, safer, larger fields of action: do you think that there can be any comparison between seeing that corn is deposited in the public granary without being stolen by the fraud or spoilt by the carelessness of the importer, that it does not suffer from damp or overheating, and that it measures and weighs as much as it ought, and beginning the study of sacred and divine knowledge, which will teach you of what elements the gods are formed, what are their pleasures, their position, their form? to what changes your soul has to look forward? where Nature will place us when we are dismissed from our bodies? what that principle is which holds all the heaviest particles of our universe in the middle, suspends the lighter ones above, puts fire highest of all, and causes the stars to rise in their courses, with many other matters, full of marvels? Will you not cease to grovel on earth and turn your mind's eye on these themes? nay, while your blood still flows swiftly, before your knees grow feeble, you ought to take the better path.