Moral life. We call the moral life that which extends itself with glory beyond the grave.

The comparison of the brevity of this mortal life, with the eternity of a moral life in the memory of men, was familiar to the Romans, and was the root source of most great actions. Christianity, misunderstood, contributed to the loss of this noble motive, so useful to society. [1] It is nevertheless true that the idea of living gloriously in the memory of posterity, is a thing which flatters many in the time in which we live. It is a kind of consolation and compensation for the natural death to which we are all condemned. The minister of state, the wealthy financier, the lord of the court, will perish entirely when death takes them. Will they be barely remembered after a few months? Will their names scarcely be uttered? Famous men, on the contrary, either in war, or in public office, or in the sciences and the arts, are not forgotten. The great men of the world, who have only their grandeur to preserve, live only for a short time. Great writers of the world, on the other hand, are immortal; their worth is consequently much superior to that of all perishable creatures.

Quo mihi rectius videtur , says Sallust, ingenii quam virium opibus glorium quoerere, et quoniam vita ipsa qua fruimur brevis est, memoriam nostri quàm maxime longam efficere (Therefore it seems more correct to me to pursue glory with the intellect rather than with force and, since this life that we enjoy is short, to give to our memories their longest effect). [2] This is also the thought of Virgil: Stat sua cuique dies: breve et irreparabile tempus Omnibus est vitae; sed famam extendere factis, Hoc virtutis opus! (The last day of each is fixed; brief and unrecoverable is the time all have of life; but to extend their fame, this is the work of the virtuous). [3]

Translator's Notes

1. The difference in motive seems to be that between heavenly immortality, and immortality in the sense of “glory,” that is, living on through the memory of men ( le souvenir des hommes ).

2. Jaucourt is referring to Sallust’s The Conspiracy of Catiline. S.A. Handford translates the passage as follows: “Surely, therefore, it is our intellectual rather than our physical powers that we should use in the pursuit of fame. Since only a short span of life has been vouchsafed us, we must make ourselves remembered as long as may be by those who come after us.” See The Jugurthine war: The conspiracy of Catiline , tr. with an introduction by S. A. Handford (Baltimore,1963).

3. For the full context, see Aeneid 10.467-9. Robert Fitzgerald translates the above passage less literally as follows: “"Every man's last day is fixed.  Lifetimes are brief, and not to be regained, / For all mankind. But by their deeds to make / their fame last: that is labor for the brave." See The Aeneid , tr. by Robert Fitzgerald (New York, 1983).