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SED ... ESSE: 'but we must con this lesson from our youth up'. For the passive sense of meditatum cf. n. on 4 adeptam. In Tusc. 1, 74 Cic., imitating Plato, says tota philosophorum vita commentatio mortis est. So Seneca, tota vita discendum est mori.
QUINCUNCEM: thus:·:·:·:·:·:·: This was the order of battle in the Roman army during a great part of its history. As regards its application to trees, see Verg. Georg. 2, 277-284. PURAM: so the farmers talk of 'cleaning' the land. DIMENSA: notice the passive use of this participle, originally deponent; cf. n. on 4 adeptam. DISCRIPTA: 'arranged'; so discriptio a little farther on.
AFFERAT: subjunctive because nihil quod = nihil tale ut. A 320, a; G. 633, 634; H. 503, I. QUO IN GENERE: sc. rerum; with this phrase the defining genitive is commonly omitted by Cicero. So below, 45 in eo genere. UT ... ADEPTAM: notice the chiasmus. EANDEM: idem is used in the same way, to mark an emphatic contrast in 24, 52, 68, 71.
Quo in genere est in primis senectus, quam ut adipiscantur omnes optant, eandem accusant adeptam: tanta est stultitiae inconstantia atque perversitas. Obrepere aiunt eam citius quam putassent. Primum quis coegit eos falsura putare? Qui enim citius adulescentiae senectus quam pueritiae adulescentia obrepit?
ADEPTAM: this is probably the only example in Cicero of the passive use of adeptus, which occurs in Sallust, Ovid, Tacitus, etc.; and in this passage the use cannot be looked on as certain, since one of the very best and several of the inferior MSS. read adepti. Thus periclitatus, arbitratus, depastus as passives are found each in only one passage.
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