Lactantius — Divine Institutes 6.3
There are two ways by which it is necessary for human life to go forward, one which would bear into heaven, the other which would press down to the dead: which both poets in songs and philosophers in their disputes have brought in. And indeed the philosophers have willed one to be of virtues, the other of vices, and that which is assigned to virtues; at the first approach to be steep and rough: in which if anyone, the difficulty overcome, has come out to its summit, has for the rest a level road, a bright and pleasant field and takes rich and pleasant fruits of all his labors; but those whom the difficulty of the first approaches has frightened, they slip and turn aside into that way of vices, which at first entry is as it were pleasant and much more worn, then when they have gone a little further in it, the appearance of that pleasantness is suddenly withdrawn, but there arises a steep way, now rough with rocks now covered with thorns now cut by whirlpools or swift with torrents, so that it is necessary to labor, stick, slip, fall. All which things are brought forward that it may appear that in taking up virtues there are greatest labors, but in virtues perceived greatest fruits and solid and uncorrupted pleasures, but vices by certain natural allurements entice humans' minds and lead those caught by the appearance of empty delights to bitter bitternesses and miseries.
A wise dispute indeed, if they knew the forms and bounds of the virtues themselves. For they had not learned either what they are or what wage of them remains from God: which we will teach in these two books. But these, because they did not know or doubted that humans' souls are immortal, measured the course of human life by thrift and luxury. For they say the course of human life is like the letter Y, because each one of humans, when he has touched the threshold of first adolescence and come into that place of the part where the way splits into both, hangs wavering and uncertain into which he may turn; and if he has a guide, when the better way has been shown, he is cleansed by honest arts, but if not, he takes the left, which belongs to vices, which seems better at first because a youth's slippery age is pleased by pleasant and soft things. They therefore do not know the boundaries of virtues and vices.
For if you plant virtues, vices will withdraw of their own will, or if you remove vices, virtues will step forward of themselves: so the nature of goods and evils is set that they mutually displace themselves and cannot be together. Therefore when I speak of virtues, even what is contrary can be understood by us disputing about good or evil.
Latin
Duae sunt uiae per quas humanam uitam progredi necesse est, una quae in caelum ferat, altera quae ad inferos deprimat: quas et poetae in carminibus et philosophi in disputationibus suis induxerunt. et quidem philosophi alteram uirtutum esse noluerunt, alteram uitiorum, eamque quae sit assignata uirtutibus; primo aditu esse arduam et confragosam: in qua si quis difficultate superata in summum eius euaserit, habere eum de cetero planum iter, lucidum amoenumque campum et omnium laborum suorum capere fructus uberes atque iucundos; quos autem primi aditus difficultas deterruerit, eos in illam uitiorum uiam labi atque deflectere, quae primo ingressu sit quasi amoena multoque tritior, deinde cum in ea paulo ulterius processerint, amoenitatis illius speciem repente subduci, exoriri autem uiam praecipitem, nunc saxis asperam nunc obductam sentibus nunc gurgitibus intercisam uel torrentibus rapidam, ut laborare haerere labi cadere sit necesse. quae omnia eo proferuntur, ut appareat in uirtutibus capiendis labores esse maximos, in perceptis autem maximos fructus et solidas atque incorruptas uoluptates, uitia uero quibusdam delenimentis naturalibus inlicere animos hominum et inanium iucunditatum specie captos ad acerbas amaritudines miseriasque perducere.
sapiens prorsus disputatio, si uirtutum ipsarum formas ac terminos scirent. non enim didicerant uel quae sint uel quid eas mercedis a deo maneat: quod nos his duobus libris docebimus. hi uero quia ignorabant aut dubitabant animas hominum inmortales esse, et uirtutes et uitia terrenis honoribus aut poenis aestimauerunt. omnis ergo haec de duabus uiis disputatio ad frugalitatem ac luxuriam spectat. dicunt enim humanae uitae cursum Y litterae similem, quod unus quisque hominum cum primae adulescentiae limen adtigerit et in eum locum uenerit, partis ubi se uia findit in ambas, haereat nutabundus ac nesciat in quam se partem potius inclinet; si ducem nactus fuerit qui dirigat ad meliora titubantem, hoc est si aut philosophiam didicerit aut eloquentiam aut aliquid honestae artis quo euadat ad bonam frugem, quod fieri sine labore maximo non potest, honestam et copiosam uitam disputant peracturum; si uero doctorem frugalitatis non muenent, in sinistram uiam quae melioris speciem mentiatur incidere, id est desidiae inertiae luxuriae se tradere, quae suauia quidem uidentur ad tempus uera bona ignoranti, post autem amissa omni dignitate ac re familiari in omnibus miseriis ignominiaque uicturum. ad corpus ergo et ad hanc uitam quam in terra ducimus fines earum uiarum rettulerunt. poetae fortasse melius, qui hoc biuium aput inferos esse uoluerunt, sed in eo falluntur quod eas uias mortuis proposuerunt. utrique ergo uere, sed tamen utrique non recte, quia oportuit uias ipsas ad uitam, fines earum ad mortem referri. nos igitur melius et uerius, qui duas istas uias caeli et inferorum esse dicimus, quia iustis inmortalitas, iniustis poena aeterna proposita est. quomodo autem hae uiae uel in caelum tollant uel ad inferna praecipitent explicabo, aperiamque quae sint uirtutes quas philosophi nescierunt; tum earum quae sint praemia, simul etiam quae sint uitia quaeue eorum supplicia monstrabo. nam fortasse aliquis expectet ut separatim de uitiis ac uirtutibus dicam, cum de bono aut malo disserentibus nobis etiam quod est contrarium possit intellegi.
sine enim uirtutes inseras, uitia sua sponte decedent, siue uitia eximas, uirtutes ultro subibunt: sic bonorum ac malorum constituta natura est, ut se inuicem semper obpugnent, semper expellant. ita fit ut neque uitia detrahi sine uirtutibus possint nec uirtutes inseri sine detractione uitiorum. has igitur uias longe aliter inducimus quam induci a philosophis solent, primum quod utrique praepositum esse dicimus ducem utrumque inmortalem, sed alterum honoratum, qui uirtutibus ac bonis praesit, alterum damnatum, qui uitiis ac malis. illi autem m dexteriore tantum uia ducem ponunt neque unum neque perpetuum, siquidem quemlibet doctorem bonae artis inducunt, qui a desidia reuocet homines et frugi esse doceat. sed neque ingredi faciunt in eam uiam nisi pueros et adulescentes, uidelicet quod artes in his discantur aetatibus. nos autem (homines) omnis sexus et generis et aetatis in hoc caeleste iter inducimus, quia deus, qui eius uiae dux est, immortalitatem nulli homini nato negat. forma quoque ipsarum uiarum non ita est ut illi putauerunt. quid enim opus est Y littera in rebus contrariis atque diuersis? sed altera illa melior conuersa est ad solis ortum, altera illa deterior ad occasum, quoniam qui ueritatem ac iustitiam sequitur, is accepto immortalitatis praemio perenni luce potietur, qui autem ab illo malo duce inlectus praetulerit uitia uirtutibus, mendacium ueritati, necesse est ad occasum et tenebras deferatur (aeternas). describam igitur utramque et earum proprietates habitusque monstrabo.