CCCCLVIII (F IX, 3)
TO M. TERENTIUS VARRO (AT TUSCULUM)
Rome (about the 18th of April)
Though I have nothing to say to you, yet I could not let
Caninius go to you without taking anything from me.
What, then, shall I say for choice? What I think you
wish, that I am coming to you very soon. Yet pray consider
whether it is quite right for us to be in a place like
that[1] when public affairs are in such a blaze. We shall be
giving those persons an excuse for talking, who don't know
that, wherever we are, we keep the same style and the same
manner of life. But what does it matter? Anyhow, we shall
give rise to gossip. We ought, forsooth, to take great pains,
at a time when society at large is wallowing in every kind
of immorality and abomination, to prevent our abstention
from active life, whether indulged in alone or together,
from being unfavourably remarked upon! For my part, I
shall join you, and snap my fingers at the ignorance of these
Philistines. For, however miserable the present state of
affairs—and nothing can be more so—yet, after all, our
studies seem in a way to produce a richer harvest now than
of old, whether it is because we can now find relief in
nothing else, or because the severity of the disease makes
the need of medicine felt, and its virtue is now manifested,
which we used not to feel while we were in good health.
But why these words of wisdom to you now, who have them
at hand home-grown—"an owl to Athens?"[2] Only, of
course, to get you to write me an answer, and wait for my
coming. Pray do so therefore.