Letter 1011: A witty complaint about a student sailing away from a spring already at home.

Rhetorius does well to admire rhetoric and wish to acquire it; but after passing by the spring nearby, wise Argeius, and then sailing elsewhere, he seemed to me to be doing much the same as a thirsty man who leaves the spring at home and runs to the one before the city, though he is about to drink the same water. For whatever he could receive from us, he could receive also from you. I thought he should see this, if from nowhere else, at least from the letter itself, which had the sound of your voice, and learn when one ought to stay and share in the beauty of such eloquence. Since Rhetorius missed this, he will often accuse himself. I, however, pleased with both the young man and the letter, pray that he may not cease loving eloquence; yet I fear both his father's ears and the mouths that have learned to praise Beirut.