Letter 10072: The years accumulate their losses as well as their satisfactions, and the late summer has brought one of each; I...
The years accumulate their losses as well as their satisfactions, and the late summer has brought one of each; I write to share both.
I write briefly because the day has been long and my powers of composition have been exercised to their limits by obligations that do not carry my name. What remains is still genuine, even if it is not fresh.
The season passes; the city makes its demands; the literary projects that I meant to complete this year remain the projects I mean to complete next year. This is the condition of every serious person who also has serious responsibilities, and I accept it with the grace that long experience has made available.
Write to me when you can.
As always,
Symmachus
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
Do not grow weary in the contest.
Almost every other passion, Prohairesios, has a peak, knows a decline, and understands satiety.
1. I do not wonder that, though your limbs are chilled by age, your heart still glows with patriotic fire. I admire this, and, instead of grieving, I rejoice to learn that you not only remember, but by your life and practice illustrate, the maxim that there is no limit either in measure or in time to the claims which their country has upon the c...
Augustine to Jerome, greetings in the Lord.
It is entirely unfitting for a monk to be reading pagan Greek writings.