Letter 1105: Late consolation only reopens wounds.

Belated consolations press upon grief, and therefore we ought to maintain mutual silence regarding our misfortunes, lest the wounds of fortune, which draw a scar in the course of time, should grow raw again from being handled at the wrong moment. The conversation should rather be turned to other matters, those which may urge you toward the care of your health. For every inward pain of the body increases with the harm done by winter, and unless you take a journey on sunny days and in healthful breezes, I am much afraid that the ailment, if neglected, may grow worse. Now I have sent to you those things which you believed suited to a remedy, or which the proven experience of their use has commended to us, setting it among the highest of my prayers that by a spontaneous return to health you may forestall the necessity of such remedies, or, if any remnants of the illness remain, that they may be wiped away by these treatments. You will, moreover, render service enough to our common friendship if you relieve, with no delay, by happier news, that anxiety which has arisen in me from your sickness.