Letter 15
You ask me for longer letters. That's a true sign of your affection. But I know my own meager talents, and I'd rather aim for Spartan brevity than parade my inadequacy across page after page.
And really, is it any wonder my literary spring has dried up? You haven't nourished it with any of your poems or prose for quite some time.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
It is doubtless a father's duty to make provision for his children; a husbandman's to tend his plants and crops; a teacher's to bestow care upon his pupils, especially when, innate goodness shows signs of promise for them. The husbandman finds toil a pleasure when he sees the ears ripen or the plants increase; the teacher is gladdened at his pup...
A bantering letter to an indifferent correspondent. Of the same date as the preceding. Heliodorus, who is so dear to us both, and who loves you with an affection no less deep than my own, may have given you a faithful account of my feelings towards you; how your name is always on my lips, and how in every conversation which I have with him I be...
Under other circumstances I should think it a special privilege to meet with your reverence, but above all now, when the business which brings us together is of such great importance. But so much of my illness as still clings to me is enough to prevent my stirring ever so short a distance. I tried to drive as far as the martyrs and had a relaps...