Letter 28
If you have a taste for natural history — the kind Pliny labored over — here are some volumes I happened to have on hand. The copyist, I suspect, will displease a scholar as exacting as you: he's rather careless with accuracy. But don't blame me for the sloppy editing. I'd rather earn your approval for the speed of my gift than for the quality of someone else's work. Farewell.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
Related Letters
1. Under any circumstances I should have gladly seen the good lads, on account of both a steadiness of character beyond their years, and their near relationship to your excellency, which might have led me to expect something remarkable in them. And, when I saw them approaching me with your letter, my affection towards them was doubled.
1. There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak, Ecclesiastes 3:7 is the saying of the Preacher. Time enough has been given to silence, and now the time has come to open my mouth for the publication of the truth concerning matters that are, up to now, unknown.
On my return from a long journey (for I have been into Pontus on ecclesiastical business, and to visit my relations) with my body weak and ill, and my spirits considerably broken, I took your reverence's letter into my hand. No sooner did I receive the tokens of that voice which to me is of all voices the sweetest, and of that hand that I love s...