Letter 5023: I can hardly bear the departure of friends, but when they head off to be in your company, I feel as though they were...

I can hardly bear the departure of friends, but when they head off to be in your company, I feel as though they were coming to me. And setting affection aside for a moment, I confess I envy those who will be with you. For only good men understand how to value the society of their equals. What the rest of the world calls solitude, a philosopher calls peace. Send me word of how you are spending your days. Your letters are the only substitute for your presence, and even they arrive too rarely. Farewell.

Inpatienter amicorum soleo perferre discessum, sed eos, qui ad praesentiam tuam relicta urbe contendunt, ad me credo venturos. quid quod sequestrata adfectione in- video tecum futuris? soli enim bona praesentiae tuae capient, quomm communis mihi 25 fructus esse deberet. wtut est tamen ista condicio, fratres nostros Celsum atque Nicia- num probabiles viros non invitus emisi, certus aliquid ad nos ex fabulis atque actibus tuis eorum relatione redituram. qnos ut mature urbi studiisque restituas, vicissim de te postulo. nam fsi te ab ac petitione dissimulem, videor eomm peregrinationem non tuae detulisse reverentiae, sed meo praestitisse fastidio. ao 1 q. auf. symmacbi. u/ oxplic. iiii. ad efesti//// incip eiusdem ad neot///// P, symmaohus ad neothe- rium F, om. V 3 om. VF 4 reditum P 1 m. /nim P 5 nancta P 7 deplo> matis P 1 m. VF 8 magna P 1 m. 9 meos F meum] meus VF in gaudio F do- lore P 1 m. 10 tantumj tamen V lem VAf, nam nisi te hac petitionc destimulem ego xxxxi (XXX vmi).