Letter 5026: In a letter sweeter than any reproach, you scold me for my neglected duty, and I thank you for it.
In a letter sweeter than any reproach, you scold me for my neglected duty, and I thank you for it. I'd been thinking that spontaneous conversation carries more weight than obligatory replies. But your latest letter has left me so charmed that I honestly can't tell whether you were paying a debt or giving a gift.
Now consider how delightful your letters will be when you send them unasked, if even these — written out of obligation — please me so much.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Dissimulati officii obiurgatione morderis in epistula blandiore, qua tibi gratiam
refero sermonis accepti. licet cogitarem, illa potius amica esse conloquia, quae sponte
tribuuntur, at in respondendo referri magis necessariam vicem quam deferri sponta- ^
neam scriptionem, cgo tamen ita adfectus sum proximis litteris, ut nescire me fatear,
reddideris hoc munus an dederis. verum tu cogita, quid epistulae tuae iucunditatis
babiturae sint, quas uon admonitus exhibebis^ cum hae quoque mihi admodum gratae
sint, quas rependis ex debito.
xxxxv (xxxxni). lo
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