Letter 5077: If the conditions of my present situation permitted, I would throw myself into your affairs even without being asked.
If the conditions of my present situation permitted, I would throw myself into your affairs even without being asked. But as matters stand, I must serve from a distance, offering what I can through letters and through the agents I have dispatched. Please do not mistake my physical absence for indifference. The spirit is willing even when the body is bound by duty elsewhere. Whatever help I can provide, consider it already given.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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