Letter 7009: I'm delighted that your letters sparkle with sharp observations and clever turns of phrase.
I'm delighted that your letters sparkle with sharp observations and clever turns of phrase. A young man's energy ought to express itself in high spirits. But I want you to save those rhetorical barbs for other kinds of writing. In personal letters like these, you should blend in something more measured and conversational -- and I expect your rhetoric teacher is telling you the same thing.
Just as people choose their clothes and their whole manner of living to suit the place and the occasion, so the versatility of a good mind should aim for a certain studied carelessness in personal correspondence, while saving the full arsenal of eloquence for the courtroom. But I won't belabor the point. Keep going where the momentum of your age and the fire of your nature are carrying you. My chief wish is that you stay healthy and keep enriching yourself with learning beyond your years.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Scintillare acumiDibus atque sententiis epistulas tuas gaudeo; decet enim loqui
exultantius iuvenalem calorem. sed volo , ut in aliis materiis aculeis orationis utaiis,
5 huic autem generi scriptionis maturum aliquid et comicum misceas; quod tibi etiam
rhetorem tuum credo praecipere. nam ut in vestitu hominum ceteroque vitae cultu
loco ac tempori apta sumuntur, ita ingeniorum varietas in familiaribus scriptis negle-
gentiam quandam debet imitari, in forensibus vero quatere arma facundiae. sed de
his non ibo longius. perge interim, quo te aetatis impetus et naturae ardor inpellit.
10 mei voti caput est, ut bene valeas et supra annos tuos litterarum dote ditescas.
X a. 399—402.
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