Letter 7027: Your silence has lasted long enough that I have concluded either that you are extremely busy or that you are...
Your silence has lasted long enough that I have concluded either that you are extremely busy or that you are extremely well — both of which are conditions I would congratulate you on if I had the information to confirm them. I write to break the silence on my end in the hope that it will break yours.
The book you lent me has been returned, or rather, it will be returned with this letter — the messenger is carrying both. I have read it with the attention it deserves and have been rewarded with insights that I had not expected from that particular author, who I had somewhat underestimated. The section on memory is remarkable and I want to discuss it with you at length when we next meet.
My own reading has been unusually productive this season. There are moments when everything one reads seems to speak to everything one is thinking about — when the material and the mind are in a kind of alignment that produces understanding almost effortlessly. This is one of those seasons, and I am trying to make the most of it before the next official obligation breaks the spell.
Write to me.
Your friend,
Symmachus
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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1. I have received your reverence's letter and I am delighted at the title which you have felicitously applied to the writing which they have composed in calling it a writing of divorcement. Matthew 19:7 What defense the writers will be able to make before the tribunal of Christ, where no excuse will avail, I am quite unable to conceive.