Ep. LII.

You are asking flowers from an autumn meadow, and arming Nestor in his old age, in demanding from me now something clever in the way of language, after I have long neglected all that is enjoyable in language and in life.  But yet (since it is not an Eurysthean or Herculean labour that you are imposing on me, but rather one which is very agreeable and quiet, to collect for you as many of my own letters as I can), do you place this volume among your books—a work not amatory but oratorical, and not for display so much as for use, and that for our own home.16    I.e. as a model of Christian style.  For different authors have different characteristics, greater or smaller.  Mine is a tendency to instruct by maxims and positive statements wherever opportunity occurs.  And as in a legitimate child, so also in language, the father is always visible, not less than parents are shewn by bodily characteristics.  Mine are such as I have mentioned.  You may repay me both by writing and by deriving profit from what I have written.  I cannot ask for or request any better reward than this, either more profitable to the asker, or more becoming him who gives it.

[52] ΤΩΙ ΑΥΤΩΙ

Ἐν μετοπώρῳ τὰ ἄνθη παρὰ τοῦ λειμῶνος αἰτεῖς καὶ γεγηρακότα ὁπλίζεις τὸν Νέστορα, ἐμέ τι νῦν ἀπαιτῶν δεξιὸν εἰς λόγους, ὃς πάλαι καὶ λόγου παντὸς καὶ βίου τὸ τερπνὸν καταλέλυκα. Ὅμως δέ, (οὐ γὰρ Εὐρύσθειόν τινα τοῦτον ἆθλον ἐπιτάττεις ἡμῖν, οὐδὲ Ἡράκλειον, ἀλλὰ καὶ μάλα ἥμερον καὶ ἡμέτερον, τῶν ἐμῶν ἐπιστολῶν σοι συναγαγεῖν ὅσας οἷόν τε): « τῆ νῦν τοῦτον ἱμάντα » ταῖς σαῖς « ἐγκατάθου » βίβλοις, οὐκ ἐρωτικόν, ἀλλὰ λογικόν, οὐδ' ἐπιδεικτικὸν μᾶλλον ἢ χρήσιμον καὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας αὐλῆς. Ἄλλου μὲν γὰρ ἄλλο τι γνώρισμα, ἢ μικρὸν ἢ μεῖζον: τῶν δ' ἡμετέρων λόγων τὸ παιδευτικὸν ἔν τε γνώμαις καὶ δόγμασιν, ὅπη παρείκοι. Καὶ καθάπερ εὐγενεῖ τόκῳ, τοῖς λόγοις ὁ πατὴρ ἀεὶ συνεμφαίνεται: οὐχ ἧττον ἢ τοῖς σωματικοῖς ὡς τὰ πολλὰ χαρακτῆρσιν οἱ φύσαντες. Τὸ μὲν οὖν ἡμέτερον τοιοῦτον. Σὺ δ' ἡμῖν ἀντιδοίης αὐτό τε τὸ γράφειν καὶ τὴν ἐξ ὧν γράφομεν ὠφέλειαν. Τούτου γὰρ ἀμείνω μισθὸν οὔτ' αἰτεῖν οὔτ' ἀπαιτεῖν ἔχομεν ἢ τοῖς αἰτοῦσι λυσιτελέστερον ἢ τῷ παρέχοντι πρεπωδέστερον.