matters open until Mauricus returns. It is no easy matter, I am well
aware of that, to destroy Regulus; he is rich, and at the head of a
party; courted8 by many, feared by more: a passion that will
sometimes prevail even beyond friendship itself. But, after all, ties
of this sort are not so strong but they may be loosened; for a bad
man's credit is as shifty as himself. However (to repeat), I am
waiting until Mauricus comes back. He is a man of sound
judgment and great sagacity formed upon long experience, and
who, from his observations of the past, well knows how to judge of
the future. I shall talk the matter over with him, and consider
myself justified either in pursuing or dropping this affair, as he
shall advise. Meanwhile I thought I owed this account to our
mutual friendship, which gives you an undoubted right to know
about not only all my actions but all my plans as well. Farewell.

IV

To CORNELIUS TACITUS

You will laugh (and you are quite welcome) when I tell you that
your old acquaintance is turned sportsman, and has taken three
noble boars. "What!" you exclaim, "Pliny! "--Even he. However, I
indulged at the same time my beloved inactivity; and, whilst I sat
at my nets, you would have found me, not with boar spear or
javelin, but pencil and tablet, by my side. I mused and wrote, being
determined to return, if with all my hands empty, at least with my
memorandums full. Believe me, this way of studying is not to be
despised: it is wonderful how the mind is stirred and quickened
into activity by brisk bodily exercise. There is something, too, in
the solemnity of the venerable woods with which one is