with yourself. If you ask any one, "What have you been doing to-day?"
he will say, "Oh, I have been attending a coming-of-age function; I was
at a betrothal or a wedding; so-and-so asked me to witness the signing
of a will; I have been acting as witness to A, or I have been in
consultation with B." All these occupations appear of paramount
importance on the day in question, but if you remember that you repeat
the round day after day, they seem a sheer waste of time, especially
when you have got away from them into the country; for then the thought
occurs to you, "What a number of days I have frittered away in these
chilly formalities!" That is how I feel when I am at my Laurentine
Villa and busy reading or writing, or even when I am giving my body a
thorough rest and so repairing the pillars of my mind. I hear nothing
and say nothing to give me vexation; no one comes backbiting a third
party, and I myself have no fault to find with any one except it be with
myself when my pen does not run to my liking. I have no hopes and fears
to worry me, no rumours to disturb my rest. I hold converse with myself
and with my books. 'Tis a genuine and honest life; such leisure is
delicious and honourable, and one might say that it is much more
attractive than any business. The sea, the shore, these are the true
secret haunts of the Muses, and how many inspirations they give me, how
they prompt my musings! Do, I beg of you, as soon as ever you can, turn
your back on the din, the idle chatter, and the frivolous occupations of
Rome, and give yourself up to study or recreation. It is better, as our
friend Attilius once very wittily and very truly said, to have no
occupation than to be occupied with nothingness. Farewell.


1.X.--TO ATTIUS CLEMENS.

If ever there was a time when this Rome of ours was devoted to learning,