care. His father-in-law is Pompeius Julianus, a man of great
distinction, but whose chief title to fame is that though, as ruler of a
province, he might have chosen a son-in-law of the highest social rank,
he preferred one who was distinguished not for social dignities but for
wisdom.

Yet why describe at greater length a man whose society I can no longer
enjoy? Is it to make myself feel my loss the more? For my time is all
taken up by the duties of an office--important, no doubt, but tedious in
the extreme. I sit at my magisterial desk; I countersign petitions, I
make out the public accounts; I write hosts of letters, but what
illiterary productions they are! Sometimes--but how seldom I get the
opportunity--I complain to Euphrates about these uncongenial duties. He
consoles me and even assures me that there is no more noble part in the
whole of philosophy than to be a public official, to hear cases, pass
judgment, explain the laws and administer justice, and so practise in
short what the philosophers do but teach. But he never can persuade me
of this, that it is better to be busy as I am than to spend whole days
in listening to and acquiring knowledge from him. That makes me the
readier to urge you, whose time is your own, to let him put a finish and
polish upon you when you come to town, and I hope you will come all the
sooner on that account. I am not one of those--and there are many of
them--who grudge to others the happiness they are debarred from
themselves; on the contrary, I feel a very lively sense of pleasure in
seeing my friends abounding in joys that are denied to me. Farewell.


1.XI.--TO FABIUS JUSTUS.

It is quite a long time since I had a letter from you. "Oh," you say,