[22] _Haud absurdum est_, 'is not unbecoming;' that is, 'is worthy
of man.'
[23] _Quidem_ here, like the Greek [Greek: men] in [Greek: emoi men],
without a [Greek: de] following, introduces one opinion in
contradistinction from others, though the latter are not mentioned,
but merely suggested by _quidem_. 'I for my part think so, but what
others think I do not know, or care.'
[24] 'If you censure any things as faults or delinquencies, your censure
is considered to have arisen from malevolence or ill-will.'
[25] _Supra ea_, 'whatever is beyond: that;' that is, whatever is beyond
the capacity of the reader.
[26] The author now passes over to his own experience, telling us that
after having devoted himself at first to the career of a public man,
and finding that he was not understood, and ill-used by his
opponents, he formed the determination to give himself up to a
literary life.
[27] _Insolens malarum artium_, 'unacquainted with base artifices or
intrigues;' for _artes_ may be _malae_ as well as _bonae_,
according as they consist in the skill of doing bad or good things.
[28] _Imbecilla aetas_, 'my weak age;' that is, my mind, which had
not yet arrived at mature independence,'was corrupted by ambition,
and was kept under the influence of such bad circumstances.' Sallust
means to say that if his mind had arrived at manly independence, he
would have immediately withdrawn from the vicious atmosphere of
public life.
[29] My ambition caused me to be equally ill spoken of and envied, and
thus to be dragged down to a level with the rest, and to be equally
harassed and persecuted as they were.

4. Igitur ubi animus ex multis miseriis atque periculis requievit et mihi