Academics

I. WHILE my friend Atticus was staying with me lately at my house near Cumae, news was brought to us from M. Varro that he had arrived from Rome on the evening of the day before, and would have come to visit us forthwith, had he not been tired after his journey. On hearing this we considered that no obstacle should prevent us from seeing one So intimately connected with us both by the identity of our literary tastes and by the long duration of our friendship. So with all speed we hastened to visit him, and, being at a short distance from his house, we saw our friend himself coming to meet us; then we embraced him, as is the custom of friends, and after a considerable delay escorted him back to his own mansion. Here we had first a little talk, merely such as sprang out of my question whether he had brought any news from Rome; then Atticus said: “A truce, pray, to the subject, for we cannot help feeling pain when we put questions about it and hear the answers: rather ask him for news of himself. Indeed Varro’s Muses have now been voiceless longer than was their wont; yet my belief is, not that your friend is idle, but rather that he is reticent about the work of his pen.” ‘Far from it,” said he, “I think that only a heedless man writes what he wishes to remain concealed; but I have on hand an important task, begun indeed long since, for I have planned a work dedicated to no other than my friend here” (meaning me), “one of decided importance, which I am also polishing to a high degree of finish.” Then said I, “This is the work, Varro, for which I have long been looking, though I did not venture to importune you about it; indeed I heard from our friend Libo, whose literary zeal you know—he and I can keep no secrets of that kind from each other—that you never interrupted the work, but were elaborating it very carefully, and never had it out of your hands. There is, however, one question which it never occurred to me to put to you before: but now when I have begun to commit to writing the doctrines which I learned in common with you, and to elucidate in a Latin work the old philosophy which sprang from Socrates, I do ask you how it is that, numerous as are your literary labours, you neglect this department, and that too though you are eminent for your acquaintance with it, while the subject and all its circumstances greatly excel all other subjects and all other pursuits.”