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and these I should have sent you long ago, had I deemed it desirable to publish them; they are, and will be for all time, witnesses of your services to me and my devotion to you; but I was afraid, not of those who might imagine themselves calumniated (for indeed my criticisms were neither lavish nor severe), but of those who had deserved well of me, to name all of whom would have been an endless business.

Still if I find anybody to whom I can safely entrust them, I shall take care that even the last-named books are sent to you. Indeed all this side of my life and daily activities I lay before you without reserve; whatever I can achieve in literature or research, my old amusements, that I shall be delighted to submit entirely to your critical judgement; for you have always had a liking for such pursuits.

²⁴ As to what you tell me in your letter about your domestic affairs and commission me to do in the matter, I have it so much at heart, that I rather resent being reminded of it, and as to being requested—well, I can hardly help feeling really hurt. Of my brother Quintus's business^[1] you write that last summer being prevented by illness from crossing over into Cilicia you had not been able to effect a settlement, but that you would now spare no pains to do so; that business, I assure you, is of such a nature that my brother verily believes that if he adds the land in question to his own, it is you he will have to thank for the consolidation of his estate.

I would have you inform me as intimately and as frequently as may be about all that concerns yourself, and about your son's studies and exercises,—mine indeed as much—and believe that never was a man dearer or more charming to another than