§6.5.1quotienscumque filium tuum video (video autem fere cotidie), polliceor ei studium quidem meum et operam sine ulla exceptione aut laboris aut occupationis aut temporis, gratiam autem atque auctoritatem cum hac exceptione, quantum valeam quantumque possim.
Whenever I see your son (and indeed I see him almost daily), I promise him my zeal and exertion without any exception of labor, occupation, or time; but my influence and authority with this exception: as far as I have strength and power.
Liber tuus et lectus est et legitur a me diligenter et custoditur diligentissime.
Your book has both been read and is being read by me diligently, and is kept with the greatest care.
res et fortunae tuae mihi maximae curae sunt; quae quidem cotidie faciliores mihi et meliores videntur multisque video magnae esse curae; quorum de studio et de sua spe filium ad te perscripsisse certo scio.
Your affairs and fortunes are of the greatest concern to me; indeed, they seem to me daily easier and better, and I see that they are of great concern to many; and I know for certain that your son has written to you in detail about their zeal and their hope.
§6.5.2Iis autem de rebus, quas coniectura consequi possumus, non mihi sumo ut plus ipse prospiciam quam te videre atque intellegere mihi persuaserim; sed tamen, quia fieri potest ut tu ea perturbatiore animo cogites, puto esse meum, quid sentiam, exponere.
But concerning those matters which we can attain by conjecture, I do not take it upon myself to foresee more than I have persuaded myself that you see and understand; but yet, because it is possible that you reflect on those things with a more troubled mind, I think it is my duty to set forth what I think.
ea natura rerum est et is temporum cursus, ut non possit ista aut tibi aut ceteris fortuna esse diuturna neque haerere in tam bona causa et in tam bonis civibus tam acerba iniuria.
Such is the nature of things and such is the course of the times, that that fortune of yours cannot be lasting either for you or for the rest, nor can so bitter an injustice persist in so good a cause and among so good citizens.
§6.5.3†qua re ad eam spem, quam extra ordinem de te ipso habemus non solum propter dignitatem et virtutem tuam (haec enim ornamenta sunt tibi etiam cum aliis communia), accedunt tua praecipua propter eximium ingenium summamque virtutem, cui mehercules hic, cuius in potestate sumus, multum tribuit.
Therefore, in addition to that hope which we have concerning you out of the ordinary, not only on account of your dignity and virtue (for these ornaments are common to you also with others), there are added your own peculiar grounds of hope on account of your extraordinary talent and supreme virtue, to which, by Hercules, this man, in whose power we are, attributes much.
itaque ne punctum quidem temporis in ista fortuna fuisses, nisi eo ipso bono tuo, quo delectatur, se violatum putasset; quod ipsum lenitur cotidie significaturque nobis ab iis, qui simul cum eo vivunt, tibi hanc ipsam opinionem ingeni apud illum plurimum profuturam.
And so you would not have been in that fortune for even a moment of time, if he had not thought himself violated by that very good quality of yours in which he delights; which very thing is softened daily, and it is signified to us by those who live together with him that this very opinion of your talent will be of the greatest benefit to you with him.
§6.5.4quapropter primum fac animo forti atque magno sis (ita enim natus, ita educatus, ita doctus es, ita etiam cognitus, ut tibi id faciendum sit), deinde spem quoque habeas firmissimam propter eas causas, quas scripsi.
Therefore, first, see to it that you are of a brave and great mind (for you were so born, so brought up, so educated, and so known, that you must do so); next, have also the firmest hope on account of those reasons which I have written.
A me vero tibi omnia liberisque tuis paratissima esse confidas velim; id enim et vetustas nostri amoris et mea consuetudo in meos et tua multa erga me officia postulant.
Indeed, I would have you trust that all things from me are most ready for you and your children; for this is demanded both by the antiquity of our love, and my custom towards my own, and your many services towards me.