§46.1Librum tuum, quem mihi promiseras, accepi et tamquam lecturus ex commodo adaperui ac tantum degustare volui.
I have received your book, which you had promised me, and opened it as if to read it at my leisure, intending only to have a taste of it.
Deinde blanditus est ipse, ut procederem longius.
But then, it fell to teasing me to go further.
Qui quam disertus fuerit, ex hoc intellegas licet; levis mihi visus est, cum esset nec mei nec tui corporis, sed qui primo aspectu aut Titi Livii aut Epicuri posset videri.
How eloquent it was, you may understand from this: it seemed light to me, although it was of a bulk belonging neither to my body nor to yours, but such as at first sight might seem to belong to Titus Livius or Epicurus.
Tanta autem dulcedine me tenuit et traxit, ut illum sine ulla dilatione perlegerim.
Yet it held and drew me with such great sweetness that I read it through without any delay.
Sol me invitabat, fames admonebat, nubes minabantur; tamen exhausi totum.
The sun was inviting me, hunger was warning me, clouds were threatening; yet I drained the whole.
§46.2Non tantum delectatus, sed gavisus sum.
I was not only delighted, but gladdened.
Quid ingenii iste habuit, quid animi! Dicerem, quid inpetus, si interquievisset, si ex intervallo surrexisset; nunc non fuit inpetus, sed tenor, conpositio virilis et sancta; nihilominus interveniebat dulce illud et loco lene.
What talent it had, what spirit! I should have said, "what impulse," if it had rested, if it had risen at intervals; but as it was, there was no impulse, but an even flow, a manly and solemn composition; nevertheless, that sweetness intervened, gentle in the right place.
Grandis, erectus es; hoc te volo tenere, sic ire.
You are grand, upright; I want you to hold onto this, to go on in this way.
Fecit aliquid et materia; ideo eligenda est fertilis, quae capiat ingenium, quae incitet.
The subject matter also did something; therefore, a fertile subject should be chosen, such as can grasp the talent and incite it.
§46.3De libro plura scribam cum illum retractavero; nunc parum mihi sedet iudicium, tamquam audierim illa, non legerim.
I shall write more about the book when I have reread it; at present, my judgment is not sufficiently settled, just as if I had heard those words, not read them.
Sine me et inquirere.
Allow me also to investigate.
Non est quod verearis; verum audies.
There is no reason for you to fear; you will hear the truth.
O te hominem felicem, quod nihil habes, propter quod quisquam tibi tam longe mentiatur! Nisi quod iam etiam ubi causa sublata est, mentimur consuetudinis causa.
Oh, happy man that you are, in that you have nothing for the sake of which anyone would lie to you from so far away! Except that now, even where the cause has been removed, we lie for the sake of habit.
VALE.
FAREWELL.