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I do continue to enjoy Caesar's extreme courtesy to me; but that cannot counterbalance violence and revolution in every relation of life and in the times themselves.

³ And so, bereft of all to which I had become habituated by my natural disposition, inclinations, and daily life, I am not only a nuisance to others, as I am sure I am, but even to myself. For though it is my very nature to be ever engrossed in some important work worthy of a man, I have now not only no scheme of action, but not even a scheme of thought. And while hitherto I have been in a position to offer my assistance to obscure or even guilty men, I am now not in a position to make even a promise of kindness to Publius Nigidius, incomparably the most learned and most virtuous of men, at one time a universal favourite and to me assuredly the best of friends. So that style of letter-writing has been plucked out of my reach.

⁴ It only remains for me to comfort you, and to suggest considerations whereby I may try to distract your thoughts from your miseries. But that genius for comforting either yourself or another, if ever man had it, is possessed in its full perfection by yourself; with any such topic, therefore, as has its source in what I may term the finer pursuits of learning, I shall not meddle, but leave it entirely to you. What conduct is worthy of a brave and wise man, what is imperatively demanded of you by your dignity, your loftiness of mind, your past history, the researches and accomplishments for which you have been distinguished from your boyhood—all that you will see for yourself. For my part, because I am in Rome and because I am interested and on the alert,