Page:Loeb Classical Library L205N (1958).djvu/479

sciousness of a right purpose, and that there is no serious evil other than wrong conduct; and since we are so far from it, that our sentiments have ever been of the soundest, and it is the result of our policy rather than the policy itself that is the subject of censure, and since we have fully discharged our obligations, well then, let us bear what has come to pass with self-restraint. But, be that as it may, I do not presume to console you for the troubles common to all of us; they indeed require greater inventiveness in the comforter, and exceptional courage in the sufferer. But why you should have no special sorrow of your own, anybody could explain to you easily enough. For though a certain person has acted with less despatch than I had expected in relieving you, I have no doubt at all as to what that person thinks about your restoration. As to the others, I don't suppose that you are in any hurry to know my opinion.

³ There remains the fact that it is painful to you to be so long away from your family; it must be a grief to you, especially to be separated from those boys of yours, who are the merriest fellows in the world. But, as I wrote to you before, the times are such that everybody thinks he is worse off than anybody else, and where each man is, there he least wants to be. Myself, I consider that we who are at Rome are the most to be pitied, not only because in the case of anything that is evil, the sight of it is more painful than the hearing of it, but also because we are more exposed to any sudden danger that may arise than if we were away. Though I must say, speaking for myself who profess to comfort you, it is not so much the literature to which I have always devoted myself, as length of time that has brought me relief.