Letters of Pliny the Younger | Page 6

when I asked this question, but Modestus."
Observe the vindictive cruelty of the fellow, who made no concealment
of his willingness to injure a banished man. But the reason he alleged in
justification of his conduct is pleasant. Modestus, he explained, in a

letter of his, which was read to Domitian, had used the following
expression, "Regulus, the biggest rascal that walks upon two feet :" and
what Modestus had written was the simple truth, beyond all manner of
controversy. Here, about, our conversation came to an end, for I did not
wish to proceed further, being desirous to keep matters open until
Mauricus returns. It is no easy matter, I am well aware of that, to
destroy Regulus; he is rich, and at the head of a party; courted8 by
many, feared by more: a passion that will sometimes prevail even
beyond friendship itself. But, after all, ties of this sort are not so strong
but they may be loosened; for a bad man's credit is as shifty as himself.
However (to repeat), I am waiting until Mauricus comes back. He is a
man of sound judgment and great sagacity formed upon long
experience, and who, from his observations of the past, well knows
how to judge of the future. I shall talk the matter over with him, and
consider myself justified either in pursuing or dropping this affair, as he
shall advise. Meanwhile I thought I owed this account to our mutual
friendship, which gives you an undoubted right to know about not only
all my actions but all my plans as well. Farewell.
IV
To CORNELIUS TACITUS
You will laugh (and you are quite welcome) when I tell you that your
old acquaintance is turned sportsman, and has taken three noble boars.
"What!" you exclaim, "Pliny! "--Even he. However, I indulged at the
same time my beloved inactivity; and, whilst I sat at my nets, you
would have found me, not with boar spear or javelin, but pencil and
tablet, by my side. I mused and wrote, being determined to return, if
with all my hands empty, at least with my memorandums full. Believe
me, this way of studying is not to be despised: it is wonderful how the
mind is stirred and quickened into activity by brisk bodily exercise.
There is something, too, in the solemnity of the venerable woods with
which one is surrounded, together with that profound silence which is
observed on these occasions, that forcibly disposes the mind to
meditation. So for the future, let me advise you, whenever you hunt, to
take your tablets along with you, as well as your basket and bottle, for
be assured you will find Minerva no less fond of traversing the hills
than Diana. Farewell.
V

To POMPEIUS SATURNINUS
NOTHING could be more seasonable than the letter which I received
from you, in which you so earnestly beg me to send you some of my
literary efforts: the very thing I was intending to do. So you have only
put spurs into a willing horse and at once saved yourself the excuse of
refusing the trouble, and me the awkwardness of asking the favour.
Without hesitation then I avail myself of your offer; as you must now
take the consequence of it without reluctance. But you are not to expect
anything new from a lazy fellow, for I am going to ask you to revise
again the speech I made to my fellow-townsmen when I dedicated the
public library to their use. You have already, I remember, obliged me
with some annotations upon this piece, but only in a general way; and
so I now beg of you not only to take a general view of the whole speech,
but, as you usually do, to go over it in detail. When you have corrected
it, I shall still be at liberty to publish or suppress it: and the delay in the
meantime will be attended with one of these alternatives; for, while we
are deliberating whether it is fit for publishing, a frequent revision will
either make it so, or convince me that it is not. Though indeed my
principal difficulty respecting the publication of this harangue arises
not so much from the composition as out of the subject itself, which has
something in it, I am afraid, that will look too like ostentation and
self-conceit. For, be the style ever so plain and unassuming, yet, as the
occasion necessarily led me to speak not only of the munificence of my
ancestors, but of my own as well, my modesty will be seriously
embarrassed. A dangerous and slippery situation this, even when one is
led into it by plea of necessity! For, if mankind are not very favourable
to panegyric, even when bestowed upon others, how much more