On Old Age, On Friendship, On Divination

half-hour spent upon it now and then would not be missed and would afford me needed recreation. In his earnestness he exacted a promise which his death a few months later made only the more sacred. And so, on the trains as I went about the circuit, in hotels at night after trying cases all day, and in odd moments at home, I strove to redeem that promise. After several revisions a translation was completed and put into type.

My version had passed from hand to hand for two or three years with no thought of publication, when my poet-friend Brookes More asked permission to show it to his brother, Dr. Paul Elmer More of Princeton University, who brought it to the attention of Dr. Edward Capps, the American Editor of the L.C.L. Loeb Classical Library. At Dr. Capps’ suggestion it was sent to the Senior Editor in England. After another revision it was accepted by him for publication and an invitation given to translate also the On Friendship original: "De amicitia" and the On Divination original: "De divinatione". Four years have gone by since this work was begun. It has been carried on amid many interruptions. Ill-health and, more often, the prior claims of professional and official duties have made the task an arduous one; and yet, because of these studies in classical learning and my contact with great scholars, living and dead, no other period of my life has brought me so much pleasure of mind and soul: original: "qua voluptate nulla certe potest esse maior" than which pleasure there can certainly be none greater.