Attic Nights, Vol. II

Furthermore, from the same book of Cato, we also recall these fragments, scattered and interrupted: "It was the custom," he said, "to dress respectably in the forum, and at home, what was enough. They bought horses more dearly than cooks. There was no honor in the art of poetry. If anyone studied in that matter or applied himself to banquets, he was called a crassator reveler/vagabond." There is also that statement of clear truth from the same book: "For human life," he says, "is almost like iron. If you use it, it wears down; if you do not use it, rust consumes it nonetheless. Likewise, we see that men are worn out by exercising; if you exercise nothing, sloth and numbness cause more detriment than exercise."

III

When there is leisure from judgments and business, and for the sake of moving the body we either walk or are driven, I am sometimes accustomed to ask myself about matters of this sort—small and minute indeed, and worthy of being despised by those not well-learned, but fundamentally necessary for knowing the writings of the ancients thoroughly and for the science of the Latin language: such as that which I was considering recently by chance in the Praenestine retreat while walking alone during an evening stroll, as to what kind and how great was the variety of certain particles in Latin speech.