CHAPTER XIII.

ANNAEUS SENECA to PAUL Greeting.

ALL happiness to you, my dearest
Paul.

2 You have written many volumes in an allegorical and mystical style, and therefore such mighty matters and business being committed to you, require not to be set off with any rhetorical flourishes of speech, but only with some proper elegance.

3 I remember you often said, that many by affecting such a style do injury to their subjects, and lose the force of the matters they treat of.

4 But in this I desire you to regard me, namely, to have respect to true Latin, and to choose just words, that so you may the better manage the noble trust which is reposed in you.

5 Farewell. Dated the fifth of the nones of July, Leo and Savinus Consuls.