As regards those words terminating in ite which are now commonly used by medical writers, although their formation is not grammatically exact, and although they do not precisely correspond with those which were employed by the ancients, yet as they have now obtained general currency, it would be hyper-critical and useless to seek to reform them. You may satisfy grammarians by a brief annotation to show that you do not overlook what is due to their art—I mean of course Greek grammarians; for I suppose our own grammarians will perhaps prefer the termination which has been sanctioned by use, and which may possibly appear to them less disagreeable. You see that I am but repeating your own opinion, and if I did not write sooner to you on the subject, it was because my own judgment fully agreed with what you had expressed in your letter.
I congratulate you on the success of your brother’s studies. I have been much gratified by the learning, the industry, and the zeal for religion, which he has displayed. Offer him my best thanks.
Remember me in your prayers: write to me, and believe me unchangingly yours.”
The same regrets are still more strikingly expressed in the following letter.
“I have been wishing, for several days past, to write and thank you heartily for your kindness towards me, but it is only this day that I have been able to steal a moment for the purpose. Be assured that I do not forget how patiently you bore with me, while, in the midst of the thousand distractions to which I was liable, we were reading together the Greek and Oriental languages. If I recall to your recollection the manner of my life at that time, and the ever recurring interruptions of my studies, it is only for the purpose of letting you see that, as the same state of things still continues, or rather has been changed for the worse, I have not time to show my gratitude for your constant remembrance of me. Still I thank you from my heart for it.
I have not been able to read much of your Tasso, but I have observed some readings which appear to me very happy. I told Count Valdrighi, that I intended to write to you about the volume which Monsignor Mai has just published, to request that you, or some others of your friends in Modena, would take copies of it, as I have some to dispose of. I have since learned that you are already supplied. I beg, nevertheless, that you will take some public occasion to recommend it. I would do so willingly myself, but I cannot find a single free moment. The library, my professorship, my private lectures, the examination of books, the visits of strangers, the attendance on sick or dying foreigners, do not leave me time to breathe. In all this I possess one singular advantage—the excellent health with which I am blessed. But on the other hand, I am losing, or indeed I have already lost, my habit of application; and now, if I am called from time to time to do anything, I find myself reduced to the necessity of improvising.
Forgive me, my dear Don Celestino, for entering thus minutely into my own affairs. Set it down to the account of our friendship, in the name of which I beg of you to remember me in your prayers. Continue to write to me as of old; for, in the midst of my heaviest occupations, I receive your letters with the greatest pleasure, and find a real enjoyment in them, and in the reminiscences which they bring with them of the happiness that I formerly enjoyed in your dear society.
My sister and my nephews present their most cordial greetings.
Bologna, March, 27, 1826.”