S. Augustine. That line of Horace makes me realise what most afflicts you. You lament having lighted on a place so unfavourable for study, for as the same poet says—
"Bards fly from town, and haunt the wood and glade."[38]
And you yourself have expressed the same truth in other words—
"The leafy forests charm the sacred Muse,
And bards the noisy life of towns refuse."[39]
If, however, the tumult of your mind within should once learn to calm itself down, believe me this din and bustle around you, though it will strike upon your senses, will not touch your soul. Not to repeat what you have been long well aware of, you have Seneca's letter[40] on this subject, and it is very much to the point. You have your own work also on "Tranquillity of Soul"; you have beside, for combating this mental malady, an excellent book of Cicero's which sums up the discussions of the third day in his Tusculan Orations, and is dedicated to Brutus.[41]
Petrarch. You know I have read all that work and with great attention.
S. Augustine. And have you got no help from it?
Petrarch. Well, yes, at the time of reading, much help; but no sooner is the book from my hands than all my feeling for it vanishes.
S. Augustine. This way of reading is become common now; there is such a mob of lettered men, a detestable herd, who have spread themselves everywhere and make long discussions in the schools on the art of life, which they put in practice little enough. But if you would only make notes of the chief points in what you read you would then gather the fruit of your reading.
Petrarch. What kind of notes?