Do not be uneasy: these will not long mar the pleasing grace of the porticoes that refresh our eyes. My gardener has discovered them; he is armed with a stout hoe and is driving them back uncivilly.... You see, they do not insist, they walk away in silence, hanging their heads.... And, now that we have occupied ourselves long enough with these unfortunate people, with their great leader and their maladies, let us think a little of ourselves and enjoy the delightful afternoon which spring-time sets before us.... My pleasure at seeing you here would be flawless, if only our old friend Longinus had yielded to Appius’ entreaties and consented to accompany you....
Appius
I never felt more keenly the vanity of the great eloquence which he himself taught me. To all my most convincing and well-stated arguments he replied with a sullen silence, or shook his head, repeating that he did not wish to throw a gloom over our happy party with his dismal presence....
Cœlius
And yet it is quite three weeks since that child died.... I should not have thought that grief could have affected him so much....
Appius
The more so as it concerned a child of tender years, whom her father knew less well than did her nurse!...
Silanus
There is something more astonishing yet, which clearly shows that the greatest wisdom is not so much to know as to conform to what one knows!... When, more than fifteen years ago, I lost a little boy who must have been of about the same age as the child whom he now mourns, Longinus undertook to console me. He wrote me an eloquent letter, wherein, relying on the authority of Metrodorus, Panætius and Hermachus, he proved that sorrow is not only useless, but ungrateful. I found and read the letter again this morning; and so striking are its more important passages that I know them almost by heart.... They were the loftiest words that human wisdom could utter against death and sorrow.... They protected me once....
Mary Magdalene