We are pleased to hope and trust, Caesar, that in large measure this will happen. That kindness of your heart will be recounted, will be diffused little by little throughout the whole body of the empire, and all things will be moulded into your likeness. It is from the head that comes the health of the body; it is through it that all the parts are lively and alert or languid and drooping according as their animating spirit has life or withers. There will be citizens, there will be allies worthy of this goodness, and uprightness will return to the whole world; your hands will everywhere be spared. Permit me to linger longer on this point, but not merely to please your ears; for that is not my way. I would rather offend with the truth than please by flattery. What then is my reason? Besides wishing you to be as familiar as possible with your own good deeds and words in order that what is now a natural impulse may become a principle, I reflect upon this, that many striking but odious sayings have made their entry into human life and are bandied about as famous; as for example, “Let them hate if only they fear,”2 and the Greek verse3 similar to it, in which a man would have the earth convulsed with flame when once he is dead, and others of this type. And somehow or other gifted men when dealing with a cruel and hateful theme have moulded violent and passionate thoughts into more felicitous phrase; never before have I heard from good and gentle lips an utterance that was full of spirit. What then is the conclusion? Though it be seldom, against your will, and after great reluctance, yet there are times when you must write the sort of thing that made you hate all writing, but you must do it, as you now do, after great reluctance, after much procrastination.