gh at them when he
sees your streams? When we want rest and delight for the mind it is to
nature that we must come. Once I used to wonder--for I never thought
that there was any thing but rocks and hills in the place--that you took
such pleasure in the spot. But now I marvel that when you are away from
Rome you care to be any where but here." "Well," replied Cicero, "when I
get away from town for several days at a time, I do prefer this place;
but this I can seldom do. And indeed I love it, not only because it is
so pleasant, so healthy a resort, but also because it is my native land,
mine and my father's too, and because I live here among the associations
of those that have gone before me."

Other homes he purchased at various times of his life, as his means
permitted. The situation of one of them, at Formiae near Cape Caista,
was particularly agreeable to him, for he loved the sea; it amused him
as it had amused, he tells us, the noble friends, Scipio and Laelius,
before him, to pick up pebbles on the shore. But this part of the coast
was a fashionable resort. Chance visitors were common; and there were
many neighbors, some of whom were far too liberal of their visits. He
writes to Atticus on one occasion from his Formian villa: "As to
composition, to which you are always urging me, it is absolutely
impossible. It is a public-hall that I have here, not a country-house,
such a crowd of people is there at Formiae. As to most of them nothing
need be said. After ten o'clock they cease to trouble me. But my nearest
neighbor is Arrius. The man absolutely lives with me, says that he has
given up the idea of going to Rome because he wants to talk philosophy
with me. And then, on the other side, there is Sebosus, Catulus' friend,
as you will remember. Now what am I to do? I would certainly be off to
Arpinum if I did not expect to see you here." In the next letter he
repeats the complaints: "Just as I am sitting down to write in comes our
friend Sebosus. I had not time to give an inward groan, when Arrius
says, 'Good morning.' And this is going away from Rome! I will
certainly be off to

'My native hills, the cradle of my race.'"

Still, doubtless, there was a sweetness, the sweetness of being famous
and sought after, even in these annoyances. He never ceased to pay
occasional visits to Formiae. It was a favorite resort of his family;
and it was there that he spent the last days of his life.

But the country-house which