ends who does not love you
and is not loved by you.

That part of your letter was entirely superfluous, in which you mention
what opportunities of doing good business in the provinces or the city
you let pass at other times as well as in the year of my consulship: for
I am thoroughly persuaded of your unselfishness and magnanimity, nor did
I ever think that there was any difference between you and me except in
our choice of a career. Ambition led me to seek official advancement,
while another and perfectly laudable resolution led you to seek an
honourable privacy. In the true glory, which is founded on honesty,
industry, and piety, I place neither myself nor anyone else above you.
In affection towards myself, next to my brother and immediate family, I
put you first. For indeed, indeed I have seen and thoroughly appreciated
how your anxiety and joy have corresponded with the variations of my
fortunes. Often has your congratulation added a charm to praise, and
your consolation a welcome antidote to alarm. Nay, at this moment of
your absence, it is not only your advice--in which you excel--but the
interchange of speech--in which no one gives me so much delight as you
do--that I miss most, shall I say in politics, in which circumspection
is always incumbent on me, or in my forensic labour, which I formerly
sustained with a view to official promotion, and nowadays to maintain my
position by securing popularity, or in the mere business of my family?
In all these I missed you and our conversations before my brother left
Rome, and still more do I miss them since. Finally, neither my work nor
rest, neither my business nor leisure, neither my affairs in the forum
or at home, public or private, can any longer do without your most
consolatory and affectionate counsel and conversation. The modest
reserve which characterizes both of us has often prevented my mentioning
these facts; but on this occasion it was rendered necessary by that part
of your letter in which you expressed a wish to have yourself and your
character "put straight" and "cleared" in my eyes. Yet, in the midst of
all this unfortunate alienation and anger, there is one fortunate
circumstance--that your determination of not going to a province was
known to me and your other friends, and had been at various times before
distinctly expressed by yourself; so that your not being his guest may
be attributed to your personal tastes and judgments, not to the quarrel
and rupt