ated
as to do credit to his father, and to our friend Caepio, and to you who are
such a near relation of his.(45) But I myself have some right to feel an
interest in him; for I am influenced by my recollection of his
grandfather,--and you well know what a regard I had for Caepio, who, in my
opinion, would now be one of the first men of the city if he were alive;
and I also have Lucullus himself always before my eyes,--a man not only
excelling in every virtue, but connected with me both by friendship and a
general resemblance of inclination and sentiment. You do well, said he, to
retain a recollection of those persons, both of whom recommended their
children to your care by their wills, and you are right too to be attached
to this youth. And as for your calling it my peculiar business, I will not
decline the office, but I claim you for my partner in the duty. I will say
this also, that the boy has already shown me many indications both of
modesty and of ability; but you see how young he is as yet. To be sure I
do, said I; but even now he ought to receive a tincture of those
accomplishments which, if he drinks of them now while he is young, will
hereafter make him more ready for more important business. And so we will
often talk over this matter anxiously together, and we will act in
concert. However, let us sit down, says he, if you please. So we sat down.

III. Then Cato said: But now, what books in the world are they that you
are looking for here, when you have such a library at home? I want, said
I, some of the Aristotelian Commentaries, which I know are here; and I
came to carry them off, to read when I have leisure, which is not, as you
know, very often the case with me. How I wish, said he, that you had an
inclination towards our Stoic sect; for certainly it is natural for you,
if it ever was so for any one, to think nothing a good except virtue. May
I not, I replied, rejoin that it would be natural for you, as your opinion
in reality is the same as mine, to forbear giving new names to things? for
our principles are the same,--it is only our language that is at variance.
Indeed, said he, our principles are not the same at all; for I can never
agree to your calling anything desirable except what is honourable, and to
your reckoning such things among the goods,--and, by so doing,
extinguishing honourableness, which is, as it were, the light of virtue,
and utterly upsetting virtue herself. Those are all very fine words,