[18]
they were so dismayed, fearing that because of my old age I had parted with my wits, that they ventured to take me to task—a thing which up to that time they had not been wont to do—insisting that I was applying myself to an absurd and exceedingly senseless undertaking. “Think of it!” they said. “You are about to send an address which is intended to offer advice to Philip, a man who, even if in the past he regarded himself as second to anyone in prudence, cannot now fail, because of the magnitude of his fortunes, to think that he is better able than all others to advise himself!