[47]
Do you, since you are
not at all ignorant of my ordinary way of speaking, forbear to abuse my lenity. Do not think
that the stings of my eloquence are taken away, because they are sheathed. Do not think that
that power has been entirely lost, because I show some consideration for; and indulgence
towards you. In the first place, the excuses which I make to myself for your injurious
conduct, your violent temper; your age, and our friendship, have much weight with me; and, in
the next place, I do not yet consider you a person of sufficient power to make it worth my
while to contend and argue with you. But if you were more capable through age and experience,
I should pursue the conduct which is habitual to me when I have been provoked; at present I
will deal with you in such away that I shall seem to have received an injury rather than to
have requited one.
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M. Tullius Cicero. The Orations of Marcus Tullius Cicero, literally translated by C. D. Yonge, B. A. London. Henry G. Bohn, York Street, Covent Garden. 1856.
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