1Although, Marcus my son, you have now been a pupil of Cratippus for a year, and that at Athens, and ought to be well stocked with the precepts and doctrines of philosophy because of the supreme authority of both the teacher and the city, one of which can enrich you with knowledge, the other with examples, nevertheless, just as I myself, to my own advantage, have always combined Latin with Greek, and have done this not only in philosophy but also in the practice of speaking, so I think you should do the same, so that you may have equal command of both languages. 1To this end, indeed, I have, as it seems, brought our countrymen great assistance, so that not only those unversed in Greek literature but even the learned think they have gained something both for speaking and for judging.
2Therefore you will learn, indeed, from the foremost philosopher of this age, and you will learn for as long as you wish; 2and you ought to wish it for as long as you are not dissatisfied with how much progress you are making; 2but still, in reading my works, which do not differ much from the Peripatetics, since both they and I wish to be followers of Socrates and Plato, use your own judgement on the matters themselves (for I place no obstacle in your way), but you will certainly make your Latin style fuller by reading what I write. 2And I would not wish this to be thought an arrogant thing to say.
2For while I concede the knowledge of philosophy to many, if I claim for myself what is proper to an orator, to speak fittingly, clearly and elegantly, since I have spent my life in that pursuit, I seem in a certain way to be claiming what is mine by right. 3Therefore I urge you strongly, my Cicero, to read with care not only my speeches but also these books on philosophy, which have by now almost equalled them; 3for there is greater force of eloquence in the former, but this even and restrained style of speech must also be cultivated. 3And indeed I see that it has so far fallen to none of the Greeks to labour in both kinds alike and to pursue both that forensic style of speaking and this calm style of discussion, unless perhaps Demetrius of Phalerum can be counted in this number, a subtle reasoner, an orator not forceful enough, yet sweet, so that you could recognise the pupil of Theophrastus.
3How far I have advanced in each, let others judge; certainly I have pursued both. 4For my part, I think that Plato too, if he had chosen to take up the forensic style of speaking, could have spoken with the greatest weight and fullness, and that Demosthenes, if he had held on to what he had learned from Plato and had chosen to deliver it, could have done so with elegance and brilliance; 4and I judge in the same way about Aristotle and Isocrates, each of whom, delighted with his own pursuit, despised the other's.