1I wish his desire for glory had carried him elsewhere instead; 1but the time for this complaint has passed. 1He prosecuted Gaius Antonius, my colleague, whom, poor man, the memory of an outstanding service to the state did not help at all, while the belief that he had contemplated a crime harmed him. 1After that he never yielded to any of his contemporaries in being more often in the forum, more often engaged in business and in the cases of his friends, in having more influence among his own people. 1All these things, which none but watchful, sober and industrious men can attain, he attained by labour and diligence. 75At this turning point, as it were, of his life — for I shall hide nothing, relying on your kindness and wisdom — the young man's reputation stuck a little at the turning-post, because of his recent acquaintance with that woman, his unlucky neighbourhood, and his unfamiliarity with pleasures, which, when they have been shut in for a long time and held down and restrained in early youth, sometimes suddenly pour forth and burst out all at once.
75From this way of life, or rather, I should say, from this talk — for it was by no means as much as people said — but from whatever it was, he emerged and extricated himself completely and raised himself up, and he is so far from the disgrace of intimacy with that woman that he is now warding off her enmity and hatred from himself. 76And so that this talk of pleasures and idleness that had come between might die away — he did it against my wishes, by heaven, and with me strongly opposing it, but still he did it — he prosecuted a friend of mine for electoral bribery; 76and when he has been acquitted, he pursues him and summons him again; 76he obeys none of us, he is more vehement than I would wish.
76But I am not speaking of wisdom, which does not belong to this age; 76I speak of his impetuous spirit, his desire to win, his ardour of mind for glory; 76these impulses should be more restrained at our time of life, but in youth, as in the green blade, they show what ripeness of virtue and how great a harvest of industry there will be. 76For young men of great talent have always needed to be reined in from glory rather than spurred on; 76there is more to be pruned than to be grafted on at that age, if it is blossoming with the merits of talent. 77Therefore, if anyone thinks that this man's vehemence, fierceness and stubbornness have boiled over too much, whether in taking up or in pursuing enmities, if even the least of these things offends anyone, the kind of purple he wears, his throngs of friends, his brilliance, his elegance, these things will soon have cooled down, soon age, circumstance and time will have softened everything.