1My friend Tranquillus wants to buy a small estate which a friend of yours is said to be offering for sale. 2I ask you to see that he buys it at a fair price; 2for in that way he will be glad to have bought it. 2For a bad purchase is always disagreeable, most of all because it seems to reproach its owner with his folly. 3In this small estate, moreover, if only the price smiles on him, many things whet my Tranquillus' appetite: the nearness of the city, the convenience of the road, the modest size of the house, the extent of the land, which is enough to divert him rather than to occupy him.
4For scholarly owners, such as he is, it is more than enough to have just so much soil that they can rest their head, refresh their eyes, stroll along the boundary, tread one single path, know all their little vines and count their little trees. 4I have set this out to you so that you may know the better how much he will owe me and I you, if he buys that little property, which is recommended by these advantages, on such good terms that it leaves no room for regret. 4Farewell.