1The speech in which I recently, as consul, gave thanks to our excellent emperor I have sent you at your request, though I would have sent it even if you had not requested it. 2In it I would like you to consider the difficulty of the subject as well as its beauty. 2For in other works novelty itself keeps the reader attentive, but in this everything is known, familiar, already said; 2and so the reader, as if at leisure and unconcerned, attends only to the style, in which it is harder to satisfy when it alone is judged. 3And would that at least the arrangement, the transitions and the figures were looked at as well!
3For to find matter brilliantly and to express it grandly even barbarians sometimes manage, but to arrange aptly and to vary the figures is granted only to the learned. 4Nor indeed should one always strive for the elevated and lofty. 4For just as in a painting nothing sets off light more than shadow, so it is fitting for a speech to lower its tone as much as to raise it. 5But why do I say these things to a most learned man? 5Rather let me say this: mark what you think should be corrected. 5For I shall more readily believe that the rest pleases you if I learn that some things have displeased you.
5Farewell.