1Rejoice on my account, rejoice on your own, rejoice too on the public account: honour still endures for literary studies. 1Recently, when I was about to speak before the Centumviral court, I had no way of getting in except from the tribunal, except through the judges themselves; 1so densely packed was every other part. 2Besides, a certain well-dressed young man, his tunics torn, as tends to happen in a crowd, stood his ground covered only by his toga, and that for seven hours. 3For I spoke that long, with great effort but greater reward. 3Let us study, then, and not plead the idleness of others as an excuse for our own.
3There are people to listen, there are people to read; let us only produce something worthy of their ears, worthy of the paper. 3Farewell.