1You write that you are building. 1Good, I have found a defence; 1for now I build with reason, since I build with you. 1For in this too we are not unalike, that you build by the sea and I by Lake Larius. 2On its shore I have several villas, but two of them, as they especially delight me, so they especially keep me busy. 3One, set upon rocks in the manner of Baiae, looks out over the lake; the other, likewise in the manner of Baiae, touches the lake. 3So I usually call the former Tragedy and the latter Comedy, the former because it is raised as if on tragic boots, the latter as if on low slippers.
3Each has its own charm, and each is the more delightful to its owner for the very contrast. 4This one enjoys the lake at closer quarters, that one more widely; 4this one embraces a single bay in a gentle curve, that one, on a very high ridge, divides two; 4there a straight drive stretches along a lengthy path above the shore, here it curves gently round a very spacious terrace; 4that one does not feel the waves, this one breaks them; 4from that one you can look down on people fishing, from this one you can fish yourself, and cast your hook from your bedroom and almost from your bed, as if from a little boat.
4These are my reasons for adding to each what it lacks, on account of what each has in abundance. 5And yet why do I give you reasons? 5with you, doing the same will count as a reason. 5Farewell.