processit in ulteriora contentio; et cum aliqui super hoc errore pervicaciter controversarentur (idiotarum siquidem est, sicut facile convinci, ita difficile compesci), constanter asserui, si eloquentibus amicis numquam agnitio contemplativa proveniat, esse asperum utcumque, tolerabile tamen, quia praevaleant ingenia sua, coram quibus imperitia civica peregrinatur, ad remotarum desideria provinciarum stilo adminiculante porrigere; per quem saepenumero absentum dumtaxat institutorum tantus colligitur affectus, quantus nec praesentanea sedulitate conficitur
The argument extended itself still further; and as some stubbornly disputed about this false notion (for the trouble about the uninstructed is that, though it is easy to refute them, it is difficult to quell them), I stoutly maintained that, if a merely visual acquaintance between friends who have the gift of words can never be complete success, it was indeed a hard misfortune in any circumstances, but it may be rendered tolerable by the fact that, with the help of the pen, such men are able to extend to eager recipients in distant provinces the thoughts of their minds, in the presence of which their ignorant compatriots are like strangers in a strange land. Through the medium of the pen there is often formed between people separated by wide distances'at any rate between people of education'such a great affection as even assiduous personal attentions cannot produce.
final_alignments\Sidonius_Letters_Book7.json