Letter 5068: That you collect my letters is a sign of your affection, though I note that you do not seem to be very selective...

That you preserve my letters is a mark of your affection, which does not know how to be selective about what is worth copying out; but in this matter the same flattery deceives me. For I am rushed headlong into a confident readiness to write by the assurance of pleasing you. And yet, whenever I come to my senses, I am exceedingly afraid that this plainness of mine may someday fall into the hands of another reader unlike yourself. For this reason I should wish that you keep to yourself the unconsidered things we put forth; even though my copyists too are said to keep the same, yet they do so through their ignorance of judgment, which is not fitting for you to do, skilled as you are in the art of Mercury [the literary art of eloquence]. For the kindness of friends knows how to favor mediocre writings, but the envy of strangers does not know how to pardon them. As for the rest, I beg you now to come and by your presence to add honor to the festival days. For surely the observance of Minerva [the Quinquatrus, festival of Minerva] is well known to you from our school days, since even as our age advances we are nearly all mindful of the holidays of our boyhood. Against that day we are preparing for you a banquet furnished with humble garden vegetables, because luxury offends that sober goddess.