'As an extraordinary instance of perseverance, I must mention my having read "Cicero de officiis". You must read it too Bob - You will get thro' it in a week - and cannot think your time mis[s]pent. It consists of letters addressed to his son - and if we compare the steady, affectionate, unbending precepts of the venerable Roman - with the only work of a similar kind in our own times - Chesterfield's advice - we shall blush for the eighteenth century!'