Letters 86.15

And you too shall be shaded by the tree which

Is slow to grow, but bringeth shade to cheer Your grandsons in the far-off years,

as our poet Vergil says. Vergil sought, however, not what was nearest to the truth, but what was most appropriate, and aimed, not to teach the farmer, but to please the reader.

Seneca, Letters to Lucilius 86.15, translated by Richard Mott Gummere