P. 2. -- MUNERE ... UTERETUR: 'a gift such as we both might make use of in company'. -- MIHI QUIDEM: this forms a correction upon _uterque nostrum_ above: 'whatever you may think of the work, _I at least_ have found the writing of it pleasant'. -- CONFECTIO: 'composition'; 'completion'; a word scarcely found in the classical Latin except in Cicero's writings. Cf. De Or. 2, 52 _annalium confectio;_ pro. Font. 3 _confectio tabularum_ ('account-books'). -- FUIT UT ABSTERSERIT: the sequence of tenses _fuit ut abstergeret_ would have been equally admissible, but the meaning would have been slightly different. With the perfect the sense is 'was so pleasant that it _has_ wiped away'; with the imperfect 'was so pleasant that it _did_ (while I was writing) wipe away'. The metaphor in _absterserit_ is common: _e.g._ Tusc. 3, 43 _luctum omnem absterseris_. With this statement of Cicero's concerning the effect the work had on himself contrast Att. 14, 21, 3 _legendus mihi saepius est Cato maior ad te missus. Amariorem enim me senectus facit. Stomachor omnia_. -- OMNIS: acc. pl. A. 55, _c_; G. 60, 1; H. 67. -- EFFECERIT MOLLEM: so 56 _poteratne tantus animus efficere non iucundam senectutem_; but 56 _conditiora facit haec aucupium_. _Efficio_ gives more emphatically than _facio_ the idea of the completion of the action. Cf. Lael. 73 _efficere aliquem consulem_, 'to carry through a man's election as consul'; _facere aliquem consulem_ being merely 'to vote for a man's election to the consulship'. -- SATIS DIGNE: 'as she deserves', lit. 'in a sufficiently worthy manner.' Some editors have thought _digne_ superfluous and wished to cast it out but we have _satis digne_ elsewhere, as in Verr. Act. II. 1, 82; cf. also Sex. Rosc. 33 _pro dignitate laudare satis commode_. -- QUI PAREAT ... DEGERE: a conditional sentence of irregular form (_qui_ = _siquis_; _cui_ simply connective, = _et ei_). Cf. Div. 1, 127 _qui enim teneat causas rerum futurarum, idem necesse est omnia teneat quae futura sint_; also the examples in Roby's Grammar, 1558. A. 310, _a_, 307, _b_; G. 594, 1, 598; H. 507, II. and III. 2. Some, however, make _possit_ a subjunctive of characteristic or of cause with _cui_, and _pareat_ a subjunctive by attraction. -- OMNE TEMPUS AETATIS: 'every season of life'; so in 55 _extremum tempus aetatis_; 70 _breve tempus aetatis._ The opposite phrase _aetas temporis_ is very rare; it occurs in Propertius 1, 4, 7.