still hesitate about publishing that which, as you know, satisfies so many needs? Will you conceal, if we may say so, the mirror of your own mind, in which all ages to come may behold your likeness? Often does it happen that a man begets a son unlike himself, but his writings are hardly ever found unequal to his character[201]. The progeny of his own will is his truest child; what is born in the secret recesses of his own heart is that by which posterity will know him best. [Footnote 197: 'Regum quinetiam gloriosa colloquia pro magna diei parte in bonum publicum te occupare noverunt.' It is difficult to translate the expressive term, 'gloriosa colloquia.'] [Footnote 198: 'Ut fastidium sit otiosis exspectare quae tu continuo labore cognosceris sustinere.' I cannot translate this literally.] [Footnote 199: 'Rudes viros et ad Rempublicam conscia facundia praeparatos.' Surely some negative has dropped out of the latter clause.] [Footnote 200: 'Tu enim illos assumpsisti vera laude describere, et quodammodo historico colore depingere.'] [Footnote 201: 'Contingit enim dissimilem filium plerumque generari, oratio dispar moribus vix potest inveniri.'] [Sidenote: Gothic History.] 'You have often, amid universal acclamation, pronounced the praises of kings and queens. In twelve books you have compiled the History of the Goths, culling the story of their triumphs[202]. Since these works have had such favourable fortunes, and since you have thus served your first campaign in literature, why hesitate to give these productions of yours also to the public?' [Footnote 202: 'Duodecim libris Gothorum historiam _defloratis prosperitatibus_ condidisti.' By an extraordinary error this sentence has been interpreted to mean that Cassiodorus wrote his history of the Goths after their prosperity had faded; and some writers have accordingly laboured, quite hopelessly, to bring down the composition of the Gothic History to a late period in the reign of Athalaric. It is perfectly clear from many passages that Cassiodorus uses 'deflorare' in the sense of 'picking flowers,' 'culling a nosegay.' See Historia Tripartita, Preface (twice); De Instit. Divin. Litterarum, cap. xxx; and De Orthographia, cap. ii (title). I doubt not that careful search would discover many more instances. It is only strange to me that Cassiodorus should, by the words 'defloratis _prosperitatibus_,' so naively confess the one-sided character of his history.] [Sidenote: Cassiodorus consents to publish.] So pleaded my friends, and to my shame I must own that I was conquered, and could no longer resist so many prayers; especially when I saw myself accused of want of affection. I have now only to crave my readers' pardon; and if they find rashness and presumption in my attempt, to blame my advisers rather than me, since my own judgment agrees with that of my severest critic.