And it is in the next paragraph to _this_, that he takes occasion to mention that his stories and allegations do not always serve simply for example, authority, or ornament; that they are not limited in their application to the use he ostensibly makes of them, but that they carry, for those who are in his secret, other meanings, bolder and richer meanings, and sometimes collaterally a more delicate sound. And having interrupted the consideration upon Cicero and Pliny, and their vanity and pitiful desire for honour in future ages, with this criticism on the limited sphere of statesmen in general, and the devices to which _Lælius and Scipio_ were compelled to resort, in order to get _their_ plays published without diminishing the lustre of their personal renown, and having stopped to insert that most extraordinary avowal in regard to his two-fold meanings in his allegations and stories, he returns to the subject of this correspondence again, for there is more in this also than meets the ear; and it is not _Pliny_, and _Cicero_ only, whose supposed vanity, and regard for posthumous fame, as men of letters, is under consideration. 'But returning to the _speaking virtue_;' he says, 'I find _no great choice_ between not knowing to speak _anything but ill_, and not knowing anything but _speaking well_. The sages tell us, that as to what concerns _knowledge_ there is nothing but _philosophy_, and as to what concerns _effects_ nothing but _virtue_, that is generally proper to all degrees and orders. There is something like _this in these two other_ philosophers, for _they also promise_ ETERNITY to the letters they write to their friends, but 'tis _after another manner_, and by accommodating themselves _for a good end_ to the vanity of _another_; for they write to them that if the concern of making themselves known to future ages, and the thirst of glory, do yet _detain_ them in the management of public affairs, and make them fear the solitude and retirement to which they would persuade them; let them never trouble themselves more about it, forasmuch as they shall have credit enough with posterity to assure them that, were there nothing else but the _letters_ thus writ to them, those letters will render their names as known and famous as their _own public actions_ themselves could do. [And that--_that_ is the key to the correspondence between _two other_ philosophers enigmatically alluded to here.] And besides this difference,' for it is 'these two other philosophers,' and not Pliny and Cicero, and not Seneca and Epicurus alone, that we talk of here, 'and besides _this difference, these_ are not _idle_ and _empty_ letters, that contain nothing but a fine jingle of well chosen words, and fine couched phrases; but replete and _abounding with grave and learned discourses_, by which a man may render himself--not more eloquent but more _wise_, and that instruct us not to _speak_ but _to do well_'; for that is the rhetorical theory