Letter 7025: The law that desire writes for friendship is one I know well — it compels the pen when reason might counsel silence.

25. Ennodius to Symmachus. A law written to suit one's wishes is scarcely believed: a diligence that cannot endure a stricter rule does not consistently make worthy that which is free from rebuke. One who is guilty is often rendered more lovable, when through unrestraint he obtains the genius of giving greater pleasure: for he commends his own offense with a certain honey of presumption itself. As for me, I shield myself by this preface, because I am the first to aspire to letters. It remains in the power of your eminence, if you choose to put up with a chatterer, not to keep silent and to feed me with the milk that springs from the original Symmachian fount. Farewell in our Christ, nobility of the Roman race, and deem me worthy now as a client and a servant on account of the light of your character and nature.

XXV. ENNODIVS SVMMACHO. Lex desideriis scripta uix creditur: inpatiens rigidioris praecepti diligentia non iugiter dignum facit, reprehensione quod libera est. redditur saepe amabilior de reatu, cum per effrenationem sortitur genium plus placendi: nam delictum suum quodam ipsius praesumptionis melle commendat. ego a praefatione me tueor, quia ad epistolas primus adspiro. restat in potestate celsitudinis uestrae, si sustinere eligetis garrulum, non tacere et de originario Symmachiani fontis lacte me pascere. uale in Christo nostro, Romanae gentis nobilitas, et me iam ut clientem et famulum pro morum et naturae luce dignare.