Letter 88: I won't put up with the self-portrait you've drawn -- it doesn't resemble the real you at all.
To Parnasius. (359)
I will not accept your analogy, for it does not suit your circumstances. You invoke the example of men who possess little and contrive to give less in order to receive more from the wealthy. But you yourself have a stream of letters no smaller than mine — mine being, as you claim, the more abundant.
Do not, then, when you possess an equal fortune, enroll yourself among the poor. If you receive as many letters as you send, consider yourself in no way wronged.
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