[sect. 2]
si videtur: cf. si tibi videtur, Ep. LXXV.4n.
inter nos: sc. loquemur.
superiorum temporum, etc.: the state of public affairs might justify their literary inactivity in the past, but, since they would have no share in politics in the future, they would not be kept from the pursuit of literature. Literary work would in fact be their only feasible occupation, and failure to engage in it would be a dereliction of duty.
haec294 [gap in text] debemus, the responsibility for the present (lit. times like these) rests with us.
aliquo [gap in text] certo statu civitatis: a government conducted upon some fixed constitutional principles at least.
vel = etiam.
darent: apodosis to the condition in tum.
cum his ipsis (studiis) vix: sc. est cur vivere velim.
migrationem: sc. into a house lately bought.
feliciter evenire: a formula often used in wishing for the happy outcome of a new enterprise; cf. Cic. pro Mur. 1, and Plaut. Trin. 40 uxor, venerare ut nobis haec habitatio bona fausta felix fortunataque evenat. See also Ep. XC.7n.