A PETITION FOR FRIENDSHIP

If yet one corner in thy heart
Remains, good Fuscus, unpossessed
(For many a friend, I know, is thine),
Give me to claim that corner mine,
Nor thou the honored place I sue
Refuse to an acquaintance new.
The oldest friend of all thy store
Was once, it is certain, nothing more.
If matters not how late thy choice
If but approved by reason’s voice.
Then let thy sole inquiry be
If thou canst find such worth in me
That, constant as the years are rolled,
Matures new friendship into old.

From the Latin of Martial.