Laudator Temporis Acti

Cicero, Letters to His Friends 9.3.2 (tr. W. Glynn Williams):

However, I for my part shall disregard these Goths, who know no better, and follow your lead. For although all is misery here, and worse misery there cannot be, still somehow or other our literary pursuits seem to bear a richer harvest than they bore of old, whether it is because now there is nothing else to which we can quietly settle down, or because the severity of the disease forces upon us the need for medicine, and that medicine now reveals itself, though we perceived not its virtue when we were well.

ego vero, neglecta barbarorum inscitia, te persequar; quamvis enim haec sint misera, quae sunt miserrima, tamen artes nostrae nescio quo modo nunc uberiores fructus ferre videntur, quam olim ferebant, sive quia nulla nunc in re alia acquiescimus, sive quod gravitas morbi facit, ut medicinae egeamus, eaque nunc appareat; cuius vim non sentiebamus, cum valebamus.

medicinae codd.: medicina Lambinus