POLYSTRATUS 
This is the lady’s reply: “Lycinus, I have discerned, to be sure, from what you have written that
your friendliness and esteem for me is great, for
nobody would bestow such high praise if he were
not writing in a friendly spirit. But my own attitude, please understand, is this. In general, I do
not care for people whose disposition inclines to
flattery, but consider such persons deceivers and not
at all generous in their natures. Above all, in the
matter of compliments, when anyone in praising me
employs vulgar and immoderate extravagances I
blush and almost stop my ears, and the thing seems
to me more like abuse than praise.