Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To Libanius. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Letter X2193
2193 This
and the following letter appear to have been written when Gregory still
publicly professed belles lettres. They are addressed to one of
the masters whom Basil had had at Athens. For these see Socrates, H.
E. iv. 26: it was probably Libanius; rather than Prohæresius,
who did not live in Asia Minor, or Himærius who (according to
Eunapius, Philosoph. Vit. p. 126) had become a Christian before
the reign of Julian, and it is clear that this Letter is written to a
pagan. The Cod. Medic. has Libanius’ name as a title to both
Letters. No Letter to Gregory certainly is to be found amongst
Libanius’ unpublished Letters in the Vatican Library, as Zacagni
himself testifies: but no conclusion can be drawn from this. | .—To
Libanius.
I once heard a medical man tell of a wonderful freak of nature. And this
was his story. A man was ill of an unmanageable complaint, and began to
find fault with the medical faculty, as being able to do far less than
it professed; for everything that was devised for his cure was
ineffectual. Afterwards when some good news beyond his hopes was
brought him, the occurrence did the work of the healing art, by putting
an end to his disease. Whether it were that the soul by the overflowing
sense of release from anxiety, and by a sudden rebound, disposed the
body to be in the same condition as itself, or in some other way, I
cannot say: for I have no leisure to enter upon such disquisitions, and
the person who told me did not specify the cause. But I have just
called to mind the story very seasonably, as I think: for when I was
not as well as I could wish—now I need not tell you exactly the
causes of all the worries which befel me from the time I was with you
to the present,—after some one told me all at once of the letter
which had arrived from your unparalleled Erudition, as soon as I got
the epistle and ran over what you had written, forthwith, first my soul
was affected in the same way as though I had been proclaimed before all
the world as the hero of most glorious achievements—so highly did
I value the testimony which you favoured me with in your
letter,—and then also my bodily health immediately began to
improve: and I afford an example of the same marvel as the story which
I told you just now, in that I was ill when I read one half of the
letter, and well when I read the other half of the same. Thus much for
those matters. But now, since Cynegius was the occasion of that favour,
you are able, in the overflowing abundance of your ability to do good,
not only to benefit us, but also our benefactors; and he is a
benefactor of ours, as has been said before, by having been the cause
and occasion of our having a letter from you; and for this reason he
well deserves both our good offices. But if you ask who are our
teachers,—if indeed we are thought to have learned
anything,—you will find that they are Paul and John, and the rest
of the Apostles and Prophets; if I do not seem to speak too boldly in
claiming any knowledge of that art in which you so excel, that
competent judges declare2194
2194 This
passage as it stands is unmanageable. The Latin translator appears to
give the sense required, but it is hard to see how it can be got out of
the words (H. C. O.). | that the rules of
oratory stream down from you, as from an overflowing spring, upon all
who have any pretensions to excellence in that department. This I have
heard the admirable Basil say to everybody, Basil, who was your
disciple, but my father and teacher. But be assured, first, that I
found no rich nourishment in the precepts of my teachers2195
2195 ἴσθι
με μηδὲν
ἔχοντα
λιπαρὸν (ms. λυπρὸν) ἐν τοῖς τῶν
διδασκάλων
διηγήμασιν: but τοῦ
διδασκάλου
perhaps should be read instead of τῶν
διδασκάλων
(H. C. O.). | , inasmuch as I enjoyed my brother’s
society only for a short time, and got only just enough polish from his
diviner tongue to be able to discern the ignorance of those who are
uninitiated in oratory; next, however, that whenever I had leisure, I
devoted my time and energies to this study, and so became enamoured of
your beauty, though I never yet obtained the object of my passion. If,
then, on the one side we never had a teacher, which I deem to have been
our case, and if on the other it is improper to suppose that the
opinion which you entertain of us is other than the true one—nay,
you are correct in your statement, and we are not quite contemptible in
your judgment,—give me leave to presume to attribute to you the
cause of such proficiency as we may have attained. For if Basil was the
author of our oratory, and if his wealth came from your treasures, then
what we possess is yours, even though we received it through others.
But if our attainments are scanty, so is the water in a jar; still it
comes from the Nile.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|