Letter 3

From: Ruricius, aristocrat (later bishop of Limoges) To: Hesperius, his son-in-law Date: ~481 AD Context: Ruricius sends his son or grandson to Hesperius for education, deploying a dazzling rhetorical set-piece about the power of love to overcome his own literary inadequacy — a classic example of Gallo-Roman aristocratic letter-writing as cultural performance. Ruricius to his most devoted son and always magnificent Hesperius. The path to writing to you, which my lack of skill had blocked, has been opened by love — and by that sovereign power over all things, devotion. Through it the rigid are bent, the stony softened, the swollen calmed, the rough smoothed, the gentle stirred, the savage tamed, the tame made fierce, the peaceful kindled, the dull sharpened, the barbarous made to rule, and the monstrous pacified. Working its purpose even in me, it has unlocked my speechless mouth and drawn me out of the safe retreat of silence into the public arena of fearsome judgment. In a life already old, it compels me to undertake something new — so that I, who until now had followed that ancient maxim that it is often better to be silent than to speak, preferring to hide my ignorance behind the veil of modest silence rather than shamelessly expose it in unpolished speech, must now forget my habits and my roughness alike. As if suddenly transformed from Arion into Orpheus, I am willing to assault your most eloquent ears with my babbling mouth — not so much paying you a service as doing you an injury, since I am attempting what I do not know and presuming what I have never done. But you will forgive, I trust, one who comes out of the compulsion of a necessary necessity, because what love claims for itself by natural right in mortal hearts is something a breast that shares the same passion understands. So let me not drag out my excuses until this letter grows so long that my rough words produce not merely inadequacy but actual tedium from their disordered abundance. I commend to you our pledge, your charge, whose care you took on when you received him. To you I have entrusted my hope for posterity, the comfort of my present life, and — if God wills it — the relief of my future one. To you alone I have committed all my wishes. I chose you as the one to draw out and shape noble gems, to sift gold, to discover hidden water. You know how to restore precious stones buried in rock to their proper splendor — stones that in such confusion of matter would lose their nobility if they had no one to identify them. Gold too, mixed with common sand, unless it is washed with water and refined by fire through the skill of the craftsman, cannot retain either its shine or its worth. Even the sealed veins of flowing springs and the channel of a stream buried under earth — unless the seeker's diligence uncovers them with care — the water will not flow. So too the still-keen edge of young minds, besieged by the cloud of ignorance like a rough crust of rust, cannot shine on its own unless it is polished by the constant file of a teacher. It is now your task, entirely yours, to satisfy both your own reputation and our shared hope.

III. DEUINCTISSIMO FILIO SEMPERQVE MAGNIFICO HESPERIO RURICIUS. Scribendi mihi ad unanimitatem tuam aditum, quem obstruxerat inperitia, patefecit affectus et illa dominatrix omnium pietas, per quam flectuntur rigida, saxea molliuntur, sedantur tumida, leniuntur aspera, tumescunt lenia, mitescunt saeua, saeuiunt mitia, accenduntur placida, acuuntur bruta, dominantur barbara, immania placantur, etiam in me opus suum peragens os elingue reserauit producens me ex tutissimo silentii recessu. ad publicum formidandumque iudicium et in uita iam ueteri noua subire conpellit, scilicet ut, qui hactenus illam sententiam secutus antiquam, qua dicitur saepenumero praestare tacere quam dicere, inscientiam meam maluerim uerecundiae taciturnitate tegere, quam inpudenter incondito sermone proferre, nunc tam consuetudinis meae inmemor quam rusticitatis oblitus quasi ex Arione in Orpheum repente mutatus uelim disertissimis auribus tuis ore garrulo non tam officiosus quam iniuriosus exsistere, dum et ignota pertempto et insueta. praesumo. ; Sed dabitis, ut reor, ueniam uenienti ex necessitudine necessariae necessitatis, quia, quid dilectio in mortalium mentibus naturali potestate sibi uindicet, conscium mutuae passionis pectus agnoscit. ergo ne excusationi diutius immorantes ita 2 \'ammisit S 4 sequestrat\' S (\' man. alt.) a ante praemio add. Kr . 10 tumiscunt S mitiscuut S 13 elinguae S 14 iuditium S in uita iam ueteri scripsi, fuuita ia uestri S, inuitata uestri Mommsenus, inuitatio uestri v 16 sepenumero S prestare S 17 malluerim S V 18 legere v 19 nunc] non v tam v, iam S 20 orfeum S 21 uels p lim S dissertissimis S 22 pertimto S (corr. man. alt.) 23 praesumo S 25 necessitatis v, necessitati S quod v 27 excusacioni S diucius S immo morantes S 23* paginam dilatemus, ut non solum tibi non exhibeat sermo incomptior ***, uerum etiam copia inordinata fastidium, iam in uocem pietatis erumpimus et desideriorum uerba ructuamus conmendantes tibi pignus nostrum, depositum tuum, cuius nos susceptione cepisti. tibi enim spem posteritatis meae, tibi solatium uitae praesentis et leuamen, si diuinitas annuerit, futurae, tibi uni omnia mea uota commisi. te elicitorem et formatorem lapillorum nobilium, te rimatorem auri, te repertorem aquae latentis elegi, qui sciris abstrusas lapidibus gemmas propriae reddere generositati, quae utique in tanta rerum confusione amitterent nobilitatem, si indicem non haberent. aurum quoque harenis uilibus mixtum nisi artificis sollertia eluatur aquis, ignibus eliquetur, nec splendorem poterit retinere nec meritum. saeptas etiam aquarum manantium uenas et obductum terra fluenti alueum nisi diligentius eruderauerit appetitoris industria, laticis unda non fluet. ita et tenerorum adhuc acies sensuum ignorantiae nubilo quasi crassitate scabrosae rubiginis obsessa, nisi adsidua doctoris lima purgetur, nequit sponte clarescere. tuum ergo nunc, tuum est in his omnibus et opinioni tuae et nostro pariter respondere iudicio, ne aut tu praesumpsisse inlicite aut nos inconsiderate elegisse uideamur.