Letter 6

Faustus, from Ennodius. Good God, how nothing is difficult for those who attend to great matters, and with what ease divine minds describe what they have seen! With what gifts are places adorned that a rich tongue and a skilled speaker has gazed upon — if one of religious purpose is permitted to narrate without risk to his profession! God, the world's craftsman, has granted certain felicities to certain provinces by the stupendous generosity of his hidden counsel: he has commanded some to pour forth wine more abundantly, others more excellently; to some he has granted the blessing of the wheat harvest; many he has endowed with variety and usefulness of fruits. Yet to those places whose own merit, contrary to nature herself, did not earn such gifts, he has made them sublime through their narrator. There is no reason for barren soil clinging to rocks to despair, nor for fields that do not answer the farmer's labor to lie abject. By the genius of tongues, merits are bestowed upon lands, and as one has been able to speak, so one elevates the subject of which one has spoken. You will grow, O provinces, through the cultivation of speech: whatever the reader has admired in you belongs to the mouth. Rich soil, and you, land that boasts of your wealthy vines, who feed the farmer scratching your back through shallow furrows, who open your rich veins at the very outset of the ploughing, who return the seeds you received multiplied at harvest — you have nothing in common with the greatest, if Lord Faustus, the pillar of Roman eloquence, has not approached you with a kindly countenance. See how Como, a community of squalid condition nearly consigned to silence until now — which never boasted of any advantage or, as they say, any beauty — how it rejoices in the privilege of genius! A place that through precipitous valleys and the gaping chasms of its contiguous mountains knows how to create a wretched harmony with summer snows, where the road to the farmers' fields must be sown among the crags before the seeds can be sown in the soil, for which it is a species of calamity to have adorned the banks of Lake Larius with hoary groves, so that with a smiling and seductive appearance it falsely promises fecundity to its masters with a pleasing front, and nourishes an accursed beauty for the ruin of its possessor.

VI. FAVSTO ENNODIVS Deus bone, quam nihil est arduum magna curantibus et qua quiete diuinae mentes uisa describunt! quibus ornantur dotibus loca, quae lingua diues et dicendi peritus aspexerit, si religioso\' liceat sine discrimine confessionis enarrare proposito! quasdam mundi artifex, deus prouinciis . felicitates stupenda secreti sui largitate concessit: alias uberius, melius alias uinum iussit effundere, aliis contulit triticeae segetis ope gratulari, multas pomorum uarietate uel utilitate donauit. quibus haec tamen ipsius - naturae repugnantia merita non dederunt, feeit eas relatore sublimes. non est unde ieiuna cautibus gleba desperet . nec unde non respondentia cultori arua subiaceant. linguarum genio terris merita tribuuntur et qualiter quis loqui 2 speciebuH Pb 3 sapeisa Pb, supera BLTV 4 optate U B pernentorum L 5 adscikcitnr BL, asciscitur PVbf asscicitnr T, adscribitur Sirm . 6 perduce B 7 dignitatis B 8 impefcratione L corr, TV, iraperatione L1, inspiratioDe Pb 9 me T, miw B, hi. eras. 11 contemptum T1 VI. 14 nichil T et sic saepimme 15 quietae B mentis BLPTVb discribunt B 16 diuia B 18 prouintiis L V .. 19 secreta B 20 £ riticae B .22 repugnantis Sirm . 23 ieiunia L gleua B diqperet jBLV 24 non B, rWn., LPTVb potuerit, taliter rem, de qua fuerit locutus, adtollit. crescetis. prouinciae, cultura sermonum: oris est quicquid in uobis lector stupuit. uber solum et diuitibus quae te iactas terra palmitibus, quae per modicos sulcos scalpentem dorsa pascis agricolam, quae uenas diuites in ipso proscissionis pandis exordio, quae suscepta germina multiplicata messe restituis, nihil tibi commune cum maximis, si ad te domnus Faustus, Romani status eloquii, non serenus accesserit. ecce Comus pullae quondam pene in silentium missa condicio, quae nulla se hactenus commoditate, nulla ut aiunt formositate iactauit, quanto gaudet ingenii priuilegio? quae per praerupta conuallia et patulos cohaerentium hiatus montium aestiuis niuibus miseram scit exhibere concordiam, cui per pericula pendentium cum uia cultorum ante terram per scopulos opus est seminare quam germina, cui calamitatis genus est, riparum Larii confinia canis ornasse nemoribus, ut subridens inlecebrosa uisione dominantibus blanda fecunditatem fronte mentiatur et in perniciem possessoris pulchritudinem nutriat exsecrandam, ubi primum fabricis suis per praetoria domini tributa dissoluunt, dum antiquorum lasciuias parca nituntur frugalitate reparare et profligantia patrimonium fulcire culmina: indigenarum copia ad hoc tantum seruata, ut functioni publicae peraequatoris etiam uota transcendens numerus non deesset: piscium populos . non ad delicias, sed ad horrorem nutriens, per quos discimus quid laudis captorum alibi sapor mereatur: ubi aer pluuius perenniter et minax caelum et quaedam uitae sine tota luce 1 attollit LTV crescitis Sirm. 2 proaintiae LV 4 pacis LPb 5 in] et in P 6 restitnes B 8 kpnlloe B 9 poene B conditio LTV actenus B 11 ingenii] elata add. B I patnlus B 12 coherentium BLT hyatns PT 18 c p picnla T c p p in rcu . cum uia] uuia T 17 fornte B 18 pnlcritudinem PT ezecrandam PT 19 dissolnnnt tributa T 20 laBcinias BLV, lascinas T, lacinias P, lacnnas b, lacinias coni. Schottus; nihil mutandum, loquitwr enim de tectis priorum possessorum neglegentia ruinam minantibus 21 indig\'narum T 92 publice B perequatoris B 23 populus B 24 diliciaa B quod Pb dicimus L 26 perhenniter T transactio: dulcia Larii oculis fluenta transeuntibus et ad natatum quos perdat inuitantia. quis ferat decorum gurgitem sub hac deceptione fallentem? quid dicam insulam relatione factam habitabilem? quis non hoc miretur? in qua minus amatur uita seruata., in qua portio fuit euasisse decriminis, circa quam piscibus hominum ministratur esca cadaueribus? nulla enim praeter aquas Larii defuncti ibidem sepulcra meruerunt. maria, fluuium Adduamque laudastis, quorum per confusos ductus discrimen lacum tumoris ostendit, qui agnosci in eo numquam nisi per turbida fluenta potuerunt. tanti fuit diuitias facundiae in rebus laude carentibus ostentare, quanti non fuerant haec omnia, naturae beneficia si dedissent. caelorum tamen dominus, qui hoc uobis posse concessit, munera sua sub perennitate tueatur, quia haec ego non quasi a uobis diuersa sentiens scripsi, sed ut ex istis lector agnoscat Comum per stilum uestrum melius esse legere quam uidere.