Letter 7012: There would be no excuse left for the unskilled if they said too much.

Ennodius to the deacon Hormisdas. No room for pardon would remain to the unskilled, if they were to speak at greater length: brevity alone commends the unlearned. A long-winded narration from a country bumpkin is worse than an outright error: when something that must be read for a long while has been wrung out of an ignorant man, the exactor has only his own rancor to thank for it. Would any man wish wearisome matters to drag on at length and, seasoned with no flavor, to lack short boundaries? This, brother, you demanded with Roman and even excessively artful subtlety: but against your contrivances we are fortified by a plainness colored with no deceptions. For indeed, although you have drawn me out by the coaxing eloquence of your letter, you have not made me forgetful of myself. I know how to confine the page, whose value I, its publisher, understand. Yet you may know that I am not wanting to my own role, although both the city-man and the cleric summon me forth into the open. But why do I prolong the page, whose narrow compass I promised above? This is my contest with one who loves me: such is the fruit of letters. My lord, wishing you most abundant good health, I pray that, by the mercy of our Christ granting it, you may often report your own well-being to me in the messages I long for, while you inquire after mine.

XII. ENNODIVS HORMISDAE DIACONO. Nullus remaneret imperitis locus ueniae, si plura loquerentur: sola breuitas commendat indoctos. supra errorem est prolixa narratio rusticantis: quando ab ignaro extortum fuerit quod diu legatur, sibi rancorem suum debet exactor. quisquamne hominum in longum uult fastidienda procedere et nullo sapore condita breues terminos non habere? Romana hoc, frater, et nimium artifici subtilitate flagitasti: sed nos contra fabricatos munit simplicitas nullis colorata praestigiis. etenim quamuis me delenifica epistolae tuae oratione produxeris, mei immemorem non fecisti. scio artare paginam, cuius pretium promulgator intellego. noueris me tamen meis partibus non deesse, quamuis uocet in medium et urbanus et clericus. sed quid produco paginam, cuius superius angustiam pollicebar? haec mihi cum amante concertatio: talis fructus est litterarum. 2 denegensYL 3 nunquam TV 6 nos nln fort . 7 inci- ! tatus] agitataB T 9 defuerint (i ea; e corr.) L 11 m T, mihi LV ^ 12 ezspectationi LV XII. 15 bormisde T 18 ignarvoJL eiortum T 24 pro- 1 dixeris L 29 mi//// L, m ex mihi T m. 2, mi V amantẽ*L domine mi, salutem uberrimam dicens precor, ut Christi nostri tribuente misericordia crebro salutem uestram uotiuis mihi, dum meam quaeritis, nuntietis affatibus.