Letter 7013: If it were permitted to defer what has been commanded, I would have been granted a delay by the very man who gave...

If it were free to defer what is commanded, it would be granted to me not yet to lose the ornaments of silence: for it is the gift of taciturnity that you did not believe me incapable of speaking humanely. See how much the pressed voice of the tongue has contributed to its genius. But it is the mark of an empty breast not to hold fast to remedies once tested. The care of speech brings it about that the lack of skill of the one who publishes is not concealed, since the labor of idleness intercepts glory. Behold, I — praised before examination — am submitted to the test and break into my own holidays lest I seem worthy of commendation. For while humility renders its service, what was obtained through silence is no longer ours. You deign, most refined of men, to praise virtues in me — you whom industry has made old in boyish years, without prejudice of age, who through diligence fulfill everything that is compelled, for whom amid the beginnings of life the constancy of reading is play and the toil of others a delight, in whose hands with doubled fire gleams the torch by which the ancients shone. For what scarcely fell to our elders near the end of life, this abounds in you at the threshold. Truly you have paid a price for my loquacity, in that, being the first to approach one who desired conversation, you have brought it about — a new thing for a chatterbox — that he was so far drawn out until writings demanded a reply. Thanks be to God, who by hidden paths reminded you of the necessary affection of a kinsman. Behold, you now hold the causes of a double injury: for after I became known as a rustic, I presume to call myself a parent. My lord, speaking the duty of greeting, I hope that you will bestow frequency around the duties of letters — a work in which both a lover and an eloquent man will display assiduity.

XIII. ENNODIVS BOETIO. Si liberum esset imperata differri, concederetur mihi adhuc ornamenta silentii non perire: nam taciturnitatis munus est quod non inhumanum loqui me posse credidistis. uidete quantum linguae genium uox pressa contulerit. sed res est uacui pectoris periclitata remedia non tenere. agit sermonis cura, ne promulgantis celetur inscitia, quando otii labor gloriam intercipit. ecce ego ille ante probationem laudatus subdor examini et ferias meas, ne uidear praedicatione dignus, inrumpo. nam dum humilitas reddit obsequium, impetrata per silentium non habemus. tu in me, emendatissime hominum, dignaris praedicare uirtutes, quem in annis puerilibus sine aetatis praeiudicio industria fecit antiquum, qui per diligentiam imples omne quod cogitur, cui inter uitae exordia ludus est lectionis assiduitas et deliciae sudor alienus, in cuius manibus duplicato igne rutilat qua ueteres face fulserunt. nam quod uix maioribus circa extremitatem uitae contigit, hoc tibi abundat in limine. uere dedisti pretium loquacitati meae, dum desiderantem conloquia primus aggrederis. contigit noua res garrulo, ut usque adeo produceretur, donee exigerent scripta responsum. deo gratias, qui occultis itineribus de propinqui uos necessaria affectione commonuit. ecce geminae causas iniuriae iam tenetis: nam postquam agrestis innotui, praesumo dicere me parentem. domine mi, salutis officium dicens spero, ut circa litterarum 1 mi T, mihi LV dicens om. L christi] dei Sirm . 2 ut crebro LV XllI. 6 librum L conderetur L . adhuc mihi Sirm. 11 insitia T 18 cogi**tur (ten eras.) L 19 dupplicato T 20 fasce V, faece LT 21 habundat T lumine T 26 commouit Sirm . 27 innotuit T me dicere LTV 28 mihi Bb salutatis Bb, salutati fort . munia frequentiam commodetis, in quo opere adsiduitatem et amans exhibet et facundus.