Letter 7022: Your Eminence's voice carries more weight in a single line than lesser men achieve in pages.

The heights and hidden places of the mountains, the secrets of the forests, receive your voice more faithfully than I do: by nature's arrangement, even mute things give their answer to men, and the exchange of the clamorous solitude returns to mortals. The gift that the lairs or the tongue have received does not perish. Why then is it your kind of praise and philosophy, O great one, to say nothing and to maintain the caution of silence amid the uncertainties of those who declaim? You are a man whom nature did not bring forth unfruitful, nor did learning leave unpolished. But I believe you disdain to address me, unwilling to give precious words to the judgment of an uneducated man. Yet is it not the mark of a man rich in eloquence to withhold desired speech not even from the unlearned? The course of rivers is poor if it is thought to satisfy only the thirst of the noblest: the abundance of rains drenches even rocks that will produce nothing. It follows by clear reason that he who fears losses should disclose his poverty: whatever does not flow forth is meager. Nevertheless, I have sent a singular gift from among the birds, which the hawk caught. For having gone out to Bromius and the orgies of Bacchus, we engaged in warfare among the birds: the friendly contest of wings profited our catch. Remember that I have sent only a single duck, knowing that God rejoices in an odd number. Our gift is a lesson: accept, if you love me, what I offer in jest as though it were doctrine. Make my delight bear fruit. If you have imposed upon yourself the diligence of perpetual chastity, my tongue, which is now exercised in admonitions, will labor in your praises. Farewell, my lord, and as a learned man, if I deserve it, respond to one who loves you, setting aside dissimulation.

XXII. MAXIMO ENNODIVS. Fidelius a sublimitate tua uocem suscipiunt aut interrupta montium aut secreta siluarum: praebent hominibus naturae institutione et muta responsum : redit ad mortales uicissitudo clamosae solitudinis: non perit quod linguae acceperint uel lustra beneficium. quare istud in magnitudine tua laudis et philosophiae genus est nihil dicere et silentii tenere inter declamantium incerta cautionem? homo, quem nec infecundum natura protulit, nec infabricatum doctrina dereliquit sed, credo, me dedignaris affatu, opicis nolens pretiosa dare uerba iudicio. quid quod signum est diuitis eloquentia uiri nec indoctis sermonum cupita subtrahere? mendicus fluminum cursus est, qui tantum nobilissimorum satiare putatur ardorem: ubertas imbrium et nihil paritura saxa perfundit. liquidae rationis ordo est, ut paupertatem resignet qui damna formidat: quicquid non procurrit exile est. de uolucribus tamen munus singulare destinaui, quod cepit accipiter. nam progressi ad Bromium et Bacchi orgia, inter aues bella commisimus: profuit quaestui nostro certamen sociale pennarum. memento quod solam anatem direximus, scientes quia numero deus 25 Verg. Eel. 8, 75 1 toa om. b nigrantes Sirm., nigrantis BLVb membra L 2 propter iaceas LV XXn. 10 acoiperint B, acciperent B (M. rec.) b 12 et] est Bb fylosophiae Bl ut uidetur 13 infecondam Tl 14 natura Bb, terra LTV dereliquid L 15 crędo L opiciB Bb, obicia LTVt opici coni. Sirm., operis eoni . Schottus; nihil mutandum est, nam opicis est hominis inculti 16 uir b 17 substrahere B 19 im- • brium (pr. i m rGl.) B 20 resignit Bl (tit uidetur) b dampna LTV 22 distinaui B, destinaui. L caepit V, coepit Bb ad] a T 28 bacoi B, bachi LTV 24 queatui TV, quetui L pinnarum B 25 dizerimnfl L scientis B inpare gaudet. dona nostra institutio est: sume, si diligis, pro dogmate quod iocamur. fac meam frugiferam esse laetitiam. si tibi perpetuae diligentiam castitatis indixerit, laborabit in laudibus tuis lingua, quae modo exercetur in monitis. uale, domine, et amanti ut doctus, si mereor, sequestrata dissimulatione responde.