Letter 7031: Silence would have been the proper response to your own silence — an eye for an eye, as it were.

31. Ennodius to Parthenius. It would indeed have been fitting to oppose silence to your unworthy silence, repaying your taciturnity in kind, and to depart by the very path along which the offense had come. Is it fair that, in your transgressions, a voice should show what you have done wrong, and not a mute grief? Believe me, when indignation is made manifest, the cure is near at hand. The pent-up agitation ought to have struck you for a long while, if indeed you have not entirely departed from common humanity. What had I done wrong, after you had asked pardon in your first letter with a feigned humility? Is this the faithful promise of amendment, that, once you have wrung out by a soothing speech the anger that had been conceived, you should blush at having sinned too lightly? As far as I see, after the modesty you professed, you only shun the narrow straits of error, judging it wrong, (if) toward your parent and foster-father you do not raise up your eyebrow as high as you ought to have humbled yourself in fellowship in return for so many benefits. Or perhaps you suppose that childish anger stirs me up, or that some necessity could overpower a mature affection? Are not blows from a father welcome to his children? Or are not the begetters of crawling little ones even soothed by injuries? Those for whom, amid their longings, something boiled up that opposed their wishes in part, count nothing as bitter. We find among the wheat-bearing crops thorns and tares, and while we pluck the fruit-bearing herb, barren growths are thrust upon us. Should the diligence of cultivation therefore be rejected, or must we cease from the plowshares, if the earth has not in every respect satisfied the cultivator? I pray to God that He shut out from you what I dread; yet I, if you believe me, will never abandon the office of an admonisher. I have heard, by your father's report, that you are already slack in your studies and, as if you had attained the citadel of knowledge, are in no way concerned for instruction by reading. You know, my son, that the sum of this matter is not held except by exceeding constancy. It has profited a man nothing to have labored at some time in this work, if he has desisted from the effort of his labor: knowledge flees the negligent on swift wings, and whatever has been gained by delay and sweat is carried off in haste. I wish you to be in good health and watchful, that you may bind the harvest of your progress with the chains of daily reading. Write back to me even now, if you give thought to what befits you, because, if you believe me, you will never find in any part of the world a like supporter of your discourses.

XXXI. PARTENIO ENNODIVS. Par quidem fuerat silentio degeneri uicem taciturnitatis opponi et per ipsum callem uindictam, per quem uenerat error, exire. numquid aequum est, ut in excessibus tuis uo-x, quid deliqueris, et non mutus dolor ostendat? crede mihi, manifestatae indignationi uicina curatio est. te per longum ferire debuit inclusa commotio, si tamen non ex toto ab humanitate discessisti. quid deliqueram, postquam primoribus litteris ueniam fabricata humilitate poposceras ? haec est correctionis fida promissio, ut, postquam delenifica oratione conceptam iram extorseris, erubescas te minora peccasse? quantum uideo, post contestatam uerecundiam solas errorum uitas angustias, nefas aestimans, (si) circa parentem et nutritorem tuum non it tantum extollis supercilium, quanta debuisti pro tot beneficiis communione summitti. aut forte putas quod me puerilis ira 6 agentur b 7 qui praefatio T salutati scripsi, salutationi .1 Bb, Balatatis LV, salutis T, salatationis Sirrn. 8 memoro B (i 8. I . m. rec.7), memor Sirm . 9 prestare B XXXI. 11 paternio L 12 denegeri L 13 et BLTV, ut B (I. 2. m. rec. P) Тib uindictam Bb, uindicta LTV 14 exire scripsi, eziret BLTVb 15 manifestate Bl . 16 indignationi (indigna s. l. m. 1) V 20 deiinifica B 21 erobiscas te B, erobis cane b 22 contestatd L 23 aeetimans ai scripsi, aestimas B LTVb 24 extolli LTV 25 communione — putas mn. L add. corr. m mg. sup . communione] te add. BLTVb, te exp. T1 et Sirm . Sollicitet aut ulla necessitas maturum expugnare possit affectum? numquid genitori natorum non grata sunt uerbera? aut creatores reptantium paruulorum non et mulcentur iniuriis ? nihil amarum putant quibus inter desideria quod uotis pro parte aduersetur efferbuit. inuenimus inter triticeas segetes spinas et lolium, et dum frugiferam herbam carpimus, infecunda suggeruntur. numquid ideo culturae respuenda diligentia est aut cessandum est a uomeribus, si non in toto satisfecerit terra cultori ? deum precor, ut a te quod detestor excludat: ego tamen numquam, si credis, deseram monitoris officium. audiui te patris tui relatione circa studia iam remissum et, quasi arcem scientiae adeptus sis, ita nullatenus esse de lectionis instructione sollicitum. nosti, fili, istius rei summam nisi adsiduitate nimia non teneri. non profuit in hoc opere laborasse aliquando hominem, qui a laboris intentione destiterit: pernicibus alis neglegentes fugit scientia, et quicquid mora et sudore partum est sub celeritate transfertur. te salutatum et uigilem uolo, ut profectus tui messem cotidianae catenis lectionis adstringas. ad me uel nunc, si quid te deceat cogitas, rescribe, quia, si credis, numquam similem dictionum tuarum inuenies in qualibet orbis parte fautorem. 1 ullane L eipurgare T 3 et] etiam T, ex b 4 proa L 6 frugifieram B capimus B infeconda T1, infaecunda B 11 patres B1 16 distiterit B, destitit Sirm . 19 cathenis T 20 rescribere T 21 factorem T