Letter 9010: It is flattery, not the sacrament of true goodwill, when affection is shown only to those who are present.

It is mere flattery, not a sacred bond of favor, when something is shown only to those who are present: the sincerity of friendship does not abandon even those set far away. What true fidelity can accomplish, let him understand who then obtains kindnesses, when he ceases to beg for them: I owe it to myself that you, stationed beyond Gargara [a remote mountain peak], have reached the post of my prayers. By the light of your conscience you separated your friends and your letters from yourself at one and the same time, pursuing not only distant places but hidden ones, in such a way that nowhere may the tracker of a keen-scented good man find you. Even here you always loved the lurking-places hidden among the hares, yet often he who, with mouth held close to the ground, searched out your tracks found your hiding-place. Now by a deeper design, I believe, in order to kindle our griefs, you have withdrawn yourself from the gatherings of men. Did you then owe only your boyhood to your people of Milan? Those who possessed you as a boy ought also to have held you as a man, and those whom you gladdened with your embraces you ought to have aided with your counsels. But of this elsewhere. You yourself will owe to yourself either the joys or the tears of your own provisions. I meanwhile, having first sent my greeting, mindful of my debt, have appointed a gift concerning the boy, reckoning this within myself: that he should neither, importunate, prevail in a season of his own mistrust, nor, holding back, rejoice amid the evils of despair.

X. CELSO ENNODIVS. Lenocinium est, non gratiae sacramentum quod tantum praesentibus exhibetur: amicitiae sinceritas et longe positos VIIII. 2 camellae LTVb, camelle BP 4 paruolum B 5 suscipisse B, suscipere LTVb 6 aecclesiastici B (et sic l. 12) seruitiis B 7 relazit B 8 occupatus BL 9 uita Sirm. disciplininu T 13 ezpulire B 14 diacs B ipse asseruit Pb, ipseruit BLV, imperauit T 15 istis fort . 17 magis] magistri L 18 eogitatiane L1, cogitationem B 19 uernolam B, uenulam Fabri codex 90 ut nt B fabor B 23 nos B, nostro LPTVb 24 adsia duis B non o.] Domi|natas L X. 28 amiticie T . non relinquit. quid possit uera fides, intellegat qui tunc adipiscitur beneficia, quando desinit supplicare: ego mihi debeo, quod ad stationem precum trans Gargara positus peruenisti. tu luce conscientiae amicos et litteras uno a te tempore diuisisti, sectans non solam longinqua sed abdita, ita ut nusquam te sagacis boni persecutor inueniat. semper et hic quidem latentia inter lepores cubilia diligebas, sed saepe latebram tuam qui presso ore uestigia rimatus est inuenit. nunc altiori consilio, credo, ut maerores accenderes, te hominum coetibus submouisti. ergo solam pueritiam debuisti Mediolanensibus tuis? et uirum te tenere debuerant qui puerum possederunt, et quos laetificasti de amplexibus debuisti iuuare consiliis. sed hinc alias. tu tibi prouisionum tuarum aut gaudia debebis ant lacrimas. ego interim salutationem praefatus memor debiti donationem de puero destinaui, hoc apud me reputans, ut nec inportunus in tempore diffidentiae suae uinceret et cessans inter desperationis mala gauderet.