Letter 117: I believe with all my strength that a teacher needs two things: purity of life and competence in speech.
I consider these two things to be necessary for every teacher with all his strength: both purity of life and adequacy of speech — the latter being defined by someone as a shadow of deeds, and I would not think him wrong about the truth — so that in one way he may correct the student, and in another chasten the disobedient. For just as schoolmasters, taking up the stylus, inscribe the letters with great beauty and provide them to beginners so that they might be able to imitate as closely as possible, so too instructors ought to make their own way of life into a kind of image wisely crafted.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
ΡΛΔ΄. – ΚΟΜΙΤΙ
Τὸν ἐνδοιαστικὸν φυγεῖν.
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