Letter 1546: Some say that your eldest and youngest children are at odds, and that you know this but pretend not to.
The person who possesses learning without humility is like a tower built without a foundation: the higher it rises, the more catastrophically it falls. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up, as the Apostle says. And the knowledge that puffs up is not true knowledge at all, but its counterfeit — a mere accumulation of facts and theories that has never been transformed into wisdom by the discipline of humility and the practice of charity. True learning always makes its possessor humble, because the more one truly knows, the more one recognizes the vastness of what remains unknown. The fool thinks he knows everything; the wise man knows that he knows almost nothing. Therefore, Didymus, let your learning be seasoned with humility, and your scholarship with prayer, so that your knowledge may be not a burden that weighs you down but wings that lift you toward God.
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed.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
Ἠογίαι!εν μἱ ἐμιον βίὶο5 ἐμὸς τοσοποὶ[ἰδί σοποοτάξαηε δἰ ἀπιονοῆὶ. Εἰ ἰυὰπἢ τᾶχηυ πδῖυ τη γα ὸ ([ - δι Γ, ἰθ4ὺ6 : Γαΐ (Ὅγυηι οοηδοίυη.,, (β γα ἴ8- , 4υδϑὶ πΠοδοα8. θαροβίία ἰίάφυθ δρομῃίδιθα [ ἱκηογδηιία, οοηΆΓ6, .., [Π Δ ηγυΐϊαυπὶ δάϊα γο ΔΊΠΟΓΘΙΙ,, Π6 ἰμμπιοάϊοαυ!ϊα εἶπα τηδίμη Οχϑὶϑίδί. θβοογΐα δηΐπὶ θοηΐ ἢ] αἰφηΐ!. δος δὶ, υἱ φυθδιη- ϑιἰπηοι πη ΡΑΓΘῺΒ βαπα δι, δἷς οἱ "θη ᾿ υἱ οἰι, οἴδιοῖδς, ΟΟΥΙΙ. -- ΕἸΌΕΜ. Τὸν πρεσδύτατόν σου τῶν παίδων πρὸς τὸν νεώτα- τον διαφέρεσθαί τινές φασι, χαὶ σὲ μὲν εἰδέναι, προσ- ποιεῖσθαι δὲ μὴ εἰδέναι" βᾶττον τοίνυν ἀποθέμενος τὴν ἐχούσιον ἄγνοιαν, πειράθητι αὐτοὺς εἰς φιλίαν συναλλάξαι, μὴ ποτέ τι ἀνήχεστον τεχθεέη χαχόν" οὐ γάρ τι χρηστὸν ἡ φιλονειχία ὠδίνει" ἵν᾽ ὥσπερ τοῦ εἶναι μετὰ τὴν πρόνοιαν αὐτοῖς χατέστης αἴτιος, οὕτω καὶ τοῦ εὖ εἶναι κατασταίης. ΣΖ'. -- Τῷ ΑΥ̓́ΤΩ. Υὶς αηιογὶς πιμίῇ. ὕιτιη οὐΐυι) αἰφυδιο οοηνίοἰυπὶ) οχ Ποβίθ Ρἰαυϑὶ- Ὁ ραγῖι, ἰἴὰ σοηῖγὰ δυλίοἰ εἶα γο οὶ ἃς νοΐ ῃγ0- (εἶδ ἱυγρίιπ . ΟΟΥ̓ΠΙ. --- ΟΙΙΟΝΙ. “Ὥσπερ ἡ ἀπέχθεια εὐπαράδεχτόν πως τὴν παρὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἐργάζεται λοιδορίαν, οὕτως ἡ φιλία δια- χρούεται ταύτην καὶ ἀχοντίζει ().
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