Letter 1005: You had promised, dearest son, to send me some of the first blossoms from that little branch you had taken on to...

Ruricius to his most devoted son and ever-magnificent Hesperius. You had promised, dearest son, that you would send me some little blossoms from that small branch which you had undertaken to graft and transplant from bitterness into a domestic flavor, so that by their fragrance I might learn what hope of hope I ought to entertain: whether the flowers themselves seemed to differ in the quality of their own fruit from the buds, or again whether the buds themselves [...] promised, and likewise in turn whether the fruits, when you cooked them down, could ripen and satisfy the hearts of your hearers with the sweet food of eloquence. But since, for I know not what reason, you have put off doing this, I have found a fitting time for admonishing you, in which, within the harmony of the world, all living creatures alike, the brute and the speechless ones, those that walk, those that fly, and those that creep, each in their own manner, with their own hissings, each with their own voices, even though with discordant sound or with a different mouth, yet with equal affection burst forth as though in a single concord into the praise of their own Author, and they reveal that they feel the power which they are unable to utter. For at this season the renewed beauty of the whole world is restored, and whatever in it has hitherto been squalid in its state, troubled by cold, frozen hard by ice, deformed by bareness, deadened by dryness, emerges after the likeness of the resurrection, so that human frailty may learn to know the invisible from the visible and the future from the present, and, laying aside despair, may grasp the hope of a better age to come. Now too the earth, shut up by barren stiffness and, as it were, wedded by a manly seed thus conceived in the spring season through hidden passages, loosens its veins for birth. And from this it produces everything: whatever is pleasant in delights, whatever is sweet for eating, whatever is useful for use, whatever is necessary for sustenance, whatever is delightful to the sight, whatever is agreeable to the smell, whatever is soothing to the touch. For indeed this is that temperate season which nourished the substance of the newborn world, tender as though still in its cradle, embracing it in the lap, as it were, of a most merciful nurse, lest the summer's heat should scorch, or the winter's chill extinguish, or the blasts of the winds carry off a substance hardened by no toil. And so your pupil has a most suitable time, in which, the sluggishness of the mind being at last at length detested, he may sharpen the dullness of his heart, and, if he cannot declaim among men, may at least make haste to cry out among the beasts or to chatter among the birds.

V. DEUINCTISSIMO FILIO SEMPERQVE MAGNIFICO HESPERIO RURICIUS. Spoponderas, fili carissime, ut mihi aliquos de ramusculo, quem ex amaritudine in domesticum saporem uertendum transferendumque susceperas, flosculos destinares, quorum odore cognoscerem, quam spem spei gerere deberem, utrumnam ipsi flores germina aut rursus ipsa germina fructus sui qualitate 1 discrepare uidentur v 2 aptate S 4 iuditii 8 5 tuam addidi monente Krvschio, om. S 6 discendisse S ex v, est S 8 ostenderis S B ocioso S 9 cespite S 11 fecudat S (n man. alt.) fructum S 12 producat om . 81, in marg. adiecit 82 tuae gestatem 81, tua egestatem 82 14 si ante uero add. v, om. S 15 incuciat S 16 podoris S 17 preconio S 18 pereclitetur S 28 deuictissimo S 24 ramuscolo S 25 transfendumque S 26 flusculos S destinaris S promitterent idemque iterum fructus utrum possent te excoquente mitescere et dulci eloquentiae cibo audientium corda satiare. quod quia, nescio quam ob causam, facere distulisti, oportunum uos admonendi tempus inueni, quo in harmonia mundi uniuersa animantia bruta pariter et elinguia, incedentia, uolantia atque reptilia suis quaeque modis, suis sibilis, suis quaeque uocibus etsi sono dissono aut ore diuerso, pari tamen affectu quasi uno concentu in laudem proprii auctoris erumpunt et potentiam, quam promere nequeunt, sentire se produnt. Hoc namque tempore cuncti orbis species rediuiua reparatur et, quicquid in eo situ squalidum, frigore turbidum, glacie concretum, nuditate deforme, ariditate praemortuum hactenus fuit, ad instar resurrectionis emergit, ut discat humana fragilitas de uisibilibus inuisibilia et de praesentibus futura cognoscere et spem uenturae melioris aetatis deposita desperatione percipiat. nunc etiam tellus sterili rigore conclausas quasi uirili semine -ita uerno tempore concepto occultis maritata meatibus uenas laxat ad partum. et hinc, quod deliciis suaue, quod esui dulce, quod usui utile, quod uictui necessarium, quod uisui iocundum, quod olfactui gratum, quod tactui blandum, omne producit. siquidem haec est illa temperies, quae mundi nascentis materiam quasi adhuc in incunabulis teneram gremio quodam clementissimae altricis conplexa nutriuit, ne substantiam nullo labore duratam aut aestiuus feruor exureret aut hiemalis algor extingueret aut uentorum flabra portarent. habet itaque susceptus tuus conuenientissimum tempus, quo animi socordia tandem aliquando detestata hebetudinem cordis exacuat et, si inter homines declamare non potest, saltim inter pecudes clamare aut inter uolucres garrire festinet. 1 possint SKr . 2 mitiscere S cybo S, uerbo v 3 saciare S daulisti S 4 armonia S 5 incendentia S 6 quequae S 8 propri S 10 rediuina S 11 turpidum S clacie S 14 prestantibus S, corr. v 15 desposita S disperatione S 16 stereli S ligore S conclusas v 17 ita] hoc v 18 diliciis S 20 olfatui S omne S (o in ras. mati. alt.) 22 in ante gremio add. v 23 complexu v 24 exureret v, exuretur et S 26 conuentissimum S 27 detestata 82 in margine, depstata 81 in contextu, deposita v habitudinem S