Letter 4016: I received your letter through Paterninus — a letter whose mix of honey and salt is hard to measure.

To Ruricius [of Limoges]. I received your letter through Paterninus — a letter whose mix of honey and salt is hard to measure. Its eloquence displays a richness and fragrance that makes it clear you are profiting not only from your open reading but from your secret reading too. Though the "theft" you confess — of having copied my little book — deserves glory rather than pardon. For what do you do without virtue when even your sins are committed with distinction? As for the fraud perpetrated on me in my absence, I hear of it gladly and embrace it as a supreme gift — since the damage I suffered was entirely harmless. What was added to your use was not subtracted from my possession, nor did your increase in learning come at the expense of anyone else's. Rather, the man who did this rightly deserves abundant praise from now on — for with a fiery genius you have naturally imitated the nature of fire: if you take something from it, the whole remains, and the whole is transferred. So stop worrying, and stop judging your friend's character worse than it deserves. For in this matter, we are more stained by the wound of envy than by the blow of the theft itself. Farewell.

EPISTULA XVI Sidonius Ruricio suo salutem. 1. Accepi per Paterninum paginam vestram, quae plus mellis an salis habeat incertum est. ceterum eloquii copiam hanc praefert, hos olet flores, ut bene appareat non vos manifesta modo verum etiam furtiva quoque lectione proficere. quamquam et hoc furtum quod deprecaris exemplati libelli non venia tam debeat respicere quam gloria. quid tu enim facias absque virtute, qui nec ipsa peccata sine laude committis? 2. ego vero quicquid impositum est fraudis mihi, utpote absenti, libens audio principalique pro munere amplector, quod quodammodo damnum indemne toleravi. neque enim quod tuo accessit usui, decessit hoc nostrae proprietati aut ad incrementa scientiae vestrae per detrimenta venistis alienae. quin potius <is> ipse iure abhinc uberi praeconio non carebit, qui magis igneo ingenio naturam decenter ignis imitatus es, de quo si quid demere velis, remanet totus totusque transfertur. unde iam parce trepidare deque moribus amici plusculum recto secus credere. namque in hoc facto nos magis vulnus polluit culpae, si feriat ictus invidiae. vale.