Letter 7: A certain man traveling from Clermont to Belgica -- his person is known to me, his business unknown, nor does it...

Sidonius to his lord the bishop Remigius, greeting. 1. A certain man, traveling from Auvergne to Belgica (the person is known to me, his business unknown; nor does it matter), after he had arrived at Reims, by chance happened to win over your scribe or bookseller with a payment, or earned his favor by some service, and, whether the man would or no, wheedled out of him a most copious notebook of your declamations. On his return to us, and exceedingly boastful, since he had acquired so many volumes, he pressed upon me as a gift whatever he had brought back, though to me, who was ready to buy them; yet because he was a fellow-citizen (nor was it unjust) he gave them freely. It was at once my concern, and that of those who study, since we deservedly longed to read them, to retain very many things and to transcribe them all. 2. It was declared by the agreement of all that few things like these can now be dictated. For there is rare or none beside whom, as he composes, there stands at full readiness an equal arrangement throughout the subjects, placement throughout the letters, composition throughout the syllables, and besides this, aptness in the examples, trustworthiness in the citations, fitness in the epithets, urbanity in the figures, force in the arguments, weight in the meanings, a flood in the words, a thunderbolt in the clausulae [the rhythmic close of a period]. 3. The structure indeed is strong and firm, and its most elegant conjunctions are knit together with unbreakable caesuras, yet not for that the less smooth and light, and rounded off in every manner, such as fittingly speeds along the reader's tongue without stumbling, lest, suffering rough junctures, it stammer as it is rolled through the vault of the palate; the whole, in short, utterly flowing and ductile, as when a finger glides over crystalline or onyx-like surfaces with no nail driven against it, since indeed no tenacious fracture, caught upon cracked obstructions, delays it. 4. What more? There exists at present no oration of any living man which your skill cannot, not without labor, surpass and overtop. Whence I almost suspect, my lord bishop, that on account of your overflowing and unspeakable eloquence (with leave for the saying) you grow proud. But although you shine with that good thing, both of conscience and of a most well-ordered diction, nevertheless you ought by no means to flee from us, who praise what is well written, even though we do not write what is to be praised. 5. Wherefore cease henceforth to decline our judgments, which threaten nothing biting, nothing reproachful either. Otherwise, if you put off enriching our barrenness with your eloquent discourses, we will lie in wait for the market-days of thieves, and of our own accord, with us conniving and abetting, the cunning hand of housebreakers will plunder your bookcases, and then, despoiled by theft, you will begin in vain to be roused, if now, when asked, you are not roused by duty. Deign to be mindful of us, my lord bishop.

EPISTULA VII Sidonius domino papae Remigio salutem. 1. Quidam ab Arvernis Belgicam petens (persona mihi cognita est, causa ignota; nec refert), postquam Remos advenerat, scribam tuum sive bybliopolam pretio fors fuat officione demeritum copiosissimo velis nolis declamationum tuarum schedio emunxit. qui redux nobis atque oppido gloriabundus, quippe perceptis tot voluminibus, quaecumque detulerat, quamquam mercari paratis, quod tamen civis (nec erat iniustum), pro munere ingessit. curae mihi e vestigio fuit hisque qui student, cum merito lecturiremus, plurima tenere, cuncta transcribere. 2. omnium assensu pronuntiatum pauca nunc posse similia dictari. etenim rarus aut nullus est, cui meditaturo par affatim assistat dispositio per causas, positio per litteras, compositio per syllabas, ad hoc opportunitas in exemplis fides in testimoniis, proprietas in epithetis urbanitas in figuris, virtus in argumentis pondus in sensibus, flumen in verbis fulmen in clausulis. 3. structura vero fortis et firma coniunctionumque perfacetarum nexa caesuris insolubilibus sed nec hinc minus lubrica et levis ac modis omnibus erotundata quaeque lectoris linguam inoffensam decenter expediat, ne salebrosas passa iuncturas per cameram palati volutata balbutiat; tota denique liquida prorsus et ductilis, veluti cum crystallinas crustas aut onychitinas non impacto digitus ungue perlabitur, quippe si nihil eum rimosis obicibus exceptum tenax fractura remoretur. 4. quid plura? non extat ad praesens vivi hominis oratio, quam peritia tua non sine labore transgredi queat ac supervadere. unde et prope suspicor, domine papa, propter eloquium exundans atque ineffabile (venia sit dicto) te superbire. sed licet bono fulgeas ut conscientiae sic dictionis ordinatissimae, nos tibi tamen minime sumus refugiendi, qui bene scripta laudamus, etsi laudanda non scribimus. 5. quocirca desine in posterum nostra declinare iudicia, quae nihil mordax nihil quoque minantur increpatorium. alioquin, si distuleris nostram sterilitatem facundis fecundare colloquiis, aucupabimus nundinas involantum et ultro scrinia tua coniventibus nobis ac subornantibus effractorum manus arguta populabitur inchoabisque tunc frustra moveri spoliatus furto, si nunc rogatus non moveris officio. memor nostri esse dignare, domine papa.