[27] Cato did not himself write on synonyms. But Isidore probably got this idea from the fact that synonyms were excerpted from his writings by later grammarians. See Teuffel, History of Roman Literature, 121, 6.
[28] Migne, P. L. 83, col. 9.
[29] There is a critical edition of De Natura Rerum by G. Becker, Berlin, 1857.
[30] Isidore describes this ruler in his History of the Goths as scientia literarum magna ex parte imbutus. See Migne, P. L. 83, col. 1073.
[31] “The higher meaning.” Compare De Natura Rerum, chapter 26, 4: “Per hunc Arcturum, id est, Septentrionem, Ecclesiam septenaria virtute fulgentem intelligimus.”
[35] “La Suma Teológica del Siglo VII.” Menéndez y Pelayo, Estudios de Crítica Literaria, vol. 1, p. 149.
[36] If Isidore had been as thorough-going as Gregory in depreciating the secular he certainly would not have written the Etymologies. His strongest anti-secular spirit is shown in the chapter (13) de libris gentilium of the Sententiae where, following Gregory, he denounces “all secular learning.” It is pretty plain, however, that he is here following his model rather than working out his own position, and in the last section of the chapter he modifies what he has said by admitting that grammar may “avail for life if only it is applied to better uses.”