[256] Ep. xii., ad Guigonem (Migne 182, col. 116).
[257] Bernard, Ep. 112, ad Gaufridum (Migne 182, col. 255). For translation see ante, Vol. I., p. 398.
[258] E.g. Ep. i. and 144 (Migne 182, col. 70 and 300).
[259] Ep. 196, ad Guidonem (Migne 182, col. 363). Translated ante, Vol. I., p. 401. See also the preceding letter, 195.
[260] As to Jerome’s two styles see Goelzer, La Latinité de St. Jerome, Introduction.
[261] Ep. ii. 33 (Migne 171, col. 256). Translation ante, Chapter XXX., III.
[262] See ante, Chapter XXX., I.
[263] “Against that signal gift of parent nature and grace, a shameless wrangler has stirred up an old calumny, condemned by the judgment of our ancestors; and, seeking everywhere comfort for his ignorance, he hopes to advance himself toward glory, if he shall see many like himself, see them ignorant, that is to say. For he has this special tumour of arrogance, that he would be making himself the equal of others, exalting his own good qualities (if they exist), and depreciating those of others. And he deems his neighbour’s defect to be his own advancement.
“Now it is indubitable to all truly wise, that Nature, kindest parent of all, and best-ordering directress, among the other living beings which she brought forth, distinguished man with the prerogative of reason and ennobled him with the exercise of eloquence (or ‘with the use of speech’): executing this with unremitting zeal and best-ordering decree, in order that man who was pressed and dragged to the lowest by the heaviness of a clodlike nature and the slowness of corporeal bulk, borne aloft as it were by these wings might ascend to the heights, and by obtaining the crown of true blessedness excel all others in happy reward. While Grace thus fecundates Nature, Reason watches over the matters to be inspected and considered; Nature’s bosom gives forth, metes out the fruits and faculty of individuals; and the inborn love of good, stimulating itself by its natural appetite, follows this (i.e. the good) either solely or before all else, since it seems best adapted to the bliss descried” (Metal. i. 1; Migne 199, col. 825). These translations are kept close to the original, in order to show the construction of the sentences.
[264] “There is another class of philosophers called the Ionic, and it took its origin from the more remote Greeks. The chief of these was Thales the Milesian, one of those seven who were called ‘wise.’ He, when he had searched out the nature of things, shone among his fellows, and especially stood forth as admirable because, comprehending the laws of astrology, he predicted eclipses of the sun and moon. To him succeeded his hearer, Anaximander, who (in turn) left Anaximenes as disciple and successor. Diogenes, likewise his hearer, arose and Anaxagoras who taught that the divine mind was the author of all things that we see. To him succeeded his pupil Archelaus, whose disciple is said to have been Socrates, the master of Plato, who, according to Apuleius, was first called Aristotle, but then Plato from his breadth of chest, and was borne aloft to such height of philosophy, by vigour of genius, by assiduity of study, by graciousness in all his ways, and by sweetness and force of eloquence, that, as if seated on the throne of wisdom, he has seemed to command by a certain ordained authority the philosophers before and after him. And indeed Socrates is said to have been the first to have turned universal philosophy to the improvement and ordering of manners; since before him all had devoted themselves chiefly to physics, that is to examining the things of nature” (Polycraticus, vii. 5; Migne 199, col. 643).