Letter 8011: I am astonished that you disfigure with ugly silence the Roman polish of your education.

Ennodius to Arator. I wonder why, having lost your charm through a shameful silence, you who have been polished to Roman elegance squander away the good things of conversation within you and the riches gathered with much sweat, fleeing from their dispensation and consuming them in taciturnity. Whatever has been bestowed on worthy men, so long as it is in use, adorns its author: he who shuts up the elegance of his talents diminishes it. There is one and the same error, both to come forth as a rustic and to lie hidden when one is worthy of the honor of praise. Did you have nothing worth recording, or did I seem to you not worth cultivating with your eloquence? There was once a subject matter such as ought to be celebrated by the tongues and writings of all: namely, when a man was led into the bond of marriage who, though the light of his birth was great and his abundance of means ample, surpassed both by his discipline and his modesty; who, abjuring the vices of the flesh, spurned as a shameful enticement whatever the laws had granted for a remedy, and, unwilling to consign his body to the services of a wife, thought that he was selling himself into bondage if he should expend upon the world anything of his free chastity. Even if you do not love these things, you ought nevertheless to praise them for the display of your own talent. We can believe that you are becoming good, if we hear you proclaiming the things that are honorable. Now, bidding you the most abundant good health, I urge you to write back; and do not judge me by this letter of mine, which, God is my witness, I dictated in passing while I was returning from the basilica.

XI. ARATORI ENNODIVS. Miror cur deuenustes turpi silentio ad Romanum decorem politi in te bona conloquii et coactas multo sudore diuitias fugiens dispensationem taciturnitate consumas. quicquid dignis 11 cf. Gen. 27, 28 12 cf. Tob. 6 X. 2 u. s. om. T, ur ̃ s L 3 superaa noto L nostra b 5 gaudere B Bopernae benedictionie Pb manus L 6 cristuB B nri (ti m ras. uid.) B custodite B, custoditaei L integritates L, integritatSs V, integritatem Pb imperire L 7 sobolem LTV 8 nihil Sinn . archano LTV 9 seculo B peras L, parcas Pb 10 isac BLV piae B seductos T* 11 ad tobiae LTVb 12 paenitralia B perfectae casaa B, cauta perfectae TV, causa perfecte (te ex ti corr.) L dilectionis (dilecti s. I. corr.) L 13 in te] uite PT, uita b depntatam tibi LTV 14 fece BTV 15 m T, mihi BLV 16 acoepto B directa sunt V s. I . XL 20 denenustns Tl conlatum fuerit dum in usu eat, ornat auctorem: ingeniorum elegantiam qui concludit extenuat: unus error est prodire rusticantem et dignum laudis honore delitescere. numquid non habuisti digna memoratu aut ego tibi uisus sum non colendus eloquio? fuit ąliquando materia, quae sic omnium linguis et litteris celebranda. sit, quando ad nuptialem copulam perductus homo est, cui cum magna sit lux natalium, abundantia facultatum, disciplina et pudor utrumque transgreditur, qui uitia carnis abiurans pro blandimento turpi respuebat quicquid leges dedere pro remedio et nolens uxoriis corpus deputare seruitiis putauit se addicere, si quicquam mundo inpenderet liberam castitatem? haec etsi non diligis, debes tamen pro ingenii tui ostentatione laudare. possumus te credere bonum fieri, si audiamus quae honesta sunt praedicantem. nunc salutem largissimam dicens ut rescribas admoneo-, et non me de epistola mea aestimes, quam, deus testis est, dum de basilica remearem, transcursione dictaui.