Nilus of Ancyra→Chilon|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To Chilon the Domesticus.
Making plain the unsettled and unstable, the agitated and easily-shaken state of your mind, Sirach says: "The heart of a fool is like a cartwheel." [Sirach 33:5] And if you also wish to see the testimony of the same speaker concerning your never resolving to guard a secret, but at once blurting it out and publishing to everyone the things confided to you, listen forthwith: "For the fool," he says, "heard a word, and was in travail, as a woman in labor is in travail before the face of her child." [Sirach 19:11] And nothing is more foolish than to brand others publicly, and to carry tales this way and that, and to disclose improperly the things entrusted to us by our friends in secret and in private. Therefore, letting go of the maladies that beset you, become from now on wise and steadfast, and a guardian of secrets until you die, fashioning for your own mouth and your unguarded lips a firm door and a most powerful bar, and setting upon them the seal of an excellent silence. For thus you will be able to be illumined by the light of divine knowledge, and the Scripture will console you, saying: "A man's wisdom enlightens his face." [Ecclesiastes 8:1] And again: "Have you heard a word? Let it die with you. Take courage; the word spoken to you in confidence will not burst you open." [Sirach 19:10]
Making plain the unsettled and unstable, the agitated and easily-shaken state of your mind, Sirach says: "The heart of a fool is like a cartwheel." [Sirach 33:5] And if you also wish to see the testimony of the same speaker concerning your never resolving to guard a secret, but at once blurting it out and publishing to everyone the things confided to you, listen forthwith: "For the fool," he says, "heard a word, and was in travail, as a woman in labor is in travail before the face of her child." [Sirach 19:11] And nothing is more foolish than to brand others publicly, and to carry tales this way and that, and to disclose improperly the things entrusted to us by our friends in secret and in private. Therefore, letting go of the maladies that beset you, become from now on wise and steadfast, and a guardian of secrets until you die, fashioning for your own mouth and your unguarded lips a firm door and a most powerful bar, and setting upon them the seal of an excellent silence. For thus you will be able to be illumined by the light of divine knowledge, and the Scripture will console you, saying: "A man's wisdom enlightens his face." [Ecclesiastes 8:1] And again: "Have you heard a word? Let it die with you. Take courage; the word spoken to you in confidence will not burst you open." [Sirach 19:10]
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.