Letter 3032: ---

XXXII. Ennodius to Passivus. If speech sufficed to give utterance to affection, if childlike eloquence could lay out our whole devotion, to whom should we render a steadier stream of pages than to you? And were it not that the worth of your heart hems us in, to no one would the service of discourse do duty more deservingly. Others bear witness with their mouth to an affection which they do not know in their mind, and they paint up the impulses of the moment by the alluring traffic of letters, since, while their inner chambers keep holiday, all their love is on the tongue, and nothing else is carried through to the inner parts except so much as is heaped up in writing. But my spirit toward you, pressed by the leanness of eloquence and by the abundance of friendship, has fallen silent: for I fear lest a beggarly little chat set a limit to esteem, lest the measure of the discourse be thought to be the same as that of the bond. It is better to leave more to estimation through silence than to display the losses of diligence through letters. See, I have set forth the reasons for my rarer converse, believing that with you eloquence is rated below the sincerity that is owed. [The manuscript here carries a block of editorial textual apparatus recording variant readings from the manuscripts and the Sirmond edition; it is not part of the letter's text. ...] For what remains, farewell, my lords, and, having enjoyed the divine benefits, as life advances into length fulfill the heavenly commands. For with you, when kindness has begun from a heap, it finds increase. Farewell.

XXXII. ENNODIVS PASSIVO. Si ad eloquendam sufficeret sermo caritatem, si totum infantia explanaret affectum, cui magis quam uobis paginarum frequentiam praestaremus ? et nisi artaret meritum pectoris, nulli dignius sermonis militaret officium. alii affectum, quem mente nesciunt, ore testantur et pingunt inlecebrosis epistularum momenta commerciis, quando feriatis penetralibus amor totus in lingua est nec aliud ad interiora perducitur, nisi quantum in scriptione confertur. at meus erga uos animus eloquii pressus macie et amicitiae ubertate conticuit: metuo enim, ne gratiae terminum ponat mendica confabulatio, ne idem modus putetur esse sermonis et foederis. melius est plus aestimationi per silentium dimittere quam monstrare diligentiae damna per litteras. ecce rarioris conloquii causas adserui, credens apud uos a sinceritate debita facundiam posthaberi. 2 inaenit Tl 3 ergo] ego b 4 occasione (se om.) L fallendi Bb, falli P, felli LTV 5 causa B accedere b 6 noto BT2b, uotis LPT1V satisfaciam BT2b, faciam LPT1V pudorS (or corr.) V uestram V onerem PT1, honerem LTlV, honorem Bb 7 reddantur Pb mi om. LPTV 8 uale om. B XXXII. 11 eloquendam BT, eoquendam LV, exequendam P et Sirm., exequendum b 18 prestaremus B astaret V 14 militaret sermonis Sirm . 16 momenta] commenta fort . penetrat bilibus B 18 ad B 19 maciq L et om. Sirm . motus T 23 damna B 8. l . m. ant.l, dampna LV quod superest, saluete, mi domini, et diuinis usi beneficiis procedente uita in longum caelestia mandata conplete. inuenit enim apud uos, cum a cumulo coeperit benignitas, incrementum. uale.