8. To Herluin, The Monk.
The Letters of St. Anselm
you through Dom Herluin in order to join them most inti mately to our friendship, and—what they themselves be seech with me—in the inmost cubicle of your memory, where I constantly reside; but the soul of my Osbern,31 beg you, my beloved, place nowhere but in my heart.
Farewell, farewell, sweetest because truest friend; fare well, and if you cannot forget me, truly your servant, truly your friend, truly your beloved, remember me. When I speak to you I speak to Dom Henry. Therefore, farewell to you both. c. 1071.
NOTES 1. Ps 63:11.
2. 1 Cor 4:5.
3 . See Ep 4.
8. TO HERLUIN, THE MONK.
Anselm admonishes Herluin at Canterbury to persevere in his monastic way of life and asks him to show this letter to Gundulf.
TO HIS FELLOW-MONK AND BELOVED BROTHER HERLUIN: BROTHER
ANSELM, GREETING.
YOU HAVE BEGUN, MY DEAR FRIEND, to taste that the Lord is sweet.2 Beware, therefore, that you are not so filled with the savor of the world which flows abundantly over you that you are emptied of the savor of God which flows quickly and secretly away from the careless. Consider very frequently, my brother, and know very certainly that eter nal bitterness fills those whom the sweetness of the world allures, and perpetual bliss pervades those whom the sweet ness of God attracts. It is certainly true and not false—I call true what the Holy Spirit says through the mouth of God's friend—that the friend... of this world makes himself God's
The Letters of St. Anselm enemy.3 And it is really so; it is wholly unchangeable. These are not merely words to be heard but a terrible reality to be feared. If therefore you do not wish to become God's enemy, fear with horror being a friend of the world. For anyone who is a friend of the delights of this world is a friend of this world.
I implore you therefore, my friend, not to love worldly entertainments. When they are absent do not let your heart yearn for them; when they are present do not set your heart on them.4 But whether they are absent or whether they are present, you should always want to hide yourself from them. If the world or any of those things which are of the world smiles at you, do not smile at them. Certainly, brother, the world does not smile at you so that once it has smiled, you may smile; but it feigns a smile in order to mock you. Therefore, most beloved friend, always be on your guard against the world and ready to turn its fraud back on it. And when it smiles at you deceitfully, you should really mock it. And you will certainly never mock it any more fully than if, when it jeers at you, you weep for it.
Certainly, you should practise shedding these tears more fervently for it is better at least to lament of your own ac cord when faced with false mockery than it is to mourn out of necessity in the face of real derision in eternity.
Dom Gundulf may read this letter, not because he should do what he reads but because he may read what he does.
And if the ardor of his devotion wants this letter to be his, he may replace your name with his and it will be his. Fare well to you both.5 c. 1071
NOTES 1. See Ep 5.
2. Ps 33:9.
3. Jm 4:4.
4. Ps 61:11
5. Sent after Epp 4 and 5.