the kind of discourse intended, so that I may show you by an
CHAP. X.] ALLEGOrJCAL INTERPEETATIOX. 285 of weariness, is a thing which the persons in question must have made good to them by actual experience, when some subject which failed to move them when it was placed baldly before them, has its significance elicited by the detailed workinfT out of an alles^orical sense. For it is in the hiiijhest de^^jree useful to such men to come to know how ideas are to be preferred to words, just as the soul is preferred to the body. And from this, too, it follows that they ought to have the desire to listen to discourses remarkable for their truth, rather than to those wdiich are notable for their eloquence ; just as they ou<:>ht to be anxious to have friends distin^ruished for their o o wisdom, rather than those whose chief merit is their beauty. They should also understand that there is no voice for the ears of God save the affection of the soul. For thus they will not act the mocker if they happen to observe any of the prelates and ministers of the Church either calling upon God in language marked by barbarisms and solecisms, or failing in understanding correctly the very words which they are pronouncing, and making confused pauses.-^ It is not meant, of course, that such faults are not to be corrected, so that the people may say
" Amen " to something which they plainly understand ; but what is intended is, that such things should be piously borne wdth by those who have come to understand how, as in the forum it is in the sound, so in the church it is in the desire that the grace of speech resides,^ Therefore that of the forum may sometimes be called good speech, but never gracious speech.^ Moreover, with respect to the sacrament which they are about to receive, it is enough for the more intelligent simply to hear w^hat the thing signifies. But with those of slower intellect, it will be necessary to adopt a somewhat more detailed explanation, together with the use of similitudes, to prevent them from despising what they see.
CuAP. X. Of the attainment of cheerfulness in the duty of catechising, and of various causes producing iveariness in the catechumen.
14. At this point you perhaps desiderate some example of the kind of discourse intended, so that I may show you by an
1 Or = confusing the sense by false pauses : perturbaieque distinguere.
2 Ut sono in foro, sic voto in ecclesia benedici.
^ Bona (iictio, nuncjuani tamcn benedictio.
2SG ON CATEcnisiXG. [chap. X.
actual instance how the things which I have recommended are to be done. This indeed I shall do, so far as by God's help I shall be able. But before proceeding to that, it is my duty, in consistency with wliat I have promised, to speak of the acquisition of the cheerfuluL'SS (to which I have alluded). For as regards the matter of the rules in accordance with which your discourse should be set forth, in the case of the catechetical instruction of a person who comes with the express view of being made a Christian, I have already made good, as far as has appeared sufficient, the promise which I made. And surely I am under no obligation at the same time to do m}'self in this volume that which I enjoin as the right thing to be done. Consequently, if I do that, it will have the value of an overplus. But how can the overplus be superadded by me before I have filled up the mea.sure of what is due ? Besides, one thing which I have heard you make the subject of your complaint above all others, is the fact that your discourse seemed to yourself to be poor and spiritless when you were instructing any one in the Christian name. Xow this, I know, results not so much from want of matter to say, with which I am well aware you are sufficiently provided and furnished, or from poverty of speech itself, as rather from weariness of mind. And that may spring either from the cause of which I have already spoken, namely, the fact that our intelligence is better pleased and more thoroughly arrested by that which we perceive in silence in the mind, and that we have no inclination to have our attention called off from it to a noise of words coming far short of representing it ; or from the circumstance that even when discourse is pleasant, we have more delight in hearing or reading things which have been expressed in a superior manner, and which are set forth without any care or anxiety on our part, than in putting together, with a view to the comprehension of others, words suddenly conceived, and leaving it an uncertain issue, on the one hand, whether such terms occur to us as adequately represent the sense, and on the other, whether they be accepted in such a manner as to profit; or yet again, from the consideration that, in consequence of their being now thoroughly fiimiliar to ourselves, and no longer necessary to our own advancement, it becomes
CHAP. X.] CAUSES OF TEDIOUSNESS. 287 irksome to us to be recurring very frequently to those matters
are urged upon the uninstructed, and our mind, as being by this time pretty well matured, moves with no manner of pleasure in the circle of subjects so well worn, and, as it were, so childish. A sense of weariness is also induced upon the speaker when he has a hearer who remains unmoved, either in that he is actually not stirred by any feeling, or in that he does not indicate by any motion of the body that he understands or that he is pleased with what is said.-^ Not that it is a becoming disposition in us to be greedy of the praises of men, but that the things which we minister are of God; and the more we love those to whom we discourse, the more desirous are we that they should be pleased with the matters which are held forth for their salvation : so that if we do not succeed in this, we are pained, and we are weakened, and become broken-spirited in the midst of our course, as if we were wasting our efforts to no purpose. Sometimes, too, when we are drawn off from some matter which we are desirous to go on with, and the transaction of which was a pleasure to us, or appeared to be more than usually needful, and when we are compelled, either by the command of a person whom we are unwilling to offend, or by the importunity of some parties that we find it impossible to get rid of, to instruct any one catechetically, in such circumstances we approach a duty for which great calmness is indispensable with minds already perturbed, and grieving at once that we are not permitted to keep that order which we desire to observe in our actions, and that we cannot possibly be competent for all things ; and thus out of very heaviness our discourse as it advances is less of an attraction, because, starting from the arid soil of dejection, it goes on less flowingly. Sometimes, too, sadness has taken possession of our heart in consequence of some offence or other, and at that very time we are addressed thus : " Come, speak with this person ; he desires to become a Christian."
For they who thus address us do it in ignorance ot the hidden trouble which is consuming us within. So it happens that, if they are not the persons to wliom it befits us to open up our
The sentence, "either in that he is actually not stirred ... by what is said," is omitted in many mss.