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10. And for nearly the whole of those nine years during which, with
unstable mind, I had been their follower, I had been looking forward
with but too great eagerness for the arrival of this same Faustus.
For the other members of the sect whom I had chanced to light upon,
when unable to answer the questions I raised, always bade me look
forward to his coming, when, by discoursing with him, these, and
greater difficulties if I had them, would be most easily and amply
cleared away. When at last he did come, I found him to be a man of
pleasant speech, who spoke of the very same things as they themselves
did, although more fluently, and in better language. But of what
profit to me was the elegance of my cup-bearer, since he offered me
not the more precious draught for which I thirsted? My ears were
already satiated with similar things; neither did they appear to me
more conclusive, because better expressed; nor true, because
oratorical; nor the spirit necessarily wise, because the face was
comely and the language eloquent. But they who extolled him to me were
not competent judges; and therefore, as he was possessed of suavity of
speech, he appeared to them to be prudent and wise.
Another sort of persons, however, was, I was aware, suspicious
even of truth itself, if enunciated in smooth and flowing language.
But me, O my God, Thou hadst already instructed by wonderful and
mysterious ways, and therefore I believe that Thou instructedst me
because it is truth; nor of truth is there any other teacher where
or whencesoever it may shine upon us but Thee.
From Thee, therefore, I had now learned, that cause a thing is
eloquently expressed, it should not of necessity seem to be true;
nor, because uttered with stammering lips, should it be false nor,
again, perforce true, because unskilfully delivered; nor consequently
untrue, because the language is fine; but that wisdom and folly are as
food both wholesome and unwholesome, and courtly or simple words as
town-made or rustic vessels, and both kinds of food may be served
in either kind of dish.
11. That eagerness, therefore, with which I had so long waited
for this man was in truth delighted with his action and feeling when
disputing, and the fluent and apt words with which he clothed his
ideas. I was therefore filled with joy, and joined with others (and
even exceeded them) in exalting and praising him. It was, however,
a source of annoyance to me that was not allowed at those meetings of
his auditors to introduce and impart any of those questions that
troubled me in familiar exchange of arguments with him. When I might
speak, and began, in conjunction with my friends, to engage his
attention at such times as it was not unseeming for him to enter into a
discussion with me, and had mooted such questions as perplexed me, I
discovered him first to know nothing of the liberal sciences save
grammar, and that only in an ordinary way. Having, however, read
some of Tully's Orations, a very few books of Seneca and some of
the poets, and such few volumes of his own sect as were written
coherently in Latin, and being day by day practised in speaking, he
so acquired a sort of eloquence, which proved the more delightful and
enticing in that it was under the control of ready tact, and a sort of
native grace. Is it not even as I recall, O Lord my God, Thou
judge of my conscience? My heart and my memory are laid before Thee,
who didst at that time direct me by the inscrutable mystery of Thy
Providence, and didst set before my face those vile errors of mine,
in order that I might see and loathe them.
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