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To this Germanus: It has been fully and completely shown both by recent
instances and by the decisions of the ancients how discretion is in some
sense the fountain head and the root of all virtues. We want then to learn
how it ought to be gained, or how we can tell whether it is genuine and
from God, or whether it is spurious and from the devil: so that (to use the
figure of that gospel parable which you discussed on a former occasion, in
which we are bidden to become good money changers) we may be able to see
the figure of the true king stamped on the coin and to detect what is not
stamped on coin that is current, and that, as you said in yesterday's talk
using an ordinary expression, we may reject it as counterfeit, under the
teaching of that skill which you treated of with sufficient fulness and
detail, and showed ought to belong to the man who is spiritually a good
money changer of the gospel. For of what good will it be to have recognized
the value of that virtue and grace if we do not know how to seek for it and
to gain it?
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