Complete Works of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Volume 3

But I would be insane if I were to circumscribe your praises within the narrow boundaries of Monasteries. They extend much more widely, and are contained by the same limits as the Republic of Letters. For if two languages especially, Greek and Latin, have illustrated the liberal arts, you certainly have the best right to congratulate yourself; for I hear Greeks and Latins arguing among themselves over your praises: the former, because you have gifted certain Greek Offices with Roman citizenship, and the latter, because you showed not-at-all common learning, faith, and prudence in your Notes to those same Offices. For the diction itself can be taken as a proof of the argument, that you have converted the eloquence of the ancient Greeks into your own sap and blood. Indeed, the four Diatribes clearly show that you have traversed the widest boundaries of Philology and all its inner sanctuaries. What of the fact that you are praised in that work of yours for carrying the elegance of the Athenians, and that the Greekness of the bilingual Corcyrean people is clear to you? And I truly do not know if this seems even more illustrious. For this barbaric jumble, the more unkempt and horrible it is by nature, the more difficult it must be, and it must need persistent diligence so that it may be learned, which is the greatest praise in a man who is especially busy. Therefore, the other ornaments of your learning will be celebrated everywhere in the world, yet they will have to be shared with an infinite multitude of scholars; but this referring to his philological work is to be entirely yours, because, as you seemed to become all things to all men with the Apostle, you discoursed prudently with the wise, and you did not refuse to babble willingly with the barbarians. A truly excellent plan. For from this you judged it would come about that, with barbarism gradually wiped away, more polished letters would re-flourish in that Island. You surely raised the most certain hope of this matter everywhere when, with the publication of the book on the Origins of Corcyra, you raised it like some standard to hope well of the Greek people.