Complete Works of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Volume 3

For if there is no one so averse to the Muses who does not desire to know the antiquity and splendor of his own people, it is permitted to trust not without reason that the Corcyreans will read through the origins of the Island in which they live as studiously as possible, and from the assiduity of reading will finally begin to think of something ample regarding letters. For who would not derive the richest fruits from your erudition in that Work? It is so great that one may truly wonder from where so many monuments, not only of the Greeks but even of the Phaeacians and Arabs, are provided to you, with which you reject the trifling fables of the Poets and acutely prove the most ancient and most diverse names of Corcyra and their force and signification; then you declare that Spanheim in the word Κέρκυρα Corcyra and Φιλοξενωτάτη most hospitable, Fabricius in the poem of Homer to which the name Φαιακίς Phaeacis is given, Newton in establishing the invention of the Sphere, and other men who are otherwise most learned in other places, if not rashly writing, have certainly slipped into human error, and you make them much more correct. Furthermore, all philologists testify how many things you say, and things worthy of being known, about the ancient superstition of the Corcyreans, the humanity of Kings toward guests, affairs famously conducted on land and sea, the wit of Proverbs, the Nautical Art, Banquets, Games, and also the exercises of women, and especially about the Apologues of Alcinous. They refer other ancient monuments of the times to your credit, but most especially the Epoch of the Argonauts, which Petavius and Scaliger (what men, immortal God!) do not deny they sought in vain. These are the things which, written near the Island of Corcyra, will count among the monuments of your fame that will never perish.

But let others speak of these according to their dignity; I now feel myself being snatched away to Brescia, which was previously considered a city most loving of letters, but now, with you as its leader, is called, as it were, another Athens. For there is a huge shortcut to the best things: to admire the highest and best in a man who is a Prince; from this, strength to the soul, from this, torches to the genius. No one who sees all things great in his own Shepherd does not desire great things. Who, therefore, would doubt that the Brescian youth pursue the studies of the humanities more intensely every day, when they venerate you as the patron of letters, shining far and wide with the badges of immortality, present by your divinity, your hidden power, and your propitious example? Example, I say; for wherever your duty calls you, there the Muses also follow as inseparable companions and attendants, whose company not only has any force of sickness or disease never interrupted, but not even the suspicion of the plague itself.