Complete Works, Volume 1: The Book on Games of Chance

Indeed, most noble William, because your virtue is akin to that of Pomponius, it also demands kindred honors and kindred praise. You, as much as he, are entirely candor and integrity. You possess, as he did, a profound mind, an ingenious talent, an affable expression, and most pure hands. In you are loved those things that were loved in him: dignity without arrogance, elegance without luxury, gravity without gloom, nobility without vanity, and such literary gifts, which are so devoid of ostentation, that even among the learned, this modest concealment of your Scientia knowledge adorns you wonderfully and gracefully. Moreover, how great you are in the doctrine of law, both Roman and French, both political and ecclesiastical, is testified by those legal oracles which, like another Pomponius—whether our own or that ancient compiler of the Pandects the Digest of Roman Law—you pour forth daily with eloquence and vigor, drawn from the very heart of the cases. And this you do frequently, unprepared and unexpectedly. Therefore, we heartily congratulate you on your ornaments, your dignity, your wisdom, your steadfastness, and your erudition. And the prayers of the people augur for your white-haired years something still more sublime and august. Oh, if that sun would reveal such a bright day to us, France would never see anything more wholesome or more pleasing!

But perhaps these blandishments of glory do not capture you, and you prefer to lend attentive ears to the...