And so the scholars strove to take down all his talks, word for
word, as they emanated from his lips, and to adopt them with
great eagerness. Moreover, on a certain day when the concourse
from all parts to hear him was great, when the lecture was over
and was followed by a murmur of favorable applause from all the
throng, a certain distinguished Doctor who both had lectured on
the Arts at Paris and long studied on the laws at Bologna, whose
name was Master Roger the Norman, ... broke out openly in
expressions of this sort: "There is not such knowledge under the
sun, and if it were by chance reported at Paris, it would, beyond
a doubt, carry incomparable weight there, far more so than
anywhere else." Now the opening--as it were, the proem--of that
talk I have not considered it inappropriate to introduce here; so
this is the way it began:
"I had proposed to hear before being heard, to learn before
speaking, to hesitate before debating. For to cultured ears and
to men of the highest eloquence my speech will appear to have
little marrow in its views, and its poverty of words will seem
jejune. For idle is it, and utterly superfluous, to offer that
which is arid to the eloquent, and that which is stale to men of
knowledge and wisdom. Whence our Moral Seneca, and, quoting from
him, Sidonius, says:
"'Until Nature has drunk in knowledge, it is not greater glory to
speak what you know than to be silent about what you do not
know.
Pages:
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146