De proficiencium lectione.
From Hearing to Understanding
Advanced learners should sometimes study on their own, yet still listen wisely, since true understanding requires both teachable humility and personal effort.
Just as it belongs to beginners, as has been said, to listen to their teachers, so those who are making progress and those who have advanced should sometimes exercise themselves through their own efforts — although it is also beneficial for such people to listen, since the one who listens wisely will become wiser still. Hence Aristotle in the first book of the Ethics: 'The best,' he says, 'is the one who understands all things from himself; and good, in turn, is the one who listens well to one who speaks these things.' But the one who neither understands on his own nor, when hearing another, takes it to heart — this person seems useless.' These are Aristotle's words. From this comes that saying of Jerome quoted above: 'A teachable mind, even without a teacher, is praiseworthy.' Therefore the advanced student — that is, one who has been somewhat trained in the understanding of the Scriptures — ought gradually to exercise himself, namely: by reading, by meditating, by writing, by disputing — that is, by questioning or by responding. Since indeed, as Hugh says — quoted above from book three — two things especially exercise the mind, namely:
The Threefold Shape of Reading
Reading is described as threefold in kind and ordered by nature, with special attention to how one should approach texts methodically.
Reading and meditation. There are three kinds of reading:1 one where someone teaches, one where you learn, and one where you examine things on your own. We say, 'I read a book to someone,' and 'I read a book from someone,' and 'I read a book.'2 In reading, you should pay special attention to order and manner. . . Order is observed in the disciplines according to nature, as grammar is older than dialectic.3
Order and Method in Study
Good study requires following a fitting order in subjects and in texts, moving gradually from universals to particulars so that what is learned can be firmly received.
In books, according to — . . the subject matter; in narrative, according to the arrangement; . . in exposition — . . according to inquiry. . . The method of reading consists in dividing, so that. . . when one moves down from universal things to particular things. . . So, little by little— . . —the nature of the things that are contained in them should be investigated. . .
Gathering What Is Useful into Memory
Because memory grows weak when divided among too many things, one should choose fewer, shorter, and more useful works to read and remember.
From here it is necessary that what we have identified as things to be learned, we should gather together to be commended to memory. These things, Hugo. The manner of reading should also be this: since writings are infinite, let fewer, shorter, and more useful ones be chosen for reading from among them. Fewer, indeed, because, as Hugo says, 'the memory of a person, when it is divided among many things, becomes weaker in each individual thing.' And, 'one who is stretched toward many things has less insight into each particular.' In this matter too you need to observe a method, because, as Varro says, 'to know all things is impossible, but to know few things is not praiseworthy.' Shorter works, however, because, as Hugo says in the same place, 'the memory of a person is dull and delights in brevity.' Whence Cyprian the martyr, writing to Quirinus, says: 'Brevity is of great benefit to readers, since a longer book scatters not their understanding or sense, but by a more subtle summary, tenacious memory guards what is read.'
Choosing Useful Books
The reader must avoid both lukewarmness in good studies and effort spent on useless ones, choosing more profitable writings among the arts and their offshoots.
And they should choose the more useful works as well, because, as Varro says, 'certain things must also be rooted out from the mind of the learned person, precisely because they occupy the place that truth would otherwise fill.' Hugh says the same thing, in the passage quoted above: 'If you can't read everything, then read the things that are more useful.' . . Indeed, it seems that the reader ought to be no less careful not to waste effort on useless studies than not to grow lukewarm in pursuing a good and worthwhile aim. . . 'There are,' he says, 'two kinds of writings.'
The Arts and Their Shadows
Hugh distinguishes the core liberal arts from their appendages, such as poems, comedies, tragedies, and fables, which can distract from truth and yield meager fruit.
One kind, namely of the arts, . . and are subordinated to philosophy. . . such as grammar, dialectic, and the rest. Another area — the appendices and offshoots of the arts. . . And in some subjects they range outside philosophy altogether. . . Examples include the poems of the poets, comedies, and tragedies. . . Fables and stories too. . . Whoever, then, wants to attain knowledge will find their labor's material very great or infinite, and yet will find meager fruit, if they should wish to involve themselves in other matters of the arts while abandoning the truth. . . very great or infinite, and yet will find meager fruit.
Orderly Study and Mixed Reading
One should first devote effort to the seven liberal arts as foundations, then occasionally mix lighter reading with serious study, but without confusing the disciplines.
. . So it seems to me that you should first put your effort into the arts — especially the seven liberal arts, which are the foundation of all learning. Then, if time allows, you can read other works, because mixing lighter reading in with serious study sometimes makes the whole thing more enjoyable. . . But there are some who, even though they leave out nothing that ought to be read, still cannot give each art what properly belongs to it — instead they jumble everything together in every subject. These words are Hugo's. Furthermore, as Seneca says in his eighty-eighth letter to Lucilius: 'One can…'
Wisdom Beyond the Arts
Wisdom can be reached without the liberal arts, yet even vast learning leaves one worn out, so the mind must be cleared of superfluous things to receive what is great.
. . You can also arrive at wisdom without a liberal education. . . Whatever area of human or divine learning you master, you will be worn out by the sheer abundance of things still left to seek and learn. There are so many things, and they are so vast, that to make room for them freely you have to clear what is superfluous from your mind. .
The Vanity of Superfluous Knowledge
To pursue more knowledge than enough is intemperate, since superfluous learning makes people verbose and trivial, wasting time on childish questions instead of necessary truth.
. A great subject demands ample room. . . And to want to know more than enough is a kind of intemperance. What? Because this pursuit of the liberal arts makes people troublesome, verbose, and ill-timed, pleasing only to themselves, and so they do not learn what is necessary, because they have learned what is superfluous. Didymus the grammarian wrote four thousand books — he would certainly be wretched if he had also read so many superfluous things.4 In these books, you see, people ask about Homer's homeland, about the true mother of Aeneas— . . —and other things that really ought to be unlearned, if only they were known.'5 Seneca wrote these words against those who devote themselves to superfluous matters. But against those who consume their whole life in logic, the same Seneca says in letter 48a: 'Unless I construct the most cunning questions and build up a lie from a false conclusion arising out of truth, I will not be able to distinguish what is to be sought from what is to be avoided.'67 I am ashamed that in a matter this serious, grown men are playing games. 'Mouse' is a syllable; a mouse, however, gnaws cheese; therefore, a syllable gnaws cheese.'8
Leave These Trifles
Seneca rejects childish intellectual amusements, calling the learner back to what is open, simple, and good, because life is short and must be spent sparingly on what is truly necessary.
Suppose for a moment that I cannot solve this. What danger threatens me from that knowledge — what harm is there in it? . . . Oh, childish follies! . . What are you composing for me—these trifles, these bits of play? This is no place for jesting. . . What is open and simple befits goodness. Even if there were plenty of life left, it would need to be spent sparingly, so that it might suffice for what is truly necessary.9 But as things stand, what madness it is to go chasing after useless knowledge when time is so scarce!10 The same author writes in chapter 49: 'What you have not lost, you still have.'11
Death at My Heels
Pressed by death and fleeing life, the learner refuses trivial pursuits and begs to be taught something that can face mortality.
You have not lost your horns, so you have your horns. . . I am not free to bother with those trifles—I have an enormous task in hand. What am I to do? Death follows me; life is fleeing. Teach me something to face these things. Seneca said these things.
Deep Reading, Not Scattered Tasting
Even useful reading must not be skimmed hastily or scattered over many books; one must linger with chosen authors, as food swallowed quickly does no good and quickly slips away.
And there are others who, even though they apply themselves to what is necessary and useful, nevertheless read many different things hastily, skimming through them — so that they store up or digest little or nothing in the belly of memory. Against these, the same Seneca says in his second letter: First, I consider it a sign of a well-composed mind to be able to stand firm and to dwell with itself. But see to it that the reading of many authors and of diverse kinds of books does not leave something vague and unstable in you. You must linger over and be nourished by certain authors, if you want to draw something from them that will settle faithfully in your mind. The person who is everywhere is nowhere. . . Food that is immediately expelled once swallowed does you no good — nothing is of so much use that it helps in the passing. Nothing undermines health just as much as constantly switching remedies. So a multitude of books is distracting. . . It is the sign of a picky stomach to taste many things. Seneca said this. And from Varro to his Athenian student: 'Many people taste books the way they would sample delicacies at a feast.' . . But things that rush past are gone even faster.
Read the original Latin
Sicut autem ad incipientes, ut dictum est, pertinet a magistris audire, sic ad proficientes atque prouectos se per semetipsos interdum excercere, licet eciam talibus expediat et audire, quoniam audiens sapiens sapiencior erit. unde aristotiles in libro ethicorum i: ‘Obtimus est,’ inquit, ‘qui a se ipso omnia intelligit, bonus autem et rursus ille, qui bene dicenti hec audit. Qui autem nec ipse intelligit, nec alium audiens in mente iacit, hic inutilis uidetur.’ Hec aristotiles. hinc est illud eciam ieronimi superius positum: ‘Ingenium docile et sine doctore est laudabile.’ Debet itaque prouectus, id est circa scripturarum intelligenciam aliquatenus excercitatus semetipsum paulatim excercere, sc. legendo, meditando, scribendo, disputando, id est interrogando uel respondendo. Siquidem, ut dicit hugo, unde supra, libro iiio: ‘ingenium excercent precipue duo, sc.
lectio et meditacio. lectionis genus triplex est, sc. docentis, discentis, per se inspicientis. dicimus enim lego librum illi et lego librum ab illo et lego librum. In lectione consideranda sunt maxime ordo et modus . . . Ordo attenditur in disciplinis secundum naturam, ut gramatica antiquior est dyaletica.
In libris secundum . . . materiam, in narracione secundum disposicionem, . . . in exposicione . .
. secundum inquisicionem . . . Modus legendi constat in diuidendo, ut . . . cum ab uniuersalibus ad particularia descenditur .
. . sic paulatim . . . eorum, que continentur, natura inuestigetur . . .
De hinc oportet, ut que discenda diuisimus, conmendanda memorie colligamus.’ hec hugo. Modus eciam legendi est, ut, quoniam infinita sunt scripta, eligantur ad legendum ex eis pauciora et breuiora et utiliora. Pauciora quidem, quia, sicut dicit hugo, ‘memoria hominis, cum in multa diuiditur, in singulis minor efficitur.’ Et ‘pluribus intentus minor est ad singula sensus.’ In hoc eciam modum opportet obseruare, quia sicut dicit uarro: ‘omnia quidem nosse est impossibile, pauca uero non laudabile.’ Breuiora uero, quia, sicut dicit ibidem hugo: ‘memoria hominis hebes est ac breuitate gaudet.’ unde cyprianus martir ad quirinum: ‘legentibus,’ inquit, ‘breuitas plurimum prodest, dum non intellectum eorum uel sensum liber longior spargit, sed subtiliori compendio id, quod legitur, tenax memoria custodit.’
utiliora quoque, quia, sicut dicit uarro, ‘quedam ab animo quoque scientis eradenda essent eo, quod inserendi ueri locum occupant.’ hinc et hugo, ubi supra, ‘Si omnia,’ inquit, ‘non potes legere, ea que sunt utiliora, lege . . . videtur quippe non minus curandum esse lectori, ne in studiis inutilibus operam suam impendat, quam ne in bono et utili proposito tepidus remaneat . . . Duo sunt,’ inquit, ‘genera scripturarum.
unum sc. artium . . . que philosophie supponuntur . . . ut est gramatica, dyaletica, etc.
aliud eorum, que appendicia sunt artium . . . et in aliqua extra philosophiam materia versantur . . . ut sunt carmina poetarum, comedie, tragedie . .
. fabule quoque et hystorie . . . Quisquis igitur ad scienciam pertingere cupit, si relicta veritate artium reliquis se implicare uoluerit, materiam laboris . . . plurimam uel infinitam inueniet et fructum exiguum .
. . Quapropter michi videtur primum operam esse dandam artibus maxime vii liberalibus, que sunt fundamentum omnis doctrine; deinde, si uacat, cetera legantur, quia seriis admixta ludicra plus solent aliquando delectare . . . Quidam uero, licet ex hiis, que legenda sunt, nichil pretermittant, nulli tamen arti, quod suum est, tribuere norunt, sed in singulis omnes confundunt.’ hec hugo. Ceterum, ut ait seneca in epistola ad lucilium lxxxviii: ‘potest .
. . eciam sine liberalibus studiis ad sapienciam ueniri . . . quamcumque,’ inquit, ‘partem rerum humanarum diuinarumque conprehenderis, ingenti copia querendorum ac discendorum fatigaberis. hec tam multa, tam magna ut habere possint liberum hospicium, superuacua ex animo tollenda sunt . .
. laxum spacium res magna desiderat . . . et plus scire uelle, quam satis est, intemperancie genus est. Quid? quod ista liberalium artium consectacio molestos, uerbosos, intempestiuos, sibi placentes facit, et ideo non discentes necessaria, quia didicerunt superuacua. Didimus gramaticus quatuor milia librorum scripsit, qui utique miser esset, si tam multa superuacua eciam legisset.
In hiis enim libris de patria homeri queritur, de uera enee matre . . . et alia, que pocius dediscenda essent, si scirentur.’ hec seneca contra illos, qui superuacuis intendunt. Contra illos autem, qui totum uite tempus in logica consumunt, dicit idem in epistola xlviiia: ‘Nisi uaferrimas interrogaciones struxero et falsa conclusione nascens a uero mendacium astruxero, non a fugiendis petenda secernere potero. Pudet me, quod in re tam seria senes ludimus. “Mus est sillaba, mus autem caseum rodit, sillaba ergo caseum rodit.”
Puta me nunc istud soluere non posse. Quid michi ex ista sciencia periculum imminet, quod incommodum est? . . . O pueriles inepcias . . .
quid michi lusoria ista conponis? Non est iocandi locus . . . aperta decent et simplicia bonitatem. eciam si multum superesset etatis, parce dispensandum erat, ut sufficeret necessariis. Nunc uero, que demencia est superuacua discere in tanta temporis egestate.’ Idem in xlixa: ‘Quod enim non perdidisti, habes.
cornua non perdidisti, ergo cornua habes . . . Non uaco ad istas inepcias, ingens negocium in manibus est. quid agam? Mors me sequitur, uita fugit. Aduersus hec me doce aliquid.’ hec seneca.
Sunt autem et alij, qui et si necessariis et utilibus intendunt, multa tamen et varia raptim transcurrendo legunt, ita, quod parum aut nichil in uentre memorie recondunt aut digerunt. Contra quos dicit idem seneca in epistola iia. ‘primum argumentum conposite mentis existimo posse consistere et secum morari. Illud autem uide, ne lectio multorum actorum et diuersi generis voluminum aliquid habeat uagum et instabile. Certis ingeniis immorari et innutriri oportet, si vis aliquid trahere, quod in animo fideliter sedeat. Nusquam est, qui ubique est . . .
Non prodest cibus, qui statim sumptus emittitur, nichilque tam utile est, quod in transitu prosit. Nichil eciam sanitatem eque inpedit, ut remediorum crebra mutatio. Itaque distrahit librorum multitudo . . . fastidientis quoque stomachi est multa degustare.’ hec seneca. Hinc et uarro ad atheniensem auditorem: ‘Multi,’ ait, ‘libros degustant ut conuiue delicias .
. . sed cito transcursa cicius dilabuntur.’
Notes
- 1 ↩sc. is an abbreviation expanded as scilicet ('namely'), introducing the threefold classification that follows.
- 2 ↩enim introduces the illustrative examples that explain the three kinds of reading just named.
- 3 ↩ut here introduces an example ('as') rather than a purpose clause; the sense is that grammar naturally precedes dialectic in the order of learning.
- 4 ↩Didymus (Didimus) is a proper name; the Latin orthographic variant is preserved in translation.
- 5 ↩The closing quotation mark in the normalized text suggests this is a continuation of a quoted passage begun in s1, but the source of the quotation is not identified in the supplied data.
- 6 ↩The struxero/astruxero forms are ambiguous between future perfect indicative and perfect subjunctive; the conditional sense of the nisi-clause favors a future-referring reading, rendered here as 'Unless I construct… I will not be able.'
- 7 ↩The embedded quotation is attributed to Seneca, Ep. 48a; not scriptural.
- 8 ↩This is a well-known example of a sophistical syllogism (the fallacy of equivocation on mus). The humor is preserved in translation.
- 9 ↩ut introduces a purpose clause: the sparing use of time is ordered toward sufficiency for necessities.
- 10 ↩uero marks a shift from the preceding reflection to an exasperated, direct challenge; rendered with 'but as things stand' to capture the adversative discourse force.
- 11 ↩xlixa is the Roman numeral 49; the quoted saying is attributed to the same author referenced in the surrounding context (likely Seneca, given the attribution in the following section).
De eruditione filiorum nobilium (On the Education of Noble Children) companion
Formation starts with the parents' own practice
Model a daily devotional habit your children can see — Chosen Portion makes it a free 10-minute routine.
Vincent taught that children are formed by the daily practices of their household; Chosen Portion gives parents the daily devotional practice that anchors that household rhythm.
- A short daily devotional you can read before the kids wake up
- Family-friendly portions from the same historic tradition Vincent drew on
- Build a visible 30-day habit your children can imitate