De tribus necessariis addiscenti.
Three Necessities for Learning
Hugh of St Victor identifies nature, exercise, and discipline as the three necessities for learning, with natural ability and memory joined as inseparable gifts.
Three things, then — as Hugh says in Book Four of the Didascalicon — are necessary for learning, namely: nature, exercise, discipline. In nature, the concern is that one may easily grasp what is heard and firmly retain what has been grasped. In exercise, the aim is that through effort and diligence one may cultivate the natural capacity for understanding.1 In discipline, the goal is that one who lives well may shape one's character together with knowledge.2 . . To nature, therefore, belong natural ability and memory — two faculties that are so closely joined to one another in every course of study that one is of no benefit without the other.
Nature, Memory, and Natural Ability
The text defines memory as the retentive power of the senses and imagination, and natural ability as an inborn mental power that is helped by practice and dulled by idleness.
Just as no gains are any good where there's no guardianship, so it's pointless to store up treasures when there's nothing to store. Natural ability discovers wisdom; memory guards it. Memory is the retentive power of things that have been placed before the senses, or even before the imagination. Natural ability is a certain power naturally inborn in the mind, effective by itself. Natural ability comes from nature, is helped by practice, is blunted by excessive labor, and is sharpened by measured exercise. . . Two things exercise natural ability — reading, namely.
Exercise as Virtue of the Mind
Exercise is described as a virtue of the mind that keeps a person busy with honorable studies, avoiding the softness of idleness, as supported by classical and scriptural authorities.
—and meditation, about which, namely— I'll have more to say about this below. Now Hugh is talking here about nature, to which, as he says, natural talent and memory belong. Exercise, however, is a virtue of the mind by which a person, scorning or detesting the softness or rust of idleness, keeps himself busy with good and honorable studies or activities, so that no empty time slips by — according to that saying of Ecclesiasticus 14: 'Do not let yourself be cheated of a good day, and let not even a small part of a good day pass you by.'3 Here, though, we're taking that part of exercise which consists in the occupation of study, about which Cicero says in the first book of the Tusculan Disputations: 'There's a Greek proverb — which everyone knows — "Let each person practice the art he knows."'4 Hence also Gaufridus in his Poetics:
Practice, Use, and Imitation
Practice produces reliable use, and imitation makes skilled craftsmen, three concurrent factors for reaching the highest level.
Practice produces reliable, ready use, and imitation makes skilled craftsmen fit — three concurrent factors for reaching the highest level.
Training the External and Internal Senses
The student must train both external senses (hearing and sight) and internal faculties (natural ability and understanding) through listening, reading, investigating, and meditating, as Solomon teaches.
He calls it an exercise, in which— By exercise—just as Hugo has said—attention is given, so that through effort and diligence the natural sense is cultivated. Now a person's sense is twofold, and each must be laboriously trained for learning—the external, that is: hearing and sight, and the internal, that is— natural ability and understanding. Let the student therefore train the ear by listening, the eye by reading, natural ability by investigating, and understanding by meditating. For concerning the laborious exercise of natural ability, Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 10: 'If the iron has been blunted, and it was not so before but has grown dull, it will be sharpened by much effort, and after diligence wisdom follows.' Here 'iron' stands for a person's natural ability or mind, because of the sharpness of its keenness.
The Blourishing of the Mind Through Discipline
Idleness blunts and rusts the mind as iron is corroded, while disciplined study sharpens and brightens it, as Jerome and Ovid attest.
And just as idleness blunts iron, blackens it, rusts it, and eats it away, so on the other hand use sharpens it, brightens it, polishes it, and keeps it free from the corrosion of rust — so too does leisure or sloth blunt the human mind and bring upon it all the same effects just described.56 Hence, drawing on the passage just cited, Jerome says: 'In leisure the mind's talent is dulled, and sloth is, as it were, a kind of rust on wisdom.'78 And so too Ovid, in the fourth book of the Tristia:910
The Field Left Unplowed
A neglected field yields only thorns and weeds, just as a mind left without cultivation grows numb and unproductive unless renewed by constant labor.
A natural ability damaged by long neglect grows numb and is far less productive than it once was, unless it's renewed by constant plowing.11 A field will yield nothing but thorns unless it's cleared of thorns — it will have nothing but weeds.✦12
Discipline as Remedy for Idleness
Discipline cleanses the mind from the rust of vices, preserves it from sin, and sharpens it through learning from others, as Solomon teaches that iron sharpens iron.
And so, against the aforementioned evils that idleness brings to the human mind, the practice of study or discipline sharpens it with keenness, polishes it with the brightness of purity and innocence, and smooths away its roughness. e. It cleanses the mind from the rust of vices and keeps it safe from every corrosion of sin. Solomon, then, is careful to point out these four evils of sloth and these four goods of exercise, so that idleness may be fled and the practice of discipline may be sought. Regarding this same exercise, by which the mind is sharpened through learning, the same Solomon says in Proverbs 27: 'Iron is sharpened by iron, and a person sharpens the face of a neighbor.'✦ For just as iron is sharpened by iron through collision, so also a disciple's mind or talent is sharpened through receiving teaching from a teacher. But it matters greatly in which doctrines, or in what subject matter of teaching, they are educated. For what good is it that, to this very day, the minds and tongues of children are steeped in poetic fables and wanton inventions?
The Danger of Pagan Fables in Education
The minds of children should not be steeped in poetic fables and wanton inventions, which are useless and pernicious for morals, as Valerius Maximus, Isidore, and the example of Christian poets show.
For even if poetic teaching is useful as far as metrical rules go, it is useless — nay, rather, pernicious — when it comes to the fables mentioned above. Whence Valerius Maximus, in the sixth book, relates that 'the Lacedaemonians had the books of Achilochus exported from their city, because they judged the reading of them to be little modest and little chaste.'13 For they were unwilling for the minds of their children to be imbued with them, lest the reading harm their morals more than it benefited their talents. These are Valerius's own words. Hence also Isidore says in the Book of Sentences: 'For this reason a Christian is forbidden to read the fictions of the poets, because through the delights of fables they excessively stir up the mind to the incitements of lust.' For not only is incense sacrificed to demons by offering it, but their sayings are taken up all the more eagerly. There are also other metrical books, very ancient as well, in which students could be taught equally usefully — nay, much more usefully — in the art of metrics: for example, the books of Juvencus the priest on the history of the four Gospels, the book of Arator on the Acts of the Apostles, and also the book of epigrams by Prosper, a most religious man, on the sayings of blessed Augustine. But there is also the book of Prudentius on the conflict of vices and virtues, and the paschal poem of Sedulius; besides these there is also the book of Matthew on holy Tobias, the Bible versified by Peter of Riga, and very many other works.
Augustine's Lament Over Worldly Learning
Augustine confesses from his own youth how he was compelled to memorize the wanderings of the Aeneid while forgetting his own wanderings from God, weeping for Dido but not for his own spiritual death.
In these books they could certainly be instructed profitably both in the art of grammar, as far as the letter goes, and also in faith and morals, as far as the actual content of the books is concerned. On this point Augustine complains in his book of Confessions, confessing the sins of his boyhood, and among other things speaks as follows: 'I was compelled,' he says, 'to memorize — I don't even know whose — wanderings of the Aeneid, having forgotten my own wanderings, and to weep for Dido dead, because she killed herself for love, when meanwhile I myself was dying before your eyes, because I did not love you — and I, most wretched, bore it all with dry eyes.'1415 For what is more wretched than a wretched person who has no pity on himself? . . Woe to you, river of human custom! . .
The River of Human Custom
Augustine cries out against the river of human custom that drives sons into a fearsome sea, questioning how Jupiter could be both thunderer and adulterer, and how Homer assigned divine things to wicked men.
As long as you haven't dried out. How long will you, ah, drive your sons into the great and fearsome sea, which those who have boarded a ship can scarcely cross? Don't I understand Jupiter — both the thunderer and the adulterer? And certainly these two things could not coexist, but it was done so that he would have authority as a model for imitating an adulterer — with a false thunderclap alluring instead. Homer made these things up. . . by assigning divine things to wicked men, lest wicked deeds be thought wicked, but rather whoever had done these things —
Words, Wine, and Drunken Teachers
Words are not learned more properly through shameful acts; rather, the wine of error poured by drunken teachers corrupts those who drink from such instruction.
. . He would seem to have imitated the gods. . . And so words are not more properly learned through the aforementioned shameful acts, but through such words those people more confidently commit shameful deeds. I'm not condemning the words themselves, as though they were choice and precious vessels, but the wine of error that was poured out to us in them by drunken teachers. .
A Boy of Good Hope
Augustine recalls that he took delight in these things and was called a boy of good hope, yet asks whether there was no other way his ability and tongue could be trained, since now the praises of God through Scripture have lifted his heart toward God.
. Yet I, a wretch, took delight in these things, and because of this I was called a boy of good hope. . . Was there really no other way my ability and tongue could be trained? But now your praises, Lord — your praises through the holy Scriptures — have lifted the tendril of my heart toward you, so that it would not be snatched away by empty trifles as shameful prey for birds of prey.16 For it is not in only one way that one is sacrificed to the angels of transgressors.17 Augustine says these things concerning training.
The Discipline of the Scholar
Discipline shapes character together with knowledge, and Boethius describes the ideal scholar as pure, modest, courageous, obedient, ready for service, slow to contradict, and free from arrogance.
Finally, as has been said, it belongs to discipline that a student or scholar, living commendably, should shape his character together with knowledge. Whence Boethius, where he writes above: 'Let the scholar have a pure gift, a modest portion, enduring hardships courageously, always striving toward the highest things, and obedient to everyone.' . . Ready for service, slow to contradict, faithful in compliance, gentle in obedience. . . And whole in conversation, free from the arrogance of the heart.
Transition to Moral Discipline
The discipline of morals necessary for learners has been discussed previously and will be treated further below in the instruction of children in conduct.
On this subject as well, namely: The discipline of morals, which is necessary for those who are learning, has already been discussed in the preceding chapter and will be treated further below, where the instruction of children in conduct must be addressed.
Read the original Latin
Tria uero, sicut dicit hugo in libro didascalicon iiio sunt ‘ad discendum necessaria, sc. natura, exercicium, disciplina. In natura consideratur, ut audita facile percipiat et percepta firmiter custodiet. In exercicio, ut labore et sedulitate naturalem sensum excolat. In disciplina, ut laudabiliter uiuens mores cum sciencia componat . . . Ad naturam itaque pertinent ingenium et memoria, que duo ita sibi in omni studio coherent, ut unum non prosit, si alterum desit.
sicut nulla prosunt lucra, ubi deest custodia; et incassum receptacula munit, qui, quod recondat, non habuit. Ingenium quippe sapienciam inuenit; memoria custodit. Est autem memoria uis retentiua eorum, que sensibus supposita fuerint uel etiam ymaginibus. Ingenium est vis quedam naturaliter animo insita, per se valens. Ingenium a natura proficiscitur, usu iuuatur, immoderato labore retunditur et exercicio temperato acuitur . . . Ingenium exercent duo, lectio scil.
et meditacio,’ de quibus scil. plenius dicetur inferius. Hec autem dicit hugo de natura, ad quam, ut dicit, ‘pertinent ingenium et memoria. Excercitacio autem est uirtus animi, qua quis molliciem siue rubiginem ocii fastidiens aut detestans assidue bonis honestisque studiis uel actibus se occupat, ut nullum tempus uacuum pretereat,’ iuxta illud ecclesiastici xiiii: ‘Non defrauderis a die bono et particula diei boni non te pretereat.’ Hic autem accipimus illam partem exercicii, que est in occupacione studii, de qua dicit tullius in tusculanario libro io: ‘Grecorum prouerbium est “Quam quisque nouit artem, in hac se exerceat.” ’ Hinc et gaufridus in poetria:
Ars certos usus promptos, imitacio reddit artifices aptos, tria concurrencia summos.
usum uocat excercicium, in quo scil. exercicio, sicut dictum est iuxta hugonem, attenditur, ut labore ac sedulitate naturalis sensus excolatur. Est autem duplex hominis sensus, uterque laboriose ad doctrinam excercitandus, exterior, scil. auditus et uisus, et interior, scil. ingenium et intellectus. Excerceat ergo discipulus auditum in audiendo, uisum in legendo, ingenium inuestigando, Intellectum in meditando. nam de laborioso ingenii excercicio dicit salomon ecclesiaste x: ‘si retusum fuerit ferrum et hoc non, ut prius, sed exhebetatum fuerit, multo labore exacuetur, et post industriam sequitur sapiencia.’ Ubi ferrum uocatur humanum ingenium siue mens propter perspicacitatis accumen.
Et sicut ociositas ferrum obtundit ac denigrat, rubiginat et consumit, Econtra uero usus illud exacuit, dealbat, elimat et a corrupcione rubiginis conseruat, Sic humanam mentem ocium uel desidia obtundit ac cetera predicta in ea facit. Unde super predicto verbo dicit Jeronymus: ‘Ocio ingenium hebetatur, et desidia est quasi quedam rubigo sapiencie.’ Hinc et ouidius in libro tristium iiiio:
Ingenium longa rubigine lesum Torpet et est multo quam fuit ante, minus fertilis, assiduo si non renouetur aratro. Nil nisi cum spinis gramen habebit ager.
Itaque contra predicta mala, que facit ociositas menti humane, excercitacio studii uel discipline illam exacuit, perspicacitate dealbat, candore puritatis et innocentie elimat, i. e. a rubigine viciorum detergit et ab omni peccati corrosione illesam custodit. Hec ergo quatuor desidie mala et quatuor exercicii bona ibi salomon insinuare nititur, ut ocium fugiatur et exercicium discipline requiratur. de quo eciam exercicio, quo ingenium acuitur in discendo, dicit idem in prouerbiis xxvii: ‘Ferrum ferro acuitur et homo exacuit faciem proximi sui.’ sicut enim ferrum acuitur ferro per collisionem, sic et discipuli mens uel ingenium acuitur per doctrine a magistro recepcionem. Sed multum refert, in quibus doctrinis uel in qua doctrine materia erudiantur. At quid enim usque hodie paruulorum sensus et lingue poeticis fabulis ac luxuriosis figmentis imbuuntur?
Nam et si doctrina poetica sit utilis quantum ad regulas metricas, inutilis tamen est, immo perniciosa quantum ad fabulas predictas. unde valerius maximus libro vio refert, quod ‘lacedemonii libros achilochi e ciuitate sua fecerant exportari, eo quod parum uerecundam ac pudicam illorum arbitrabantur lectionem. Noluerunt enim liberorum suorum animos imbui, ne plus eorum moribus obesset, quam ingeniis prodesset.’ hec valerius. Hinc eciam dicit ysidorus in libro sentenciarum: ‘Ideo prohibitur christianus poetarum figmenta legere, quia per oblectamenta fabularum nimium mentem excitant ad incentiua libidinum. Non enim solum immolatur demonibus thura offerendo, sed eciam eorum dicta libencius capiendo.’ Sunt autem et alii libri metrici eciam antiquissimi, in quibus eque utiliter, immo multo utilius in arte metrica possent edoceri, verbi gracia libri iuuenci presbiteri de historia quatuor euangeliorum, liber aratoris de actibus apostolorum, liber eciam epygrammatum prosperi, religiosissimi uiri, de dictis beati Augustini. Sed et liber de conflictu viciorum atque uirtutum prudencii, carmen quoque paschale sedulii; preter hos eciam extat liber mathei de sancto thobia, biblia quoque a petro riga uersificata et alia plurima.
In quibus utique possent instrui salubriter et in arte grammatica quantum ad litteram et eciam in fide ac moribus quantum ad ipsam librorum materiam. Unde de hoc conqueritur augustinus in libro confessionum io peccata puericie sue confitens et inter alia sic loquens: ‘Tenere,’ inquit, ‘tunc cogebar enee nescio cuius errores, oblitus errorum meorum, et plorare didonem mortuam, quia se occidit ob amorem, cum interea me ipsum in hiis a te morientem, quia te non amantem siccis occulis miserrimus ferrem. Quid enim miserius misero non miserante seipsum . . . ve tibi, flumen moris humani . . .
quamdiu non siccaberis. Quousque volues eue filios in mare magnum et formidolosum, quod uix transeunt, qui lignum conscenderunt. Nonne ego intelligo iouem et tonantem et adulterantem. Et utique non posset hec duo, sed actum est, ut haberet auctoritatem ad imitandum adulterum, uerum lenocinante tonitru falso. Fingebat hec homerus . . . diuina tribuendo flagiciosis hominibus, ne flagicia flagicia putarentur, sed quisquis ea fecisset, .
. . deos imitatus esse videretur . . . Itaque non per predictas turpitudines commodius uerba discuntur, sed per talia uerba turpitudines ille confidencius perpetrantur. Nec accuso uerba, quasi uasa electa et preciosa, sed uinum erroris, quod nobis propinabatur in eis a doctoribus ebriis . .
. hiis tamen delectabar miser et ob hoc appellabar bone spei puer . . . Itane aliud non inueniebatur, quo ingenium et lingua mea excerceretur? nunc autem laudes tue, domine, laudes tue per scripturas sanctas suspenderunt palmitem cordis mei ad te, ut non raperetur per inania nugarum, turpis preda uolatilibus. Non enim unico modo sacrificatur angelis transgressoribus.’ hec augustinus de excercicio.
Denique ad disciplinam, ut dictum est, spectat, ut discipulus siue scolaris laudabiliter uiuens mores cum sciencia componat. unde boecius ubi supra: ‘Sit scolari facultas munda, porcio contenta, uiriliter incursus perferens, ad summa semper hanelans et omnibus obediens, . . . famulatui prompta, ad obloquendum tarda, fidelis obsequio, dulcis . . . integraque colloquio, cordis tumorositate carens.’
De hac quoque materia, scil. de morum disciplina, que necessaria est addiscentibus, iam in precedenti capitulo dictum est et adhuc inferius dicetur, ubi agendum est de instruccione puerorum in moribus.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Gen.3.17-Gen.3.18 — And to Adam he said, "Because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Gen.3.18 — And thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.
- ↩Prov.27.17 — Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the face of another.
Notes
- 1 ↩sensus rendered as 'capacity for understanding' rather than 'sense' to capture the intellectual sense of naturalem sensum in this pedagogical context.
- 2 ↩cum rendered as 'together with' (comitative) rather than causal/temporal; the sense is that character is formed in conjunction with knowledge, not merely because of it or at the same time as it.
- 3 ↩Quotation from Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 14 — deuterocanonical; absent from Moses. Preserved without quote marks per deuterocanical policy, but rendered here as a direct quotation since the Latin introduces it with 'iuxta illud'. Final resolution deferred to tx-08.
- 4 ↩Latin 'io' rendered as 'first book' (Roman numeral I). The embedded Greek proverb is presented as a quotation within Cicero's text.
- 5 ↩The sicut…sic correlative structure is preserved to maintain the parallel between the iron simile and its application to the mind. Econtra uero marks the sharp contrast between the destructive effect of idleness and the beneficial effect of use.
- 6 ↩Ocium and desidia are near-synonyms here (leisure/idleness and sloth), joined by uel as disjunctive alternatives describing the same harmful condition.
- 7 ↩Unde rendered as 'hence' to capture the inferential force — Jerome's saying follows from the principle just stated.
- 8 ↩Ingenium rendered as 'mind's talent' to convey both the intellectual faculty and its God-given sharpness. Quasi quedam rubigo sapiencie: the simile is preserved with 'as it were, a kind of rust on wisdom.'
- 9 ↩Hinc et rendered as 'And so too' to capture the inferential-temporal force (hinc = 'hence/from this') combined with the additive et, linking Ovid's testimony to the same point.
- 10 ↩Roman numeral iiiio normalized as 4 (Book IV of the Tristia).
- 11 ↩The ablative phrase 'longa rubigine' ('by long rust/neglect') is syntactically ambiguous between ablative of cause and attendant circumstance; the translation reads it as cause, which best fits the extended rust-and-plow metaphor.
- 12 ↩'Nil nisi cum spinis gramen' is compressed and syntactically tight. The reading taken here: the field will have grass (gramen) only along with thorns — i.e., nothing useful. 'Cum spinis' read as ablative of accompaniment with 'gramen' rather than with 'habebit'.
- 13 ↩The form 'achilochi' is uncertain; it is treated here as a genitive of a proper name (possibly Achilochus).
- 14 ↩The Latin 'enee nescio cuius errores' is rendered as 'wanderings of the Aeneid' (i.e., the errors/wanderings recounted in Virgil's Aeneid), following the sense of the passage. The genitive 'enee' is treated as a title reference.
- 15 ↩The quoted passage is from Augustine's Confessions, not Scripture, but the 'dry eyes' motif and the lament over spiritual death echo biblical language of mourning and hardness of heart.
- 16 ↩palmitem cordis: the image is of a vine-shoot or tendril of the heart reaching up toward God; 'birds of prey' renders uolatilibus metaphorically as predators seizing what is hung low.
- 17 ↩sacrificatur angelis transgressoribus: the sense is that the soul is handed over or offered up to the angels of sinners — i.e., to demonic powers — through sin. The exact theological nuance is compressed; the clause appears to echo a known saying.
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