De studio quaerendi.
The Rigors of Ancient Devotion
The ancients endured extreme hardships and scorned worldly honors to devote themselves entirely to contemplation, reminding us that our own diligence always falls short.
The pursuit of inquiry is a form of training, and in it the reader needs encouragement more than instruction. For whoever has wanted to look carefully at what the ancients endured for the sake of their love of wisdom, and at how many memorable monuments of their virtue they left behind for posterity, will see that however great his own diligence may be, it falls short. Some trampled on honors, others threw away riches, some rejoiced at the wrongs they received, others scorned punishments; some, abandoning the company of others, made their way into the most remote retreats and the hidden places of the wilderness, and alone they gave themselves over to philosophy, so that the more fully they had freed their minds from all the desires that usually block the path of virtue, the more freely they could devote themselves to contemplation. Parmenides the philosopher is said to have settled on a rock in Egypt for fifteen years. And Prometheus, because of his excessive devotion to study, is recorded to have been left exposed to a vulture on Mount Caucasus. For because they knew that true goodness is hidden not in people's estimation but in a pure conscience, and that those who cling to passing things fail to recognize what is truly good are no longer truly human, therefore, by as much as they differed from others in mind and understanding, they showed by the very distance of their dwelling places, so that no single home might hold those whom a shared purpose did not unite. Someone was telling a philosopher, 'Don't you see that people are mocking you?' And he replied, 'They mock me, and I mock them — and they are donkeys.'
Wisdom's Warmth in Aging
True wisdom does not abandon the devout in old age but rather flourishes and brings sweet fruit as the body declines.
Consider, if you can, how much he valued being praised by those whose criticism he didn't fear. Of another it's recorded that after all his scholarly pursuits and the sharpest achievements of the arts, he came down to the potter's trade. And when certain other disciples were praising their teacher with words of acclaim, among other things they boasted that he lacked no skill even in cobbling. I would want this same diligence in our readers, therefore, so that wisdom would never grow old in them. Abishag the Shunammite alone could warm old David, because the love of wisdom doesn't abandon its devoted follower even as the body wastes away.✦ Nearly all the body's powers are altered in old age, and while wisdom alone grows, everything else declines. For the old age of those who have built up their youth with honorable deeds grows wiser with the years, more sober through experience, more prudent with the passage of time, and reaps the sweetest fruits of long study. Hence that wise man of Greece, Themistocles, when he realized he was dying at the completed age of one hundred and seven, is said to have grieved that he was departing from life just when he had begun to be wise.
Philosophers Who Persevered
Great philosophers like Plato, Socrates, and Pythagoras remained active in their pursuit of wisdom even into extreme old age.
Plato died at the age of eighty-one, still writing. Socrates completed ninety-nine years in the pain and labor of teaching and writing. I pass over the other philosophers — Pythagoras, Democritus, Xenocrates, Zeno, and the Eleatic — who flourished in the pursuit of wisdom even at a great age.1
The Swan Song of the Wise
Poets and statesmen alike produced their sweetest and most profound work in their twilight years, proving that love for wisdom only grows stronger with age.
I turn to the poets — Homer, Hesiod, Simonides, and the Tersichori, who though great in age sang I know not what swan-like thing, sweeter than usual, as death drew near. When Sophocles, after extreme old age and neglect of his household affairs, was accused of madness by his sons, he recited to the judge the play of Oedipus that he had recently written, and gave such a display of wisdom in now broken old age that he turned the severity of the courts into the favor of the theater. And it's no wonder, since even Cato the Censor, the most eloquent man of Roman stock, when already an old man did not blush to learn Greek letters, nor did he despair of it. At any rate, Homer tells us that the speech of Nestor — now aged and almost decrepit — flowed sweeter than honey from his tongue. Notice, therefore, how greatly those people loved wisdom, whom not even decrepit old age could turn away from its pursuit.
The Thunder and Fervor of Wisdom
The etymological interpretations of Abishag and the Shunammite reveal that old age is marked by the abundant voice of God and the burning fervor of wisdom.
So great a love of wisdom, so great an abundance of prudence in the old — this, fittingly, is also gathered from the very interpretation of the name mentioned above. For 'Abisag' is interpreted as 'my father is superfluous' or 'the roaring of my father,' from which it is shown that the thunder of divine discourse — most abundant and beyond human voice — dwells in the old. For in this passage the word 'superfluous' means fullness, not redundancy. Furthermore, the Shunammite in our language is called 'scarlet,' which can fittingly enough signify the fervor of wisdom.✦
Read the original Latin
Studium quaerendi ad exercitium pertinet, in quo exhortatione magis quam doctrina lector indiget. qui enim diligenter inspicere voluerit quid antiqui propter amorem sapientiae pertulerint, quam memoranda posteris virtutis suae monimenta reliquerint, quamlibet suam diligentiam inferiorem esse videbit. alii calcabant honores, alii proiecerunt divitias, alii acceptis iniuriis gaudebant, alii poenas spreverunt, alii contubernia hominum deserentes, ultimos recessus et secreta eremi penetrantes, soli se philosophiae dedicabant, ut eo contemplationi vacarent liberius, quo nullis quae virtutis iter impedire solent cupiditatibus animum subiecissent. Parmenides philosophus quindecim annis in rupe Aegyptia consedisse legitur. et Prometheus ob immodicam meditandi curam in monte Caucaso vulturi expositus memoratur. quia enim sciebant verum bonum non in aestimatione hominum sed in pura conscientia esse absconditum, et eos iam non homines esse, qui rebus perituris inhaerentes bonum suum non agnoscerent, ideo, quantum mente et intelligentia a ceteris differrent, ipsa locorum distantia demonstrabant, ne una teneret habitatio quos non eadem sociabat intentio. quidam philosopho referebat dicens: Numquid non vides quia te derident homines? et ille: Ipsi me, inquit, derident, et eos asini.
cogita si potes, quanti aestimaverit laudari ab his, a quibus nec vituperari timuit. de alio rursum legitur, quod post omnia disciplinarum studia et artium acumina ad opus figuli descenderit. et alterius cuiusdam discipuli cum laudibus magistrum suum efferrent, inter cetera nec sutoriae peritia eum carere gloriati sunt. hanc igitur diligentiam in nostris lectoribus es se vellem, ut numquam in eis senesceret sapientia. sola Abisag Sunamitis senem David calefecit quia amor sapientiae etiam marcescente corpore dilectorem suum non deserit. omnes paene virtutes corporis mutantur in senibus, et crescente sola sapientia, decrescunt cetera. senectus enim illorum qui adolescentiam suam honestis actibus instruxerunt, aetate fit doctior, usu tristior, processu temporis sapientior, et veterum studiorum dulcissimos fructus metit. unde et sapiens ille vir Graeciae, Themistocles, cum expletis centum septem annis se mori cerneret, dixisse fertur se dolere quod egrederetur de vita quando sapere coepisset.
Plato lxxxi anno scribens mortuus est. Socrates xcviiii annos in docendi scribendique dolore laboreque complevit. taceo ceteros philosophos, Pythagoram, Democritum, Xenocratem, Zenonem, et Eleantem qui iam aetate longaeva in sapientiae studiis floruerunt.
Ad poetas venio, Homerum, Hesiodum, Simonidem, Tersicorum, qui grandes natu cycneum nescio quid et solito dulcius vicina morte cecinerunt. Sophocles cum post nimiam senectutem, et rei familiaris neglegentiam, a filiis accusaretur amentiae, Oedippi fabulam, quam nuper scripserat, recitavit iudici, et tantum sapientiae in aetate iam fracta specimen dedit, ut severitatem tribunalium in favorem theatri converteret. nec mirum cum etiam Cato censorius et Romani generis disertissimus, iam senex graecas litteras discere nec erubuerit nec desperaverit. certe Homerus refert quod de lingua Nestoris, iam vetuli et paene decrepiti, dulcior melle oratio fluxerit. animadverte igitur quantum amaverint sapientiam quos nec decrepita aetas ab eius inquisitione potuit revocare. iste igitur tantus amor sapientiae, tanta in senibus prudentiae abundantia, congrue etiam ex ipsius supradicti nominis interpretatione colligitur. interpretatur enim Abisag, pater meus superfluus, vel, patris mei rugitus, ex quo ostenditur abundantissimum, et ultra humanam vocem in senibus divini sermonis tonitruum commorari. verbum namque superfluum in hoc loco plenitudinem, non redundantiam, significat.
porro Sunamitis in lingua nostra coccinea dicitur, quod satis convenienter fervorem sapientiae significare potest.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Kgs.1.1-1Kgs.1.4 — Now King David was old, advanced in years; and though they covered him with garments, he could not get warm. 1Kgs.1.2 — His servants said to him, "Let a young virgin be sought for my lord the king, and let her stand before the king and be his attendant; and let her lie in your embrace, that my lord the king may be warmed." 1Kgs.1.3 — And they searched for a young woman beautiful throughout all the territory of Israel, and they found Abishag the Shunammite, and they brought her to the king. 1Kgs.1.4 — And the young woman was very beautiful, and she was a caretaker to the king, and the king did not know her.
- ↩1Kgs.1.3-1Kgs.1.4;1Kgs.1.3-1Kgs.1.4 — And they searched for a young woman beautiful throughout all the territory of Israel, and they found Abishag the Shunammite, and they brought her to the king. 1Kgs.1.4 — And the young woman was very beautiful, and she was a caretaker to the king, and the king did not know her. 1Kgs.1.3 — And they searched for a young woman beautiful throughout all the territory of Israel, and they found Abishag the Shunammite, and they brought her to the king. 1Kgs.1.4 — And the young woman was very beautiful, and she was a caretaker to the king, and the king did not know her.
Notes
- 1 ↩Eleantem (accusative of Eleates) refers to a philosopher of the Eleatic school, most likely Parmenides. Rendered as 'the Eleatic' to preserve the Latin's phrasing.
Didascalicon de Studio Legendi (On the Study of Reading) companion
Hugh said begin with small daily portions. Start tomorrow.
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