On Education |
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Do
not be surprised if to you, who go to school every day, and who, through
their writings, associate with the learned men of old, I say that out of
my own experience I have evolved something more useful. Now this is my
counsel, that you should not unqualifiedly give over your minds to these
men, as a ship is surrendered to the rudder, to follow whither they
list, but that, while receiving whatever of value they have to offer,
you yet recognize what it is wise to ignore.
St. Basil the Great: Address to Young Men on the Right use of Greek Literature
Perhaps it is sufficiently demonstrated that
such heathen learning is not unprofitable for the soul; I shall then
discuss next the extent to which one may pursue it. To begin with the
poets, since their writings are of all degrees of excellence, you should
not study all of their poems without omitting a single word. When they
recount the words and deeds of good men, you should both love and
imitate them, earnestly emulating such conduct. But when they portray
base conduct, you must flee from them and stop up your ears, as Odysseus
is said to have fled past the song of the sirens, for familiarity with
evil writings paves the way for evil deeds. Therefore the soul must be
guarded with great care, lest through our love for letters it receive
some contamination unawares, as men drink in poison with honey. We shall
not praise the poets when they scoff and rail, when they represent
fornicators and winebibbers, when they define blissfulness by groaning
tables and wanton songs. Least of all shall we listen to them when they
tell us of their gods...
...certainly we shall not follow the example of the rhetoricians in the
art of lying. For neither in the courts of justice nor in other business
affairs will falsehood be of any help to us Christians, who, having
chosen the straight and true path of life, are forbidden by the gospel
to go to law. But on the other hand we shall receive gladly those
passages in which they praise virtue or condemn vice. For just as bees
know how to extract honey from flowers, which to men are agreeable only
for their fragrance and color, even so here also those who look for
something more than pleasure and enjoyment in such writers may derive
profit for their souls. Now, then, altogether after the manner of bees
must we use these writings, for the bees do not visit all the flowers
without discrimination, nor indeed do they seek to carry away entire
those upon which they light, but rather, having taken so much as is
adapted to their needs, they let the rest go. So we, if wise, shall take
from heathen books whatever befits us and is allied to the truth, and
shall pass over the rest. And just as in culling roses we avoid the
thorns, from such writings as these we will gather everything useful,
and guard against the noxious. So, from the very beginning, we must
examine each of their teachings, to harmonize it with our ultimate
purpose, according to the Doric proverb, 'testing each stone by the
measuring-line.'
St. Basil the Great: Address to Young Men on the Right use of Greek Literature
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