ch he was the keeper, and had neglected alike his
journey and the chariot in which he rode. Love of his book alone had
wholly engrossed this domicile of chastity, under whose guidance he
soon deserved to enter the gate of faith. O gracious love of books,
which by the grace of baptism transformed the child of Gehenna and
nursling of Tartarus into a Son of the Kingdom!

Let the feeble pen now cease from the tenor of an infinite task, lest
it seem foolishly to undertake what in the beginning it confessed to be
impossible to any.

CHAPTER XVI

THAT IT IS MERITORIOUS TO WRITE NEW BOOKS AND TO RENEW THE OLD

Just as it is necessary for the state to prepare arms and to provide
abundant stores of victuals for the soldiers who are to fight for it,
so it is fitting for the Church Militant to fortify itself against the
assaults of pagans and heretics with a multitude of sound writings.

But because all the appliances of mortal men with the lapse of time
suffer the decay of mortality, it is needful to replace the volumes
that are worn out with age by fresh successors, that the perpetuity of
which the individual is by its nature incapable may be secured to the
species; and hence it is that the Preacher says: Of making many books
there is no end. For as the bodies of books, seeing that they are
formed of a combination of contrary elements, undergo a continual
dissolution of their structure, so by the forethought of the clergy a
remedy should be found, by means of which the sacred book paying the
debt of nature may obtain a natural heir and may raise up like seed to
its dead brother, and thus may be verified that saying of
Ecclesiasticus: His father is dead, and he is as if he were not dead;
for he hath left one behind him that is like himself. And thus the
transcription of ancient books is as it were the begetting of fresh
sons, on whom the office of the father may devolve, lest it suffer
detriment. Now such transcribers are called antiquarii, whose
occupations Cassiodorus confesses please him above all the tasks of
bodily labour, adding: "Happy effort," he says, "laudable industry, to
preach to men with the hand, to let loose tongues with the fingers,
silently to give salvation to mortals, and to fight with pen and ink
against the illicit wiles of the Evil One." So far Cassiodorus.
Moreover, our Saviour exercised the office of the scribe when He
stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground (John viii.), that