Chapter 15.—Of the Method in Which Our Address Should Be Adapted to Different Classes of Hearers.

23. But now, perhaps, you also demand of me as a debt that which, previous to the promise which I made, I was under no obligation to give, namely, that I should not count it burdensome to unfold some sort of example of the discourse intended, and to set it before you for your study, just as if I were myself engaged in catechising some individual. Before I do that, however, I wish you to keep in mind the fact that the mental effort is of one kind in the case of a person who dictates, with a future reader in his view, and that it is of quite another kind in the case of a person who speaks with a present hearer to whom to direct his attention. And further, it is to be remembered that, in this latter instance in particular, the effort is of one kind when one is admonishing in private, and when there is no other person at hand to pronounce judgment on us; whereas it is of a different order when one is conveying any instruction in public, and when there stands around him an audience of persons holding dissimilar opinions; and again, that in this exercise of teaching, the effort will be of one sort when only a single individual is being instructed, while all the rest listen, like persons judging or attesting things well known to them, and that it will be different when all those who are present wait for what we have to deliver to them; and once more, that, in this same instance, the effort will be one thing when all are seated, as it were, in private conference with a view to engaging in some discussion, and that it will be quite another thing when the people sit silent and intent on giving their attention to some single speaker who is to address them from a higher position. It will likewise make a considerable difference, even when we are discoursing in that style, whether there are few present or many, whether they are learned or unlearned, or made up of both classes combined; whether they are city-bred or rustics, or both the one and the other together; or whether, again, they are a people composed of all orders of men in due proportion. For it is impossible but that they will affect in different ways the person who has to speak to them and discourse with them, and that the address which is delivered will both bear certain features, as it were, expressive of the feelings of the mind from which it proceeds, and also influence the hearers in different ways, in accordance with that same difference (in the speaker’s disposition), while at the same time the hearers themselves will influence one another in different ways by the simple force of their presence with each other. But as we are dealing at present with the matter of the instruction of the unlearned, I am a witness to you, as regards my own experience, that I find myself variously moved, according as I see before me, for the purposes of catechetical instruction, a highly educated man, a dull fellow, a citizen, a foreigner, a rich man, a poor man, a private individual, a man of honors, a person occupying some position of authority, an individual of this or the other nation, of this or the other age or sex, one proceeding from this or the other sect, from this or the other common error,—and ever in accordance with the difference of my feelings does my discourse itself at once set out, go on, and reach its end. And inasmuch as, although the same charity is due to all, yet the same medicine is not to be administered to all, in like manner charity itself travails with some, is made weak together with others; is at pains to edify some, tremblingly apprehends being an offense to others; bends to some, lifts itself erect to others; is gentle to some, severe to others; to none an enemy, to all a mother. And when one, who has not gone through the kind of experience to which I refer in the same spirit of charity, sees us attaining, in virtue of some gift which has been conferred upon us, and which carries the power of pleasing, a certain repute of an eulogistic nature in the mouth of the multitude, he counts us happy on that account. But may God, into whose cognizance the “groaning of them that are bound enters,”95    Ps. lxxix. 11 look upon our humility, and our labor, and forgive us all our sins.96    Cf. Ps. xxv. 18 Wherefore, if anything in us has so far pleased you as to make you desirous of hearing from us some remarks on the subject of the form of discourse which you ought to follow,97    Ut aliquam observationem sermonis tui a nobis audire quæreres you should acquire a more thorough understanding of the matter by contemplating us, and listening to us when we are actually engaged with these topics, than by a perusal when we are only dictating them.

CAPUT XV.

23. Pro personarum diversitate temperanda oratio. Sed nunc etiam illud quod priusquam promitterem non debebam, jam fortasse debitum flagitas, ut aliquod sermonis exemplum, tanquam si ego aliquem catechizem, non me pigeat explicare, et intuendum tibi proponere. Quod priusquam faciam, volo cogites aliam esse intentionem dictantis, cum lector futurus cogitatur; et aliam loquentis, cum praesens auditor attenditur: et in eo ipso aliam in secreto monentis, dum nullus alius qui de nobis judicet praesto est; aliam palam docentis aliquid, cum dissimiliter opinantium circumstat auditus: et in hoc genere aliam, cum docetur unus, caeteri autem tanquam judicantes aut attestantes quae sibi nota sunt audiunt; aliam cum omnes communiter quid ad eos proferamus exspectant: et rursus in hoc ipso aliam, cum quasi privatim consedetur, ut sermocinatio conseratur; aliam, cum populus tacens unum de loco superiore dicturum suspensus intuetur: multumque interest, et cum ita dicimus, utrum pauci adsint an multi; docti an indocti, an ex utroque genere mixti; urbani an rustici, an hi et illi simul; an populus ex omni hominum genere temperatus sit. Fieri enim non potest, nisi aliter atque aliter afficiant locuturum atque dicturum, et ut sermo qui profertur, affectionis animi a quo profertur, quemdam quasi vultum gerat, et pro eadem diversitate diverse afficiat auditores, cum et ipsi se ipsos diverse afficiant invicem praesentia sua. Sed quia de rudibus imbuendis nunc agimus, de me ipso tibi testis sum, aliter atque aliter me moveri, cum ante me catechizandum video eruditum, inertem, civem, peregrinum, divitem, pauperem, privatum, honoratum, in potestate aliqua constitutum, illius aut illius gentis hominem, illius aut illius aetatis aut sexus, ex illa aut illa secta, ex illo aut illo vulgari errore venientem: ac pro diversitate motus mei sermo ipse et procedit, et progreditur, et finitur. Et quia cum eadem omnibus debeatur charitas, non eadem est omnibus adhibenda medicina: ipsa item charitas alios parturit, cum aliis infirmatur; alios curat aedificare, alios contremiscit offendere; ad alios se inclinat, ad alios se erigit; aliis blanda, aliis severa, nulli inimica, omnibus mater. Et qui non expertus est eadem charitate quod dico, cum videt nos, quia facultas aliqua nobis donata delectat laudabiliter innotescere in ore multitudinis, inde nos beatos putat: Deus autem, in cujus conspectum intrat gemitus compeditorum (Psal. LXXVIII, 11), videat humilitatem nostram et laborem nostrum, et dimittat omnia peccata nostra (Psal. XXIV, 18). Quamobrem si quid tibi in nobis placuit, ut aliquam observationem sermonis tui a nobis audire quaereres, melius videndo et audiendo nos cum haec agimus, quam legendo cum haec dictamus, edisceres.