LETTER LV. [A.D.392.]

AMBROSE TO EUSEBIUS.

1. THE two Faustinuses are herewith restored to you, the two little Ambroses stay with me. You have in the father what is best, in the younger son what is most agreeable; for you have at once the summit of virtue, and shew forth the grace of humility, I have what is intermediate between father and younger son. With you is the head of the whole family, and the continuous succession of a name handed down; with me remains that frugal mean which both depends upon the head, and has a common being with what follows it. You have him who is our common rest, who when he comes to me in my turn, smooths all the cares of my soul. You have him who alike by his life and works, and by his offspring has found favour with our Lord, you have him who in the storms of this world nourished a spiritual dove, to bring him the fruit of peace, anointed with the oil of chastity. You have him who built an altar to the Lord, he whom God blessed together with his sons, and said unto them,  Be fruitful and multiply; with whom He established the covenant of His peace, that it might be unto  him and his sons for perpetual generations. 

 2. You have then one who is an heir of Divine benediction, a partner in grace, a sharer in righteousness. But take care, I beseech you, that this our husbandman Noah, the good planter of the fruitful vineyard, does not become inebriated with the cup of your love and favour, as one filled with wine, and so indulge too long in rest, and then if haply he fall asleep the longing for our Shem awake him.

3. There also is Japhet the youngest of the brethren, who with pious reverence may cover his father's nakedness, whom his father may see even in sleep and never dismiss from his remembrance, but keep him ever in his sight and in his bosom, and when he wakes may know  what his younger son has done unto him. In Latin his name signifies  ' healthI in that grace is spread over his lips and over his life, wherefore God hath blessed him, because he, going backward, one may say, to Bologna, covered his father with the pious garment of charity, and shewed honour to piety; of whom also his father said,  God shall enlarge Japhet, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. Wherefore also in the enumeration of this generation he is preferred to his elder brother, he is substituted for him in the blessing: he is preferred in regard of honour to his name, he is substituted in regard of the prerogative of elder birth and the honour due to nature.

4. Now in Latin Shem signifies a 'name.' And truly is this Ambrose of ours a good name, in whose tents Japhet may be enlarged,  because a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. Let him therefore also be blessed, let his name be above gold and silver, let the seed of Abraham be in his portion, let all his blessing rest on his posterity, and on the whole family of the just man. But no one is cursed, all are blessed, for blessed is the fruit of Sarah.

5. The Ambroses salute you, the beloved Parthenius salute you, so does Valentinian, disposed to humility, which is in Hebrew 'Canaan', being as it were the servant of his brother, to whom he has also given place as regards his name. And therefore he is like Nimrod, mighty in his double name, a great hunter upon the earth, of whom it is said;  Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. For being somewhat rude in intellect, but of great bodily strength, he surpasses in strength those whose genius he cannot equal; so that he would seem to carry with him the Comacine  06-3  3. a As Lake Larius was sometimes called Lacus Comacinus in the times of the Emperors, (Dict of Geogr. voc. Comum,) it is probable that the 'Comacinae rupes' were some familiar rocks on its margin. The comparison to a bull is simply an adaptation of Virgil's 'Et faciem tauro propior,' Georg. iii. 58. rocks, and to resemble them in his outward appearance, being as he is somewhat like a bull, wrathful at being set aside, at being deprived of his paternal name, at being subjected, through an inhabitant of the capital, to one from Bologna, for he knows not the blandishments of infancy, and sprung without suffering injury from his nurse's bosom.

Farewell: love me for I love you.

EPISTOLA LV.

EUSEBII  sobolem partim apud se remansisse, partim ad  1168A  illum profectam esse commemorans, duos Faustinos accommodatis familiae Noachi benedictionibus exornat; et salutanti Valentiniano Chanaan et Nembrot personas aptat. 

AMBROSIUS EUSEBIO.

1. Faustinus uterque tibi redditus est, nobis utrumque Ambrosium pignus resedit. Ipse habes quod primum in patre, et quod jucundissimum est in filio minore; quia et virtutis apicem tenes, et humilitatis exhibes gratiam: nos quod medium inter patrem et juniorem filium. Tecum summa totius domus, et perpetuati vocabuli jugis successio: apud nos parca mediocritas, quae et de summo pendeat, et in posteriore subsistat. Tecum igitur requies utriusque nostrum, quae cum invicem nobis  1168B refunditur, omnem animi abstergit sollicitudinem. Tecum is qui et moribus et operibus suis et sobole tali invenit gratiam apud Dominum nostrum. Tecum is qui inter mundi hujus procellas spiritalem nutrivit columbam, quae ei fructus afferat pacis (Gen. VIII, 11 et seq.), uncta olivo integritatis. Tecum is qui aedificavit aram Deo, quem benedixit Deus et filios ejus, dicens:  Crescite, et multiplicamini (Gen. IX, 9); cum quo testamentum pacis statuit suae; ut sit ei et filiis ejus in progeniem aeternam.

2. Habes igitur haeredem divinae benedictionis, consortem gratiae, participem justitiae. Sed vide, quaeso, ne iste noster Noe agricola, bonus plantator feracis vineae, cum fuerit amoris 1005 et gratiae tuae inebriatus poculo, tamquam crapulatus a vino,  1168C diutius quieti indulgeat: ac si forte indormierit, excitet eum Sem nostri desiderium.

3. Est et ibi Japhet junior ex fratribus (Gen. IX, 23), qui pietatis reverentia patrem induat, quem pater et dormiens videat, nec umquam de pectore dimittat suo, quin semper oculis et complexu teneat,  1169A atque evigilans intelligat, quae ei fecerit filius suus junior. Qui latitudo Latine dicitur, eo quod in labiis ejus diffusa gratia sit, et in moribus; propter quod benedixit eum Dominus, quia ipse tamquam Bononiam retrorsum rediens patrem texit pio charitatis velamine (Gen. IX, 26), et detulit pietati honorem, de quo et pater ait:  Laetificet Deus Japhet in domibus Sem (Ibid., 27). Unde et in enumeratione generationum (Gen. X, 1 et seq.) praefertur seniori fratri, in benedictione substituitur: praefertur propter honorem nominis, substituitur propter praerogativam senioris aetatis, et honorificentiam naturae debitam.

4. Sem autem dicitur latine nomen. Et bene hic noster Ambrosius bonum nomen, in cujus domibus dilatetur Japhet;  quia potius est nomen bonum super  1169B  multas divitiarum copias (Prov. XXII, 1). Sit ergo et iste benedictus, et gratia ejus super aurum et argentum, sit in portione ejus semen Abrahae, sit benedictio omnis in posteritate et omni familia justi viri. Sed maledictus nemo, benedicti omnes; benedictus enim Sarae fructus.

5. Salutant te Ambrosii, salutat Parthenius dulcissimus, salutat Valentinianus paratus ad humilitatem; quod Hebraice Chanaan dicitur, quasi puer fratris sui, cui et nomine suo cessit. Et ideo tamquam Nembroth gemini gigas nominis, venator egregius super terram, de quo dictum est:  Tamquam Nembroth gigas venator ante Dominum (Gen. X, 9). Namque ingenio subrusticus, viribus validus, quos ingenio aequare non potest, viribus superat; ut  1169C Comacinas rupes gestare secum, et faciem, tauro propior, vultu videatur exprimere, posthabitum se indignatus, et paterno exutum vocabulo, metropolitanum virum Bononiensi subditum; quia infantiae nescit blanditias, et de nutricis gremio se illaesus excussit. Vale, et nos dilige; quia nos te diligimus.