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A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

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Teaching 571<br />

things earthly unto <strong>The</strong>e, and I knew not Thou wast<br />

deahng with me.<br />

<strong>of</strong> wisdom has in<br />

<strong>For</strong> with <strong>The</strong>e is wisdom; and the love<br />

Greek the name "philosophy"—to the<br />

pursuit <strong>of</strong> which that work inflamed me. . . .<br />

XrV. <strong>The</strong> Sorrows <strong>of</strong> a Schoolmaster<br />

I decided to depart to Rome and to teach there rather <strong>The</strong> students<br />

<strong>of</strong><br />

than in Carthage. And how I was brought to this decision Carthage are<br />

I will not omit to confess unto <strong>The</strong>e, seeing that even in " " ^ "<br />

such things Thy deep ways with us and Thy most present ^ne Con/^smercy<br />

toward us are to be meditated and declared to<br />

others. My reason for wishing to go to Rome was not<br />

that I was promised, by my friends who urged this course<br />

on me, larger gains and greater dignity, though doubtless<br />

these things also weighed with me in the state <strong>of</strong> my mind<br />

at the time. <strong>The</strong> chief and almost the sole cause was that<br />

I had heard that the students there were less turbulent,<br />

and were restrained by a stricter discipline, and were not<br />

permitted to break in rudely, at their pleasure, into the<br />

class room <strong>of</strong> a teacher whose lectures they were not attending;<br />

and indeed were not admitted at all unless he<br />

chose. In Carthage, on the other hand, the students enjoy<br />

an excessive and disgraceful licence. <strong>The</strong>y break in<br />

rudely and disturb almost violently the order which a<br />

teacher has established for the advantage <strong>of</strong> his pupils.<br />

And they inflict much injury upon others with an amazing<br />

recklessness, which deserves to be punished by law, were<br />

it not sanctioned by custom. <strong>The</strong>y are indeed the more<br />

miserable in that they do by a kind <strong>of</strong> licence that which<br />

Thy laws will never legitimate, and they think they are<br />

doing it with impunity, when the very blindness with<br />

which they do it is itself punishment. So I was obhged<br />

as a teacher to suffer from others the kind <strong>of</strong> conduct I<br />

"''"•^' "^- ^'<br />

14.

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