Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

To Diodorus, presbyter of Antioch. 2444
Letter CXXXV. 2443
1. I have read the books sent me by your excellency. With the second I was delighted,
not only with its brevity, as was likely to be the case with a reader out of health and inclined
to indolence, but, because it is at once full of thought, and so arranged that the objections
of opponents, and the answers to them, stand out distinctly. Its simple and natural style
seems to me to befit the profession of a Christian who writes less for self-advertisement than
for the general good. The former work, which has practically the same force, but is much
more elaborately adorned with rich diction, many figures, and niceties of dialogue, seems
to me to require considerable time to read, and much mental labour, both to gather its
meaning and retain it in the memory. The abuse of our opponents and the support of our
own side, which are thrown in, although they may seem to add some charms of dialectic to
the treatise, do yet break the continuity of the thought and weaken the strength of the argument,
by causing interruption and delay. I know that your intelligence is perfectly well
aware that the heathen philosophers who wrote dialogues, Aristotle and Theophrastus, went
straight to the point, because they were aware of their not being gifted with the graces of
Plato. Plato, on the other hand, with his great power of writing, at the same time attacks
opinions and incidentally makes fun of his characters, assailing now the rashness and
recklessness of a Thrasymachus, the levity and frivolity of a Hippias, and the arrogance and
pomposity of a Protagoras. When, however, he introduces unmarked characters into his
dialogues, he uses the interlocutors for making the point clear, but does not admit anything
more belonging to the characters into his argument. An instance of this is in the Laws.
2. It is well for us too, who betake ourselves to writing, not from any vain ambition,
but from the design of bequeathing counsels of sound doctrine to the brethren, if we introduce
some character well known to all the world for presumption of manners, to interweave
into the argument some points in accordance with the quality of the character, unless indeed
we have no right at all to leave our work and to accuse men. But if the subject of the dialogue
be wide and general, digressions against persons interrupt its continuity and tend to no
good end. So much I have written to prove that you did not send your work to a flatterer,
but have shared your toil with a real brother. And I have spoken not for the correction of
what is finished, but as a precaution for the future; for assuredly one who is so accustomed
to write, and so diligent in writing, will not hesitate to do so; and the more so that there is
2443 Placed in 373.
2444 cf. Letter clx. Theodoret, Hist. Ecc. iv. 24. He was a pupil of Silvanus, bishop of Tarsus. Letter ccxliv.
Theodoret, Ep. xvi., refers to his obligations to him as a teacher. In 378 he became bishop of Tarsus. Only some
fragments of his works remain, the bulk having been destroyed, it is said, by the Arians.
To Diodorus, presbyter of Antioch.
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