NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

To Diodorus, presbyter of Antioch.To Diodorus, presbyter of Antioch. 2444Letter CXXXV. 24431. 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 inclinedto indolence, but, because it is at once full of thought, and so arranged that the objectionsof opponents, and the answers to them, stand out distinctly. Its simple and natural styleseems to me to befit the profession of a Christian who writes less for self-advertisement thanfor the general good. The former work, which has practically the same force, but is muchmore elaborately adorned with rich diction, many figures, and niceties of dialogue, seemsto me to require considerable time to read, and much mental labour, both to gather itsmeaning and retain it in the memory. The abuse of our opponents and the support of ourown side, which are thrown in, although they may seem to add some charms of dialectic tothe 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 wellaware that the heathen philosophers who wrote dialogues, Aristotle and Theophrastus, wentstraight to the point, because they were aware of their not being gifted with the graces ofPlato. Plato, on the other hand, with his great power of writing, at the same time attacksopinions and incidentally makes fun of his characters, assailing now the rashness andrecklessness of a Thrasymachus, the levity and frivolity of a Hippias, and the arrogance andpomposity of a Protagoras. When, however, he introduces unmarked characters into hisdialogues, he uses the interlocutors for making the point clear, but does not admit anythingmore 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 introducesome character well known to all the world for presumption of manners, to interweaveinto the argument some points in accordance with the quality of the character, unless indeedwe have no right at all to leave our work and to accuse men. But if the subject of the dialoguebe wide and general, digressions against persons interrupt its continuity and tend to nogood 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 ofwhat is finished, but as a precaution for the future; for assuredly one who is so accustomedto write, and so diligent in writing, will not hesitate to do so; and the more so that there is2012443 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 somefragments of his works remain, the bulk having been destroyed, it is said, by the Arians.581