Letter 334: Write straight, and make the lines straight. Do not let your hand go too high or too low. Avoid forcing the pen to travel slantwise, like Æsop's crab.
Write straight, and keep the lines straight. Do not let your hand go too high or too low. Do not force the pen to travel on a slant, like Aesop's crab. Move straight ahead, as if following a carpenter's rule, which always preserves precision and prevents irregularity. The slanted line is ugly. It is the straight line that pleases the eye and keeps the reader's gaze from bouncing up and down like a lever on a pivot.
This has been my experience reading your writing. Because your lines run like the rungs of a ladder, I had to climb to the end of one line, then, finding no connection, go back and hunt for the right sequence all over again -- retreating and advancing along the furrow like Theseus following Ariadne's thread through the labyrinth.
Write straight, and stop confusing my mind with your meandering script.
Human translation - New Advent (NPNF / ANF series)
Latin / Greek Original
[Πρός: Καλλιγράφῳ]
Ὀρθὰ γράφε καὶ χρῶ τοῖς στίχοις ὀρθῶς· καὶ μήτε αἰωρείσθω πρὸς ὕψος ἡ χεὶρ μήτε φερέσθω κατὰ κρημνῶν. μηδὲ βιάζου τὸν κάλαμον λοξὰ βαδίζειν, ὥσπερ τὸν παρʼ Αἰσώπῳ καρκίνον· ἀλλʼ εὐθὺ χώρει, ὥσπερ ἐπὶ στάθμης βαδίζων τεκτονικῆς, ἣ πανταχοῦ φυλάττει τὸ ἴσον καὶ πᾶν ἀναιρεῖ τὸ ἀνώμαλον. τὸ γὰρ λοξὸν ἀπρεπές, τὸ δὲ εὐθὺ τερπνὸν τοῖς ὁρῶσιν, οὐκ ἐῶν ἀνανεύειν καὶ κατανεύειν, ὥσπερ τὰ κηλώνεια, τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῶν ἀναγινωσκόντων. ὁποῖόν τι κἀμοὶ συμβέβηκε τοῖς γράμμασιν ἐντυχόντι τοῖς σοῖς. τῶν γὰρ στίχων κειμένων κλιμακηδόν, ἡνίκα ἔδει μεταβαίνειν ἐφʼ ἕτερον ἀφʼ ἑτέρου, ἀνάγκη ἦν ἐξορθοῦν πρὸς τὸ τέλος τοῦ προσιόντος. ἐν ᾧ μηδαμοῦ φαινομένης τῆς ἀκολουθίας, ἀνατρέχειν ἔδει πάλιν καὶ τὴν τάξιν ἐπιζητεῖν, ἀναποδίζοντα καὶ παρεπόμενον τῷ αὔλακι, καθάπερ τὸν Θησέα τῷ μίτῳ τῆς Ἀριάδνης φασί. γράφε τοίνυν ὀρθῶς, καὶ μὴ πλάνα τὸν νοῦν τῷ πλαγίῳ καὶ λοξῷ τῶν γραφομένων.
Revision history
- 2026-03-20v2.1.0-import
Initial corpus import from New Advent / NPNF.
Fields: letter text, metadata, source links. Source: https://github.com/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit/blob/master/data/tlg2040/tlg004/tlg2040.tlg004.perseus-grc2.xml
Related Letters
(On the death of the Emperor Constantius the undisputed succession devolved on his cousin Julian the Apostate, who at once began to employ all the power of the Empire to discourage, while not absolutely persecuting, Christianity, and to restore the supremacy of the ancient Paganism. One of his first acts was to dismiss all the men who had held h...
Every day that brings me a letter from you is a feast day, the very greatest of feast days. And when symbols of the feast are brought, what can I call it but a feast of feasts, as the old law used to speak of Sabbath of Sabbaths? I thank the Lord that you are quite well, and that you have celebrated the commemoration of the economy of salvation ...
This letter's Latin text is heavily corrupted by OCR artifacts and critical apparatus, making continuous translation...
Whatever comes from a loving heart is no small thing to me.
I have received the letter which you, right honourable brethren, have sent me concerning the circumstances in which you are placed. I thank the Lord that you have let me share in the anxiety you feel as to your attention to things needful and deserving of serious heed. But I was distressed to hear that over and above the disturbance brought on t...