Letters465 Letter CDLXV. To his friend vi. Brother Bernard.

As I have depicted myself in a letter, so I am, except that the hand is but ill able to express the disposition of the mind. Not only is there nothing for you to fear from me, but there never has been. And so for me, if I have ever felt perchance any apprehension of you, I do so no longer. So that I do not demand my friend anew, but hold him fast with all confidence: nor do I regain him, because I have not lost him. I bind him to me by the affections of my heart wherewith he is held as it were with arms: and there is none who is able to tear him from my breast. I embrace a new friend from an old, because true friendships do not grow old, or if they do, they were not true. I will hold him and will not let him go, until I bring him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me (Cant, iii, 4). When I say that he is at leisure, I do not mean that he is unprofitable, but highly favoured. For his times of leisure 1 It is altogether uncertain to whom this letter is addressed. If it were William, Abbot of S. Thierry, and afterwards a monk at Signy (as Dr. Hiiffer thinks) we should naturally have expected ‘To his friend G.’ for Gulielmus, as in the various letters undoubtedly to that person (See Epp. 85, 86). All that can be said is that the Letter before us contains allusions, as will be seen, suiting sufficiently well the case of an Abbot who had resigned his office and become a simple monk, for the sake of greater leisure and retirement.

Among S. Bernard’s other correspondents there is another W. (the Vi. may be really meant for W.), Abbot of Troyes, to whom Ep. 408 is addressed (E.).

1 In Cod antiquum: but Hiiffer (Vorstudien p. 213) reads amicum, no doubt rightly).

are not so truly leisurely, as that they are plainly assiduous in the pursuit of good objects, and fruitful to salvation. Unhappy am I who am entangled in such a multitude of affairs, an exile from my own thoughts, unworthy of holy leisure, void of sacred stillness. Yet since you deign (to request it) I am yours, and will be, as long as I live. The sermons which you ask for, were not ready: but shall be prepared, and you shall soon have them.