OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/The Longest Day

THE LONGEST DAY.
FROM us, if every fleeting hour
 Improvement's boon may ask,
Surely the longest day may claim
 A long, and arduous task.
But since the longest day must end,
 The fairest life decay,
Let wisdom's hand, and wisdom's voice,
 Direct our youthful way.
And when we rise, let morning's eye
 Convey the lesson sweet,
And e're we sleep, let evening's sigh,  The sacred rule repeat;
Patient to render good to all,
 Within our bounded sphere,
The active deed, or grateful wish,
 Or sympathetic tear.
To raise the heart to Him, who gives
 Our path with hope to shine,
Meekly receive the offer'd joy,
 And silently resign;
To let no fear disturb the breast,
 No doubt obscure our sky,
Since virtue cannot live unblest,
 Or unrewarded die.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/The Desertion of the Muse

THE employment of transcribing, and the various concerns of a school, having rendered it almost impossible to invent or arrange any thing new, gave rise to the following effusion.
THE DESERTION OF THE MUSE.
'TWAS night! but by an airy form,  My eye was waking kept,
Which gliding near me, seem'd to seek
 The pillow where I slept.
She strove to frown, but still her brow
 Was innocent and mild;
And though her words were somewhat stern,
 Their tones were sweet and wild.
"Cast not," she said, "a stranger's glance;
 Not thus we us'd to greet,
We know each other well, although,
 Of late we seldom meet.
I saw you, when a child you sat,
 And ponder'd o'er the fire;
And deign'd to stoop that you might see,
 And try to reach my lyre.
You prest its strings with so much joy,
 And such a smile serene,
I fondly hop'd you soon would learn,
 What gratitude might mean.
Amid your light domestic toils,
 I rov'd with footstep free,
And oft you laid your needle down,
 To take the pen from me.
When lonely, pausing o'er your book,
 You walk'd at close of day,
Well pleas'd to trace my dawning smile,
 You threw that page away.
I met you in my mountain dress,
 And sandals wet with dew,
All unadorn'd, and yet I thought
 That I was fair to you.
My lyre was often out of tune,
 Its tones were rude and small,
Yet were they e'er so weak or rough,
 You gladly heard them all.
But now how chang'd! for when I smile,
 And bring my sweetest rhyme,
You coldly bid me 'go my way,
 And come another time.'
For you must stay to 'copy off'  And polish what you wrote,
And try to soften if you can
 My unharmonious note.
Even when I come, in all my charms,  To catch your fickle view,
You, starting, turn your back, and cry,
 'The clock is striking two.'
Now what has two, or nine o'clock
 To do with you and me?
And what delights you in your school,
 I'm sure I cannot see.
Yet, when your strange excuses o'er,
 You sit and muse alone,
And seem to look as if you wish'd
 Again to hear my tone.
I come; and then with curious glance,
 My scanty robe you eye,
And count my curls, and measure where,
 Each flowing tress should lie:
And wonder why such tasteless wreaths
 Of faded flow'rs I wear,
And chide because I could not stay,
 To dress myself with care.
And when you ask to hear my song,
 And I begin to play,
You utter, 'that is out of tune,'  And snatch the lyre away.
Now since you have so soon forgot,
 My service, and my truth,
My kindness to your childhood shewn,
 My friendship for your youth;
Go, seek some other muse, who loves
 Your heavy task to bear;
For since your ways so much are chang'd,
 I cast you from my care."
She spake, and hid her glowing face,
 Within the veil of night,
And gazing as the vision fled,
 I trembled with affright;
Then rose in sadness from my bed,
 And lo! I could not write.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/The Equanimity of Zeno

THE EQUANIMITY OF ZENO.
ONCE came a friend, whose cheek was wet with tears,
And gave this message to the Stoic's ears:
"O man belov'd! thy firmest strength prepare,
To meet the tidings I am doom'd to bear;
A dreadful storm thy wrecking ships did sweep,
And whelm thy riches in the howling deep."
"Receive my thanks, O Fortune! thou hast drove
Me to my studies, and my learned grove,
My books, my toils, which cheer the lengthen'd day,
And for whose loss thy gifts could never pay."
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/The Evils of Haste

THE EVILS OF HASTE.
THE rash resolve, the headlong course,  The heart too quickly set,
Make bitter work for deep remorse,
 And for a long regret.
Then bow to hear this lesson meek,
 And let it check thy pride;
Be swift to hear, and slow to speak,
 And cautious to decide.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/The Courage of Cesar

THE COURAGE OF CESAR.
ONCE o'er a dangerous sea with weary oar,
A feeble bark the mighty Cesar bore,
The tempest roar'd, the trembling steersman fear'd,
When thus a firmer tone his spirit cheer'd; "Fear not Pilot! brave the stormy sea,
"Thou bearest Cesar, and his fate with thee."
So thou, O Christian, when thy helm is lost,
And on the sea of life thy bark is tost;
Fear not the billows hoarse, or tempest dark,
For thy Redeemer guides the cleaving bark.
# Moral Pieces, in Prose and Verse/The First Morning of May

THE FIRST MORNING OF MAY.
MAY! I hail thy first-born morning,
Every charm its brow adorning,
Zephyrs sporting, music waking,
Streams their icy fetters breaking,
Hope expanding, joy reviving,
Nature in her beauty living.
Let my heart accordant raise
Purest incense, grateful praise;
Let my voice with accent free
Swell the song of harmony.
Let me quit this idle chime,
Wooing numbers into rhyme,
Sorting words, and killing time.
Inward let mine eye-beams glide
View my thoughts' uneven tide,
Roving, wandering far and wide:
Deeds on little purpose bent,
Faithless to the good intent,
Time on trifles vainly spent,
Deeply mourn, be wise—repent.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter 94

Letter XCIV. From Dionysius to Theophilus.
In this letter (translated into Latin by Jerome) Dionysius, bishop of Lydda, praises Theophilus for his signal victories over Origenism and urges him to continue his efforts against that heresy. Written in 400 a.d.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter 98

Letter XCVIII. From Theophilus.
A translation by Jerome of Theophilus’s paschal letter for the year 402 a.d. Like that of the previous year (Letter XCVI.) it deals mainly with the heresies of Apollinarius and Origen.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter 95

Letter XCV. From Pope Anastasius to Simplicianus.
At the request of Theophilus Anastasius, bishop of Rome, writes to Simplicianus, bishop of Milan, to inform him that he, like Theophilus, has condemned Origen whose blasphemies have been brought under his notice by Eusebius of Cremona. This latter had shown him a copy of the version by Rufinus of the treatise On First Principles. The date of the letter is 400 a.d.
To his lord and brother Simplicianus, Anastasius.
1. It is felt right that a shepherd should bestow great care and watchfulness upon his flock. In like manner too from his lofty tower the careful watchman keeps a lookout day and night on behalf of the city. So also in the hour of tempest when the sea is dangerous the shipmaster suffers keen anxiety lest the gale and the violence of the waves shall dash his vessel upon the rocks. It is with similar feelings that the reverend and honourable Theophilus our brother and fellow-bishop, ceases not to watch over the things that make for salvation, that God’s people in the different churches may not by reading Origen run into awful blasphemies.
2. Being informed, then, by a letter of the aforesaid bishop, we inform your holiness that we in like manner who are set in the city of Rome in which the prince of the apostles, the glorious Peter, first founded the church and then by his faith strengthened it; to the end that no man may contrary to the commandment read these books which we have mentioned, have condemned the same; and have with earnest prayers urged the strict observance of the precepts which God and Christ have inspired the evangelists to teach. We have charged men to remember the words of the venerable apostle Paul, prophetic and full of warning:—“if any than preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.” Holding fast, therefore, this precept, we have intimated that everything written in days gone by Origen that is contrary to our faith is even by us rejected and condemned.
3. I send this letter to your holiness by the hand of the presbyter Eusebius, a man filled with a glowing faith and love for the Lord. He has shewn to me some blasphemous chapters which made me shudder as I passed judgement on them. If Origen has put forth any other writings, you are to know that they and their author are alike condemned by me. The Lord have you in safe keeping, my lord and brother deservedly held in honour.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Magister hactenus navis hora tempestatis æquoris et periculo magnam patitur animi jactationem.
* ↑ Gal. i. 8.
* ↑ See the account of the meeting of Eusebius with Rufinus in the presence of Simplicianus. Ruf. Apol. i. 19.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter 99

Letter XCIX. To Theophilus.
Jerome forwards to Theophilus a translation of the latter’s paschal letter for 404 a.d. and apologizes for his delay in sending it, on the ground that ill-health and grief for the death of Paula have prevented him from doing literary work. The date of the letter is 404 a.d.
To the most blessed pope Theophilus, Jerome.
1. From the time that I received the letters of your holiness together with the paschal treatise until the present day I have been so harassed with sorrow and mourning, with anxiety, and with the different reports which have come from all quarters concerning the condition of the church, that I have hardly been able to turn your volume into Latin. You know the truth of the old saying, grief chokes utterance; and it is more than ever true when to sickness of the mind is added sickness of the body. I have now been five days in bed in a burning fever: consequently it is only by using the greatest haste that I can dictate this very letter. But I wish to shew your holiness in a few words what pains I have taken, in translating your treatise, to transfer the charm of diction which marks every sentence in the original, and to make the style of the Latin correspond in some degree with that of the Greek.
2. At the outset you use the language of philosophy; and, without appearing to particularize, you slay one while you instruct all. In the remaining sections—a task most difficult of accomplishment—you combine philosophy and rhetoric and draw together for us Demosthenes and Plato. What diatribes you have launched against self-indulgence! What eulogies you have bestowed upon the virtue of continence! With what secret stores of wisdom you have spoken of the interchange of day and night, the course of the moon, the laws of the sun, the nature of our world; always appealing to the authority of scripture lest in a paschal treatise you should appear to have borrowed anything from secular sources! To be brief, I am afraid to praise you for these things lest I should be charged with offering flattery. The book is excellent both in the philosophical portions and where, without making personal attacks, you plead the cause which you have espoused. Wherefore, I beseech you, pardon me my backwardness: I have been so completely overcome by the falling asleep of the holy and venerable Paula that except my translation of this book I have hitherto written nothing bearing on sacred subjects. As you yourself know, I have suddenly lost the comforter whom I have led about with me, not—the Lord is my witness—to minister to my own needs, but for the relief and refreshment of the saints upon whom she has waited with all diligence. Your holy and estimable daughter Eustochium (who refuses to be comforted for the loss of her mother), and with her all the brotherhood humbly salute you. Kindly send me the books which you say that you have lately written that I may translate them or, if not that, at least read them. Farewell in Christ.

## Footnotes

* ↑ Letter C.
* ↑ Origen.
* ↑ See Letter CVIII.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter 96

Letter XCVI. From Theophilus.
A translation by Jerome of Theophilus’s paschal letter for the year 401 a.d. In it Theophilus refutes at length the heresies of Apollinaris and Origen.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/Title Page

SELECT LIBRARY
OF THE
NICENE AND
POST-NICENE FATHERS
OF
THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
SECOND SERIES
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH PROLEGOMENA AND EXPLANATORY NOTES.
VOLUMES I–VII.
UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF
PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., LL.D.,
PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK.
AND
HENRY WACE, D.D.,
PRINCIPAL OF KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON.
VOLUME VI
JEROME: LETTERS AND SELECT WORKS
T&T CLARK
EDINBURGH
__________________________________________________
WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY
GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter 91

Letter XCI. From Epiphanius to Jerome.
An exultant letter from Epiphanius in which he describes the success of his council (convened at the suggestion of Theophilus), sends Jerome a copy of its synodical letter. and urges him to go on with his work of translating into Latin documents bearing on the Origenistic controversy. Written in 400 a.d.
To his most loving lord, son, and brother, the presbyter Jerome, Epiphanius sends greeting in the Lord. The general epistle written to all Catholics belongs particularly to you; for you, having a zeal for the faith against all heresies, particularly oppose the disciples of Origen and of Apollinaris whose poisoned roots and deeply planted impiety almighty God has dragged forth into our midst, that having been unearthed at Alexandria they might wither throughout the world. For know, my beloved son, that Amalek has been destroyed root and branch and that the trophy of the cross has been set up on the hill of Rephidim. For as when the hands of Moses were held up on high Israel prevailed, so the Lord has strengthened His servant Theophilus to plant His standard against Origen on the altar of the church of Alexandria; that in him might be fulfilled the words: “Write this for a memorial, for I will utterly put out Origen’s heresy from under heaven together with that Amalek himself.” And that I may not appear to be repeating the same things over and over and thus to be making my letter tedious, I send you the actual missive written to me that you may know what Theophilus has said to me, and what a great blessing the Lord has granted to my last days in approving the principles which I have always proclaimed by the testimony of so great a prelate. I fancy that by this time you also have published something and that, as I suggested in my former letter to you on this subject, you have elaborated a treatise for readers of your own language. For I hear that certain of those who have made shipwreck have come also to the West, and that, not content with their own destruction, they desire to involve others in death with them; as if they thought that the multitude of sinners lessens the guilt of sin and the flames of Gehenna do not grow in size in proportion as more logs are heaped upon them. With you and by you we send our best greetings to the reverend brothers who are with you in the monastery serving God.

## Footnotes

* ↑ By Theophilus.
* ↑ Cf. Exod. xvii. 8–14.
* ↑ 1 Tim. i. 19.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume VI/The Letters of St. Jerome/Letter 93

Letter XCIII. From the Bishops of Palestine to Theophilus.
The synodical letter of the council of Jerusalem sent to Theophilus in reply to the preceding. The translation as before is due to Jerome.
The following is an epitome: We have done all that you wished, and Palestine is almost wholly free from the taint of heresy. We wish that not only the Origenists, but Jews, Samaritans and heathen also, could be put down. Origenism does not exist among us. The doctrines you describe are never heard here. We anathematize those who hold such doctrines, and also those of Apollinaris, and shall not receive anyone whom you excommunicate.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Jerome's Apology/Book II/Chapter 8

8. But what follows about the condition of souls can by no means be excused. He says:
“I am next informed that some stir has been made on the question of the nature of the soul. Whether complaints on a matter of this kind ought to be entertained instead of being put aside, you must yourself decide. If, however, you desire to know my opinion upon this subject, I will state it frankly. I have read a great many writers on this question, and I find that they express divers opinions. Some of these whom I have read hold that the soul is infused together with the material body through the channel of the human seed, and of this they give such proofs as they can. I think that this was the opinion of Tertullian or Lactantius among the Latins, perhaps also of a few others. Others assert that God is every day making new souls and infusing them into the bodies which have been framed in the womb; while others again believe that the souls were all made long ago, when God made all things of nothing, and that all that he now does is to send out each soul to be born in its body as it seems good to him. This is the opinion of Origen, and of some others among the Greeks. For myself, I declare in the presence of God that, after reading each of these opinions, I am unable to hold any of them as certain and absolute: the determination of the truth in this question I leave to God and to any to whom it shall please him to reveal it. My profession on this point is, therefore, first, that these several opinions are those which I have found in books, but, secondly, that I as yet remain in ignorance on the subject, except so far as this, that the Church delivers it as an article of faith that God is the creator of souls as well as of bodies.”
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Jerome's Apology/Book III
## Contents

* Preface
* Chapter 1
* Chapter 2
* Chapter 3
* Chapter 4
* Chapter 5
* Chapter 6
* Chapter 7
* Chapter 8
* Chapter 9
* Chapter 10
* Chapter 11
* Chapter 12
* Chapter 13
* Chapter 14
* Chapter 15
* Chapter 16
* Chapter 17
* Chapter 18
* Chapter 19
* Chapter 20
* Chapter 21
* Chapter 22
* Chapter 23
* Chapter 24
* Chapter 25
* Chapter 26
* Chapter 27
* Chapter 28
* Chapter 29
* Chapter 30
* Chapter 31
* Chapter 32
* Chapter 33
* Chapter 34
* Chapter 35
* Chapter 36
* Chapter 37
* Chapter 38
* Chapter 39
* Chapter 40
* Chapter 41
* Chapter 42
* Chapter 43
* Chapter 44
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Jerome's Apology/Book III/Chapter 10

10. You state that my book came into your hands two days before you wrote your letter to me, and that therefore you had no sufficient leisure to make a reply. Otherwise, if you had spoken against me after full thought and preparation, we might think that you were casting forth lightnings rather than accusations. But even so veracious a person as you will hardly gain credence when you tell us that a merchant of Eastern wares whose business is to sell what he has brought from these parts and to buy Italian goods to bring over here for sale, only stayed two days at Aquileia, so that you were obliged to write your letter to me in a hurried and extempore fashion. For your books which it took you three years to put into complete shape are hardly more carefully written. Perhaps, however, you had no one at hand then to amend your sorry productions, and this is the reason why your literary journey is destitute of the aid of Pallas, and is intersected by faults of style, as by rough places and chasms at every turn. It is clear that this statement about the two days is false; you would not have been able in that time even to read what I wrote, much less to reply to it; so that it is evident that either you took a good many days in writing your letter, which its elaborate style makes probable; or, if this is your hasty style of composition, and you can write so well off-hand, you would be very negligent in your composition to write so much worse when you have had time for thought.
# Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume III/Rufinus/Jerome's Apology/Book III/Chapter 13

13. Moreover, you make a charge against yourself which has been brought by no one against you, and make excuses where no one has accused you. You say that you have read these and in my letter: “I want to know who has given you leave when translating a book, to remove some things, change others, and again add others.” And you go on to answer yourself, and to speak against me: “I say this to you Who I pray, has given you leave, in your Commentaries, to put down some things out of Origen, some from Apollinarius, some of your own, instead of all from Origen or from yourself or from some other?” All this while, while you are aiming at something different, you have been preferring a very strong charge against yourself; and you have forgotten the old proverb, that those who speak falsehood should have good memories. You say that I in my Commentaries have set down some things out of Origen, some from Apollinarius, some of my own. If then these things which I have set down under the names of others are the words of Apollinarius and of Origen; what is the meaning of the charge which you fasten upon me, that, when I say “Another says this,” “The following is some one’s conjecture,” that “other” or “some one” means myself? Between Origen and Apollinarius there is a vast difference of interpretation, of style, and of doctrine. When I set down discrepant opinions on the same passage, am I to be supposed to accept both the contradictory views? But more of this hereafter.