P E T R I R A M I OF PETRUS RAMUS

Therefore, because of this, you became what you are: you were never (which is the head of the question) anxious about your perverse and preposterous institution, so that you would unlearn anything, or teach yourself or others to unlearn anything. Finally, because in your own judgment you were never miserable, for that reason, in my opinion, you have by no means attained that state of blessedness which you imagine. Wherefore, in a philosophical question, put aside the hatred and envy of foolish men; for such affections do not fall upon a wise man, nor, if any are hateful or envious, are they to be considered philosophers. Therefore, that hero in the Poet rejects the fortuitous outcomes of things from himself, but claims virtue for himself:

Learn from me, boy, virtue and true labor,
Fortune from others. Virgil, Aeneid, 12.435-436

Therefore, dismiss arguments of such ἄτεχνα inartistic/non-technical hatred or envy; rather, accept the ἔντεχνα artistic/technical ones and meditate only on courtesy. But I am being led too far from my purpose, and yet I am so persuaded of you: if I had come to Tübingen, you would have yielded to no one in any office of liberality and humanity toward me, and that little cloud on your brow (which you thought would be very terrible to boys) would have been wiped away as soon as you saw the face of Petrus Ramus. For:

No one is so wild that he cannot become gentle,
If only he offers a patient ear to culture.

I will not hope that you are forced to flee to France due to adverse circumstances to experience the humanity of Petrus Ramus, but I freely promise and pledge all grace and benevolence to you and yours, and I vow that I will most willingly compensate your insults with good deeds. For with this victory I especially desire to conquer you. Therefore, led by my warnings, you will (I hope) become gentle, and eventually become more equitable. And these causes of humanity were from fortuitous fortune for Ramus; but he added another later and always continued it, which proceeded more from doctrine and counsel, about which he says thus against the same Scheckius: Logic is proposed to me as a discipline of a calm and peaceful reason, which teaches me to inquire into my own errors: to be grateful to those who teach better and truer things; and I have persuaded myself that this is the proper foundation of humanity and of true philosophy. Therefore, this second fruit of poverty and calamities is humanity, which, I ask you, students of good letters, meditate upon.