Not a whisper broke upon the silence in which the pen-strokes alone were audible.

Stepping softly, the prior led his companion from desk to desk, drawing attention, without a word, to the nature of the book which in each case was being copied.

It surprised Basil to see that the monks busied themselves in reproducing not only religious works but also the writings of authors who had lived in pagan times, and of this he spoke when the prior had led him forth again.
'Have you then been taught,' asked the prior, 'that it is sinful to read Virgil and Statius, Livy and Cicero ?' 'Not so, reverend father,' he replied modestly, his eyes falling before the good-humoured gaze.

'But I was so ill instructed as to think that to those who had withdrawn from the world it might not be permitted.' 'Father Hieronymus had no such misgiving,' said the prior, 'for he himself, at Bethlehem, taught children to read the ancient poets; not unmindful that the blessed Paul himself, in those writings which are the food of our spirit, takes occasion to cite from more than one poet who knew not Christ.

If you would urge the impurity and idolatry which deface so many pages of the ancients, let me answer you in full with a brief passage of the holy Augustine.