The Absence of a Teacher

Nulla imbutus poetica disciplina Terentianum Maurum sine magistro attingere non auderes; Asper, Cornutus, Donatus et alii innumerabiles requiruntur, ut quilibet poeta possit intellegi, cuius carmina et theatri plausus videntur captare; tu in eos Libros, qui quoquo modo se habeant, sancti tamen divinarumque rerum pleni, prope totius generis humani confessione diffamantur, sine duce irruis, et de his sine praeceptore audes ferre sententiam; nec si tibi aliqua occurrunt quae videantur absurda, tarditatem tuam et putrefactum tabe huius mundi animum, qualis omnium stultorum est, accusas potius, quam eos qui fortasse a talibus intellegi nequeunt! Quaereres aliquem pium simul et doctum, vel qui talis esse multis consentientibus diceretur, cuius et praeceptis melior et doctrina peritior fieres. Non facile reperiebatur? Cum labore investigaretur. Deerat in ea terra quam incolebas? Quae causa utilius cogeret peregrinari? In continenti prorsus latebat, aut non erat? Navigaretur. Si in propinquo trans mare non inveniebatur, progredereris usque ad illas terras, in quibus ea quae illis Libris continentur, gesta esse dicuntur. Quid tale fecimus, Honorate?  Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis, De Utiliatate Credendi, ad Honoratum

Would you dare criticise Terentianus Maurus when not steeped in instruction on poetry, and without a master, whether he be Asper or Cornutus or Donatus, or one of the countless others, but would you rather have it that a poet can be perfectly understood whose verses merely seem to have won the applause of the theatre; and then do you without a guide rush upon those books, which, however they may actually be, are at least famed to be sacred and full of divine things by the confession of near enough the whole human race, and do you without a teacher dare to offer an opinion upon them? But should you not rather, if in those books you meet something which seems absurd,  accuse your own slow mind rotted by the corruption of this world, as is the way with all the foolish, than denounce those works which cannot be understood by the ignorant? You should seek someone both pious and learned, or one who many agree is said to be so, that you may be both improved by his counsels and made more experienced by his learning. Was he not easy to find? He should be sought with travail. Was he not there in the land in which you lived? What cause could more usefully impel you to travel? Was he quite hidden on your continent or was he not there at all? Set sail. And if in near lands across the sea he is not to be found, you should go on even to those lands where the things contained in those books are said to have been done. Have you done such things, Honoratus? Saint Augustine of Hippo, On the Usefulness of Believing, To Honoratus.