Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/128

 116 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE Trithemius, on his side, writes : ' How delightful it is to be able to inspire the young with a pious desire for the study of science, human and divine, and to fill them with love of the Church and the Fatherland ; to teach them that each action should tend to the honour of God, the salvation of their own souls and the benefit of others. In the midst of the day's toil, at the service of the choir, in the stillness of the night, I seem to hear a voice saying ever, " Time is flying, use it well ; lose no single hour ; improve yourself and seek to improve others ; study and teach." You young men, on whom our hopes for the future are built, fight a valiant fight against sin and spiritual death, against the sluggishness of nature, against the distractions of life. Study, and improve yourselves in every science, but remember that all knowledge without piety is vain and idle. As religion should permeate our whole life, so must it be with our studies.' ' The ancient writers,' he continues, ' whose works we are now so eagerly studying, should be to us but the means to higher ends. We can recommend their study with a clear conscience to those who do not read them merely for intellectual pleasure, but who, after the example of the Fathers of the Church, seek in them the means of advancing in Christian science. We even look on the former as a necessary complement to the study of the latter.' The importance of the classics from this point of view was more closely reasoned out by Johann Butzbach, the accomplished pupil of Trithemius, against the enemies and abusers of human- istic studies. He says : ' Those who have not studied the classics will break down in the study of the Scrip- tures and the Fathers : first, because they are wanting