And yet, O infernal torrent, it is into you that the sons of men are cast along with the fees for their studies, in order for them to learn all that is worthless; and it is given great importance when publicly, in the forum, within sight of the inscriptions of the laws decreeing the tutors’ salaries from public funds, the pupils’ extra fees to their tutors are decreed. Infernal torrent, you lash at your rocks and roar: “This is why words are learned, this is why eloquence is acquired, the eloquence so vital to inducing others to do one’s will and implement one’s purpose.” It is as if we would not have known expressions such as “shower of gold,” “lap,” “deceiving,” “temples of heaven,” had not Terence in his play brought a lewd young man onto the stage who takes Jupiter as his model for debauchery as he gazes at a mural “that shows the god sending forth, as in the legend, a shower of gold into Danae’s lap,” and so deceiving the woman? And look how the young man is incited to wanton lust through celestial guidance: “Such a great god!” he says. “He rocks the temples of heaven with his thunder! And I, little man that I am, should not do as he did? I did so, and with pleasure.” Words are certainly not learned more easily with the help of such vileness, but through such words vileness is committed with greater confidence. I do not reproach the words, for they are precious and exquisite chalices, but I reproach the wine of error that was offered us in these chalices by drunken tutors; and if we did not drink this wine of error we were beaten, and had no sober judge to whom we could appeal. And yet, my God, before Whom I now recall this without fear, I learned all this readily, and, wretch that I was, delighted in what I was learning, and was called a boy of great promise.