1. I was far away when the clerk Projectus brought the letters your Holiness sent to me at Hippo, yet as soon as I returned and read them and realized that I was in your debt, I was awaiting a chance of paying my debt, when lo! the unexpected departure from us of our well-beloved brother, the acolyte Albinus, has provided a most welcome opportunity. Rejoicing, therefore, in your good health, which is the object of my earnest desire, I return your Holiness the salutation I was owing you. But I always owe you love, the only debt which, after being repaid, still keeps one a debtor. For it is repaid when it is expended, but is still owing even if it has been repaid, since there is no time when it does not require to be expended. Nor is it lost when it is repaid, but rather by repayment it is multiplied, for it is repaid by retaining it, not by getting quit of it. And since it cannot be repaid unless it be retained, so it cannot be retained unless it be repaid—nay rather, when a man repays it, it increases in him, and the more lavishly he expends it, the more of it he gains. But how can that be refused to friends which is owing even to enemies? To enemies, however, it is paid out with hesitation, while to friends it is paid back with confidence. Nevertheless, it makes every possible effort to recover what it has expended, even from those to whom it renders good for evil. For we desire to have as a friend the man whom we truly love as an enemy, because we do not love him unless we wish him good, and that cannot be the case unless he gives up the evil of enmity. a Love, then, is not expended like money, for in addition to the fact that money is diminished by expenditure and love is increased, they differ in this too, that we give greater evidence of good-will towards anyone if we do not seek the return of money we have given him; whereas no one can sincerely expend love unless he tenderly insist on being repaid; for when money is received, it is so much gain to the recipient but so much loss to the donor; love, on the other hand, is not only augmented in the man who demands it back from the person he loves, even when he does not receive it, but the person who returns it actually begins to possess it only when he pays it back.
1. Quamvis longe absens fuerim, quando per Proiectum clericum ad me directa Hipponem sanctitatis tuae scripta venerunt, tamen, posteaquam veni eisque lectis rescriptorum debitorem me factum esse cognovi, reddendi tempus opperiebar. Et ecce subito profecturi a nobis carissimi fratris nostri Albini acolithi gratissima occurrit occasio. De tua igitur, quae mihi exoptatissima est, salute laetatus sanctitati tuae salutationem debitam reddo. Semper autem debeo caritatem, quae sola etiam reddita semper detinet debitorem. Redditur enim, cum inpenditur; debetur autem, etiamsi reddita fuerit, quia nullum est tempus, quando inpendenda iam non sit. Nec, cum redditur, amittitur, sed potius reddendo multiplicatur; habendo enim redditur, non carendo. Et cum reddi non possit, nisi habeatur, nec haberi potest, nisi reddatur; immo etiam, cum redditur ab homine, crescit in homine et tanto maior adquiritur, quanto plurius redditur. Quo modo autem negatur amicis, quae debetur et inimicis? Sed inimicis cauta inpenditur, amicis secura rependitur. Agit tamen, quantum potest, ut ab his etiam, quibus pro malis bona retribuit, id recipiat, quod inpendit. Optamus quippe fieri amicum, quem veraciter diligimus inimicum, quia non eum diligimus, nisi velimus bonum; quod utique non erit, nisi amiserit inimicitiarum malum.
2. Wherefore, my lord and brother, I willingly repay to you, and gladly receive back from you, the love we owe each other, and that which I receive back, I still claim; that which I repay, I still owe. For it is our duty in all teachableness to hearken to our one Master, before Whom we are fellow-pupils, when He speaks through His apostle and bids us “owe no man anything but to love one another.” a I have long been disappointed that, after writing several times, I have not had the honour of receiving any reply from your Excellency.
2. Non ergo sic inpenditur caritas ut pecunia. Excepto enim, quod illa inpendendo minuitur, haec augetur, etiam illo inter se differunt, quod pecuniam cui dederimus, tunc ei benivolentiores erimus, si recipere non quaeramus, non autem potest esse verus caritatis inpensor, nisi fuerit benignus exactor, quoniam pecunia cum recipitur, accedit cui datur, sed recedit a quo datur, caritas vero non solum apud eum crescit qui hanc ab eo, quem diligit, exigit, etiamsi non recipit, sed etiam ille, a quo eam recipit, tunc incipit habere, cum reddit. Proinde, domine frater, mutuam tibi caritatem libens reddo gaudensque recipio; quam recipio, adhuc repeto, quam reddo, adhuc debeo. Unum enim magistrum, apud quem condiscipuli sumus, per eius apostolum dociles audire debemus praecipientem ac dicentem: Nemini quicquam debeatis, nisi ut invicem diligatis.