(l) For we read that when Paul had come to Athens he saw an altar of the Unknown God on which it was written:  “This is an altar of[S] the Unknown God in whom we live and move and have our being.”  And with this inscription the Apostle began his exhortation and made known to those Athenians the meaning of this inscription,—­continuing about our God and saying:  “Whom you pronounce Unknown, Him declare I unto you and worship.”  Then Dionysius,[T] the Areopagite, seeing a blind man passing by said to him (i.e.  Paul), “If you will give sight to that blind man I will believe you.”  Immediately, when the name of Christ had been invoked, he was restored to sight and Dionysius believed.

(m) E.g.  In the Epistle of Paul to Titus,[U] the quotation from Epimenides the poet:  “The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies.”  I. quaest, i. dominus declaravit.

Also he introduced in the first Epistle to the Corinthians this from Menander:  “Evil communications often corrupt good manners.”  XXVIII. quaestio I. saepe.

He used also this verse:  “I shall hate if I can:  if not, I shall love against my will.”  But Jerome in his fifth division on Consecration often used verses from Virgil and Augustine, this of Lucan’s:  “Mens hausti nulla” &c.  XXVI. quaestio V. nee mirum.  And, as a lawyer, he uses the authority of Vergil, ff. de rerum divisione, intantrum Sec. cenotaphium; and also, of Homer, insti. de Dontrahen. emp.  Sec. pretium.

...is shown so reasonably, should be read?  Some (n) read profane literature for their pleasure, being delighted with the productions of the poets and the charm of their words; while others learn them to add to their knowledge, in order that through reading the errors, of the heathen they may denounce them, and that they may turn to the service of sacred and devout learning the useful things they find therein.  Such are praiseworthy in adding to their learning profane literature.  Whence blessed Gregory did not blame a certain bishop for learning it but because, contrary to his episcopal obligation, he read grammar to the people in place of the Gospel lesson.

     Hence also Ambrose writes concerning Luke: 

     =Profane writings should be read that they may not be unknown.=

     Some we read (o) that we may not neglect (a) them; we read
     that we may not be ignorant of them; we read not that we may
     embrace them but that we may reject them.(b)

     So Jerome on the Epistle to Titus: 

     =Grammar should be read in order that through it the Sacred
     Scriptures may be understood.=

If anyone[V] has learned grammar or dialectics in order to have the ability to speak correctly and to discriminate between the true and the false, we do not blame them.  Geometry (c) and Arithmetic and Music contain truth in their own range of knowledge, but that knowledge is not the knowledge of piety.  The knowledge of piety is,—­to know the law, to understand the prophets, to believe the Gospel, (and) not to be ignorant of the Apostles.  Moreover the teaching of the grammarians can contribute to life, provided it has been applied to its higher uses.

     Idem: