Laudator Temporis Acti

Aelian, Letters of Farmers 20 (Phaedrias to Sthenon; tr. Allen Rogers Benner and Francis H. Fobe):

It is in the country that all beautiful things grow; with them the earth is adorned, and with them the earth provides nourishment for all. Some of the products keep throughout the year, whereas some keep but a short time and are eaten in their season; of all these things the gods are creators, but the earth is their mother and she is likewise their nurse. And righteousness and temperance, these also, grow in the country; loveliest of trees are they, most profitable of fruits. So then do not be contemptuous of farmers; for in them too is wisdom of a sort—not elaborately expressed in speech nor decking itself out with forceful rhetoric, but conspicuous by its silence and confessing its virtue through its very life.

Φύεται μὲν ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς καλὰ πάντα, κεκόσμηταί τε ἡ γῆ τούτοις καὶ τρέφει πάντας· καὶ τὰ μέν ἐστιν τῶν καρπῶν διετήσια, τὰ δὲ καὶ πρὸς ὀλίγον ἀντέχοντά ἐστιν τρωκτὰ ὡραῖα· πάντων δὲ τούτων θεοὶ μὲν ποιηταί, ἡ γῆ δὲ μήτηρ ἅμα καὶ τροφὸς αὕτη· φύεται δὲ καὶ δικαιοσύνη καὶ σωφροσύνη καὶ ταῦτα ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς, δένδρων τὰ κάλλιστα, καρπῶν τὰ χρησιμώτατα. μὴ τοίνυν γεωργῶν καταφρόνει· ἔστι γάρ τις καὶ ἐνταῦθα σοφία, γλώττῃ μὲν οὐ πεποικιλμένη οὐδὲ καλλωπιζομένη λόγων δυνάμει, σιγῶσα δὲ εὖ μάλα καὶ δι᾿ αὐτοῦ τοῦ βίου τὴν ἀρετὴν ὁμολογοῦσα.