Gregory of Nazianzus, Comparison of Lives

Comparatio vitarum

COMPARISON OF LIVES {[Lives.]} You would judge for us, O stranger. {[Judge.]} and what is the judgment? {[L.]} Lives are in conflict. {[J.]} And who are they, and what is the judgment? {[L.]} The worldly one and that of the spirit, and which is better and livable for the wise. {[J.]} This is difficult to judge, but nevertheless must be heard. {[World.]} Being of the World, I know and love these things; this is pious: to revere the ancestral law. {[Spirit.]} Being of God, I know and worship God; this is pious: to know perfect worship. If for you the lesser is most honorable, how is not the better more just for me? {[W.]} My mother is flesh and I was mixed with dust, I long for the fulfillment of the broken flesh. {[S.]} God is my father and I was joined to God, I long for the imitation of the form from which I have fallen away. {[W.]} Tell me, how would the race of mortals have been established, if the union of flesh had not come together, ruled by both divine law and nature? {[S.]} This is the law, but now I must be released, hastening towards another life better than the present one, free from bonds and corruption. {[W.]} How then did the new virgin life arrive? {[S.]} It was shadowy even of old; but it shines now, since a virgin has appeared as mother of God. For the old law has yielded to the new. The letter has departed, but the power is of the spirit. {[W.]} Without a life of marriage, would anyone have been unyoked or righteous? {[S.]} How very clever you are, persuading that the flesh should unite for the sake of good things. Time has brought forth good or evil men, but the sower has poured out the insolence of the flesh, nothing else. To be wise in passion is a joke, as if toiling together with the will of God. {[W.]} What then have you given to life? {[S.]} And what were you seeking? Branches? So that they might wither or a storm might take them? {[W.]} You give my root; then have your branches. {[S.]} It is enough to have been born. But let another toil with corruption, raising, teaching, then mourning all at once for the one who is no more, seeing his lifeless beauty painted on walls, a son who does not move. {[W.]} I am someone well-born. {[S.]} From what family? And who is the creator? Do you not know that the clay is one? There is one nobility, the imitation of God. You rule by tombs and recent decrees; from there you were written down as noble, not nurtured so. {[W.]} For me, being rich casts down my enemies, melts the wicked with envy, makes friends, gives thrones, to be greatly puffed up in the city. {[S.]} But poverty grants me to have no enemies, and pity is safer than envy. Thrones can be dissolved and friends are for the occasion more. If then they remain, it is better to be overcome by God than to have the first place in all visible things, [or to be above all visible things;] but let the city of the mind hold me as a brilliant citizen. {[W.]} And what security is there for the life of a poor man, walls, gate-towers, machines, sword-bearers? {[S.]} Toiling for what? Lest the body be stolen from him? Only this he possesses, and a small rag. The robber is for others, let tyranny perish, the thief is for those who possess; For me, there is one wealth, God, whom no one will ever snatch from me who possess him. Let those who wish have the other things, let all hands plunder my property; nothing is safer than a poor man. The rich man sacrifices to his dragnet, he kisses his own right hand as a friend and does not praise God, the giver of good things, until what he possesses falls into a stranger's hands, of one he does not wish, what am I saying? Perhaps of an enemy, and from there to another; the rollings of a wheel. But for me, all life comes together if I die, nothing will be left to envy and turns of fortune. {[W.]} How great it is not to look to the hands of neighbors, but for others to look to ours, perhaps more pious ones.

{[S.]} how great it is to look to the hands of God alone, who both gives [and] asks in a fatherly way, and to do nothing shameful for the sake of receiving, imitating the blood-sucking leech, on the one hand clinging, on the other propping up the mind on them, and looking with not-beautiful eyes, and striking out with the hopes of dreams, always more a poor man by the

Comparatio vitarum

ΣΥΓΚΡΙΣΙΣ ΒΙΩΝ {[Βίοι.]} Κρίναις ἂν ἡμῖν, ὦ ξένε. {[Κριτής.]} κρίσις δὲ τίς; {[Β.]} βίοι μάχονται. {[Κρ.]} καὶ τίνες, τίς δ' ἡ κρίσις; {[Β.]} ὁ κοσμικός τε καὶ ὅσος τοῦ πνεύματος, πότερός τ' ἀμείνων καὶ σοφοῖς βιώσιμος. {[Κρ.]} ὃ δύσκριτον μέν, ἀλλ' ὅμως ἀκουστέον. {[Κόσμος.]} Κόσμου πεφυκὼς οἶδα καὶ στέργω τάδε· τόδ' εὐσεβές· πατρῷον αἰδεῖσθαι νόμον. {[Πνεῦμα.]} θεοῦ πεφυκὼς οἶδα καὶ σέβω θεόν· τόδ' εὐσεβές· τέλειον εἰδέναι σέβας. εἰ σοὶ τὸ χεῖρόν ἐστι τιμιώτατον, πῶς οὐκ ἐμοὶ τὸ κρεῖττον ἐνδικώτερον; {[Κ.]} Μήτηρ ἐμοὶ σὰρξ καὶ συνεκράθην χοΐ, σαρκὸς ποθῶ πλήρωμα τῆς ἐρρηγμένης. {[Π.]} θεὸς πατήρ μοι καὶ θεῷ συνεζύγην, μορφῆς ποθῶ μίμησιν, ἧς ἀπερρύην. {[Κ.]} πῶς δ' ἂν συνέστη, φράζε, τὸ βροτῶν γένος, εἰ μὴ τὸ σαρκῶν συζυγὲς συνέδραμεν, νόμῳ τε θείῳ καὶ φύσει κρατούμενον; {[Π.]} νόμος μὲν οὗτος, νῦν δὲ λυθῆναί με δεῖ βίον πρὸς ἄλλον τοῦ παρόντος κρείττονα σπεύδοντα, δεσμῶν καὶ φθορᾶς ἐλεύθερον. {[Κ.]} πῶς οὖν νέηλυς ἦλθε παρθένος βίος; {[Π.]} ἦν μὲν σκιώδης καὶ πάλαι· λάμπει δὲ νῦν, ἐξ οὗ θεοῦ πέφηνε μήτηρ παρθένος. καὶ γὰρ νόμος παλαιὸς εἶξε τῷ νέῳ. τὸ γράμμ' ἀπῆλθε, τὸ κράτος δὲ πνεύματος. {[Κ.]} ἄζυξ δ' ἂν ἦν τις συζύγου βίου δίχα ἤ τις δίκαιος; {[Π.]} ὡς λίαν κομψός τις εἶ πείθων τὸ σάρκα συνδραμεῖν καλῶν χάριν. καλοὺς μὲν ἐξέθρεψεν ἢ κακοὺς χρόνος, ὕβριν δὲ σαρκὸς ὁ σπορεὺς ἐπέβλυσεν, οὐκ ἄλλο. τὸ φρονεῖν δὲ τῷ πάθει γέλως ὡς συγκάμνοντα τῷ θεοῦ θελήματι. {[Κ.]} Τί οὖν βίῳ δέδωκας; {[Π.]} ἐζήτεις δὲ τί; κλάδους; ἵνα ψυγῶσιν ἢ λαῖλαψ λάβῃ; {[Κ.]} δὸς τὴν ἐμὴν σὺ ῥίζαν· εἶτ' ἔχε κλάδους. {[Π.]} ἀρκεῖ γενέσθαι. τῇ φθορᾷ δ' ἄλλος κάμοι τρέφων, διδάσκων, εἶτα πενθῶν ἀθρόως τὸν οὐκέτ' ὄντα, γραπτὸν ἐν τοίχοις βλέπων ἄπνουν τὸ κάλλος, υἱὸν οὐ κινούμενον. {[Κ.]} Εὐπατρίδης ἐγώ τις. {[Π.]} ἐκ ποίου γένους; ποῖος δ' ὁ πλάστης; τὸν δὲ πηλὸν ἀγνοεῖς ὡς εἷς; μί' εὐγένεια, μίμησις θεοῦ. τάφοις κρατεῖς σὺ καὶ νέοις προστάγμασιν, ἐκεῖθεν ἐγράφης εὐγενής, οὐκ ἐτράφης. {[Κ.]} Ἐμοὶ τὸ πλουτεῖν δυσμενεῖς βάλλει κάτω, φθόνῳ δὲ τήκει τοὺς κακούς, ποιεῖ φίλους, θρόνους δίδωσιν, ἐν πόλει φυσᾶν μέγα. {[Π.]} ἐμοὶ δὲ πενία μηδὲ δυσμενεῖς ἔχειν χαρίζετ', οἶκτος δ' ἀσφαλέστερος φθόνου. θρόνοι δὲ λυτοὶ καὶ φίλοι καιροῦ πλέον. ἂν οὖν μένωσι, κρεῖττον ἡττᾶσθαι θεοῦ ἢ πρῶτα πάντων τῶν ὁρωμένων ἔχειν, [ἢ πάντων εἶναι τῶν ὁρωμένων ἄνω·] πόλις δ' ἔχοι με λαμπρὸν ἡ νοουμένη. {[Κ.]} Τίς δ' ἀσφάλεια τῷ πένητι τοῦ βίου, τείχη, πυλῶνες, μηχαναί, ξιφηφόροι; {[Π.]} κάμνοντες, ὡς τί μὴ τὸ σῶμ' ὕπερ κλαπῇ; μόνον πέπασται τοῦτο καὶ μικρὸν ῥάκος. ἄλλων ὁ λῃστής, ἡ τυραννὶς ἐρρέτω, ὁ φὼρ ἐχόντων· εἷς ἐμοὶ πλοῦτος, θεός, ὃν οὔποτ' οὐδεὶς ἁρπάσει κεκτημένῳ. τὰ δ' ἄλλ' ἐχόντων οἷς φίλον, τὴν οὐσίαν ἁρπαζέτωσαν τὴν ἐμὴν πᾶσαι χέρες· πένητος ἀνδρὸς οὐδὲν ἀσφαλέστερον. θύει σαγήνῃ πλούσιος, τὴν δεξιὰν τὴν αὐτὸς αὐτοῦ ὡς φίλην ἀσπάζεται καὶ τῶν καλῶν δοτῆρα οὐχ ὑμνεῖ θεόν, ἕως ἃ κέκτητ' εἰς ξένου πέσῃ χέρας, οὗ μὴ θέλῃ, τί φημι; δυσμενοῦς ἴσως κἀκεῖθεν ἄλλου· τὰ τροχῶν κυλίσματα. ἐμοὶ δ' ἅπας συνέρχετ', ἢν θάνω, βίος, οὐδὲν φθόνῳ τε καὶ στροφαῖς λελείψεται. {[Κ.]} Πόσον τὸ χεῖρας μὴ βλέπειν εἰς γειτόνων, ἄλλους δ' ἐς ἡμῶν, εὐσεβεστέρους ἴσως.

{[Π.]} πόσον τὸ χεῖρας εἰς θεοῦ μόνον βλέπειν τοῦ καὶ διδόντος [καὶ] πατρικῶς αἰτουμένου, αἰσχρὸν δὲ μηδὲν τοῦ λαβεῖν δρᾶσαι χάριν, τὴν αἱμολάπτιν βδέλλαν ἐκμιμούμενον, τὰ μὲν κρατοῦντα, τοῖς δ' ἐρείδοντα φρένα, τὰ δὲ βλέποντα οὐ καλοῖς ἐν ὄμμασιν, τὰ δ' ἐκτυποῦντα ταῖς ὀνείρων ἐλπίσιν, ἀεὶ πλέον πένητα τῷ