Gregory of Nazianzus, Comparison of Lives

to the desired one. {[C.]} But how will one bear the burden of a difficult time, having no support against the unpleasantness? {[P.]} You have asked me how one will escape a well-aimed arrow? A hair is not split easily, not even from close up. Become humble for me, and you will flee the burden of evils. The reed bears the winds, but not the oaks. For the one yields, but their weight overturns the others. {[C.]} It is permitted for me to live in luxury. {[P.]} but for me, luxury is not to live in luxury, swelling with satiety and in the bowels and sick with a rich man's disease, reeking with delightful mire beyond the throat, constricting the mind with the thickness of the mud. {[C.]} The pastries are mine. {[P.]} For me, bread is the rich sauce, and any cake from salt is sweet, with which I spit upon the salty fare of the luxurious. {[C.]} For me, the scent of perfumes, the delight of songs. The clapping of hands, of feet, rhythmic postures, the harmony of accordant instruments. {[P.]} You praise these things, but these are the things for which, to me, wealth is evil, as a teacher of evils. Better for us than instruments is psalmody, harmonizing the soul with the things of the mind. And Christ is more fragrant than any perfume, having emptied Himself for us, so that He might loose the stench with which the deadness of sin filled me. And I clap my hands, if my slayer falls, when he introduces some evil word or deed. And the dancing of feet, an inspired turning.

{[C.]} Perhaps you might say this, that poverty is also more sufficient for diseases, bringing remedies for bodies. {[P.]} I would not say this. For the saying is not true; but what is true, this will also be said: the poor man is much stronger than the rich. And God gave, balancing the grace, strength to the poor, and medicines to the wealthy. The poor man toils, with sweat he empties out the humors, he hungers, he shivers, he is burned by the midday sun, he journeys, he is burdened, he is rained on, he groans. He has received timely food, both simple and uncompounded, he knows nothing of the contrivances, which cooks and servants of luxury procure from the recesses of land and sea, setting out an effeminate table for men. Flatulence, catarrhs, spleens, dislocations, cries, gulpings, paleness, dissolutions of the wealthy—these are the offspring of satiety—, who neither have pleasure in what they have, and seek for those to whom they will leave their wealth, often envying the healthy but weaker men; destitute of all things, unfortunate fortunate ones. Gold, stones, embroideries, dyes of clothing and purple painted with life and of matching hue of walls, of roofs, and of floor-trodden mosaic; silver, some of it hidden, confined in the bosom of the earth, from whence it came, worthy of tombs, and some on display and flashing at banquets; horses, tapestries, chariots, charioteers, dogs, hunters, trackers of wild beasts; And these pleasures indeed are for an evil mistress, the belly, and for an all-receiving passage, the grace of the throat. bed-makers, doorkeepers, summoners, chamberlains, garland-bearers, sprinklers, table-wipers, tasters, shade-bearers; overseers of nods, bath-attendants, cup-bearers with raised fingers, women for hair-cutting; delights for the eyes. All things of a rich man's tomb, of painted dust. But the needy man stands firm; and if he should fall, weary with sickness at last or in old age, he will cause no trouble for his own friends, he will die like some lion with roars, a corpse much more flourishing than the very rich. What remains? Insolence, anger, ecstasy, rashness, drunkenness, unrestrained laughter, shameful words, contempt for God, for kindred, for friends, these things are not of the poor so much as of the rich. For wealth brings insolence, and insolence brings destruction. But he is hard pressed for the most part, and is not lifted up, especially if the fear of God should happen to run with him, a strong instructor in all good things. But consider each thing against each thing briefly, remaining a just judge of both lives, unless even this seems to bring you insolence, just as to stand even near the poor or to breathe the same air or to be called by one name, to seem to be under the same roof and a fellow-voyager. You envy the best and the worst, I am pitied. For nothing is more wretched than the wicked, even if they run well toward a perilous end. You spit upon the poor as if they were of another god. I know one creation, that all will come to one judgment. Another, a second creation, is character. You are lifted up by good things; I am disciplined by fear. You are bent by hardships; I am lightened by hopes. For nothing remains, but flows away in the long run. Night has ended day, and day, the night; and grief, joy

ποθουμένῳ. {[Κ.]} Οἴσει δὲ πῶς τις δυσκόλου καιροῦ φορὰν μηδὲν φέρων ἔρεισμα τῆς ἀηδίας; {[Π.]} ἤρου με, πῶς τις φεύξετ' εὔστοχον βέλος; θρὶξ οὐ διαιρεῖτ' εὐπετῶς, οὐδ' ἐγγύθεν. γενοῦ στενός μοι, καὶ κακῶν φεύξῃ φοράν. δόναξ φέρει τὰ πνεύματ', ἀλλ' οὐχὶ δρύες. ὁ μὲν γὰρ εἴκει, τὰς δ' ἀνατρέπει βάρος. {[Κ.]} Ἐμοὶ τρυφᾶν ἔξεστιν. {[Π.]} ἀλλ' ἐμοὶ τρυφὴ τὸ μὴ τρυφᾶν κόρῳ τε καὶ τοῖς ἐντέροις οἰδοῦντα καὶ νοσοῦντα πλουσίᾳ νόσῳ, ὄζοντα τερπνῷ βορβόρῳ λαιμοῦ πέρα, τὸν νοῦν στενοῦντα τῷ πάχει τῆς ἰλύος. {[Κ.]} Ἐμοῦ τὰ πέμματ'. {[Π.]} ἄρτος ἡ καρυκία ἐμοὶ τὸ πέμμα τ' ἐξ ἁλῶν ἅπαν γλυκύ, οἷς τῶν τρυφώντων ἁλμυρὸν καταπτύω. {[Κ.]} Ὀσμὴ μύρων ἔμοιγε, τέρψις ᾀσμάτων. χερῶν ποδῶν κροτήματ', εὔρυθμοι κλάσεις, ὁμορροθούντων ὀργάνων συμφωνία. {[Π.]} αἰνεῖς σὺ ταῦτα, ταῦτα δ' ἐστίν, οἷς κακὸς ἔμοιγε πλοῦτος ὡς κακῶν διδάσκαλος. κρείττων μὲν ἡμῖν ὀργάνων ψαλμῳδία ψυχὴν συναρμόζουσα τοῖς νοουμένοις. μύρου δὲ παντὸς Χριστὸς εὐωδέστερος ἡμῖν κενωθείς, ὡς λύσῃ δυσωδίας, ἧς νεκρότης μ' ἔπλησε τῆς ἁμαρτίας. κροτῶ δὲ χεῖρας, ἢν πέσῃ φονεὺς ἐμὸς λόγον τιν' ἢ πρᾶξίν τιν' εἰσηγούμενος κακήν. ποδῶν δ' ὄρχησις, ἔνθεος στροφή.

{[Κ.]} Τάχ' ἂν τόδ' εἴποις, ὡς πενία καὶ ταῖς νόσοις ἀρκεῖ πλέον φέρουσα σωμάτων ἄκη. {[Π.]} τόδ' οὐκ ἂν εἴποιμ'. οὐκ ἀληθὴς γὰρ [ὁ] λόγος· ὃ δ' ἔστ' ἀληθές, τοῦτο καὶ λελέξεται· πένης ἐχόντων εὐσθενέστερος πολύ. θεὸς δ' ἔδωκεν ἀντανιστῶν τὴν χάριν ἰσχὺν πένησιν, εὐπόροις δὲ φάρμακα· μοχθεῖ πένης, ἱδρῶσι τὰς ὕλας κενοῖ, πεινῇ, ῥιγοῖ, συγκαίεθ' ἡλίῳ μέσῳ, ὁδοιπορεῖ, φορτίζεθ', ὕεται, στένει· καιροῦ τροφὴν ἁπλῆν τε καὶ ἀσύνθετον ἐδέξατ', οὐδὲν οἶδε μαγγανευμάτων, ὧν ὀψοποιοὶ καὶ τρυφῆς ὑπηρέται γῆς καὶ θαλάττης ἐκπορίζουσιν μυχῶν θῆλυν τράπεζαν ἐκτιθέντες ἀνδράσιν. Φῦσαι, κατάρροι, σπλῆνες, ἐξαρθρήματα, βοαί, ῥοφήσεις, ὠχρότητες, ἐκλύσεις τῶν εὐπορούντων-τῶν κόρων οὗτοι τόκοι-, οἳ μήτ' ἔχουσιν, ὧν ἔχουσιν, ἡδονὴν ζητοῦσι θ', οἷς λείψουσιν ὄγκον, πολλάκις ζηλοῦντες εὐεκτοῦντας ἀσθενεστέρους· πάντων ἔρημοι, δυστυχεῖς εὐδαίμονες. Χρυσός, λίθοι, ποικίλματ', ἐσθῆτος βαφαὶ ζῳογράφου τε πορφύρας ἀντιχρόου τοίχων, ὀρόφων καὶ ψηφίδος ποδοτριβοῦς· ἄργυρος, ὁ μέν τις κρυπτὸς ἐν κόλποις χθονὸς εἰρχθείς, ὅθεν προῆλθεν, ἄξιος τάφων, ὁ δ' ἐν προθήκῃ καὶ προσαστράπτων πότοις· ἵπποι, τάπητες, ἅρμαθ', ἁρματηλάται, κύνες, κυνηγοί, θηρίων ἰχνεύμονες· καὶ ταῦτα δὴ τὰ τερπνὰ δεσποίνης κακῆς, γαστρός, πόρου τε πανδόχου, λαιμοῦ χάρις· στρῶται, θυρωροί, κλήτορες, κοιμήτορες, ἀνθηφόροι, ῥαντῆρες, ἐκμαγεῖς κύκλων, γεῦσται, σκιασταί· νευμάτων ἐπίσκοποι, λοῦσται, κερασταὶ δακτύλων ὑψώμασιν, κουρὰν γυναῖκες· ὀμμάτων ἡδύσματα· τύμβου τὰ πάντα πλουσίου, γραπτῆς χοός. Ὁ δ' ἐνδεὴς ἕστηκεν· ἂν δὲ καὶ πέσῃ νόσῳ καμὼν μόγις ποτ' ἢ μακρῷ χρόνῳ, οὐδὲν παρέξει πρᾶγμα τοῖς αὑτοῦ φίλοις, τεθνήξεθ' ὡς λέων τις ἐν βρυχήμασιν, νεκρὸς ζαπλούτων πλεῖστον εὐανθέστερος. Τί λοιπόν; ὕβρις, θυμός, ἔκστασις, θράσος, μέθη, γέλωτες ἀκρατεῖς, αἰσχροὶ λόγοι, θεοῦ περιφρόνησις, αἵματος, φίλων, ταῦτ' οὐ πενήτων μᾶλλόν ἐστ' ἢ πλουσίων· πλοῦτος γὰρ ὕβριν, ἡ δ' ἀπώλειαν φέρει. ὁ δ' ἐκπιέζεθ' ὡς τὰ πόλλ', οὐδ' αἴρεται, θεοῦ μάλιστ' ἂν συνδραμὼν φόβος τύχῃ, καλῶν ἁπάντων παιδαγωγὸς εὐσθενής. Ἄθρει δ' ἕκαστον ἀνθ' ἑκάστου συντόμως ἀμφοῖν δίκαιος τοῖν βίοιν μένων κριτής, εἰ μὴ φέρειν σοι καὶ τόδ' ὕβριν φαίνεται, ὥσπερ πενήτων ἑστάναι καὶ πλησίον ἢ πνεῖν τὸν αὐτὸν ἀέρ' ἢ κλῆσιν μίαν καλεῖσθ', ὁμόστεγός τε καὶ σύμπλους δοκεῖν. φθονεῖς ἀρίστοις καὶ κακοῖς, οἰκτίζομαι· κακῶν γὰρ οὐδέν ἐστιν ἀθλιώτερον, κἂν εὐδρομῶσιν εἰς ἐπισφαλὲς τέλος· διαπτύεις πένητας ὡς ἄλλου θεοῦ· ἓν οἶδα πλάσμα, πάντας εἰς μίαν κρίσιν ἥξοντας. ἄλλη δευτέρα πλάσις τρόπος. χρηστοῖς ἐπαίρῃ· σωφρονίζομαι φόβῳ. κάμπτῃ μογηροῖς· ἐλπίσιν κουφίζομαι· μένει γὰρ οὐδέν, ἀλλὰ ῥεῖ μακρῷ χρόνῳ. νὺξ ἡμέραν ἔπαυσε, νύκτα δ' ἡμέρα· χαρὰν δὲ λύπη