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to be snowflakes, —both directing the games now and competing before. 10.9 Let others praise the firm blended with the gentle, and that which in the midst of gentleness has not collapsed, like the leapings of lions. Let others praise the mighty and precious gold, dishonored with august titles and headlong yielding to your justice; a matter alone of all things higher than both hearing and belief. 10.10 But let some poetic man, unbridled and independent in his art, sing to you a rustic melody, having set up a chorus of farmers, and having reaped a beautiful ear of corn, let him weave a most sweet crown, and raise cultivated vines around your head, intertwined with ivy and clusters of grapes. 10.11 These are the first-fruits of farming, which through you has returned again to men; and let rocks flow with milk and fountains with honey, and let every plant be luxuriant with gentle fruits, both cultivated alike and wild, like the fictions of the poets, when they make the earth gracious to someone. 10.12 Let others, as I said, say and invent these things; 20for everything one's own20 not only 20does not distress20, as it seems to the lyre, but is also by nature most likely to delight. But I will speak of that which I especially admire and embrace among your qualities: that you show yourself superior to the difficulty of the times. 10.13 Being a Greek in religion and serving the interests of the state under the present power; but serving, not as the flatterers of the time, but as the friends of the good and high-minded; and while shunning their service, preserving goodwill for your country and reaping immortal glory in a mortal affair. 10.14 And this too is among your praiseworthy qualities, that you also assign some reverence to friendship amid such a weight of authority; and that you take leisure from the many things you do, not only to remember, but also to honor your friends through letters and to confess your longing and to draw them, though absent, to yourself. 10.15 For which things I pray for you, for glory, nothing greater (for even if your office receives an addition, it is not possible for your virtue to receive one), but one thing instead of all and the greatest, that you may one day be with us and with God, and be of the party of the persecuted, not of the persecutors; since the one is swept away by the current of the time, but the other has immortal salvation.

11.t TO GREGORY 11.1 I have something skillful in my nature (for I will boast of one thing

among many, I too); I am equally displeased with myself when I counsel badly, and with my friends. 11.2 Since, therefore, all who live according to God and walk by the same Gospel are friends and kinsmen to one another, why will you not hear from us with boldness what all are murmuring? 11.3 They do not praise your inglorious glory, that I too may say something in your manner, and your gradual inclination to the worse, and the 20most evil of demons20, as Euripides says, 20ambition20. 11.4 For what has happened to you, O most wise one, or what have you condemned in yourself, that you have cast away the sacred and drinkable books, which you once used to read to the people (do not be ashamed to hear it) or have set above smoke, like rudders and mattocks in time of winter, and have taken up the salty and undrinkable ones, and wished to be called a rhetor rather than a Christian? 11.5 We, however, prefer the latter to the former, and all thanks be to God. Do not you, O best of men, do not suffer this for long, but become sober, at least late, and return to yourself, and make your defense to the faithful, make your defense to God and to the altars and mysteries from which you have distanced yourself. 11.6 And do not give me these elegant and rhetorical words: “What then? Was I not Christian when I was a rhetorician, nor was I faithful when I was associating with the young men?” and perhaps you call God to witness. —Not at all, O wonderful one, at least not as much as is likely, even if we were to grant some part of it. 11.7 But where is the striking of others by what you now do, who are naturally more ready for evil, and to give the worse accounts of you and to suspect and to say? Let it be a lie; but what is the necessity? For no one lives for himself alone, but also for his neighbor;

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εἶναι νιφάδας, -ἀγωνοθετοῦντά τε ὁμοίως νῦν καὶ ἀγωνιζόμενον πρό τερον. 10.9 Ἄλλοι τὸ στερρὸν ἐπαινείτωσαν τῷ πράῳ συγκεκραμένον καὶ τὸ ἐν τῷ μειλιχίῳ μὴ συμπεπτωκός, οἷα τὰ τῶν λεόντων σκιρτήματα. Ἄλλοι τὸν εὐρυσθενῆ χρυσὸν καὶ τιμήεντα, μετὰ τῶν σεμνῶν ὀνομάτων ἀτιμασ θέντα καὶ προτροπάδην εἴξαντα δίκῃ τῇ σῇ· πρᾶγμα μόνον δὴ πάντων καὶ ἀκοῆς καὶ πίστεως ὑψηλότερον. 10.10 Ποιητικὸς δέ τις ἀνὴρ καὶ τὴν τέχνην ἄφετος καὶ αὐτόνομος καὶ μέλος ἀγροικὸν προσᾳδέτω σοι, γηπόνων χορὸν στησάμενος, καὶ ἀμησάμενος στάχυν ὡραῖον πλεκέτω στέφανον ὅτι ἥδιστον, ἡμερίδας τε περὶ κεφαλῆς ἐγειρέτω κισσῷ διαπλόκους καὶ βότρυσι. 10.11 Γεωργίας ταῦτα θαλύσια, διὰ σοῦ πάλιν ἀνθρώποις ἐπανελθούσης· πέτραι τε γάλα ναόντων καὶ μέλι κρῆναι, καὶ φυτὸν ἅπαν ἅμα ἡρέμοις κομάτω καρποῖς, σύντροφόν τε ὁμοίως καὶ ὄρειον, οἷα τὰ τῶν ποιητῶν πλάσματα, ὅταν τινὶ ποιῶσι χαριζομένην τὴν γῆν. 10.12 Ταῦτα μέν, ὅπερ ἔφην, λεγόντων τε καὶ πλαττόντων ἕτεροι· 20τὸ γὰρ οἰκεῖον20 ἅπαν οὐ 20πιέζει20 μόνον, ὡς τῇ λύρᾳ δοκεῖ, ἀλλὰ καὶ εὐφραίνειν μάλιστα πέφυκεν. Ἐγὼ δὲ ὃ διαφερόντως τῶν σῶν ἄγαμαί τε καὶ ἀσπάζομαι, τοῦτο ἐρῶ· ὅτι τῆς τοῦ καιροῦ δυσκολίας κρείττονα σεαυτὸν παρέχεις. 10.13 Ἕλλην μὲν ὢν τὴν θρησκείαν καὶ τῷ παρόντι κράτει τὰ τοῦ κράτους ὑπηρετούμενος· ὑπηρετούμενος δέ, οὐχ ὅσα οἱ τοῦ καιροῦ κόλακες, ἀλλ' ὅσα οἱ τοῦ καλοῦ φίλοι καὶ μεγαλόφρονες· καὶ τῶν μὲν τὴν θεραπείαν ἀφοσιούμενος, τηρῶν δὲ τῇ πατρίδι τὴν εὔνοιαν καὶ ἀθάνατον ἐν θνητῷ πράγματι τὴν δόξαν καρπούμενος. 10.14 Κἀκεῖνο δέ σου τῶν ἐπαινετῶν, ὅτι καὶ φιλίᾳ τι νέμεις αἰδοῦς ἐν τοσούτῳ τῆς ἀρχῆς ὄγκῳ· καὶ σχολὴν ἄγεις ἀπὸ τοσούτων ὧν πράττεις, μὴ μεμνῆσθαι μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τιμᾶν διὰ γραμμάτων τοὺς φίλους καὶ τὸν πόθον ὁμολογεῖν καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἕλκειν ἀπόντας. 10.15 Ἀνθ' ὧν ἐπεύχομαί σοι, τῶν μὲν εἰς εὐδοξίαν μεῖζον οὐδὲν (κἂν γὰρ προσθήκην ἡ ἀρχὴ λάβῃ, τήν γε ἀρετὴν λαβεῖν οὐκ ἔνεστιν), ἓν δὲ ἀντὶ πάντων καὶ μέγιστον, γενέσθαι μεθ' ἡμῶν ποτε καὶ Θεοῦ, καὶ τῆς διωκομένων εἶναι μερίδος, μὴ τῶν διωκόντων· ἐπειδὴ τὸ μὲν καιροῦ φορᾷ παρασύρεται, τὸ δὲ ἀθάνατον ἔχει τὴν σωτηρίαν.

11.t ΓΡΗΓΟΡΙΩΙ 11.1 Ἔχω τι δεξιὸν ἐν τῇ φύσει (μεγαλαυχήσομαι γὰρ ἕν τι

τῶν πολλῶν καὶ αὐτός)· ὁμοίως ἐμαυτῷ τε δυσχεραίνω βουλευομένῳ κακῶς καὶ τοῖς φίλοις. 11.2 Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν φίλοι πάντες ἀλλήλων καὶ συγγενεῖς οἱ κατὰ Θεὸν ζῶντες καὶ τῷ αὐτῷ Εὐαγγελίῳ στοιχοῦντες, τί οὐκ ἀκούσῃ παρ' ἡμῶν μετὰ παρρησίας ἃ πάντες ὑποτονθορύζουσιν; 11.3 Οὐκ ἐπαινοῦσί σου τὴν ἄδοξον εὐδοξίαν, ἵν' εἴπω τι κἀγὼ καθ' ὑμᾶς, καὶ τὴν κατὰ μικρὸν ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω ῥοπήν, καὶ τὴν 20κακίστην δαιμονίων20, ᾗ φησιν Εὐριπίδης, 20φιλοτιμίαν20. 11.4 Τί γὰρ παθών, ὦ σοφώτατε, ἢ τί σεαυτοῦ καταγνούς, τὰς μὲν ἱερὰς καὶ ποτίμους βίβλους ἀπέρριψας, ἃς ὑπανεγίνωσκές ποτε τῷ λαῷ (μὴ γὰρ αἰσχυνθῇς ἀκούων) ἢ ὑπὲρ καπνοῦ τέθεικας, ὡς τὰ πηδάλια χειμῶνος ὥρᾳ καὶ σκαπάνας, τὰς δ' ἁλμυρὰς καὶ ἀπότους μετεχειρίσω, καὶ ῥήτωρ ἀκούειν μᾶλλον ἢ χριστιανὸς ἠθέλησας; 11.5 Ἡμεῖς δὲ τοῦτο μᾶλλον ἤπερ ἐκεῖνο, καὶ πᾶσα τῷ Θεῷ χάρις. Μὴ σύ γ', ὦ ἄριστε, μὴ ἐπὶ πολὺ τοῦτο πάθῃς, ἀλλ' ἔκνηψον ὀψὲ γοῦν, καὶ πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐπάνελθε, καὶ ἀπο λόγησαι μὲν πιστοῖς, ἀπολόγησαι δὲ Θεῷ καὶ θυσιαστηρίοις καὶ μυστηρίοις, ἀφ' ὧν ἐμάκρυνας. 11.6 Καὶ μή μοι τὰ κομψὰ ταῦτα καὶ ῥητορικὰ ῥήματα· «Τί δαί; Οὐκ ἐχριστιάνιζον ῥητορεύων, οὐδὲ ἤμην πιστὸς ἐν τοῖς μειρακίσκοις στρεφόμενος;» καὶ ἴσως ἐπιμαρτυρῇ Θεόν. -Οὐδαμῶς, ὦ θαυμάσιε, οὔκουν ὅσον εἰκός, εἰ καὶ μέρος τι δοίημεν. 11.7 Ποῦ δὲ τὸ πλήσσειν ἄλλους ἐξ ὧν νῦν πράττεις, φυσικῶς πρὸς τὸ κακὸν ὄντας ἑτοιμοτέρους, καὶ τὰ χείρω διδόναι περὶ σοῦ καὶ ὑπονοεῖν καὶ λέγειν; Ἔστω ψεῦδος· ἀλλὰ τίς ἡ ἀνάγκη; Οὐ γὰρ ἑαυτῷ μόνον ζῇ τις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῷ πλησίον·