6

free, laughing at the crowds of the city, not hearing the tax-collector's reproach. He is a unicorn, an autonomous creature. Will he consent to serve you? Will you bind him at the manger? Will he be brought under the yoke? When he is shut out from all things on earth, wings like an eagle's have been prepared for him; he will return to the house of his master, he will fly up to God. Shall I say something in summary? These two things are ungovernable: God and an angel; and the third, a philosopher: immaterial in matter, uncircumscribed in a body, heavenly upon earth, impassive amid passions, defeated in all things except his spirit, conquering by being conquered those who think they conquer. But since the discourse has described the philosopher for us, from which point I began speaking, come, let us consider our own affairs in comparison with him (for I too think I have the Spirit of God, and if in any of these things I am vulnerable and conquerable); so that if those who hate and fight against me find me defeated, they may at least be pardoned for their attempt, even if not for their intention; but if they find me stronger than my adversaries and more exalted, they may either be delivered from their malice, or devise some newer way of injustice, since the present one is despised, and not, in addition to their malice, be charged with folly, as transgressing in vain, and not even knowing how to inflict the injury they are eager for.

14. For what harm will they do, coming at me from every side? Let us see how many wrongs a man may suffer from men. Will they call me uneducated? I know one wisdom, to fear God (For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; and the end of the matter, hear the whole: fear God. These things said Solomon the most wise). Let them show me then to be fearless, and let them be victorious; as for other wisdom, some I have passed by, and some I pray and hope to acquire, trusting in the Spirit. Will they charge me with poverty, my own abundance? Would that I might cast off even these rags, that I might run naked through the thorns of life; would that I might shed this heavy 35.1248 tunic as quickly as possible, that I might receive a lighter one. Will they call me an exile? How small-minded they are concerning us, truly insolent and inhospitable! For I have a fatherland, O you people, circumscribed, for which every country is a fatherland, and no country? But are you not a stranger and a sojourner? I do not praise your dwelling, if you are so disposed, lest you fall from the true fatherland, in which one ought to lay up one's citizenship. Will you not reproach us for old age and sickness? Is this not entirely of matter and of nature, that you may know something of my secrets; there is that which reason also has consumed, that I may boast a little. Nor are you, vigorous and well-fed, a pleasant sight to me. Would that some gray hair and paleness bloomed on you, that you might at least be believed to be prudent and a philosopher.

15. What more? Will they depose me from thrones? From which ones, pray, did I gladly mount, either now or before? And do I count happy those who mount them? And do you make them pleasant for me, by mounting them so unworthily? Did not even past events declare my mind to you? Or was that too a kind of coyness, and a testing of desire? The skillful would suppose all things about others from their own perspective, some they would suspect, others they would say. What then of the contrition? What then of the curses which we have publicly made against ourselves? What then of the tears, and of our almost becoming pitiable to you, and hated because of our persistence? Will they deprive me of the presidency? Which has any sensible person ever admired? But now, even to flee it is, as it seems to me, the first part of prudence; because of which all our affairs are shaken and disturbed; because of which the ends of the world are in suspicion, and in a kind of mute war that does not even have a name; because of which we are in danger of being of men, though we are of God, and of losing the great and new name. Would that there were no presidency, nor any precedence of place, and tyrannical prerogative! that we might be known by virtue alone. But now this business of the right hand, and the left hand, and the middle, and the higher, and the lower, and of walking before or walking with, has caused us many shipwrecks in vain, and

6

ἐλεύθερος, καταγελῶν πολυοχλίας πόλεως, μέμ ψιν φορολόγου μὴ ἀκούων. Μονόκερώς ἐστι, ζῶον αὐτόνομον. Εἰ βουλήσεταί σοι δουλεῦσαι; εἰ δήσεις αὐτὸν ἐπὶ φάτνης; εἰ ὑπὸ ζυγὸν ἀχθή σεται; Ὅταν πάντων ἐξείργηται τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς, κατεσκεύασται αὐτῷ πτέρυγες ὥσπερ ἀετοῦ, ἐπιστρέ ψει εἰς τὸν οἶκον τοῦ προεστηκότος αὐτοῦ, πρὸς Θεὸν ἀναπτήσεται. Εἴπω τι κεφάλαιον· ∆ύο ταῦτα δυσκράτητα, Θεὸς καὶ ἄγγελος· καὶ τὸ τρίτον φιλόσοφος, ἄϋλος ἐν ὕλῃ, ἐν σώματι ἀπερίγραπτος, ἐπὶ γῆς οὐράνιος, ἐν πάθεσιν ἀπαθὴς, πάντα ἡττώμενος πλὴν φρονήματος, νικῶν τῷ νικᾶσθαι τοὺς κρατεῖν νομίζοντας. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τὸν φιλόσοφον ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος ἔγραψεν, ὅθεν εἶπον, ἀρξάμενος, φέρε, παρὰ τοῦτον τὰ ἡμέτερα θεωρήσωμεν (δοκῶ γὰρ κἀγὼ Πνεῦμα Θεοῦ ἔχειν, καὶ εἴ τινι τούτων τρωτὸς ἐγὼ καὶ ἁλώσιμος)· ἵν' εἰ μὲν ἡττώμενον εὑρίσκοιεν οἱ μισοῦντες καὶ πολεμοῦντες, συγγινώσκοιντο γοῦν τῆς ἐγχειρήσεως, εἰ καὶ μὴ τῆς προαιρέσεως· εἰ δὲ κρείττονα τῶν πολεμούντων καὶ ὑψηλότερον, ἢ τῆς κακίας ἀπαλλαγεῖεν, ἢ καινοτέραν ὁδὸν τῆς ἀδικίας ἐπινοήσαιεν, ὡς τῆς παρούσης καταφρονουμένης, καὶ μὴ πρὸς τῇ κακίᾳ καὶ ἄνοιαν ἐγκαλοῖντο, ὡς ἀνομοῦντες διακενῆς, καὶ οὐδὲ εἰδότες ἀδικεῖν ὃ σπουδάζουσιν.

Ι∆ʹ. Τί γὰρ δὴ καὶ λυπήσουσιν ἐπὶ πάντα ἐλθόντες; Ἴδωμεν ὅσα ἂν ἀδικηθείη παρὰ ἀνθρώπων ἄνθρωπος. Ἀπαίδευτον ὀνομάσουσιν; Μίαν σοφίαν οἶδα, τὸ φοβεῖσθαι Θεὸν (Ἀρχή τε γὰρ σοφίας, φό βος Κυρίου· καὶ τέλος λόγου, τὸ πᾶν ἄκουε, τὸν Θεὸν φοβοῦ. Ταῦτα Σολομὼν ὁ σοφώτατος. ∆ειξά τωσαν οὖν ἄφοβον, καὶ νικησάτωσαν· τῆς δὲ ἄλλης σοφίας, τὴν μὲν παρέδραμον, τὴν δὲ προσλα βεῖν εὔχομαι καὶ ἐλπίζω, θαῤῥῶν τῷ Πνεύματι. Πε νίαν ἐγκαλέσουσι, τὴν ἐμὴν περιουσίαν; εἴθε γὰρ ἀποδυσαίμην καὶ τὰ ῥάκια ταῦτα, ἵνα γυμνὸς δια δράμω τὰς ἀκάνθας τοῦ βίου· εἴθε καὶ τὸν βαρὺν 35.1248 χιτῶνα τοῦτον ὡς τάχιστα, ἵνα λάβω κουφότερον. Φυγόπατριν ἀποκαλέσουσιν; ὡς μικρὰ φρονοῦσι περὶ ἡμῶν ὄντως ὑβρισταὶ καὶ μισόξενοι! Ἔστι γάρ μοι πατρὶς, ὦ οὗτοι, περιγραπτὸς, ᾧ πᾶσα πατρὶς, καὶ οὐδεμία; Σὺ δὲ οὐ ξένος καὶ παρεπίδημος; Οὐκ ἐπαινῶ σου τὴν κατοικίαν, ἂν οὕτως ἔχῃς, μὴ τῆς ἀληθινῆς πατρίδος ἐκπέσῃς, εἰς ἣν ἀποτίθεσθαι χρὴ τὸ πολίτευμα. Γῆρας δὲ οὐκ ὀνειδίσαις ἡμῖν καὶ τὸ νοσῶδες; οὐχ ὅλον τοῦτο τῆς ὕλης καὶ τῆς φύ σεως, ἵνα εἰδῇς τι τῶν ἐμῶν ἀποῤῥήτων· ἔστιν ὃ καὶ ὁ λογισμὸς ἐδαπάνησεν, ἵνα μικρόν τι καυχήσωμαι. Οὐδὲ σὺ σφριγῶν μοι καὶ σαρκοτροφῶν, ἡδὺ θέαμα. Εἴθε τι καὶ πολιᾶς ἐπήνθει σοι καὶ ὠχρό τητος, ἵνα πιστευθῇς γοῦν εἶναι συνετὸς καὶ φιλόσοφος.

ΙΕʹ. Τί ἔτι; Θρόνων καθαιρήσουσιν; Τίνων ἆρ' ὧν ἡδέως ἐπέβην, ἢ νῦν, ἢ πρότερον; μακαρίζω δὲ τοὺς ἐπιβαίνοντας; Σὺ δέ μοι τούτους ἡδεῖς ποιεῖς, οὕτως ἐπιβαίνων ἀναξίως; Οὐδὲ τὰ πρώην συμβάντα τὴν ἐμὴν γνώμην ὑμῖν ἐδήλωσεν; ἢ κἀ κεῖνα θρύψις τις ἦν, καὶ τοῦ πόθου δοκιμασία; Πάντα ἂν οἱ τεχνικοὶ περὶ ἄλλων, τὰ ἑαυτῶν, τὰ μὲν ὑπονοήσαιεν, τὰ δὲ εἴποιεν. Τί δαὶ ἡ συντριβή; τί δαὶ αἱ ἀραὶ, ἃς δημοσίᾳ καθ' ἡμῶν αὐτῶν πε ποιήμεθα; τί δαὶ τὰ δάκρυα, καὶ τὸ ἐλεεινοὺς γενέσθαι ὑμῖν μικροῦ, καὶ μισουμένους διὰ τὴν ἔνστα σιν; Προεδρίας ἀποστερήσουσιν; ἣν πότε καὶ τίς τῶν εὖ φρονούντων ἐθαύμασε; νῦν δὲ καὶ τὸ φεύ γειν, ὡς γοῦν ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, πρῶτον συνέσεως· δι' ἣν πάντα δονεῖται καὶ σείεται τὰ ἡμέτερα· δι' ἣν τὰ πέρατα τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐν ὑποψίᾳ, καὶ πολέμῳ κωφῷ τινι καὶ οὐδὲ ὄνομα ἔχοντι· δι' ἣν κινδυνεύομεν ἀνθρώπων εἶναι, παρὰ Θεοῦ γεγονότες, καὶ τὸ μέγα καὶ καινὸν ἀποβαλεῖν ὄνομα. Ὡς ὄφελόν γε μηδὲ ἦν προεδρία, μηδέ τις τόπου προτίμησις, καὶ τυραννικὴ προνομία! ἵν' ἐξ ἀρετῆς μόνης ἐγινωσκόμεθα. Νῦν δὲ τὸ δεξιὸν τοῦτο, καὶ τὸ ἀριστερὸν, καὶ τὸ μέσον, καὶ τὸ ὑψηλότερον, καὶ τὸ χθαμαλώτερον, καὶ τὸ προβαδίζειν ἢ συμβαδίζειν, πολλὰ πεποίηκε τὰ συντρίμματα ἡμῶν διακενῆς, καὶ