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into the opposing rank not weaker; for in a healthy body even the smallest part, through the sympathy of the whole, would be stronger than one that is corrupt and severed, even if the one is larger and the other smaller. 1.1.11 But let no one think me to be boasting through these words, as one swaggering over vain things beyond my actual ability. For I am not inelegantly led to contend with the man in a contest of words or a display of phrases for the sake of some boyish 1.1.12 ambition; for in matters where having the advantage is useless and unprofitable, we readily yield the victory to those who want it. But this man I conjecture to be in other respects a "1veteran of arguments,"2 looking at his very skill concerning doctrine, but to have labored exceptionally on the present discourse, judging both from the fact that no small part of the author’s life has been spent on this treatise, and from the fact that his admirers rejoice in what he has labored upon with all 1.1.13 exaggeration. And it is not at all unlikely that one who labored for so many Olympiads of years prepared something more than those who approached it off-hand. But his tiresome labor over the discourse is shown more by the inelegance concerning figures of speech in the composition of his phrases and the superfluous and vain 1.1.14 effort in such matters. For having collected a great heap of little words from some books by a hasty preparation, and having laboriously gathered an immeasurable pile of phrases for a few ideas, he has produced this "1much-wrought"2 labor, which the disciples of deceit praise and marvel at, having perhaps been deprived of the discernment of everything noble and not so from their deficiency concerning essential matters, but those for whom the insight of the heart has not been obscured by the filth of unbelief laugh and judge it to be of no 1.1.15 account. For who would not reasonably laugh, seeing the subject of the work proclaimed to be on behalf of the doctrines of truth, but the work itself occupied with an inelegance of phrases and figures, to no successful end? For what could be more of an aid to the refutation of what he thinks is badly said, and to the establishment of the truth of the matters in question, than some strange notion of rhetorical figures in his discourse and a novel and peculiar syntax and 20labored insolence20 and again 20insolent labor20, wrought in emulation of none of his 1.1.16 predecessors? For one could not discover, in looking to any of those known for their eloquence, to what model he brought himself to this, like some stage-performer, who through parallel, isocolic, assonant, and like-ending phrases, clatters through his discourse with the rhythm of his little words as if with 1.1.17 castanets. For such, along with many others, are the twitterings in his proems, these languid and affected Sotadean verses, which it seems to me he perhaps does not even deliver with a calm posture, but tapping with his foot and snapping his fingers, he shrilly utters them along with the rhythm and says the phrase 20and that there will be no further need either of other words or of second labors20. 1.1.18 In these things, therefore, and in things like them, conceding that he has the advantage and is to be sated with victory at his leisure, I will willingly pass over all the effort concerning these matters as befitting only those who look to ambition, if indeed it brings any ambition at all to be mincing in such discourses. Since indeed the genuine servant of the Word, Basil, being adorned by truth alone, himself thought it shameful to figure his discourse with such embellishments and trained us to look to truth alone, legislating this rightly and 1.1.19 fittingly. For why should one who is beautified with the adornment of truth drag in the fastidiousness of the hairdresser for the completion of a spurious and sophistical beauty? For to those who lack truth, it is perhaps useful to subtly drug their falsehood with the pleasure of words, like some paint, by employing such fastidiousness on the character of the

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εἰς ἀντίπαλον τάξιν οὐκ ἀσθενέστερος· ἐν γὰρ τῷ ὑγιαίνοντι σώματι καὶ τὸ ἐλάχιστον μέρος διὰ τῆς τοῦ παντὸς συμπνοίας δυνατώ τερον ἂν εἴη τοῦ διεφθορότος τε καὶ τετμημένου, κἂν τὸ μὲν πλέον, τὸ δ' ἔλαττον ᾖ. 1.1.11 Μηδεὶς δὲ μεγαλορρημονεῖν με διὰ τούτων οἰέσθω τῶν λόγων, ὡς ὑπὲρ τὴν προσοῦσαν δύναμιν ἐπὶ ματαίοις κομ πάζοντα. οὐ γὰρ ἀπειροκάλως εἰς λόγων ἅμιλλαν ἢ ῥημά των ἐπίδειξιν συγκαθεῖναι τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ πρὸς μειρακιώδη 1.1.12 τινὰ φιλοτιμίαν προάγομαι· ἐφ' ὧν γὰρ τὸ πλέον ἔχειν ἀνω φελὲς καὶ ἀνόνητον, ἑτοίμως ἐκχωροῦμεν τοῖς βουλομένοις τῆς νίκης. τουτονὶ δὲ καὶ ἄλλως μὲν "1τρίβωνα λόγων"2 εἶναι στο χάζομαι, πρὸς αὐτὴν βλέπων τὴν περὶ τὸ δόγμα τριβήν, δια φερόντως δὲ περὶ τὸν παρόντα πεπονηκέναι λόγον, τεκμαιρό μενος ἔκ τε τοῦ προσαναλῶσθαι τῇ λογογραφίᾳ ταύτῃ τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ συγγραφέως οὐκ ἐλάχιστον μέρος καὶ ἐκ τοῦ κατὰ πᾶσαν ὑπερβολὴν τοὺς ἐραστὰς αὐτοῦ τοῖς πεπονημένοις 1.1.13 ἀγάλλεσθαι. καὶ οὐδὲν ἀπεικὸς τὸν ἐν τοσαύταις ἐτῶν ὀλυμ πιάσι πονήσαντα πλέον τι τῶν αὐτόθεν ἐπιβαλόντων παρα σκευάσασθαι. δείκνυσι δὲ μᾶλλον τὴν τοιαύτην αὐτοῦ περὶ τὸν λόγον κατατριβὴν ἡ περὶ τὰ σχήματα κατὰ τὴν τῶν ῥημάτων συνθήκην ἀπειροκαλία καὶ τὸ περιττόν τε καὶ μά 1.1.14ον τῆς περὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα σπουδῆς. πολὺν γάρ τινα συρ φετὸν λεξειδίων ἐξ ὑπογυίου παρασκευῆς ἔκ τινων βιβλίων ἐρανισάμενος ἐπ' ὀλίγοις τοῖς νοηθεῖσιν ἀμέτρητόν τινα σω ρείαν ῥημάτων φιλοπόνως συμφορήσας τὸν "1πολύκμητον"2 τοῦτον ἐξειργάσατο πόνον, ὃν ἐπαινοῦσι μὲν καὶ τεθήπασιν οἱ μαθηταὶ τῆς ἀπάτης, ἐκ τῆς περὶ τὰ καίρια τάχα πηρώ σεως συναφῃρημένοι παντὸς καλοῦ τε καὶ μὴ τοιούτου διά κρισιν, γελῶσι δὲ καὶ ἀντ' οὐδενὸς εἶναι κρίνουσιν οἷς τὸ διορατικὸν τῆς καρδίας τῷ ῥύπῳ τῆς ἀπιστίας οὐκ ἐπημαύ 1.1.15 ρωται. τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν εἰκότως γελάσειεν ὁρῶν τὴν μὲν ὑπόθεσιν τῆς σπουδῆς ὑπὲρ τῶν τῆς ἀληθείας δογμάτων ἐπηγγελμένην, αὐτὴν δὲ τὴν σπουδὴν εἰς ῥημάτων τε καὶ σχημάτων ἀπειροκαλίαν ἠσχολημένην ἐπ' οὐδενὶ κατορθώ ματι; τί γὰρ ἂν καὶ μᾶλλον συναγωνίσαιτο πρὸς ἔλεγχον μὲν τῶν, ὡς αὐτὸς οἴεται, κακῶς εἰρημένων, σύστασιν δὲ τῆς ἀληθείας τῶν ζητουμένων ἐπίνοιά τις τῶν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ σχημάτων ἀλλόκοτος καὶ σύνταξις καινοπρεπής τε καὶ ἰδιά ζουσα καὶ 20ὕβρις σπουδαζομένη20 καὶ 20σπουδὴ20 πάλιν 20ὑβριζομένη20, κατ' οὐδένα ζῆλον τῶν προειληφότων ἐκπονη 1.1.16 θεῖσα; οὐ γὰρ ἂν ἔχοι τις ἐξευρεῖν πρὸς τίνα βλέπων τῶν ἐπὶ λόγῳ γνωριζομένων ἑαυτὸν εἰς τοῦτο προήγαγεν, ὥσπερ τις τῶν ἐπὶ σκηνῆς θαυματοποιούντων διὰ παραλλήλων καὶ ἰσοκώλων ὁμοιοφώνων τε καὶ ὁμοιοκαταλήκτων ῥημάτων οἷόν τισι κροτάλοις τῷ τῶν λεξειδίων ῥυθμῷ διακυμβαλίζων τὸν 1.1.17 λόγον. τοιαῦτα γάρ ἐστι μετὰ πολλῶν ἑτέρων καὶ τὰ ἐν προοιμίοις αὐτοῦ τερετίσματα, τὰ βλακώδη ταῦτα καὶ παρατε θρυμμένα σωτάδεια, ἅ μοι δοκεῖ τάχα μηδὲ ἠρεμαίῳ διεξ ιέναι τῷ σχήματι, ἀλλ' ὑποκροτῶν τῷ ποδὶ καὶ ἐπιψοφῶν τοῖς δακτύλοις λιγυρῶς ἅμα πρὸς τὸν ῥυθμὸν ἐπιφθέγγεσθαι καὶ λέγειν τὸ 20καὶ μηδὲν ἔτι δεήσειν μήτε λόγων ἑτέρων μήτε πόνων δευτέρων20. 1.1.18 Ἐν τούτοις τοίνυν καὶ τοῖς τοιούτοις τὸ πλέον ἔχειν αὐτὸν συγχωρήσας καὶ κατὰ ἐξουσίαν ἐμφορεῖσθαι τῆς νίκης πᾶσαν τὴν περὶ ταῦτα σπουδὴν ἑκὼν ὑπερβήσομαι ὡς μόνοις τοῖς πρὸς φιλοτιμίαν ὁρῶσι προσήκουσαν, εἴ γέ τινα φέρει φιλοτιμίαν ὅλως τοῖς τοιούτοις τῶν λόγων ἐνδιαθρύπτεσθαι. ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ γνήσιος ὑπηρέτης τοῦ λόγου Βασίλειος μόνῃ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ κοσμούμενος αὐτός τε ταῖς τοιαύταις ποικιλίαις αἰσχρὸν ᾤετο κατασχηματίζειν τὸν λόγον καὶ ἡμᾶς πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν μόνην ἀφορᾶν ἐξεπαίδευσε, καλῶς καὶ προσηκόντως 1.1.19 τοῦτο νομοθετῶν. τί γὰρ χρὴ τὴν κομμωτικὴν περιεργίαν εἰς τὴν τοῦ νόθου καὶ σεσοφισμένου κάλλους συντέλειαν ἐπι σύρεσθαι τὸν τῷ κόσμῳ τῆς ἀληθείας ὡραϊζόμενον; οἷς μὲν γὰρ ἄπεστιν ἡ ἀλήθεια, χρήσιμον ἴσως διὰ τῆς τῶν ῥημά των ἡδονῆς ὑποφαρμάττειν τὸ ψεῦδος, οἷόν τι φυκίον τὴν τοιαύτην περιεργίαν ἐνδιατρίβοντας τῷ χαρακτῆρι τοῦ