Chapter XII.—Exhortation to Abandon Their Old Errors and Listen to the Instructions of Christ.

Let us then avoid custom as we would a dangerous headland, or the threatening Charybdis, or the mythic sirens. It chokes man, turns him away from truth, leads him away from life: custom is a snare, a gulf, a pit, a mischievous winnowing fan.

Let us shun, fellow-mariners, let us shun this billow; it vomits forth fire: it is a wicked island, heaped with bones and corpses, and in it sings a fair courtesan, Pleasure, delighting with music for the common ear.

She praises thee, O mariner, and calls the illustrious; and the courtesan tries to win to herself the glory of the Greeks. Leave her to prey on the dead; a heavenly spirit comes to thy help: pass by Pleasure, she beguiles.

Sail past the song; it works death. Exert your will only, and you have overcome ruin; bound to the wood of the cross, thou shalt be freed from destruction: the word of God will be thy pilot, and the Holy Spirit will bring thee to anchor in the haven of heaven. Then shalt thou see my God, and be initiated into the sacred mysteries, and come to the fruition of those things which are laid up in heaven reserved for me, which “ear hath not heard, nor have they entered into the heart of any.”170    1 Cor. ii. 9.

said one frenzy-stricken in the worship of idols, intoxicated with mere ignorance. I would pity him in his frantic intoxication, and thus frantic I would invite him to the sobriety of salvation; for the Lord welcomes a sinner’s repentance, and not his death.

Come, O madman, not leaning on the thyrsus, not crowned with ivy; throw away the mitre, throw away the fawn-skin; come to thy senses. I will show thee the Word, and the mysteries of the Word, expounding them after thine own fashion. This is the mountain beloved of God, not the subject of tragedies like Cithæron, but consecrated to dramas of the truth,—a mount of sobriety, shaded with forests of purity; and there revel on it not the Mænades, the sisters of Semele, who was struck by the thunderbolt, practising in their initiatory rites unholy division of flesh, but the daughters of God, the fair lambs, who celebrate the holy rites of the Word, raising a sober choral dance. The righteous are the chorus; the music is a hymn of the King of the universe. The maidens strike the lyre, the angels praise, the prophets speak; the sound of music issues forth, they run and pursue the jubilant band; those that are called make haste, eagerly desiring to receive the Father.

Come thou also, O aged man, leaving Thebes, and casting away from thee both divination and Bacchic frenzy, allow thyself to be led to the truth. I give thee the staff [of the cross] on which to lean. Haste, Tiresias; believe, and thou wilt see. Christ, by whom the eyes of the blind recover sight, will shed on thee a light brighter than the sun; night will flee from thee, fire will fear, death will be gone; thou, old man, who saw not Thebes, shalt see the heavens. O truly sacred mysteries! O stainless light! My way is lighted with torches, and I survey the heavens and God; I become holy whilst I am initiated. The Lord is the hierophant, and seals while illuminating him who is initiated, and presents to the Father him who believes, to be kept safe for ever. Such are the reveries of my mysteries. If it is thy wish, be thou also initiated; and thou shall join the choir along with angels around the unbegotten and indestructible and the only true God, the Word of God, raising the hymn with us.172    [Here are references to baptism and the Eucharist, and to the Trisagion, “Therefore with angels and archangels,” which was universally diffused in the Christian Church. Bunsen, Hippol., iii. 63.] This Jesus, who is eternal, the one great High Priest of the one God, and of His Father, prays for and exhorts men.

“Hear, ye myriad tribes, rather whoever among men are endowed with reason, both barbarians and Greeks. I call on the whole race of men, whose Creator I am, by the will of the Father. Come to Me, that you may be put in your due rank under the one God and the one Word of God; and do not only have the advantage of the irrational creatures in the possession of reason; for to you of all mortals I grant the enjoyment of immortality. For I want, I want to impart to you this grace, bestowing on you the perfect boon of immortality; and I confer on you both the Word and the knowledge of God, My complete self. This am I, this God wills, this is symphony, this the harmony of the Father, this is the Son, this is Christ, this the Word of God, the arm of the Lord, the power of the universe, the will of the Father; of which things there were images of old, but not all adequate. I desire to restore you according to the original model, that ye may become also like Me. I anoint you with the ungent of faith, by which you throw off corruption, and show you the naked form of righteousness by which you ascend to God. Come to Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden light.”173    Matt. xi. 28, 29, 30.

Let us haste, let us run, my fellow-men—us, who are God-loving and God-like images of the Word. Let us haste, let us run, let us take His yoke, let us receive, to conduct us to immortality, the good charioteer of men. Let us love Christ. He led the colt with its parent; and having yoked the team of humanity to God, directs His chariot to immortality, hastening clearly to fulfil, by driving now into heaven, what He shadowed forth before by riding into Jerusalem. A spectacle most beautiful to the Father is the eternal Son crowned with victory.174    [“Who is this that cometh from Edom,” seems to be in mind. Isa. lxiii. 1.] Let us aspire, then, after what is good; let us become God-loving men, and obtain the greatest of all things which are incapable of being harmed—God and life. Our helper is the Word; let us put confidence in Him; and never let us be visited with such a craving for silver and gold, and glory, as for the Word of truth Himself. For it will not, it will not be pleasing to God Himself if we value least those things which are worth most, and hold in the highest estimation the manifest enormities and the utter impiety of folly, and ignorance, and thoughtlessness, and idolatry. For not improperly the sons of the philosophers consider that the foolish are guilty of profanity and impiety in whatever they do; and describing ignorance itself as a species of madness, allege that the multitude are nothing but madmen. There is therefore no room to doubt, the Word will say, whether it is better to be sane or insane; but holding on to truth with our teeth, we must with all our might follow God, and in the exercise of wisdom regard all things to be, as they are, His; and besides, having learned that we are the most excellent of His possessions, let us commit ourselves to God, loving the Lord God, and regarding this as our business all our life long. And if what belongs to friends be reckoned common property, and man be the friend of God—for through the mediation of the Word has he been made the friend of God—then accordingly all things become man’s, because all things are God’s, and the common property of both the friends, God and man.

It is time, then, for us to say that the pious Christian alone is rich and wise, and of noble birth, and thus call and believe him to be God’s image, and also His likeness,175    Clement here draws a distinction, frequently made by early Christian writers, between the image and the likeness of God. Man never loses the image of God; but as the likeness consists in moral resemblance, he may lose it, and he recovers it only when he becomes righteous, holy, and wise. having become righteous and holy and wise by Jesus Christ, and so far already like God. Accordingly this grace is indicated by the prophet, when he says, “I said that ye are gods, and all sons of the Highest.”176    Ps. lxxxii. 6. For us, yea us, He has adopted, and wishes to be called the Father of us alone, not of the unbelieving. Such is then our position who are the attendants of Christ.

Good is the whole life of those who have known Christ.

Enough, methinks, of words, though, impelled by love to man, I might have gone on to pour out what I had from God, that I might exhort to what is the greatest of blessings—salvation.177    [Let me quote from an excellent author: “We ought to give the Fathers credit for knowing what arguments were best calculated to affect the minds of those whom they were addressing. It was unnecessary for them to establish, by a long train of reasoning, the probability that a revelation may be made from heaven to man, or to prove the credibility of miracles . . . The majority, both of the learned and unlearned, were fixed in the belief that the Deity exercised an immediate control over the human race, and consequently felt no predisposition to reject that which purported to be a communication of His will. . . . Accustomed as they were, however, to regard the various systems proposed by philosophers as matters of curious speculation, designed to exercise the understanding, not to influence the conduct, the chief difficulty of the advocate of Christianity was to prevent them from treating it with the same levity, and to induce them to view it in its true light as a revelation declaring truths of the highest practical importance.”   This remark of Bishop Kaye is a hint of vast importance in our study of the early Apologists. It is taken from that author’s Account of the Writings of Clement of Alexandria (London, 1835), to which I would refer the student, as the best introduction to these works that I know of. It is full of valuable comment and exposition. I make only sparing reference to it, however, in these pages, as otherwise I should hardly know what to omit, or to include.] For discourses concerning the life which has no end, are not readily brought to the end of their disclosures. To you still remains this conclusion, to choose which will profit you most—judgment or grace. For I do not think there is even room for doubt which of these is the better; nor is it allowable to compare life with destruction.

Φύγωμεν οὖν τὴν συνήθειαν, φύγωμεν οἷον ἄκραν χαλε πὴν ἢ Χαρύβδεως ἀπειλὴν ἢ Σειρῆνας μυθικάς· ἄγχει τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τῆς ἀληθείας ἀποτρέπει, ἀπάγει τῆς ζωῆς, παγίς ἐστιν, βάραθρόν ἐστιν, βόθρος ἐστί, λίχνον ἐστὶν κακὸν ἡ συνήθεια· κείνου μὲν καπνοῦ καὶ κύματος ἐκτὸς ἔεργε νῆα. Φεύγωμεν, ὦ συνναῦται, φεύγωμεν τὸ κῦμα τοῦτο, πῦρ ἐρεύγεται, νῆσός ἐστι πονηρὰ ὀστοῖς καὶ νεκροῖς σεσωρευ μένη, ᾄδει δὲ ἐν αὐτῇ πορνίδιον ὡραῖον, ἡδονή, πανδήμῳ τερπόμενον μουσικῇ. δεῦρ' ἄγ' ἰών, πολύαιν' Ὀδυσεῦ, μέγα κῦδος Ἀχαιῶν, νῆα κατάστησον, ἵνα θειοτέρην ὄπ' ἀκούσῃς. Ἐπαινεῖ σε, ὦ ναῦτα, καὶ πολυύμνητον λέγει, καὶ τὸ κῦδος τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἡ πόρνη σφετερίζεται· ἔασον αὐτὴν ἐπινέ μεσθαι τοὺς νεκρούς, πνεῦμά σοι οὐράνιον βοηθεῖ· πάριθι τὴν ἡδονήν, βουκολεῖ· μηδὲ γυνή σε νόον πυγοστόλος ἐξαπατάτω, αἱμύλα κωτίλλουσα, τεὴν διφῶσα καλιήν. Παράπλει τὴν ᾠδήν, θάνατον ἐργάζεται· ἐὰν ἐθέλῃς μόνον, νενίκηκας τὴν ἀπώλειαν καὶ τῷ ξύλῳ προσδεδεμένος ἁπάσης ἔσῃ τῆς φθορᾶς λελυμένος, κυβερνήσει σε ὁ λόγος ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ τοῖς λιμέσι καθορμίσει τῶν οὐρανῶν τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον· τότε μου κατοπτεύσεις τὸν θεὸν καὶ τοῖς ἁγίοις ἐκείνοις τελεσθήσῃ μυστηρίοις καὶ τῶν ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἀπολαύσεις ἀποκεκρυμμένων, τῶν ἐμοὶ τετηρημένων, "ἃ οὔτε οὖς ἤκουσεν οὔτε ἐπὶ καρδίαν ἀνέβη" τινός. Καὶ μὴν ὁρᾶν μοι δύο μὲν ἡλίους δοκῶ, δισσὰς δὲ Θήβας βακχεύων ἔλεγέν τις εἰδώλοις, ἀγνοίᾳ μεθύων ἀκράτῳ ἐγὼ δ' αὐτὸν οἰκτείραιμι παροινοῦντα καὶ τὸν οὕτω παρα νοοῦντα ἐπὶ σωτηρίαν παρακαλέσαιμι σωφρονοῦσαν, ὅτι καὶ κύριος μετάνοιαν ἁμαρτωλοῦ καὶ οὐχὶ θάνατον ἀσπάζεται. Ἧκε, ὦ παραπλήξ, μὴ θύρσῳ σκηριπτόμενος, μὴ κιττῷ ἀναδούμενος, ῥῖψον τὴν μίτραν, ῥῖψον τὴν νεβρίδα, σωφρό νησον· δείξω σοι τὸν λόγον καὶ τοῦ λόγου τὰ μυστήρια, κατὰ τὴν σὴν διηγούμενος εἰκόνα. Ὄρος ἐστὶ τοῦτο θεῷ πεφιλημένον, οὐ τραγῳδίαις ὡς Κιθαιρὼν ὑποκείμενον, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἀληθείας ἀνακείμενον δράμασιν, ὄρος νηφάλιον, ἁγναῖς ὕλαις σύσκιον· βακχεύουσι δὲ ἐν αὐτῷ οὐχ αἱ Σεμέλης "τῆς κεραυνίας" ἀδελφαί, αἱ μαινάδες, αἱ δύσαγνον κρεανο μίαν μυούμεναι, ἀλλ' αἱ τοῦ θεοῦ θυγατέρες, αἱ ἀμνάδες αἱ καλαί, τὰ σεμνὰ τοῦ λόγου θεσπίζουσαι ὄργια, χορὸν ἀγεί ρουσαι σώφρονα. Ὁ χορὸς οἱ δίκαιοι, τὸ ᾆσμα ὕμνος ἐστὶ τοῦ πάντων βασιλέως· ψάλλουσιν αἱ κόραι, δοξάζουσιν ἄγγελοι, προφῆται λαλοῦσιν, ἦχος στέλλεται μουσικῆς, δρόμῳ τὸν θίασον διώκουσιν, σπεύδουσιν οἱ κεκλημένοι πατέρα ποθοῦντες ἀπολαβεῖν. Ἧκέ μοι, ὦ πρέσβυ, καὶ σύ, τὰς Θήβας λιπὼν καὶ τὴν μαντικὴν καὶ τὴν βακχικὴν ἀπορ ρίψας πρὸς ἀλήθειαν χειραγωγοῦ· ἰδού σοι τὸ ξύλον ἐπερεί δεσθαι δίδωμι· σπεῦσον, Τειρεσία, πίστευσον· ὄψει. Χριστὸς ἐπιλάμπει φαιδρότερον ἡλίου, δι' ὃν ὀφθαλμοὶ τυφλῶν ἀναβλέπουσιν· νύξ σε φεύξεται, πῦρ φοβηθήσεται, θάνατος οἰχήσεται· ὄψει τοὺς οὐρανούς, ὦ γέρον, ὁ Θήβας μὴ βλέπων. Ὢ τῶν ἁγίων ὡς ἀληθῶς μυστηρίων, ὢ φωτὸς ἀκηράτου. ∆ᾳδουχοῦμαι τοὺς οὐρανοὺς καὶ τὸν θεὸν ἐποπ τεῦσαι, ἅγιος γίνομαι μυούμενος, ἱεροφαντεῖ δὲ ὁ κύριος καὶ τὸν μύστην σφραγίζεται φωταγωγῶν, καὶ παρατίθεται τῷ πατρὶ τὸν πεπιστευκότα αἰῶσι τηρούμενον. Ταῦτα τῶν ἐμῶν μυστηρίων τὰ βακχεύματα· εἰ βούλει, καὶ σὺ μυοῦ, καὶ χορεύσεις μετ' ἀγγέλων ἀμφὶ τὸν ἀγέννητον καὶ ἀνώ λεθρον καὶ μόνον ὄντως θεόν, συνυμνοῦντος ἡμῖν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου. Ἀίδιος οὗτος Ἰησοῦς, εἷς ὁ μέγας ἀρχιερεὺς θεοῦ τε ἑνὸς τοῦ αὐτοῦ καὶ πατρός, ὑπὲρ ἀνθρώπων εὔχεται καὶ ἀνθρώποις ἐγκελεύεται "κέκλυτε, μυρία φῦλα", μᾶλλον δὲ ὅσοι τῶν ἀνθρώπων λογικοί, καὶ βάρβαροι καὶ Ἕλληνες· τὸ πᾶν ἀνθρώπων γένος καλῶ, ὧν ἐγὼ δημιουργὸς θελήματι πατρός. Ἥκετε ὡς ἐμέ, ὑφ' ἕνα ταχθησόμενοι θεὸν καὶ τὸν ἕνα λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ μὴ μόνον τῶν ἀλόγων ζῴων πλεο νεκτεῖτε τῷ λόγῳ, ἐκ δὲ τῶν θνητῶν ἁπάντων ὑμῖν ἀθανασίαν μόνοις καρπώσασθαι δίδωμι. Ἐθέλω γάρ, ἐθέλω καὶ ταύτης ὑμῖν μεταδοῦναι τῆς χάριτος, ὁλόκληρον χορηγῶν τὴν εὐεργεσίαν, ἀφθαρσίαν· καὶ λόγον χαρίζομαι ὑμῖν, τὴν γνῶσιν τοῦ θεοῦ, τέλειον ἐμαυτὸν χαρίζομαι. Τοῦτό εἰμι ἐγώ, τοῦτο βούλεται ὁ θεός, τοῦτο συμφωνία ἐστί, τοῦτο ἁρμονία πατρός, τοῦτο υἱός, τοῦτο Χριστός, τοῦτο ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, βραχίων κυρίου, δύναμις τῶν ὅλων, τὸ θέλημα τοῦ πατρός. Ὦ πᾶσαι μὲν εἰκόνες, οὐ πᾶσαι δὲ ἐμφερεῖς· διορθώσασθαι ὑμᾶς πρὸς τὸ ἀρχέτυπον βούλομαι, ἵνα μοι καὶ ὅμοιοι γένησθε. Χρίσω ὑμᾶς τῷ πίστεως ἀλείμματι, δι' οὗ τὴν φθορὰν ἀποβάλλετε, καὶ γυμνὸν δικαιοσύνης ἐπιδείξω τὸ σχῆμα, δι' οὗ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν ἀναβαίνετε. "∆εῦτε πρός με πάντες οἱ κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, κἀγὼ ἀναπαύσω ὑμᾶς· ἄρατε τὸν ζυγόν μου ἐφ' ὑμᾶς καὶ μάθετε ἀπ' ἐμοῦ, ὅτι πραΰς εἰμι καὶ ταπεινὸς τῇ καρδίᾳ, καὶ εὑρήσετε ἀνάπαυ σιν ταῖς ψυχαῖς ὑμῶν· ὁ γὰρ ζυγός μου χρηστὸς καὶ τὸ φορτίον μου ἐλαφρόν ἐστιν." Σπεύσωμεν, δράμωμεν, ὦ θεοφιλῆ καὶ θεοείκελα τοῦ λόγου [ἄνθρωποι] ἀγάλματα· σπεύσωμεν, δράμωμεν, ἄρωμεν τὸν ζυγὸν αὐτοῦ, ἐπιβάλωμεν ἀφθαρσίᾳ, καλὸν ἡνίοχον ἀνθρώπων τὸν Χριστὸν ἀγαπήσωμεν· τὸν πῶλον ὑποζύγιον ἤγαγε σὺν τῷ παλαιῷ· καὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὴν συνωρίδα καταζεύξας, εἰς ἀθανασίαν κατιθύνει τὸ ἅρμα, σπεύδων πρὸς τὸν θεὸν πληρῶσαι ἐναργῶς ὃ ᾐνίξατο, πρότε ρον μὲν εἰς Ἱερουσαλήμ, νῦν δὲ εἰσελαύνων οὐρανούς, κάλλιστον θέαμα τῷ πατρὶ υἱὸς ἀίδιος νικηφόρος. Φιλότιμοι τοίνυν πρὸς τὰ καλὰ καὶ θεοφιλεῖς ἄνθρωποι γενώμεθα, καὶ τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὰ μέγιστα, θεὸν καὶ ζωήν, κτησώμεθα. Ἀρωγὸς δὲ ὁ λόγος· θαρρῶμεν αὐτῷ καὶ μή ποτε ἡμᾶς τοσοῦτος ἀργύρου καὶ χρυσοῦ, μὴ δόξης ἐπέλθῃ πόθος, ὅσος αὐτοῦ τοῦ τῆς ἀληθείας λόγου. Οὐδὲ γὰρ οὐδὲ τῷ θεῷ αὐτῷ ἀρεστόν, εἰ ἡμεῖς τὰ μὲν πλείστου ἄξια περὶ ἐλαχίστου ποιούμεθα, ἀνοίας δὲ καὶ ἀμαθίας καὶ ῥᾳθυμίας καὶ εἰδω λολατρείας ὕβρεις περιφανεῖς καὶ τὴν ἐσχάτην δυσσέβειαν περὶ πλείονος αἱρούμεθα. Οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ τρόπου φιλοσόφων παῖδες πάντα ὅσα πράττουσιν οἱ ἀνόητοι, ἀνοσιουργεῖν καὶ ἀσεβεῖν νομίζουσιν, καὶ αὐτήν γε ἔτι τὴν ἄγνοιαν μανίας εἶδος ὑπογράφοντες οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἢ μεμηνέναι τοὺς πολλοὺς ὁμολογοῦσιν. Οὐ δὴ οὖν ἀμφιβάλλειν αἱρεῖ ὁ λόγος, ὁπότερον αὐτοῖν ἄμεινον, σωφρονεῖν ἢ μεμηνέναι. Ἐχομένους δὲ ἀπρὶξ τῆς ἀληθείας παντὶ σθένει ἕπεσθαι χρὴ τῷ θεῷ σωφρονοῦντας καὶ πάντα αὐτοῦ νομίζειν, ὥσπερ ἔστι, πρὸς δὲ καὶ ἡμᾶς τὸ κάλλιστον τῶν κτημάτων μεμαθηκότας ὄντας αὐτοῦ, σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐπιτρέπειν τῷ θεῷ, ἀγαπῶντας κύριον τὸν θεὸν καὶ τοῦτο παρ' ὅλον τὸν βίον ἔργον ἡγουμένους. Εἰ δὲ "κοινὰ τὰ φίλων", θεοφιλὴς δὲ ὁ ἄνθρωπος (καὶ γὰρ οὖν φίλος τῷ θεῷ, μεσιτεύοντος τοῦ λόγου), γίνεται δὴ οὖν τὰ πάντα τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ὅτι τὰ πάντα τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ κοινὰ ἀμφοῖν τοῖν φίλοιν τὰ πάντα, τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπου. Ὥρα οὖν ἡμῖν μόνον θεοσεβῆ τὸν Χριστιανὸν εἰπεῖν πλούσιόν τε καὶ σώφρονα καὶ εὐγενῆ καὶ ταύτῃ εἰκόνα τοῦ θεοῦ μεθ' ὁμοιώσεως, καὶ λέγειν καὶ πιστεύειν "δίκαιον καὶ ὅσιον μετὰ φρονήσεως" γενόμενον ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ εἰς τοσοῦτον ὅμοιον ἤδη καὶ θεῷ. Οὐκ ἀποκρύπτεται γοῦν ὁ προφήτης τὴν χάριν λέγων, "ἐγὼ εἶπον ὅτι θεοί ἐστε καὶ υἱοὶ ὑψίστου πάντες." Ἡμᾶς γάρ, ἡμᾶς εἰσπεποίηται καὶ ἡμῶν ἐθέλει μόνων κεκλῆσθαι πατήρ, οὐ τῶν ἀπειθούντων. Καὶ γὰρ οὖν ὧδέ πως ἔχει τὰ ἡμέτερα τῶν Χριστοῦ ὀπαδῶν· οἷαι μὲν αἱ βουλαί, τοῖοι καὶ οἱ λόγοι, ὁποῖοι δὲ οἱ λόγοι, τοιαίδε καὶ αἱ πράξεις, καὶ ὁποῖα τὰ ἔργα, τοιοῦτος ὁ βίος· χρηστὸς ὁ σύμπας ἀνθρώπων βίος τῶν Χριστὸν ἐγνωκότων. Ἅλις οἶμαι τῶν λόγων, εἰ καὶ μακροτέρω προῆλθον ὑπὸ φιλανθρωπίας ὅ τι περ εἶχον ἐκ θεοῦ ἐκχέων, ὡς ἂν ἐπὶ τὸ μέγιστον τῶν ἀγαθῶν, τὴν σωτηρίαν, παρακαλῶν· περὶ γάρ τοι τῆς παῦλαν οὐδαμῇ οὐδαμῶς ἐχούσης ζωῆς οὐκ ἐθέλουσιν οὐδ' οἱ λόγοι παύσασθαί ποτε ἱεροφαντοῦντες. Ὑμῖν δὲ ἔτι τοῦτο περιλείπεται πέρας τὸ λυσιτελοῦν ἑλέσθαι, ἢ κρίσιν ἢ χάριν· ὡς ἔγωγε οὐδ' ἀμφιβάλλειν ἀξιῶ, πότερον ἄμεινον αὐτοῖν· οὐδὲ μὴν συγκρίνεσθαι θέμις ζωὴν ἀπωλείᾳ.