12.  To those who platted this crown—that which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord,91    2 Cor. xi. 17. nevertheless I will say it—I also have given assistance.  Some of them are the result of my words, not of those which we have uttered at random, but of those which we have loved—nor again of those which are meretricious, though the language and manners of the harlot have been slanderously attributed to me, but of those which are most grave.  Some of them are the offspring and fruit of my Spirit, as the Spirit can beget those who rise superior to the body.  To this I have no doubt that those who are kindly among you, nay all of you, will testify, since I have been the husbandman of all:  and my sole reward is your confession.  For we neither have, nor have had, any other object.  For virtue, that it may remain virtue, is without reward, its eyes fixed alone on that which is good.

ΙΒʹ. Τούτου τοῦ στεφάνου (ὃ λαλῶ, οὐ κατὰ Κύριον λαλῶ, λαλήσω δὲ ὅμως) κἀγώ τι συνεβαλόμην τοῖς πλέκουσι. Τούτων τις καὶ τῶν ἐμῶν λόγων ἔργον, οὐχ οὓς ἐῤῥίψαμεν, ἀλλ' οὓς ἠγαπήσαμεν: οὐδὲ τῶν πορνικῶν, ὥς τις ἔφη διασύρων ἡμᾶς τῶν πόρνων καὶ λόγον καὶ τρόπον, ἀλλὰ καὶ λίαν σωφρόνων. Τούτων τις καὶ τοῦ ἐμοῦ Πνεύματος γέννημα καὶ καρπὸς, ὡς γεννᾷν οἶδε Πνεῦμα τοὺς ἀπανισταμένους σώματος. Μαρτυρήσουσιν, εὖ οἶδ' ὅτι, καὶ ὑμῶν οἱ εὐγνώμονες, ἢ καὶ πάντες, ἐπεὶ καὶ πάντας ἐγεωργήσαμεν: καὶ μισθὸς, ἡ ὁμολογία μόνη. Οὐ γὰρ ἄλλο τι ἐπιζητοῦμεν, ἢ ἐζητήσαμεν. Ἄμισθος γὰρ ἡ ἀρετὴ, ἵνα καὶ ἀρετὴ μείνῃ, πρὸς τὸ καλὸν μόνον βλέπουσα.