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Hades and destruction are never full; likewise the eyes of men are insatiable. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. Through insatiability many have died. Insatiability of the body can drive even the otherwise wise to madness, and forces them to think worse, like a wanton colt, snatching away reason. Human nature is sleepless and unslumbering in its desire for more. The wicked man is always in great need, always thirsting for all things 95.1253 for the sake of an insatiable and unappeasable desire, which, like a fire, consumes all things both small and great.

TITLE 44. -Concerning brothers You shall not hate your brother in your heart. Behold, what is good, or what is pleasant, but for brothers to dwell together in unity.

Let brothers be useful in time of need. A brother helped by a brother is like a strong and high city. And it is as strong as a well-founded kingdom. Everyone who hates a poor brother is far from friendship. Better is a friend who is near than a brother who lives far away. Brothers and help in time of affliction. Do not exchange a true brother for the gold of Souphir.

TITLE 45. -Concerning those who ask, that is, beggars.

Child, do not live a life of begging. For it is better to die than to beg. In the mouth of the shameless a gift of begging will be sweet, but in his belly a fire will burn. TITLE 46. -Concerning shameful speech. Evil communications corrupt good manners. Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. Filthiness, and foolish talking, or jesting, which are not fitting, let them not even be named among you, as is proper for saints. Let no shameful speech come out of your mouth. The habit of words is a path to deeds. Therefore, the soul must be guarded with all vigilance, lest, by accepting something through the pleasure of words, we become unaware of what is worse, as if taking deadly poisons with honey. A practice of evil, confirmed by time, is difficult to cure, or even completely becomes nature, as habit for the most part transforms. Block your ears with wax against wicked words, and the discordant warblings of pleasant songs. Shameful and worthless are those who show off their cleverness in vain things, being slow to be taught what is good, but very quick and ready to learn the opposite. We ourselves must completely abstain from shameful speech, 95.1256 and we must silence those who use it, both with a sharper glance, and with a turning away of the face, and with what is called a sneer, and often also with a bolder word. To be disorderly in words creates a practice of also being unruly in deeds. One must entirely abstain from shameful things heard and seen; but much more must one be pure from shameful deeds. - Shameful speech is a path to shamelessness, and the end of both is shameful action. To hear ill-omened words often brings danger.

TITLE 47. -Concerning a curse brought justly or unjustly; and that one must bless,

and not curse. As birds and sparrows that fly, so a curse without cause shall not come upon

anyone. Give no man a pretext to curse you. For if he curses you in the bitterness of his soul, his Maker will hear his prayer. A mother's curse uproots foundations. Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse. The tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceeds blessing and cursing. It ought not,

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Ἅδης καὶ ἀπώλεια οὐκ ἐμπίπλαται· ὡσαύτως καὶ οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἄπληστοι. Οὐκ ἐμπλησθήσεται ὀφθαλμὸς τοῦ ὁρᾷν, καὶ οὐ πληρωθήσεται οὖς ἀπὸ ἀκροάσεως. ∆ι' ἀπληστίαν πολλοὶ ἐτελεύτησαν. Ἀπληστία σώματος, καὶ τοὺς τὰ ἄλλα σοφοὺς ἐκμαίνειν δύναται, καὶ χεῖρον φρονεῖν βιάζεται, καθάπερ ὑβριστὴς πῶλος, τὸν λογισμὸν συναρπάζουσα. Ἄϋπνός ἐστι καὶ ἀκοίμητος πρὸς τὴν τοῦ πλείονος ἐπιθυμίαν ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις. Ὁ φαῦλος ἀεὶ πολυδεὴς, ἀεὶ διψῶν τῶν ἁπάντων 95.1253 ἀπλήστου καὶ ἀκορέστου χάριν ἐπιθυμίας, ἢ πυρὸς δίκην πάντα μικρά τε, καὶ μεγάλα πίνει.

ΤΙΤΛ. Μ∆ʹ. -Περὶ ἀδελφῶν Οὐ μισήσεις τὸν ἀδελφόν σου ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ σου. Ἰδοὺ δὴ τί καλὸν, ἢ τί τερπνὸν, ἀλλ' ἢ τὸ κατοικεῖν ἀδελφοὺς ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτό.

Ἀδελφοὶ ἐν ἀνάγκῃ χρήσιμοι ἔστωσαν. Ἀδελφὸς ὑπὸ ἀδελφοῦ βοηθούμενος, ὡς πόλις ἰσχυρὰ, καὶ ὑψηλή. Ἰσχύει δὲ ὥσπερ τεθεμελιωμένον βασίλειον. Πᾶς ὁ ἀδελφὸν πτωχὸν μισῶν, φιλίας μακράν ἐστιν. Κρείσσων φίλος ἐγγὺς, ἢ ἀδελφὸς μακρὰν οἰκῶν. Ἀδελφοὶ καὶ βοήθεια ἐν καιρῷ θλίψεως. Μὴ ἀλλάξῃς ἀδελφὸν γνήσιον ἐν χρυσίῳ Σουφίρ.

ΤΙΤΛ. ΜΕʹ. -Περὶ αἰτούντων, ἤγουν προσαιτούντων.

Τέκνον, ζωὴν ἐπαιτήσεως μὴ βιώσῃς. Κρεῖσσον γὰρ ἀποθανεῖν, ἢ ἐπαιτεῖν. Ἐν στόματι ἀναιδοῦς γλυκανθήσεται ἐπαιτήσεως δόσις, καὶ ἐν κοιλίᾳ αὐτοῦ πῦρ καήσεται. ΤΙΤΛ. Μϛʹ. -Περὶ αἰσχρολογίας. Φθείρουσιν ἤθη χρηστὰ ὁμιλίαι κακαί. Πᾶς λόγος σαπρὸς μὴ ἐκπορευέσθω ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ὑμῶν, ἀλλ' εἴ τις ἀγαθὸς πρὸς οἰκοδομὴν τῆς χρείας, ἵνα δῷ χάριν τοῖς ἀκούουσιν. Αἰσχρότης καὶ μωρολογία, ἢ εὐτραπελία, τὰ μὴ ἀνήκοντα, μηδὲ ὀνομαζέσθωσαν ἐν ὑμῖν, καθὼς πρέπει ἁγίοις. Αἰσχρολογία μὴ ἐξερχέσθω ἐκ τοῦ στόματος ὑμῶν. Ἡ τῶν λόγων συνήθεια ὁδός ἐστιν ἐπὶ τὰ πράγματα. ∆ιὸ πάσῃ φυλακῇ τὴν ψυχὴν τηρητέον, μὴ διὰ τῆς τῶν λόγων ἡδονῆς παραδεξάμενοί τι, λάθωμεν τῶν χειρόνων, ὥσπερ καταδηλητήρια μετὰ τοῦ μέλιτος προσιέμενοι. Κακοῦ μελέτη χρόνῳ βεβαιωθεῖσα δυσίατός ἐστιν, ἢ καὶ παντελῶς εἰς φύσιν ὡς τὰ πολλὰ τοῦ ἔθους μεθισταμένου. Κηρῷ τὰ ὦτα φράσσε πρὸς φαύλους λόγους, Ὠδῶν τε τερπνῶν ἐκμελῆ λυγίσματα. Αἰσχροὶ καὶ εἰκαῖοι, οἱ ἐν τοῖς ματαίοις εὐφυΐαν ἀνεπιδεικνύντες, βραδεῖς μὲν ὄντες τὰ καλὰ παιδεύεσθαι, τὰ δὲ ἐναντία μανθάνειν ὀξύτατοι καὶ προχειρότατοι. Αἰσχρολογίας αὐτοῖς τε ἡμῖν παντελῶς ἀφεκτέον, 95.1256 καὶ τοὺς χρωμένους αὐτῇ ἐπιστομιστέον, καὶ ὄψει δριμυτέρᾳ, καὶ προσώπου ἀποστροφῇ, καὶ τῷ ἀπομυκτηρισμῷ καλουμένῳ, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ λόγῳ θρασυτέρῳ. Τὸ ἐν τοῖς ὀνόμασιν ἀτακτεῖν, μελέτην ἐμποιεῖ τοῦ καὶ εἰς τὰ ἔργα ἀκοσμεῖν. Πάντη ἀφεκτέον αἰσχρῶν ἀκουσμάτων καὶ θεαμάτων· πολὺ δὲ πλέον ἔργων αἰσχρῶν καθαρευτέον. - Ὁδὸς ἐπ' ἀναισχυντίαν ἡ αἰσχρολογία, καὶ τέλος ἀμφοῖν ἡ αἰσχρουργία. Κίνδυνον φέρει πολλάκις τὸ δυσφήμους λόγους ἀκούειν.

ΤΙΤΛ. ΜΖʹ. -Περὶ ἀρᾶς εὐλόγως ἢ ἀδίκως ἐπαγομένης· καὶ ὅτι χρὴ εὐλογεῖν,

καὶ μὴ καταρᾶσθαι. Ὥσπερ ὄρνεα ἃ πέτανται, καὶ στρουθοὶ, οὕτως ἀρὰ ματαία οὐκ ἐπελεύσεται

οὐδενί. Μὴ δῷς τύπον ἀνθρώπῳ καταρᾶσθαί σε. Καταρωμένου γάρ σε πικρίᾳ ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ, τῆς δεήσεως αὐτοῦ εἰσακούσεται ὁ ποιήσας αὐτόν. Κατάρα μητρὸς ἐκριζοῖ θεμέλια. Εὐλογεῖτε τοὺς διώκοντας ὑμᾶς· εὐλογεῖτε, καὶ μὴ καταρᾶσθε. Ἡ γλῶσσα ἀκατάσχετον κακὸν, μεστὴ ἰοῦ θανατηφόρου. Ἐν αὐτῇ εὐλογοῦμεν τὸν Θεὸν καὶ πατέρα, καὶ ἐν αὐτῇ καταρώμεθα τοὺς ἀνθρώπους τοὺς καθ' ὁμοίωσιν Θεοῦ γεγενημένους. Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ στόματος ἐξέρχεται εὐλογία καὶ κατάρα. Οὐ χρὴ,