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and judging a man's solemn speech, and before he, who is suspect to them and envied, can say anything, they twitch in spirit and, as it were, pushing their soul forward and preparing their hearing and their tongue for the hunt of some syllable or word, not that they may be pleased, but that they may find fault and have material for their slander against him.

This is what the enemies of the truth at that time were doing to this holy man, leaping forward, and rising up beforehand, and before the things were said; just like war-horses and race-horses, which even before the games and the trumpet prick up their ears 1212 and strike their feet on the ground, and paw it with their hooves, and rouse themselves for the race, and often anticipate the driving whip; except that no blame attaches to the horses because of their natural lack of reason, for not awaiting the proper times of the games, which the sound of the trumpet and the blow of the whip both signify, but for such men there is no blame that can be conceived worthy of their malice. Their work and zealous pursuit is the practice of falsehood, and the opposition to the truth. Such men may be said to have itching ears and tongues, because just as some very pungent and thick humor, lurking in the depth of the body, is often provoked by scratching and discharged to the surface, so also the hidden disposition of slanderers of things well said excites them, especially when they seize an opportunity, to make public the villainy in their soul, a disposition which is naturally apt to occupy a greater depth, the more it seems likely to be emptied (14∆_282> by its outward expression. For the disposition of wicked men, when brought forth through deeds, does not depart from the depth, but also madly preys upon all external things, and in no way departs from its place in the soul.

73. ..»....UNTIMELY, ... FOR WOMEN A MANLY ADORNMENT OR FOR MEN

A WOMANLY ONE...FOR MOURNING, GEOMETRY» From the same discourse, on the text, «Just as a flower in winter is completely untimely, and

for women a manly adornment or for men a womanly one, or geometry for mourning». Introducing the good order in every word and deed, according to which the principle of propriety for each and for all is naturally shown to be pure, by enumerating the incongruous things, the teacher says these things, so that through them he might teach the audacious and disorderly, who know no order in anything, but especially in discourse about God, but who daringly mix and confuse all disparate things together indiscriminately, to be orderly and reverent. For if these things are unnatural, and therefore also without order: a flower seen in winter, and a manly adornment put upon women, and a womanly one on men, and to speak of geometry joined with mourning (for the one innovates against time and departs from its own place, the other corrupts nature by interchange, appearing on a man and on a woman, and displaces the order inherent in them by nature, and the last, forcing together things that can in no way coexist, I mean joy and mourning, certainly mixes and destroys them), will not discourse about God, spoken at random and by any random person, and when and where it is not at all fitting, be much more unseemly and improper, and not at all worthy to be heard concerning God, about whom I think those who have sense ought to set such great store on timeliness (14∆_284> as is incomparably superior to all things?

And the teacher says geometry is unsuitable for mourning 1213. And he has made you more perplexed, as I think, in the following ways, or that the

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τε καί ἀνδρός σεμνολόγημα κρίνοντες, καί πρό τοῦ τι φάναι τόν ὕποπτον αὐτοῖς καί φθονούμενον σφαδάζοντες τῷ πνεύματι καί οἷον τήν ψυχήν προωθοῦντες καί τήν ἀκοήν ἑτοιμάζοντες καί τήν γλῶσσαν πρός θήραν τινός συλλαβῆς ἤ λέξεως, οὐχ ἵνα εὐθυμῶσιν, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα κακίσωσι καί ὕλην ἔχωσι τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτοῦ γλωσσαλγίας.

Ὅπερ ἐποιοῦντο τῷ ἁγίῳ τούτῳ ἀνδρί οἱ κατ᾿ ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχθροί, προπηδῶντες, καί προεξανιστάμενοι, καί πρίν λεχθῆναι, τῶν λεγομένων· καθάπερ τῶν ἵππων τούς πολεμιστηρίους τε καί ἀμιλλητηρίους, οἵ καί πρό τῶν ἀγώνων καί τῆς σάλπιγγος εὐθυτενῆ τά ὦτα 1212 ποιοῦσι, καί τούς πόδας τῇ γῇ προσαράσσουσι, καί προσκνήθονται ταύτην ταῖς ὁπλαῖς, καί πρός δρόμον ἑαυτούς διεγείρουσι, καί τήν ὠθοῦσαν πολλάκις προλαμβάνοντες μάστιγα· πλήν ὅτι τῶν ἵππων οὐδείς ἅπτεται ψόγος ὑπό τῆς φυσικῆς ἀλογίας, μή ἀναμενόντων τούς εὐθέτους τῶν ἀγώνων καιρούς, οὕς διασημαίνει ἥ τε φωνή τῆς σάλπιγγος καί ἡ τῆς μάστιγος πληγή, τοῖς δέ τοιούτοις ἀνδράσιν οὐδείς ἐστιν ὁ πρός ἀξίαν τῶν αὐτῶν κακίας ἐπινοηθῆναι δυνάμενος ψόγος. Ἔργον ἔχουσι καί σπούδασμα τήν μελέτην τοῦ ψεύδους, καί τήν κατά τῆς ἀληθείας ἔνστασιν. Εἰκότως οἱ τοιοῦτοι κνηθόμενοι τήν ἀκοήν καί τήν γλῶτταν λεγέσθωσαν, διότι καθάπερ τις χυμός δριμύτατός τε καί παχύτατος, τῷ βάθει τοῦ σώματος ἐμφωλεύων, πολλάκις διά τοῦ κνήθεσθαι πρός τήν ἐπιφάνειαν ἐρεθιζόμενος ἐκδίδοται, οὕτως καί τούς ἐπηρεστάς τῶν καλῶς λεγομένων ἐρεθίζει λαβομένους ἀφορμῆς μάλιστα δημοσιεύειν τήν κατά ψυχήν κακουργίαν ἡ κεκρυμμένη διάθεσις, ἥτις τοσοῦτον τό βάθος κατέχειν πέφυκε μᾶλλον, ὅσον κενοῦσθαι (14∆_282> τῇ προόδῳ κατά τό εἰκός ἔδοξεν. Οὐ γάρ ἐξίσταται τοῦ βάθους προφερομένη διά τῶν ἔργων ἡ τῶν μοχθηρῶν ἀνθρώπων διάθεσις, ἀλλά καί τά ἐκτός πάντα μανικῶς ἐπινέμεται, καί τῆς κατά ψυχήν οὐδαμῶς ἐξίσταται χώρας.

ΟΓ (73). ..»....ΑΩΡΟΝ, ... ΓΥΝΑΙΞΙ ΚΟΣΜΟΣ ΑΝ∆ΡΕΙΟΣ Ή ΑΝ∆ΡΑΣΙ

ΓΥΝΑΙΚΕΙΟΣ...ΠΕΝΘΕΙ ΓΕΩΜΕΤΡΙΑ» Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, «Ὥσπερ ἄνθος ἐν χειμῶνι παντελῶς ἄωρον, καί

γυναιξί κόσμος ἀνδρεῖος ἤ ἀνδράσι γυναικεῖος, ἤ πένθει γεωμετρία». Τήν ἐπί παντός λόγου τε καί πράγματος εὐταξίαν, καθ᾿ ἥν τῆς ἑκάστου καί

πάντων εὐπρεπείας ὁ λόγος ἀναφαίνεσθαι πέφυκεν ἀκραιφνής, διά τῆς τῶν ἀπεμφαινόντων ἀπαριθμήσεως εἰσηγούμενος, ταῦτά φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος, ἵνα διά τούτων εὐτάκτους εἶναι καί εὐλαβεῖς τούς θρασεῖς καί ἀτάκτους καί μηδεμίαν τάξιν εἰδότας, οὐδενός μέν, μάλιστα δέ τῆς περί Θεοῦ διαλέξεως, ἀλλά πάντα τολμηρῶς ἀλλήλοις παμμιγῶς τά διεστῶτα φύροντάς τε καί συγχέοντας διδάξειεν. Εἰ γάρ τῶν οὐκ ἐχόντων φύσιν ἐστί, καί διά τοῦτο οὐδέ τάξιν, τό τε ἄνθος ἐν χειμῶνι ὁρώμενον, καί γυναιξί κόσμος ἀνδρεῖος ἐπιβεβλημένος, καί ἀνδράσι γυναικεῖος, καί πένθει συνημμένην γεωμετρίαν λέγειν (τό μέν γάρ καινοτομεῖ τόν χρόνον καί τῆς ἰδίας ἐξίσταται θέσεως, ὁ δέ παραχαράττειν τήν φύσιν ἐναλλάξ, ἀνδρί τε καί γυναικί ἐπιφαινόμενος, καί τήν αὐτοῖς προσοῦσαν ἐκ φύσεως τάξιν ἐξίστησιν, ἡ δέ τά μηδέπω συνυπάρχειν ἀλλήλοις δυνάμενα, χαράν τέ φημι καί πένθος, εἰς ἕν ἀγαγεῖν βιαζομένη φύρει πάντως καί ἀφανίζει) , οὐ πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὁ περί Θεοῦ λόγος, ὡς ἔτυχε καί ὑπό τοῦ τυχόντος, καί ἡνίκα καί οὗ μή καθῆκον ἔτι προφερόμενος, ἀειδής ἔσται καί ἀπρεπής, καί οὐδ᾿ ὅλως ἀκουσθῆναι περί Θεοῦ ἄξιος, ἐφ᾿ οὗ μᾶλλον τοσοῦτον τιθέναι δεῖν οἶμαι τό εὔκαιρον (14∆_284> τούς νοῦν ἔχοντας, ὅσον πάντων ἀσυγκρίτως προβεβλημένων,

Πένθει δέ γεωμετρίαν ἀνάρμοστόν φησιν 1213 ὁ διδάσκαλος. Ὁ δέ μᾶλλον ἀπορεῖν ὑμᾶς πεποίηκεν, ὡς οἶμαι, κατά τοιούσδε τρόπους, ἤ ὅτιπερ οἱ