99

(15Ε_432> For the love of honor gives to many the zeal for spending; but where the giving is unseen, the provision is also duller.

Chrysostom. If you were the guardian of a child, and having taken his things, you neglected him in his last extremities, you would have countless accusers, and you would have paid the penalty from the laws; but having taken the things of Christ, and spending them thus in vain, do you not think you will have to give an account?

Of Dio. Never be eager to spend money in vain, from which no good repute is gained. For true wealth is gathered not so much from receiving much, as from not spending much.

Of Menander. For those spending their own substance without thought, The desire for praise quickly makes everything bad. Of Chilon. Spending on what you should not, you will have little for what you should. Not to possess wealth does not bring so great a harm; but for the things one has

to have used them badly, destroys, they say, the life of the one who has so used them. 968 Plutarch. The life of the profligate, as if dying daily,

is carried out for burial. And seeing a rich but profligate man eating olives and drinking water, he said: If

you had lunched this way, you would not be dining this way. Of Cypselus. It is better to die a frugal man, than to live in want. Plato. Plato the wise, seeing a well-born youth profligately his paternal

substance having spent, and at the doors of an inn eating bread and drinking water, said to him: If you had lunched this way by choice, you would not be dining this way now.

Diogenes. The same man, approaching a certain youth who had devoured his patrimony, asked him for ten drachmas. When the youth asked the reason (15Ε_434> why he takes an obol from others, but asks ten drachmas from him, he said, that From others I expect to receive many times; but from you, no longer.

Xenophon. For not to receive good things is not so hard, as to be deprived of them after receiving them.

Of Diphilus. It is a task to gather a heap in much time, But it is easy to squander it in a day. Zeno. Zeno to those defending themselves for their own profligacy, and

saying that they spend from a great surplus, used to say: I suppose you will also forgive the cooks, if they say they have made the dishes salty because they have a great quantity of salt.

DISCOURSE 62. Concerning habit and custom. (15Ε_436>Romans 7. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Solomon 14. The impious nation, strengthened by time, was kept as a law. Sirach 14. A man that is accustomed to words of reproach will never

be instructed. Basil. It is not possible to write on wax, without first smoothing out the

existing characters; nor to impart divine things to a soul, without removing the preconceptions born of habit.

99

(15Ε_432> Τοῦ μέν γάρ δαπανᾷν ἡ φιλοδοξία τοῖς πολλοῖς παρέχει τό πρόθυμον· οὗ δέ ἀφανής ἡ ἐπίδοσις, καί τό παρέχειν ἀμβλύτερον.

Χρυσόστ. Εἰ παιδός ἐπιτρόπευες, καί λαβών τά αὐτοῦ περιεώρας αὐτόν ἐν τοῖς ἐσχάτοις ὄντα, μυρίους ἄν εἶχες κατηγόρους, καί τήν ἀπό τῶν νόμων ἔδωκας ἄν δίκην· τά δέ τοῦ Χριστοῦ λαβών, καί οὕτως μάτην ἀναλίσκων, οὐχ ἡ γῇ δώσειν εὐθύνας.

∆ίωνος. Μηδέποτε μάτην χρήματα σπούδαζε ἀναλίσκειν, ἐξ οὗ οὐδεμία προσγίνεται εὔκλεια. Πλοῦτος γάρ ἀκριβής, οὐχ οὕτως ἐκ τοῦ πολλά λαμβάνειν, ὡς ἐκ τοῦ μή πολλά ἀναλίσκειν ἀθροίζεται.

Μενάνδρου. Τούς τόν ἴδιον δαπανῶντες ἀλογίστως βίον, Τό καλῶς ἀκούειν, ταχύ ποιεῖ πᾶσι κακῶς. Χίλωνος. ∆απανώμενος ἐφ᾿ ἅ μή δεῖ, ὀλίγος ἔσῃ ἐφ᾿ ἅ δεῖ. Τό μή κεκτῆσθαι πλοῦτον, βλάβην οὐ κομίζει τοσαύτην· τό δέ τοῖς οὖσι

κακῶς κεκχρῆσθαι, ἀπόλλυσιν τόν οὕτως, φασί, κεχρημένου βίον. 968 Πλουτάρχ. Ὁ τῶν ἀσώτων βίος, ὥσπερ καθ᾿ ἡμέραν ἀποθνήσκων

ἐκφέρεται. Πλούσιον δέ ἄσωτον θεασάμενος ἐλαίας ἐσθίοντα καί ὕδωρ πίνοντα, ἔφη· Εἰ

οὕτως ἠρίστας, οὐκ ἄν οὕτως ἐδείπνεις. Κυψέλλου. Φειδόμενον κρεῖττον ἀποθανεῖν, ἤ ζῶντα ἐνδεῖσθαι. Πλάτων. Πλάτων ὁ σοφός, ἰδών μειράκιον εὐγενές ἀσώτως τήν γονικήν

οὐσίαν ἀναλώσαντα, καί ἐπί θύραις πανδοχείου ἄρτον ἐσθίοντα καί ὕδωρ πίνοντα, πρός αὐτόν ἔφη· Εἰ οὕτως κατά γνώμην ἠρίστας, οὐκ ἄν οὕτως ἐδείπνεις.

∆ιογένης. Ὁ αὐτός προσελθών τινι μειρακίῳ, καταβεβρωκότι τά πατρῷα, ᾔτει αὐτόν δέκα δραχμάς. Τοῦ δέ τήν αἰτίαν (15Ε_434> ἐρομένου, δι᾿ ἥν παρά μέν τῶν ἄλλων ὀβολόν λαμβάνει, παρά δέ αὐτοῦ δραχμάς δέκα αἰτεῖ, εἶπεν, ὅτι Παρά μέν τῶν ἄλλων ἐλπίζω λήψεσθαι πολλάκις· παρά σοῦ δέ οὐκέτι.

Ξενοφῶντ. Οὐ γάρ μή λαβεῖν τά ἀγαθά οὕτω χαλεπόν, ὡς τό λαβόντα στερηθῆναι.

∆ιφίλου. Ἔργον συναγαγεῖν σωρόν ἐν πολλῷ χρόνῳ, Ἐν ἡμέρα δέ διαφορῆσαι ῥᾴδιον. Ζήνων. Ζήνων πρός τούς ἀπολογουμένους ὑπέρ τῆς αὑτῶν ἀσωτίας, καί

λέγοντας, ἐκ πολλοῦ περιόντος ἀναλίσκειν, ἔλεγεν· Εἴ που καί τοῖς μαγείροις συγνώσεσθι, ἐάν ἁλμυρά λέγωσι πεποιηκέναι τά ὄψα, ὅτι πλῆθος ἁλῶν αὐτοῖς ὑπάρχει.

ΛΟΓΟΣ ΞΒ´. Περί συνηθείας καί ἔθους. (15Ε_436>Ῥωμ. ζ´. Συνήδομαι τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ Θεοῦ κατά τόν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον·

βλέπω δέ ἕτερον νόμον ἐν τοῖς μέλεσί μου, ἀντιστρατευόμενον τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ νοός μου, καί αἰχμαλωτίζοντά με ἐν τῷ νόμῳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, τῷ ὄντι ἐν τοῖς μέλεσί μου.

Σολομ. ιδ΄. Χρόνῳ κρατυνθέν τό ἀσεβές ἔθνος, ὡς νόμος διεφυλάχθη Σιράχ ιδ´. Ἄνθρωπος συνεθιζόμενος λόγοις ὀνειδισμοῦ, εἰς τόν αἰῶνα οὐ μή

παιδευθῇ. Βασιλ. Οὔτε ἐν κηρῷ γράψαι δυνατόν, μή προκαταλεάναντα τούς

ἐναποκειμένους χαρακτῆρας· οὔτε ψυχῇ θεῖα παραθέσθαι, μή τάς ἐκ τοῦ ἔθους προλήψεις ἐξελόντα.