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but himself. Hear a certain wise man saying: Give your soul honor according to its worth. According to its worth, what is that? If one has been grasping, he says, do not be grasping; if one has committed an outrage, do not commit an outrage. Tell me, I beseech you, if some poor man took mud thrown out from your courtyard, would you have convened a court for this? By no means. Why? Lest you commit an outrage against yourself, lest all condemn you. This is also what happens now. For the rich man is poor, and the richer he is, the poorer he becomes in true poverty. Gold is mud thrown into the courtyard, not lying in your house; for your house is heaven. Will you then convene a court for this? And will not the citizens above condemn you? Will they not cast you out of their fatherland, you who are so base, so contemptible, as to choose to fight over a little mud? For if the world were yours, and then someone took it, would it be necessary to turn back? Do you not know that if you were to set down the inhabited world ten times, and a hundred times, and ten thousand times, and twice that much, it is not even a small fraction of the good things in the heavens? He, therefore, who marvels at the things here has committed an outrage against those there, if indeed to the extent he considers these things worthy of zeal, to that extent he falls short of those; or rather, 63.875 he will not even be able to marvel at those things; for how could he, being terrified at these things? Let us cut the ropes and the nets; for this is what earthly affairs are. How long shall we bend down? Until when shall we plot against one another, just like wild beasts, just like the fish? Or rather, wild beasts do not plot against each other, but against other kinds; for example, a bear does not quickly kill a bear, nor does a snake kill a snake, respecting its own kind; but you, against one of your own kind, though having countless justifications—kinship, rationality, knowledge of God, countless other things, the strength of nature—you kill him who is your kin and a partaker of your nature, and surround him with countless evils? For what if you do not thrust the sword, and plunge your right hand into his neck? You do other things more grievous than this, surrounding him with continual sorrows. For if you had done that, you would have freed him from care; but now you surround him with the famine of slavery, with despondencies, with many sins. I say these things, and I will not cease saying them, not preparing you to murder, nor exhorting you to come to a lesser evil than that, but that you not be confident as if you were not going to pay the penalty. For he who takes away a livelihood, it says, murders his neighbor. Let us restrain our hands at some point; or rather, let us not restrain them, but let us extend them well, not for covetousness, but for almsgiving. Let us not have a fruitless hand, nor a withered one; for the hand that does not give alms is withered, but the one that is also covetous is defiled and unclean. Let no one eat with such hands; for this is an outrage to those who are invited. For tell me, if someone, having made us recline on carpets and a soft couch and gold-embroidered linens in a splendid and large house, and having set beside us a great multitude of servants, then having prepared a platter of silver and gold, and having filled it with many, luxurious, and diverse foods, forced us to eat, if only we would tolerate him anointing his hands with filth or even human dung, and reclining with us in this state? would anyone have borne this torment, and not rather have considered the matter an outrage? I for my part think so, and he would have immediately leaped away. But now you see not only the hands filled with true filth, but even the foods themselves, and you do not leap away? you do not flee? you do not rebuke? but if he is in power, you consider it a great thing, and you destroy your own soul by eating such things? For covetousness is worse than any filth; for it defiles not the body but the soul, and makes it hard to wash clean. You, therefore, seeing the one reclining, his hands and his face stained with this filth, and his house and his table filled with it (for those foods are more unclean and more defiled than dung and things even more so than these); are you disposed as if you have been honored, and as if you are about to live luxuriously? And do you not even fear Paul, concerning the table of the Greeks, if

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ἀλλ' ἑαυτόν. Ἄκουε σοφοῦ τινος λέγοντος· Ποίησον τῇ ψυχῇ σου τιμὴν κατὰ τὴν ἀξίαν αὐτῆς. Κατὰ τὴν ἀξίαν αὐτῆς, τί ἐστιν; Εἰ ἐπλεονέκτησε, φησὶ, μὴ πλεονεκτήσῃς, εἰ ὕβρισε, μὴ ὑβρίσῃς. Εἰπέ μοι, παρακαλῶ, εἴ τις πένης πηλὸν ἐῤῥιμμένον ἀπὸ τῆς αὐλῆς ἔλαβε τῆς σῆς, ἆρα ἂν ὑπὲρ τούτου δικαστήριον συνεκρότησας; οὐδαμῶς. ∆ιὰ τί; Ἵνα μὴ ὑβρίσῃς σαυτὸν, ἵνα μὴ πάντες σου καταγνῶσι. Τοῦτο καὶ νῦν γίνεται. Πένης γάρ ἐστιν ὁ πλούσιος, καὶ ὅσῳ πλουτεῖ, τοσούτῳ πένης γίνεται τὴν ὄντως πενίαν. Πηλός ἐστιν ὁ χρυσὸς ἐν αὐλῇ ἐῤῥιμμένος, οὐκ ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ σου κείμενος· ἡ γὰρ οἰκία σου οὐρανός ἐστιν. Ὑπὲρ τούτου οὖν συγκροτήσεις δικαστήριον; καὶ οὐ καταγνώσονταί σου οἱ ἄνω πολῖται; οὐκ ἐκβαλοῦσί σε τῆς ἑαυτῶν πατρίδος τὸν οὕτω ταπεινὸν, τὸν οὕτως εὐτελῆ, ὡς ὑπὲρ ὀλίγου πηλοῦ μάχεσθαι αἱρεῖσθαι; Εἰ γὰρ ὁ κόσμος ἦν σὸς, εἶτα αὐτόν τις ἔλαβεν, ἐπιστραφῆναι ἐχρῆν; Οὐκ οἶδας ὅτι δεκάκις τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐὰν θῇς, καὶ ἑκατοντάκις, καὶ μυριάκις, καὶ δὶς τοσοῦτον, οὐδὲ πρὸς τὸ πολλοστὸν τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ἐστιν ἀγαθῶν; Ὁ τοίνυν τὰ ἐνταῦθα θαυμάζων, ἐκεῖνα ὕβρισεν, εἴ γε ὅσον αὐτὰ ἄξια σπουδῆς ἡγεῖται, τοσοῦτον ἐκείνων ἀπολιμπάνεται, μᾶλλον δὲ 63.875 οὐδὲ θαυμάσαι ἐκεῖνα δυνήσεται· πῶς γὰρ, πρὸς ταῦτα ἐπτοημένος; ∆ιατέμνωμεν τὰ σχοινία καὶ τὰς πλεκτάνας· τοῦτο γὰρ τὰ γήϊνα πράγματα. Μέχρι πότε κάτω κύπτομεν; μέχρι τίνος ἀλλήλοις ἐπιβουλεύομεν, καθάπερ τὰ θηρία, καθάπερ οἱ ἰχθύες; Μᾶλλον δὲ τὰ θηρία οὐκ ἐπιβουλεύει ἀλλήλοις, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἀλλοφύλοις· οἷον ἄρκος ἄρκον οὐ ταχέως ἀναιρεῖ, οὐδὲ ὄφις ὄφιν οὐκ ἀναιρεῖ, τὸ ὁμόφυλον αἰδούμενος· σὺ δὲ μετὰ τοῦ ὁμοφύλου καὶ μυρία ἔχων δικαιώματα, τὸ συγγενὲς, τὸ λογικὸν, τὸ τὸν Θεὸν εἰδέναι, μυρία ἄλλα ἕτερα, τῆς φύσεως τὴν ἰσχὺν, τὸν συγγενῆ καὶ τῆς φύσεως κεκοινωνηκότα, τοῦτον ἀναιρεῖς καὶ μυρίοις περιβάλλεις κακοῖς; Τί γὰρ, εἰ μὴ τὸ ξίφος ὠθεῖς, καὶ βαπτίζεις εἰς τὴν δέρην τὴν δεξιάν; ἕτερα χαλεπώτερα τούτου ποιεῖς, λύπαις διηνεκέσι περιβάλλων. Ἐκεῖνο γὰρ εἰ εἰργάσω, ἀπήλλαξας ἂν αὐτὸν φροντίδος· νῦν δὲ λιμῷ δουλείας περιβάλλεις, ἀποδυσπετήσεσιν, ἁμαρτίαις πολλαῖς. Ταῦτα λέγω, καὶ λέγων οὐ παύσομαι, οὐχὶ φονᾷν ὑμᾶς παρασκευάζων, οὐδὲ ὡς ἐπὶ ἔλαττον ἐκείνου κακὸν ἔρχεσθαι προτρεπόμενος, ἀλλὰ μὴ θαῤῥεῖν ὡς μὴ μέλλοντας δώσειν δίκην. Φονεύων γὰρ, φησὶ, τὸν πλησίον ὁ ἀφαιρούμενος συμβίωσιν. Κατάσχωμεν ἑαυτοῖς τὰς χεῖράς ποτε· μᾶλλον δὲ μὴ κατάσχωμεν, ἀλλὰ ἐκτείνωμεν αὐτὰς καλῶς, μὴ πρὸς πλεονεξίαν, ἀλλὰ πρὸς ἐλεημοσύνην. Μὴ ἄκαρπον ἔχωμεν τὴν χεῖρα, μηδὲ ξηράν· ἡ μὲν γὰρ μὴ ποιοῦσα ἐλεημοσύνην, ξηρά· ἡ δὲ καὶ πλεονεκτοῦσα, μιαρὰ καὶ ἀκάθαρτος. Μηδεὶς μετὰ τοιούτων ἐσθιέτω χειρῶν· ὕβρις γὰρ τῶν κεκλημένων τοῦτο. Εἰπὲ γάρ μοι, εἴ τις ἐπὶ ταπήτων καὶ στρωμνῆς ἁπαλῆς καὶ χρυσοπάστων σινδόνων κατακλίνας ἡμᾶς ἐν οἴκῳ λαμπρῷ καὶ μεγάλῳ, καὶ πολὺ πλῆθος διακόνων παραστησάμενος, εἶτα πίνακα ἐξ ἀργύρου παρασκευασάμενος καὶ χρυσοῦ, καὶ πολλῶν ἐμπλήσας ἐδεσμάτων καὶ πολυτελῶν καὶ παντοδαπῶν, ἠνάγκαζεν ἐσθίειν, εἰ μόνον ἀνεξόμεθα αὐτοῦ τὰς χεῖρας εἰς βόρβορον χρίοντος ἢ καὶ κόπρον ἀνθρωπίνην, καὶ οὕτω συγκατακλινομένου; ἆρα ἄν τις ταύτην ἠνέσχετο τὴν κόλασιν, ἀλλ' οὐχ ὕβριν τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐνόμισεν ἄν; Ἔγωγε οἶμαι, καὶ εὐθέως ἂν ἀπεπήδησε. Νῦν δὲ βορβόρου τοῦ ὄντως οὐχὶ τὰς χεῖρας ὁρᾷς ἐμπεπλησμένας, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὰ τὰ ἐδέσματα, καὶ οὐκ ἀποπηδᾷς; οὐκ ἀποφεύγεις; οὐκ ἐπιτιμᾷς; ἀλλ' ἐὰν ἐν δυναστείᾳ ᾖ, μέγα τὸ πρᾶγμα τίθεσαι, καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν ἀπολλύεις τὴν σαυτοῦ τοιαῦτα σιτούμενος; Παντὸς γὰρ βορβόρου πλεονεξία χείρων· ψυχὴν γὰρ, οὐ σῶμα μολύνει καὶ ποιεῖ δυσέκπλυτον. Σὺ τοίνυν ὁρῶν τοῦ βορβόρου τούτου ἀνακεχρωσμένον μὲν τὸν κατακλινόμενον καὶ τὰς χεῖρας καὶ τὴν ὄψιν, ἐμπεπλησμένην δὲ καὶ τὴν οἰκίαν καὶ τὴν τράπεζαν (βολβίτων γὰρ καὶ ἔτι τούτων ἀκαθαρτότερα ἐκεῖνα καὶ μιαρώτερα τὰ ἐδέσματα)· ὡς δὴ τιμηθεὶς διάκεισαι, καὶ ὡς μέλλων τρυφᾷν; Καὶ οὐδὲ τὸν Παῦλον δέδοικας, εἰς μὲν Ἑλλήνων τράπεζαν, εἰ