XIX.

[The words] of St. Justin, philosopher and martyr, from the fifth part of his Apology:6    It is doubtful if these words are really Justin’s, or, if so, from which, or what part, of his Apologies they are derived. —I reckon prosperity, O men, to consist in nothing else than in living according to truth. But we do not live properly, or according to truth, unless we understand the nature of things.

It escapes them apparently, that he who has by a true faith come forth from error to the truth, has truly known himself, not, as they say, as being in a state of frenzy, but as free from the unstable and (as to every variety of error) changeable corruption, by the simple and ever identical truth.—From the writings of John of Damascus.

19 Τὸ εὖ πράττειν ἡγοῦμαι, ὦ ἄνδρες, οὐκ ἄλλο τι εἶναι ἢ τὸ κατὰ ἀλήθειαν ζῆν: τὸ δὲ εὖ ζῆν ἢ κατὰ ἀλήθειαν οὐκ ἄνευ τοῦ κατανοῆσαι τὴν τῶν πραγμάτων φύσιν. Ἡ τοῦ διδασκάλου ἀπειρία ἀπολλύει τοὺς μαθητευομένους, καὶ ἡ τῶν μαθητευομένων ἀμέλεια κίνδυνον φέρει τῷ διδασκάλῳ, καὶ μάλιστα ὅταν παρὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ ἀνεπιστημοσύνην ῥᾴθυμοι εἶεν ἐκεῖνοι.