3.  Fairer in my eyes, is the beauty which we can gaze upon than that which is painted in words:  of more value the wealth which our hands can hold, than that which is imagined in our dreams; and more real the wisdom of which we are convinced by deeds, than that which is set forth in splendid language.  For “a good understanding,” he saith, “have all they that do thereafter,”11    Ps. cxi. 10. not they who proclaim it.  Time is the best touchstone of this wisdom, and “the hoary head is a crown of glory.”12    Prov. xvi. 31.  For if, as it seems to me as well as to Solomon, we must “judge none blessed before his death,”13    Eccles. xi. 28. and it is uncertain “what a day may bring forth,”14    Prov. xxvii. 1. since our life here below has many turnings, and the body of our humiliation15    Phil. iii. 21. is ever rising, falling and changing; surely he, who without fault has almost drained the cup of life, and nearly reached the haven of the common sea of existence is more secure, and therefore more enviable, than one who has yet a long voyage before him.

Γʹ. Κρείσσων ἐμοὶ εὐμορφία θεωρουμένη τῆς ἐν λόγῳ ζωγραφουμένης: καὶ πλοῦτος, ὃν αἱ χεῖρες ἔχουσιν, ἢ ὃν οἱ ὄνειροι πλάττουσιν: καὶ σοφία, οὐχ ἡ τῷ λόγῳ λαμπρυνομένη, ἀλλ' ἡ διὰ τῶν ἔργων ἐλεγχομένη. Σύνεσις γὰρ ἀγαθὴ πᾶσι τοῖς ποιοῦσιν αὐτὴν, φησὶν, ἀλλ' οὐ τοῖς κηρύττουσιν: ταύτης δὲ βάσανος ἀκριβεστάτη τῆς σοφίας χρόνος, καὶ στέφανος ὄντως γῆρας καυχήσεως. Εἰ γὰρ οὐ χρὴ μακαρίζειν πρὸ τελευτῆς ἄνθρωπον, ὡς Σολομῶντι κἀμοὶ δοκεῖ, καὶ ἄδηλον ὃ παρὰ τῆς ἐπιούσης τεχθήσεται, πολλὰς στροφὰς ἐχούσης ἡμῶν τῆς κάτω ζωῆς, καὶ τοῦ τῆς ταπεινώσεως σώματος ἄνω καὶ κάτω κινουμένου καὶ μεταπίπτοντος: πῶς οὐχὶ καὶ ὁ τὸ πολὺ τοῦ βίου κενώσας ἀμέμπτως, καὶ οἷον ἤδη πρὸς λιμέσιν ὢν τοῦ κοινοῦ τῆς ζωῆς πελάγους, τοῦ πολὺν ἔχοντος ἔτι τὸν πλοῦν ἀσφαλέστερος, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μακαριώτερος;