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To himself, to his father and Basil the Great

ORATION 10.

To himself, and to his father and Basil the Great, after the return from flight.

A. Nothing is stronger than old age, and nothing more venerable than friendship. By these I was brought to you a prisoner in Christ, bound not with iron chains, but with the unbreakable bonds of the Spirit. But for a time I thought I was strong and invincible, and, O the unreasonableness! I did not yield my arguments even to these my lovers and brothers, that I might have leisure, and philosophize in quiet, leaving all things to those who wished for them, and communing with myself and with the Spirit. I thought of Elijah's Carmel, and John's desert, and the other-worldly life of those who so philosophized; and I considered the present things a storm, and sought for some rock, or cliff, or little wall, under which I might be sheltered. Let others, I said, have the honours and the toils, others the wars and the victories; but for me let it suffice, fleeing the wars, to live looking to myself, as best I can, as if crossing a small sea on a flimsy raft; and winning a small mansion there by the poverty of my life here. A humbler thought, perhaps, but at any rate a safer one; to be equally distant from both height and fall.

B. These things, while it was still possible to paint shadows and dreams, and to feast the mind on vain imaginings; but now what? Friendship has brought me here, and a father's grey hairs have subdued me; old age of wisdom, a term of life, a safer harbour, and the friendship of one rich in God, and making rich. For now I send away my anger (let the meek hear, and be glad); and I look at the gentle hand that played the tyrant, and I smile at the Spirit, and my heart is set at ease, and my reason returns, and friendship, like a flame that had been quenched and withered, from a small spark lives again and is rekindled. My soul refused to be comforted, and my spirit was vexed within me. I said: I will no longer trust in friendship. And why should I hope in man? because every man walks deceitfully, and every brother will utterly supplant his neighbor, and we were all of the same dust and clay, and of the same tree of wickedness have we tasted; but has one man put forward a more comely tent than another? and what benefit to me, I said, was that friendship, so envied and renowned, which began from the world, and advanced to the spirit? What of the one roof and table? or what of the common teachers and lessons? What of the intimacy closer than brothers, or of the genuine harmony afterwards, if I was not even allowed to remain below in a time of power and exaltation, when the opposite is striven for and achieved by most people, I mean to share in power, and to partake of the prosperity of friends?

C. Why should I tell all the inventions of my mind, the products of grief and dejection, which I call darkness? For there were these things, and things more absurd than these; for I myself will accuse my own desperation or folly. But now I change my mind and tune myself to things far truer than these, and more becoming to us. And that you may know the genuineness of our change, O admirable one, you not only break the silence which you blamed, and of which you so loudly complained, but you also have my words as advocates. This is now purely a matter of our friendship, and of the Spirit in us. But what is the

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In seipsum ad patrem et Basilium magnum

ΛΟΓΟΣ Ιʹ.

Εἰς ἑαυτὸν, καὶ εἰς τὸν πατέρα καὶ Βασί λειον τὸν μέγαν, μετὰ τὴν ἐπάνοδον ἐκ φυ-γῆς.

Αʹ. Οὐδὲν ἰσχυρότερον γήρως, καὶ οὐδὲν φιλίας αἰδεσιμώτερον. Ὑπὸ τούτων ἤχθην ὑμῖν ἐγὼ δέσμιος ἐν Χριστῷ, δεθεὶς οὐκ ἀλύσεσι σιδηραῖς, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἀλύτοις δεσμοῖς τοῦ Πνεύματος. Τέως δὲ ᾤμην ἰσχυ ρὸς εἶναί τις καὶ ἀήττητος, καὶ, ὦ τῆς ἀλογίας! οὐκ ἐδίδουν τοὺς λόγους οὐδὲ τοῖς ἐμοῖς ἐρασταῖς τούτοις καὶ ἀδελφοῖς, ἵν' ἔχω τὴν ἀπραγμοσύνην, καὶ τὸ φιλοσοφεῖν ἐν ἡσυχίᾳ, πάντα παρεὶς τοῖς βουλομένοις, ἐμαυτῷ δὲ προσλαλῶν καὶ τῷ Πνεύματι. Ἡλίου περιενόουν τὸν Κάρμηλον, καὶ Ἰωάννου τὴν ἔρημον, καὶ τῶν οὕτω φιλοσοφούντων τὸ ὑπερκόσμιον· καὶ ζάλην τὰ παρόντα ἐνόμιζον, καὶ πέτραν τινὰ ἐζή τουν, ἢ κρημνὸν, ἢ τειχίον, ὑφ' οἷς σκεπασθήσομαι. Ἄλλων, ἔλεγον, ἔστωσαν αἱ τιμαὶ καὶ οἱ πόνοι, ἄλ λων οἱ πόλεμοι καὶ τὰ νικητήρια· ἐμοὶ δὲ ἀρκείτω φεύγοντι τοὺς πολέμους, εἰς ἐμαυτὸν βλέποντι ζῇν οὕτως, ὅπως ἂν δύνωμαι, καθάπερ ἐπὶ λεπτῆς σχε δίας διαπεραιουμένῳ μικρόν τι πέλαγος· καὶ μικρὰν τὴν ἐκεῖθεν μονὴν, τῷ πενιχρῷ τῆς ἐντεῦθεν πο λιτείας κατακτωμένῳ. Ταπεινοτέρων ὁ λογι σμὸς ἴσως, ἀλλ' οὖν ἀσφαλεστέρων· ἴσον ἀπ έχειν καὶ ὕψους καὶ πτώματος.

Βʹ. Ταῦτα ἕως ἐξῆν γράφειν ἔτι σκιὰς καὶ ὀνείρα τα, καὶ τοῖς ματαίοις ἀναπλασμοῖς ἑστιᾷν τὴν διά νοιαν· νῦν δὲ τί; Φιλία παρεστήσατό με, καὶ πολιὰ πατρὸς ἐχειρώσατο· γῆρας φρονήσεως, προθεσμία βίου, λιμὴν ἀσφαλέστερος, καὶ φιλία πλου τοῦντος Θεῷ, καὶ πλουτίζοντος. Ἤδη γὰρ ἀποπέμπο μαι τὴν ὀργήν (ἀκουσάτωσαν πραεῖς, καὶ εὐ φρανθήτωσαν)· καὶ πρὸς τὴν χεῖρα ἥμερον βλέπω τὴν τυραννήσασαν, καὶ προσγελῶ τῷ Πνεύματι, καὶ ἡ καρδία καθίσταταί μοι, καὶ ὁ λογισμὸς ἐπανέρχεται, καὶ ἡ φιλία, καθάπερ τις φλὸξ, κατασβεσθεῖσα καὶ ἀπομαρανθεῖσα, πάλιν ἐκ μικροῦ σπινθῆρος ἀναζῇ καὶ ἀνάπτεται. Ἀπηνήνατο παρακληθῆναι ἡ ψυχή μου, καὶ ἠκηδίασεν ἐπ' ἐμὲ τὸ πνεῦμά μου. Εἶπα· Οὐ μὴ προσθῶ ἔτι πιστεῦσαι φιλίᾳ. Καὶ ἵνα τί μοι ἐλπίζειν ἐπ' ἄνθρωπον; ὅτι πᾶς ἄνθρωπος δο λίως πορεύεται, καὶ πᾶς ἀδελφὸς πτέρνῃ πτερνιεῖ τὸν πλησίον αὐτοῦ, καὶ πάντες ἦμεν τοῦ αὐτοῦ 35.829 χοὸς καὶ φυράματος, καὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ ξύλου τῆς κα κίας γεγεύμεθα· σκηνὴν δὲ ἄλλος ἄλλην εὐπρε πεστέραν προβέβληται; καὶ τί μοι τῆς φιλίας ἐκείνης ὄφελος, ἔλεγον, τῆς ζηλωτῆς καὶ περιβοήτου, ἀρξαμένης ἀπὸ κόσμου, καὶ προελθούσης εἰς πνεῦ μα; Τί δαὶ τῆς μιᾶς στέγης τε καὶ τραπέζης; ἢ τί τῶν κοινῶν παιδευτῶν τε καὶ παιδευμάτων; τί δαὶ τῆς ὑπὲρ ἀδελφοὺς ἀνακράσεως, ἢ τῆς γνησίας συμπνοίας ὕστερον, εἰ μηδὲ τοσοῦτον ὑπῆρξέ μοι κά τω μένειν ἐν καιρῷ δυναστείας καὶ ὕψους, ὁπότε τὸ ἐναντίον τοῖς πολλοῖς σπουδάζεται καὶ ἐπι τυγχάνεται, τὸ παραδυναστεύειν λέγω, καὶ τῆς τῶν φίλων μετέχειν εὐημερίας;

Γʹ. Τί μοι πάντα λέγειν τὰ τῆς λύπης καὶ τῆς ἀκηδίας, ἢν ζόφον ἐγὼ καλῶ, τοῦ νοῦ εὑρήματα; Καὶ γὰρ ταῦτα, καὶ τούτων ἦν ἀτοπώτερα· κατηγο ρήσω γὰρ αὐτὸς ἐγὼ τῆς ἐμῆς εἴτε ἀπονοίας εἴτε ἀνοίας. Ἀλλὰ νῦν μεταλαμβάνω καὶ μεθαρμόζομαι ὡς πολὺ τούτων καὶ ἀληθέστερα, καὶ ἡμῖν πρεπωδέ στερα. Καὶ ἵνα εἰδῇς τὸ γνήσιον τῆς ἡμετέρας μεταβολῆς, ὦ θαυμάσιε, οὐ λύεις μόνον τὴν σιωπὴν ἣν ἐμέμψω, καὶ ἧς πολλὰ κατεβόησας, ἀλλὰ καὶ συν ηγόρους ἔχεις τοὺς λόγους. Τοῦτο μὲν ἤδη τῆς ἡμετέρας φιλίας καθαρῶς, καὶ τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν Πνεύματος. Ἀλλὰ τίς ἡ