78. So, since no human voice is strong enough to be heard in such a disturbance, I reckon silence more profitable than speech, for if there is any truth in the words of the Preacher, “The words of wise men are heard in quiet,”  12  Eccl. ix. 17. in the present condition of things any discussion of them must be anything but becoming. I am moreover restrained by the Prophet’s saying, “Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time,”  13  Amos v. 13. a time when some trip up their neighbours’ heels, some stamp on a man when he is down, and others clap their hands with joy, but there is not one to feel for the fallen and hold out a helping hand, although according to the ancient law he is not uncondemned, who passes by even his enemy’s beast of burden fallen under his load.  14  Ezek. xxiii. 5. This is not the state of things now. Why not? The love of many has waxed cold;  15  Matt. xxiv. 12. brotherly concord is destroyed, the very name of unity is ignored, brotherly admonitions are heard no more, nowhere is there Christian pity, nowhere falls the tear of sympathy. Now there is no one to receive “the weak in faith,”  16  Rom. xiv. 1. but mutual hatred has blazed so high among fellow clansmen that they are more delighted at a neighbour’s fall than at their own success. Just as in a plague, men of the most regular lives suffer from the same sickness as the rest, because they catch the disease by communication with the infected, so nowadays by the evil rivalry which possesses our souls we are carried away to an emulation in wickedness, and are all of us each as bad as the others. Hence merciless and sour sit the judges of the erring; unfeeling and hostile are the critics of the well disposed. And to such a depth is this evil rooted among us that we have become more brutish than the brutes; they do at least herd with their fellows, but our most savage warfare is with our own people.

[78] Διὰ ταῦτα λυσιτελεστέραν τοῦ λόγου τὴν σιωπὴν ἐτιθέμην, ὡς οὐ δυναμένης φωνῆς ἀνθρώπου διὰ τοσούτων θορύβων εἰσακουσθῆναι. Εἰ γὰρ ἀληθῆ τὰ τοῦ Ἐκκλησιαστοῦ ῥήματα, ὅτι «Λόγοι σοφῶν ἐν ἀναπαύσει ἀκούονται», πολλοῦ ἂν δέοι πρέπειν τῇ νῦν καταστάσει τὸ περὶ τούτων λέγειν. Ἐμὲ δὲ καὶ τὸ προφητικὸν ἐκεῖνο κατέχει λόγιον, ὅτι «Ὁ συνιὼν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ ἐκείνῳ σιωπήσεται, διότι ὁ καιρὸς πονηρός ἐστιν», ἐν ᾧ οἱ μὲν ὑποσκελίζουσι νῦν, οἱ δὲ ἐνάλλονται τῷ πεσόντι, ἄλλοι δὲ ἐπικροτοῦσιν: ὁ δὲ τῷ ὀκλάσαντι χεῖρα ὀρέγων ἐκ συμπαθείας οὐκ ἔστι: καίτοιγε, κατὰ τὸν παλαιὸν νόμον, οὐδ' ὁ τὸ ὑποζύγιον τοῦ ἐχθροῦ πεπτωκὸς ὑπὸ τὸν γόμον παραδραμών, ἀκατάγνωστος. Ἀλλ' οὐχὶ τανῦν τοιαῦτα. Πόθεν; ὅπου γε διὰ πάντων τῆς ἀγάπης ψυγείσης, ἀνῄρηται μὲν ἀδελφῶν σύμπνοια: ὁμονοίας δὲ ἀγνοεῖται καὶ τοὔνομα: ἀνῄρηνται δὲ ἀγαπητικαὶ νουθεσίαι: οὐδαμοῦ σπλάγχνον χριστιανόν, οὐδαμοῦ δάκρυον συμπαθές. Οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ τὸν ἀσθενοῦντα τῇ πίστει προσλαμβανόμενος, ἀλλὰ τοσοῦτον μῖσος τοῖς ὁμοφύλοις πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἐκκέκαυται, ὥστε μᾶλλον τοῖς πλησίον πτώμασιν, ἢ τοῖς οἰκείοις ἕκαστος κατορθώμασιν ἐπαγάλλονται. Ὥσπερ δὲ ἐν ταῖς λοιμικαῖς συμπαθείαις καὶ οἱ κατὰ πᾶσαν ἀκρίβειαν διαιτώμενοι τὰ ἴσα τοῖς ἄλλοις κάμνουσιν, ἐκ τῆς πρὸς τοὺς διεφθαρμένους ὁμιλίας τῆς ἀρρωστίας ἀναπιμπλάμενοι: οὕτω καὶ νῦν πάντες ἀλλήλοις γεγόναμεν ὅμοιοι, ὑπὸ τῆς κατασχούσης τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν φιλονεικίας πρὸς τὸν τῶν κακῶν ζῆλον ὑπενεχθέντες. Ἐντεῦθεν ἀσύγγνωστοι μὲν καὶ πικροὶ κάθηνται τῶν ἀποτυγχανομένων ἐξετασταί: ἀγνώμονες δὲ καὶ δυσμενεῖς τῶν κατορθουμένων κριταί: καὶ τοσοῦτον, ὡς ἔοικε, τὸ κακὸν ἡμῖν ἐνίδρυται, ὥστε καὶ τῶν ἀλόγων γεγόναμεν ἀλογώτεροι: εἴ γε ἐκεῖνα μὲν τὰ ὁμόφυλα ἀλλήλοις συναγελάζεται: ἡμῖν δὲ ὁ χαλεπώτατος πόλεμος πρὸς τοὺς οἰκείους ἐστί.