Oration XXXIII.

 I.  Where are they who reproach us with our poverty, and boast themselves of their own riches who define the Church by numbers, and scorn the little

 II.  Would you like me to utter to you the words of God to Israel, stiff-necked and hardened?  “O my people what have I done unto thee, or wherein hav

 III.  What tumultuous mob have I led against you?  What soldiers have I armed?  What general boiling with rage, and more savage than his employers, an

 IV.  What wild beasts have we let loose upon the bodies of Saints,—like some who have prostituted human nature,—on one single accusation, that of not

 V.  And to speak of older things, for they too belong to the same fraternity whose hands living or dead have I cut off—to bring a lying accusation ag

 VI.  Now since your antecedents are such, I should be glad if you too will tell me of my crimes, that I may either amend my life or be put to shame. 

 VII.  Why do you not also mention the convenience of the site, and what I may call the contest between land and sea as to which owns the City, and whi

 VIII.  Do you also find fault with the raggedness of my dress, and the want of elegance in the disposition of my face? for these are the points upon w

 IX.  But I am so old fashioned and such a philosopher as to believe that one heaven is common to all and that so is the revolution of the sun and the

 X.  I was deceived too by the Ramah of Samuel, that little fatherland of the great man which was no dishonour to the Prophet, for it drew its honour

 XI.  But perhaps some one who is very circumscribed and carnally minded will say, “But our herald is a stranger and a foreigner.”  What of the Apostle

 XII.  My friend, every one that is of high mind has one Country, the Heavenly Jerusalem, in which we store up our Citizenship.  All have one family—if

 XIII.  It is thus then and for these reasons that I, who am small and of a country without repute, have come upon you, and that not of my own accord,

 XIV.  And if I am doing wrong in this, that when tyrannized over I endure it, forgive me this wrong I have borne to be tyrannized over by others too

 XV.  Moreover this also I reckoned and still reckon with myself and do you see if it is not quite correct.  I have often discussed it with you before

 XVI.  These I call by name (for they are not nameless like the stars which are numbered and have names), and they follow me, for I rear them up beside

 XVII.  These words let everyone who threatens me to-day concede to me the rest let whoever will claim.  The Father will not endure to be deprived of

VIII.  Do you also find fault with the raggedness of my dress, and the want of elegance in the disposition of my face? for these are the points upon which I see that some persons who are very insignificant pride themselves.  Will you leave my head alone, and not jeer at it, as the children did at Elissæus?  What followed I will not mention.  And will you leave out of your allegations my want of education, and what seems to you the roughness and rusticity of my elocution?  And where will you put the fact that I am not full of small talk, nor a jester popular with company, nor great hunter of the marketplace, nor given to chatter and gossip with any chance people upon all sorts of subjects, so as to make even conversation grievous; nor a frequenter of Zeuxippus, that new Jerusalem;20    It is not certain what is the allusion here.  Some think a great Circus or Hippodrome for chariot races; others say an institution in which were heretical schools; others again, the great baths of Zeuxippus. nor one who strolls from house to house flattering and stuffing himself; but for the most part staying at home, of low spirits and with a melancholy cast of countenance, quietly associating with myself, the genuine critic of my actions; and perhaps worthy of imprisonment for my uselessness?  How is it that you pardon me for all this, and do not blame me for it?  How sweet and kind you are.

Ηʹ. Ἦ καὶ τῆς ἐσθῆτός μου τὸ τρύχινον αἰτιάσῃ, καὶ τοῦ προσώπου τὴν θέσιν οὐκ εὐφυῶς ἔχουσαν; ἐπεὶ καὶ τούτοις ὁρῶ τινας τῶν λίαν ταπεινῶν αἰρομένους. Τὴν κεφαλὴν δὲ ἀφήσεις, καὶ οὐκ ἐπισκώψεις ἃ καὶ τὸν Ἐλισσαῖον οἱ παῖδες; τὸ γὰρ ἑξῆς σιωπήσομαι. Ἀπαιδευσίαν δὲ οὐκ ἐγκαλέσεις, ἢ ὅτι τραχύ σοι δοκῶ καὶ ἄγροικον φθέγγεσθαι; Τὸ δὲ μὴ στωμύλον εἶναι, ποῦ στήσεις, μηδὲ γελοιαστήν τινα, καὶ τοῖς συνοῦσι κεχαρισμένον, μηδὲ ἀγοράζειν τὰ πολλὰ, μηδὲ λαλεῖν τε καὶ περιλαλεῖν οἷς ἔτυχε, καὶ ὡς ἔτυχεν, ὥστε ποιῆσαι φορτικοὺς καὶ τοὺς λόγους, μηδὲ τὴν νέαν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, τὸν Ζεύξιππον, ἐπισκέπτεσθαι, μηδὲ οἰκίαν ἐξ οἰκίας ἀμείβειν θωπεύοντά τε καὶ γαστριζόμενον: ἀλλ' οἴκοι τὰ πολλὰ μένειν κατηφῆ τε καὶ σκυθρωπάζοντα, καὶ καθ' ἡσυχίαν ἐμαυτῷ συγγενόμενον, τῷ γνησίῳ τῶν πραττομένων ἐξεταστῇ, καὶ τοῦ δεθῆναι τυχὸν ἀξίῳ διὰ τὸ δύσχρηστον; Πῶς ταῦτα συγχωρεῖς ἡμῖν, καὶ οὐκ ἐγκαλεῖς; Ὡς ἡδὺς εἶ καὶ φιλάνθρωπος!