NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

Homiletical.confirms in act the philosophy which in the rest goes no farther than words. They do butflit like shadows. 667It is as though some painter had represented a sitter as a marvel of manly beauty, andthen he were to be in reality what the artist had painted on the panel. But to utter gloriouseulogies on virtue in public, and make long speeches about it, while in private puttingpleasure before continence and giving gain higher honour than righteousness, is conductwhich seems to me illustrated by actors on the stage: they enter as monarchs and magnates,when they are neither monarchs nor magnates, and perhaps even are only slaves. A singercould never tolerate a lyre that did not match his voice, nor a coryphæus a chorus that didnot chant in tune. Yet every one will be inconsistent with himself, and will fail to make hisconduct agree with his words. The tongue has sworn, but the heart has never sworn, asEuripedes 668 has it; and a man will aim at seeming, rather than at being, good. Nevertheless,if we may believe Plato, the last extreme of iniquity is for one to seem just without beingjust. 669 This then is the way in which we are to receive writings which contain suggestionsof good deeds. And since the noble deeds of men of old are preserved for our benefit eitherby tradition, or in the works of poets and historians, do not let us miss the good we may getfrom them. For instance: a man in the street once pursued Pericles with abuse, and persistedin it all day. Pericles took not the slightest notice. Evening fell, and darkness came on, andeven then he could hardly be persuaded to give over. Pericles lighted him home, for fearthis exercise in philosophy might be lost. 670 Again: once upon a time a fellow who wasangry with Euclid of Megara threatened him with death, and swore at him. Euclid sworeback that he would appease him, and calm him in spite of his rage. 671 A man once attackedSocrates the son of Sophoniscus and struck him again and again in the face. Socrates madeno resistance, but allowed the drunken fellow to take his fill of frenzy, so that his face wasall swollen and bloody from the blows. When the assault was done, Socrates, according tothe story, did nothing besides writing on his forehead, as a sculptor might on a statue, “Thisis so and so’s doing.” 672667 cf. Hom., Od. x. 494, where it is said of Teiresias: Τῷ καὶ τεθνηῶτι νόον πόρε Περσεφόνεια, Οἴ& 251·πεπνῦσθαι· τοὶ δὲ σκιαὶ ἀ& 188·σσουσι.668 Eur. Hippolytus, 612: ἡ γλῶσσ᾽ ὀμώμοχ᾽ ἡ δὲ φρὴν ἀνώμοτος, the famous line which Aristophanes madefun of in Thesmophoriazusæ, 275.669 Fronton du Duc notes that Basil has taken this allusion to Plato from Plutarch’s tract, How to distinguishbetween Flatterer and Friend, p. 50: ὡςγὰρ ὁ Πλάτων φησὶν ἐσχάτης ἀδικίας εἶναι δοκεῖν δίκαιον μὴ ὄντα.670 Plut. Pericles.671 Plut., De Ira Cohibenda, where the story is told of a brother. The aggressor says ἀπολοίμην εἰ μή σετιμῶρησαίμην. The rejoinder is ἐγὼ δὲ ἀπολοίμην εἰ μή σε πείσαιμι.672 ἐποίει in Greek will of course stand for “made it,” like our “hoc fecit,” or “did it.” Du Duc gives authorityfor the use of the Imp. from Politian.117