Tfhio - JScholarship - Johns Hopkins University

APOLOGETICVS 1 5
of hatred be defended, seeing that it is to be tested not by the
verdict passed but by a good conscience ? When therefore men
hate because they do not know the character of what they hate,
what is to hinder the thing hated from being of the sort they
ought not to hate ? So we refute either position from the other,
showing that in hating they do not know, and that in not
knowing, their hatred is unjust. It is an evidence of the
ignorance, which, while it is made the excuse, is really the
condemnation of injustice, when all who hated in the past,
because they did not know the character of that which they
hated, cease to hate as soon as they cease to be ignorant. It
is from this class that Christians are produced, of course from
conviction, and begin to hate what they had been, and to profess
what they hated, and are indeed as numerous as we who
are branded with that name. They cry aloud that the state
is besieged: that (even) in the country-districts, in the (walled)
villages, in the islands, you will find Christians. They mourn
as for a loss that all, without distinction of sex, age, circumstances,
or even position, are deserting to this name. And yet even in
this very way they do not carry on their minds to the appraisement
of some good hidden therein; they do not care^ to form
a truer conjecture upon a closer inquiry, they have no pleasure
in trying it at closer quarters. In this sphere alone is human
curiosity apathetic; they delight to be ignorant, while others
rejoice to have learned. How much more severely would
Anacharsis have condemned these men, as specimens of the
unwise judging the wise, than as the unmusical judging the
musical! They had rather be ignorant, because they already
hate; such a strong suspicion have they that what they are
ignorant of is that which, if they knew it, they could not hate;
since, if no duty to hate were discovered, it would of course be
best to cease to hate unjustly, but if there were no doubt as to
desert, not only would there be no withdrawal of hatred, but
persistence would gain greater force, even through the sanction
of justice itself. ' But it is not therefore good,' they say,' because
it makes many converts: for how many are fashioned for evil!
how many deserters are there to what is wrong ?' Who denies
it? Yet what is truly evil, even those who are in its clutches
do not dare to defend as good. Nature has stamped on every
evil thing the character either of fear or of shame. Accordingly
evil-doers are eager to hide, they shrink from showing themselves,
they tremble when caught, deny their guilt when charged, and
even when tortured do not readily or always confess. To
be sure when condemned they mourn, and they either sum up
1 Reading K6eJ (J. B. M.).