1Better is a dry morsel with joy, than a house full of victims with strife.Val più un tozzo di pane secco colla pace, che una casa piena di vittime con la discordia.BEtter is a drie morsel with ioy, then a house ful of victimes with brawling.Melior est buccella sicca cum gaudio / quam domus plena victimis cum jurgio. 2A wise servant shall rule over foolish sons, and shall divide the inheritance among the brethren.Il servo saggio comanderà a' figliuoli stolti: e dividerà trai fratelli l'eredità.A wise seruant shal rule ouer foolish children, and diuide inheritance among bretheren.Servus sapiens dominabitur filiis stultis, / et inter fratres hæreditatem dividet. 3As silver is tried by fire, and gold in the furnace: so the Lord trieth the hearts.Come si prova l'argento col fuoco, l'oro nel grogiuolo; così il Signore prova i cuori.As siluer is tried by fyre, and gold in the fournace: so our Lord proueth the the harts.Sicut igne probatur argentum et aurum camino, / ita corda probat Dominus. 4The evil man obeyeth an unjust tongue: and the deceitful hearkeneth to lying lips.Il malvaggio ubbidisce alla lingua ingiusta; e l'ingannatore da retta alle labbra bugiarde.The euil man obeyeth an vniust tongue: and the deceitful obeyeth lying lippes.Malus obedit linguæ iniquæ, / et fallax obtemperat labiis mendacibus. 5He that despiseth the poor, reproacheth his maker: and he that rejoiceth at another man’s ruin, shall not be unpunished.Chi disprezza il povero, fa oltraggio a chi lo creò: e chi si gode della rovina altrui, non anderà impunito.He that despiseth the poore, vpbraydeth his maker: and he that reioyceth at an other mans ruine, shal not be vnpunished.Qui despicit pauperem exprobrat factori ejus, / et qui ruina lætatur alterius non erit impunitus. 6Children’s children are the crown of old men: and the glory of children are their fathers.Corona de' vecchj sono i figliuoli de' figliuoli, e gloria de' figliuoli sono i loro padri.The crowne of oldmen the childrens children: and the glorie of children their fathers.Corona senum filii filiorum, / et gloria filiorum patres eorum. 7Eloquent words do not become a fool, nor lying lips a prince.Non conviene allo stolto il parlar sentenzioso, né al principe una lingua mendace.Eloquent wordes become not a foole, nor lying lippes a prince.Non decent stultum verba composita, / nec principem labium mentiens. 8The expectation of him that expecteth is a most acceptable jewel: whithersoever he turneth himself, he understandeth wisely.Carissima come una gemma ella è quella cosa, che uno aspetta con impazienza; da qualunque lato egli sì volga, si diporta con prudenza.A most gratful pearle, the expectation of him that expecteth: whither soeuer he turneth himself, he vnderstandeth wisely.Gemma gratissima exspectatio præstolantis; / quocumque se vertit, prudenter intelligit.
9He that concealeth a transgression, seeketh friendships: he that repeateth it again, separateth friends.Chi cela l'altrui peccato s'acquista amore; chi lo dice, e lo ridice mette discordia tra gli amici.He that concealeth offence, seeketh frendshipes: he that in other word repeteth it, seperateth the confederate.Qui celat delictum quærit amicitias; / qui altero sermone repetit, separat fœderatos. 10A reproof availeth more with a wise man, than a hundred stripes with a fool.Una correzione fa più a un uomo prudente, che cento percosse allo stolto.Reprehension doth more profit with a wiseman, then an hundred stripes with a foole.Plus proficit correptio apud prudentem, / quam centum plagæ apud stultum. 11An evil man always seeketh quarrels: but a cruel angel shall be sent against him.Il malvaggio va sempre a caccia di contese; ma l'Angelo crudele sarà spedito contro di lui.An euil man alwayes seeketh brawles: but a cruel angel shal be sent against him.Semper jurgia quærit malus: / angelus autem crudelis mittetur contra eum. 12It is better to meet a bear robbed of her whelps, than a fool trusting in his own folly.E meglio imbattersi in un orsa quando le sono stati rapiti i suoi parti, che in uno stolto, il quale si fida di sua o stoltezza.It is better to meete a beare when her yong are taken away, then a foole trusting to himselfe in his owne follie.Expedit magis ursæ occurrere raptis fœtibus, / quam fatuo confidenti in stultitia sua. 13He that rendereth evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.Chi rende male per bene, non vedrà mai partire da casa sua la sciagura.He that rendereth euil thinges for good, euil shal not depart from his house.Qui reddit mala pro bonis, / non recedet malum de domo ejus. 14The beginning of quarrels is as when one letteth out water: and before he suffereth reproach, he forsaketh judgment.Chi comincia la rissa, da la stura all'acqua, e dee ritirarsi dalla lite prima di ricevere oltraggio.He that letteth water goe, is the head of brawles: & before he suffer contumelie, he forsaketh iudgement.Qui dimittit aquam caput est jurgiorum, / et antequam patiatur contumeliam judicium deserit. 15He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, both are abominable before God.Chi giustifica l'empio, e chi condanna il giusto, è abbominevole l'uno, e l'altro dinanzi a Dio.He that iustifieth the impious, and he that condemneth the iust, both are abominable before God.Qui justificat impium, et qui condemnat justum, / abominabilis est uterque apud Deum. 16What doth it avail a fool to have riches, seeing he cannot buy wisdom? He that maketh his house high, seeketh a downfall: and he that refuseth to learn, shall fall into evils.Che giova allo stolto l'aver delle ricchezze, mentre non può comperare lo sapienza? Chi molto alta fa la sua casa, va cercando rovine; e chi ricusa di imparare, caderà in guai.What doth it profit a foole to haue riches, wheras he can not buy wisdom? He that maketh his house high, seeketh ruine: and he that refuseth to learne, shal fal into euils.Quid prodest stulto habere divitias, / cum sapientiam emere non possit ? / Qui altum facit domum suam quærit ruinam, / et qui evitat discere incidet in mala.
17He that is a friend loveth at all times: and a brother is proved in distress.Chi è amico, ama in ogni tempo; e il fratello si sperimenta nelle afflizioni.He loueth at al time that is a frend: and a brother is proued in distresses.Omni tempore diligit qui amicus est, / et frater in angustiis comprobatur. 18A foolish man will clap hands, when he is surety for his friend.Lo stolto fa galloria, quando è entrato mallevadore al suo amico.A foolish man wil clappe the handes, when he is suretie for his freind.Stultus homo plaudet manibus, / cum spoponderit pro amico suo. 19He that studieth discords, loveth quarrels: and he that exalteth his door, seeketh ruin.Chi vuoi far nascere discordie, a cerca liti: e chi alza molto la sua porta cerca rovine.He that meditateth discordes, loueth brawles: and he that exalteth the doore, seeketh ruine.Qui meditatur discordias diligit rixas, / et qui exaltat ostium quærit ruinam. 20He that is of a perverse heart, shall not find good: and he that perverteth his tongue, shall fall into evil.Colui che ha il cuore perverso non avrà bene, e colui, che è doppio di lingua caderà in sciagure.He that is of a peruerse hart, shal not finde good: and he that turneth his tongue, shal fal into euil.Qui perversi cordis est non inveniet bonum, / et qui vertit linguam incidet in malum. 21A fool is born to his own disgrace: and even his father shall not rejoice in a fool.Lo stolto è nato per suo vitupero; ma nemmeno il padre di lui ne avrà consolazione.A foole is borne to his owne ignominie: but neither shal the father reioyce in a foole.Natus est stultus in ignominiam suam; / sed nec pater in fatuo lætabitur. 22A joyful mind maketh age flourishing: a sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones.L'animo allegro fa l'età florida: lo spirito malinconico secca le ossa.A ioyful minde maketh a florishing age: a sorowful spirit dryeth vp the bones.Animus gaudens ætatem floridam facit; / spiritus tristis exsiccat ossa. 23The wicked man taketh gifts out of the bosom, that he may pervert the paths of judgment.L'empio riceve di nascosto dei doni per sovvertire le vie della giustizia.The impious receiueth giftes out of the bosome, that he may peruert the pathes of iudgement.Munera de sinu impius accipit, / ut pervertat semitas judicii. 24Wisdom shineth in the face of the wise: the eyes of fools are in the ends of the earth.Sulla faccia dell'uom prudente riluce la sapienza: gli occhi degli stolti scorrono vagabondi le estremità della terra.In the face of the prudent wisdom shineth: the eies of fooles are in the endes of the earth.In facie prudentis lucet sapientia; / oculi stultorum in finibus terræ.
25A foolish son is the anger of the father: and the sorrow of the mother that bore him.Il figliuolo stolto è l'ira del padre, e il dolor della madre, che lo ha generato.A foolish sonne is the anger of the father: and the sorow of the mother that bare him.Ira patris filius stultus, / et dolor matris quæ genuit eum. 26It is no good thing to do hurt to the just: nor to strike the prince, who judgeth right.Non è buona cosa il far torto al giusto, né l'offendere il principe, che fa giustizia.It is not good, to doe hurt to the iust: nor to strike the prince, which iudgeth right.Non est bonum damnum inferre justo, / nec percutere principem qui recta judicat. 27He that setteth bounds to his words, is knowing and wise: and the man of understanding is of a precious spirit.Chi sa moderare il suo discorso, egli è dotto, e prudente: e l'uomo erudito è di spirito riservato.He that moderateth his wordes, is lerned and prudent: and the lerned man is of a precious spirit.Qui moderatur sermones suos doctus et prudens est, / et pretiosi spiritus vir eruditus. 28Even a fool, if he will hold his peace, shall be counted wise: and if he close his lips, a man of understanding.Anche lo stolto, se tace, è riputato per sapiente; e per intelligente, se tien serrate le labbra.The foole also if he hold his peace, shal be reputed wise: and if he close his lippes, a man of vnderstanding.Stultus quoque, si tacuerit, sapiens reputabitur, / et si compresserit labia sua, intelligens.
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Haydock
Septuagint add, "of many goods, and unjust victims." (Haydock)
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Lips. They mutually deceive one another, as well as others.
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Fathers. Whose virtues they are bound to imitate.
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Eloquent. Septuagint, "faithful." They cannot be expected from them.
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Expecteth heavenly things. Septuagint, "instruction is the reward of good deeds to those who use it."
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Friends. Detractors cause dissensions, and even wars.
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Q. Curt
Fool. "A word is enough for the wise." Nobilis equus umbra virgae regitur, ignavus ne calcari quidem. (Q. Curt.)
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Aristotle
Fool. Hebrew, "fool in his folly." The danger is not greater in meeting (Calmet) a female bear, though it be the most terrible. (Aristotle, Anim. 9:1.)
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God. We ought to suspend our judgment, or incline to the more favourable side, Matthew 7:1., and Romans 2:1.
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Calmet
He, etc., is not here in Hebrew, though it be equivalently (ver. 19.) where the Septuagint are silent. (Calmet)
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Distress. Like the real friend, Proverbs 18:24.
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Hands. Through joy, or as a mark of his consent.
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Door. Sixtus V reads, "mouth:" as some explain the door to mean. A large door supposes that the house is elevated, and thus exposed to danger from winds, etc.
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Earth. Wandering and insatiable, and deeming the acquisition of wisdom too difficult.
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No good. But very criminal. See Jeremias 7:31.
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Calmet
Precious and reserved spirit. This is a mark of wisdom. (Calmet)
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Peace.
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VVisdom in general.
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Purification.
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Feloshipe with the good. Commiseration.
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Succession.
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Grauitie in speach.
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Desire of eternal life.
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Remitting offences.
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Discrete correction.
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Concord.
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Gentienes.
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Gratitude.
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Conseruation of peace.
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Iust censure.
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Spiritual riches.
Humilitie.
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Constancie.
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Carefulnes in promising.
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Concord.
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Sinceritie.
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Education of youth.
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Alacritie of hart.
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Iust iudgement.
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Contempt of the world.
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••lial obedience.
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Obedience to Magistrates.
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Discretion in speaking.
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Moderate silence.
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 2.21
… so that men consider everything a loss which is spent beyond the usual amount. But even here the holy Scriptures have been on the watch against love of money, that it might prove no cause of hindrance, saying: “Better is hospitality, even though it consisteth only of herbs.” And again: “Better is bread in pleasantness with peace.”
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St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 183
For had not this affliction come to pass, your proof under trial would never have been known. To all that earnestly strive for any good, the affliction they endure for the sake of their hope in God is like a furnace to gold.
Sulpicius Severus † AD 420 The Doubtful Letters of Sulpitius Severus 2.11
… For she is holy, alike in body and in spirit, who sins neither in mind nor heart, knowing that God is one who examines also the heart; and, therefore, she takes every pains to possess a mind as well as a body free from sin. Such a person is aware that it is written, “Keep thy heart with all diligence”; and again, “God loveth
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 54.21
… and in his lips he hideth a fire.” Also again, he warneth us, and says, “Hedge in thy ears with thorns, and hearken not to a wicked tongue.” And again: “A wicked doer giveth heed to the tongue of the unjust; but a righteous man does not listen to lying lips.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 68.7
… and in not remembering that it is written, “Hedge thine ears with thorns, and hearken not to a wicked tongue;” and again: “A wicked doer giveth heed to the tongue of the unjust; but a righteous man regards not lying lips.”
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 5.2
… not that thou shouldest shew thy conscience to me, for thou art not to be judged of man’s judgment ; but that thou shew the sincerity of thy faith to God, who trieth the reins and hearts , and knoweth the thoughts of men . A great thing is a faithful man, being richest of all rich men. For to the faithful man belongs the whole world of wealth
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 8.6
6. Riches, and gold, and silver are not, as some think, the devil’s : for the whole world of riches is for the faithful man, but for the faithless not even a penny
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man gregory-bishop-of-nyssa-to-his
If we had to honour with rewards of money those who excel in virtue, the whole world of money, as Solomon says
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Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.14
… afterwards the tongue gnaws with detraction the lives of those of whom we talk; but at last breaks out even into open slanders. Hence are sown pricking thorns, quarrels arise, the torches of enmities are kindled, the peace of hearts is extinguished. Whence it is well said through Solomon, He that letteth out water is a well-spring of strifes (
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.27
… For justice cannot exist without prudence, since it demands no small amount of prudence to see whether a thing is just or unjust. A mistake on either side is very serious. “For he that says a just man is unjust, or an unjust man is just, is accursed with God. Wherefore does justice abound unto the wicked?”
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John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 14.16
… “the fear of the Lord is instruction and wisdom,” and yet try to get at the meaning of Scripture by continual meditation on them, it is appropriately asked in Proverbs: “What use are riches to a fool? For a senseless man cannot possess wisdom.”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 19
“And let us consider one another,” he says, “to provoke unto love and to good works.” He knew that this also arises from “gathering together.” For as “iron sharpeneth iron” (
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 On Proverbs 1
… If one inquires about wisdom, desiring to learn something about wisdom, while another asks nothing of wisdom, as not only wishing to learn nothing about wisdom himself, but even keeping back his neighbours from so doing, the former certainly is deemed to be more prudent than the latter.
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St Basil the Great † AD 379 De Spiritu Sancto 1.2
2. If “To the fool on his asking for wisdom, wisdom shall be reckoned,”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 188
“ Even a fool,” it is said, “when he asks questions,” is counted wise.
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 4.9
Daniel : It belongs to the understanding to discern the distinctions and the drift of questions; and it is a main part of knowledge to understand how ignorant you are. Wherefore it is said that “if a fool asks questions, it will be accounted wisdom,”
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1. A DRY MORSEL (Theodotion, a morsel by itself, namely alone without relish) WITH JOY, IS BETTER THAN A HOUSE FULL OF VICTIMS WITH STRIFE. — In Hebrew, a dry morsel is better and peace in it, than a house full of victims of strife; the Septuagint, a morsel is better with pleasure in peace, than a house of many good things, and unjust victims with strife; the Syriac, dry bread is better with tranquility, than a house full of victims of judgment, that is victims extorted by strife through a judge in judgment; St. Ambrose, book II of the Duties, chapter xxi: "Better is bread in sweetness with peace." For joy in Hebrew is שלו salva, that is peace, tranquility, safety, happiness, prosperity (whence the Latin salve, by which in greeting we wish others safety, prosperity and peace), and thence joy; for nowhere is there joy except in tranquility and safety: just as conversely nowhere is there sadness except where there is adversity, discord and strife of man, either with his neighbor, or with God, or with himself in mind. Whence clearly Vatablus, better is a dry morsel of bread with tranquility, than a house full of slaughtered beasts with contention. Secondly, Aben-Ezra connects this verse with the two preceding ones: "Better is the patient man than the strong," etc., as if to say, Better for him who restrains his mind from anger through patience is a dry morsel with tranquility of mind, than a house full of strife and discord, by which he is continually stirred to anger and becomes impatient. Again, strong men, the conquerors of cities, are accustomed to abound in spoils and delights: wherefore they seem happier than the poor enduring much. But Solomon refutes this, saying: Better is a morsel with peace, than a sumptuous table with strife. Thirdly, others commonly take this maxim as independent of the preceding ones, absolutely and generally, as if to say, It is better to feed on dry bread and enjoy peace, than to feast sumptuously with strife and discord. For victims signify more luxurious and sumptuous foods and meats; such were accustomed to be offered to God as a victim, and after the oblation and immolation were eaten by those offering. For they concluded the sacrifice with a sacred and sumptuous feast, as I said in Leviticus III. The reason a priori is, because peace and joy are a greater good and more excellent than all delights: just as conversely discord and strife are a greater evil, and worse than poverty, and any vileness of food. Hear St. Ephrem, tract. On Patience and the Consummation of the Age: "Better is a morsel of bread in salt with quiet and tranquility, than a table furnished with sumptuous foods with distractions and cares. Hear the Lord saying: Come to me, all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. The Lord wishes to refresh you from cares, from anger, from tribulations and distractions of this age. He wishes you to be free from the heavy work and labor of the sides of Egypt. He wishes to lead you into solitude, that is into holy quiet, so that a pillar of cloud may illuminate your ways, so that he may feed you with manna, namely with bread of tranquility and quiet; so that you may possess as an inheritance the good land, namely the heavenly Jerusalem." And a little before, marveling at the benefits of a quiet life, he exclaims: "O quiet, the progress of monks! O quiet, heavenly ladder! O quiet, way of the kingdom of heaven! O quiet, mother of compunction! O quiet, reconciler of penance! O quiet, mirror of sinners, who show man his crimes and offenses! O quiet, who in no way hinder tears! O quiet, procreator of gentleness! O quiet, companion and associate of humility! O quiet, who lead man to a peaceful state!" And with some interjections: "O quiet, security of the soul! O quiet, sweet yoke, and light burden, refreshing and bearing the one who bears you! O quiet, joy of soul and heart! O quiet, of eyes and ears, bridle of the tongue! O quiet, destroyer of insolence, and enemy of shamelessness! O quiet, mother of piety and religion! O quiet, prison of passions! O quiet, cooperator of all virtue! O quiet, guest and friend of voluntary poverty! O quiet, field of Christ, bringing forth the best fruits! O quiet, joined to the fear of God, wall and bulwark of those eager to fight for the kingdom of heaven!" Moreover, because peace is threefold and strife is threefold, as I have already intimated, namely with God, with men, and with oneself, or with one's own soul: hence this maxim can be expounded in three ways: first, concerning peace and strife with men, which Solomon properly and genuinely seems to intend here, as if to say, Better is a frugal table with peace, than a sumptuous one with quarreling, where namely the guests are rivals or quarrelsome, who quarrel and wrangle with you and with one another. Thus this maxim responds almost as a parallel to that in chapter xv: "It is better to be called to herbs with charity, than to a fatted calf with hatred:" for peace surpasses all delights, the sense of which strife and contention lulls to sleep and extinguishes. Second, concerning the peace and joy which a mind well-conscious to itself possesses, to which is opposed a mind which on account of remorse continually quarrels and contends with itself; and thus this sentence will be similar to that which preceded the aforesaid place: "Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasures and unsatiable." For it is better to eat dry bread with the joy of a mind well-conscious to itself, than to have a house filled with the most delicate foods, but on account of which badly obtained the mind is restless, and quarrels within itself. The truth of this sentence is experienced by the scrupulous and anxious, to whom on account of scruples the mind is so lacerated and tortured, that no food tastes good to them. Thus Hugo. Better, he says, is a morsel dry, that is, a modest substance with peace of mind, than many riches with care and solicitude, which is the quarreling of the mind. Third, Polychronius in the Catena of the Greeks expounds concerning the peace and strife which the mind has through grace or sin with God, as if to say, It is preferable to lead a poor life in the grace of God, than a luxurious one in sin and offense to God, according to that word of Tobias to his son, chapter IV, verse 23: "We lead indeed a poor life, but we shall have many good things, if we fear God." Or, as Polychronius says: The portion of exiguous heavenly wisdom, which brings peace with God, is more preferable than all the wisdom of those who are adverse to God. Second, Baynus: "The sense is more hidden," he says, "if it be referred to the gifts of the soul, so that by dry morsel we understand the wisdom of God hidden in Holy Scripture, concerning which Paul says: We speak wisdom among the perfect. And although the wisdom of this world, stuffed with worldly eloquence, appears fuller and more delicate to men, nevertheless those who are puffed up with the vanity of sciences are accustomed to be proud and to litigate. For among the proud there are always quarrels. Better therefore is a morsel of sacred page with tranquility of mind." Allegorically, R. Samuel Marochianus, in the book On the Coming of the Messiah, and St. Thomas, in the opuscule On the Sacrament of the Altar, expound this maxim concerning the Eucharist, as if to say, Better is a dry morsel, that is, the morsel of the Eucharist alone, than all the victims of the old law; or a dry morsel, that is, the bloodless victim of the Eucharist, which when received with the joy of the mind, is better, that is, more savory and more excellent, than all the feasts of kings. Whence some translate, better is a morsel that dries up. For the Eucharist dries up all the humors of lust and concupiscence, the motions and heats thereof. But Hugo: Better, he says, is a morsel of the Eucharist dry without the drink of tears, without the sauce of devotion, without the seasoning of contrition, with the joy of hope and a pure conscience, than a house full of victims, that is, than the works of prudence and mortification, by which many animals of vices are sacrificed to God with quarreling, that is, with enmity to God, or with quarreling, that is, with rebellion of the flesh; for although this is good, yet the former is better. Tropologically the same Hugo: "Better is a dry morsel with joy," that is, he says, better is a modest alms with cheerfulness, than much and great with objurgation and sadness; second, as if to say, Better is modest penance with cheerfulness of mind, than great bodily affliction with murmuring. Whence St. Jerome: It is better, he says, to sing a few psalms with cheerfulness of soul, than to run through the entire Psalter with sadness. Thus Hugo.
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2. A WISE SERVANT SHALL RULE OVER FOOLISH SONS (Arabic: holds dominion, obtains), AND SHALL DIVIDE THE INHERITANCE (Arabic: portions) AMONG BROTHERS. — The Septuagint: a wise servant shall rule over foolish masters (Romans and St. Ambrose in the passage cited below: shall govern foolish masters), but among brothers shall divide portions; Syriac: shall divide gain. For foolish sons the Hebrew is מביש mebis, that is, a son bringing shame, namely upon his father; Vatablus: a dishonorable son; Syriac: a son bringing confusion; Chaldean: a son without shame, or rather bringing reproach; Symmachus and Theodotion: a son bringing confusion, meaning: A wise servant on account of his wisdom shall govern the foolish sons of his master, and being appointed by him as manager and guardian of the sons, or even as an heir chosen by him along with the sons, shall divide the inheritance among them, from which it is to be gathered that wisdom, that is, prudence and integrity, is nobler and more excellent than freedom, inasmuch as it brings dominion, inheritance and freedom. Following Solomon, Sirach says: "A sensible servant, he says, shall be served by the free," Eccles. cap. x, vers. 28, where I have explained this verse: therefore I shall add nothing here. He then cites and praises the letter of Calanus the Gymnosophist to Alexander the Great: "Friends, he says, persuade you to bring force and necessity upon the Indian philosophers, nor even in dreams seeing our deeds. You will transfer bodies from place to place, you will no more compel minds to do what they do not wish than you would stones and wood to emit voice. The greatest pain and corruption fire produces in living bodies, beyond this we are; for we are burned alive. There is no king, nor prince, who can extort from us to do what we have not resolved: nor are we like the philosophers of Greece, who have meditated words for things for the sake of the fame of opinion. For us things are joined with words, and words with things; things swift, and discourses brief, in virtue for us blessed freedom is. Then, preferring to both Calanus and the philosophers the wise faithful, virgins and Martyrs, he adds: But among us even maidens of the desire of death have raised themselves sublime even to heaven by the steps of virtues. Why should I speak of Thecla, why of Agnes, why of Pelagia, who like noble young shoots sprouting, hastened to death as to immortality? Among lions the virgin exulted, and awaited the roaring beasts undaunted. And, that we may compare our deeds with the Indian Gymnosophists, what he gloried in with words, St. Lawrence proved by deeds, so that he was burned alive, and surviving the flames said: Turn, eat. Not unworthy of the contests of the Abrahams and Maccabees of the children, of whom some sang over the flames; others, when they were being burned, did not ask that mercy be shown; but they inveighed, that the persecutor might be inflamed more. Therefore a wise book. But what is more sublime than St. Pelagia, who surrounded by persecutors, before yet she came into their sight, said: "Willingly I die, no one shall touch me with hand, no one with wanton eye shall violate the virgin. With me I shall bear shame, and with me unharmed modesty, no plunderers shall gain profit from their insolence. Pelagia shall follow Christ, freedom no one shall take away, no one shall see captive the free faith, and the remarkable chastity, and the lineage of prudence." She said and did it. For, that she might escape the hands of procurers, with her mother and sisters she threw herself into a swift river, a victim equally of virginity and of martyrdom, as the same St. Ambrose relates, lib. III De Virgin., where he asserts that she was only fifteen years old. If a wise man rules over fires, lions, racks, swords, waters and death itself, why should he not rule over the unwise, and govern and direct them wisely? Mystically, St. Chrysostom and Polychroius in the Catena of the Greeks: A servant, they say, is the people of the Gentiles, who through faith in Christ having become wise, ruled over the Jews, and divided the inheritance of the Church with those converted to Christ, indeed became the dispenser to them of divine mysteries and charisms. But Bede: "Any sinner, he says, serves, once subject to his sins, who after the conversion of his life having become wise, and burning with the most ardent love and affection of God, rules over foolish sons, that is over certain faithful ones, growing lukewarm in the charity of God after receiving faith, by his action or preaching; and among brothers, namely the perfect, the saints, shall divide the inheritance of the heavenly fatherland."
17:3
In Hebrew, a crucible (goldsmith) or a refinery for silver, and a furnace for gold, and the Lord proves hearts; or more clearly, as Pagninus has it, as a crucible proves silver, and a furnace gold, so the Lord proves hearts; and the Zurich Bible, as a refiner proves silver, and a furnace gold, so the Lord searches out hearts; the Septuagint, as silver is proved in a furnace and gold, so chosen hearts are with the Lord; Cassian, Conferences VII, chapter xxv, thus the Lord chose hearts; the Syriac, as silver is proved in a crucible, so the Lord searches hearts. The reason is, because this searching of hearts pertains to the full knowledge and providence of God, who on account of this is called the Knower of hearts. Solomon compares God to a goldsmith; for just as a goldsmith alone by his art in a furnace, or refining fire, by fire proves gold and silver, so God alone proves the hearts of men. But by what furnace, what forge, what refining fire? Note: To prove by metonymy signifies many things, namely first, to search; second, to perceive; third, to discern; fourth, to purge, and to separate the pure from the impure; fifth, to judge; sixth, to choose and reward, or to reject and punish. For just as a goldsmith by the fire of his distilling furnace searches, perceives and discerns the purity or impurity and mixture of gold, separating and purging gold from dross, and choosing gold, rejecting and casting away dross: so in every way God proves the hearts of men. Therefore first and properly, the furnace and fire by which God proves the hearts of all men both good and bad, is the keen examination of the divine mind and intellect, by which as by a most efficacious fire he proves, that is searches, examines, perceives the innermost thoughts of hearts, that is of minds, volitions, understandings, and discerns the quality, weight and value of each: namely how each is pure or impure, of how great or small worth and merit. For just as gold is of great price with a goldsmith, so the hearts of men are greatly esteemed with God, inasmuch as he cares for them before all other created things, proves them, weighs them, discerns them, purges them, judges them, rewards or punishes them. Thus Malachi compares the keen examination of the divine mind to fire and furnace of a goldsmith, chapter III, verse 2: "For he shall be as a refining fire, and as the herb of fullers; and he shall sit refining and cleansing silver." This maxim therefore is parallel to that chapter xvi, verse 2: "All the ways of man are open to his eyes; the Lord is a weigher of spirits." For this is the same thing, as if to say, The Lord is a prover of spirits; but "weigher" takes the metaphor from a balance, while "prover" or "refiner" takes it from the furnace of a goldsmith. Thus David, conscious of right deeds, rightly asks to be proved by God, that his conscience may be shown: "Prove me," he says, "O Lord, and try me, refine (in Hebrew, refine, like a silversmith) my reins and my heart," Psalm xxv, 2; and Job xxiii, 10: "He," he says, "knows my way, and has proved me as gold, which passes through fire." Second, God proves the hearts of men through his law and precepts, and through his teachers and preachers as it were through a furnace of fire. For the hearts of those who obey these by repenting and living well, are like purified gold; those who do not obey, but remain in the dregs of their vices, are like dross cast away and rejected by God. This is what God says in Jeremiah vi, 27: "I have made thee a trier in my people mighty; and thou shalt know and try their way, etc. The bellows have failed, the lead is consumed in the fire, the refiner has labored in vain; their malices are not consumed. Call them reprobate silver, because the Lord has cast them away." Thus God proved the heart and obedience of Adam, commanding that he should not eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil; and of Abraham, commanding that he should sacrifice his son Isaac to him, Genesis xxii. For just as by the force of lead liquefied in fire gold is separated from dregs and dross, so by the force of a precept the obedient is separated from the disobedient. Third, the furnace by which God proves the hearts of men is tribulation: for by this the good are purified through patience and become acceptable to God, while the wicked become foul through impatience and displease God. This is what is said in Wisdom iii, 6: "As gold in the furnace he proved them." And Ecclesiasticus ii, 5: "Gold and silver are tried in the fire, but men acceptable (accepted, pleasing to God) in the furnace of humiliation." Where I have said much concerning this furnace. And Malachi iii, 3: "He shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold and as silver, and they shall offer to the Lord sacrifices in justice." Whence the Septuagint translates at this place thus, so chosen hearts before the Lord, or, as the Author of the Greek Catena clearly reads: "As silver and gold are tried in the furnace, so the Lord proves the hearts of the elect in the fire of tribulation," that is to say, Just as the goldsmith in the furnace selects gold and rejects the dross liquefied and separated from the gold by the force of fire: so God selects the hearts of the Saints, which in the fire of tribulation have persisted solid and constant; but rejects those of the impious, who in it like dross have melted away and failed. Thus concerning tribulation Cassian beautifully explains this notion, Collation VII, chapter xxv: "Moreover," he says, "those delivered over bodily to Satan, or to great infirmities, we know even holy men for the lightest offences, when in them the divine clemency shall not suffer even the slightest blemish or stain in that day of judgment, burning out all the dross of their hearts, according to the Prophet, nay according to God's sentence, in the present, that he may send them as gold or silver ignited to that perpetuity needing no penal purgation: And I will burn away, he says, thy dross to the pure, and will take away all thy tin; after this thou shalt be called the city of the just, a faithful city, Isaiah i. And again: As silver and gold are tried in the furnace, so the Lord chooses hearts." Fourth, the furnace by which God proves hearts is temptation, according to that Psalm xvi: "Thou hast proved my heart by fire, thou hast examined me, and iniquity hath not been found in me." Thus through heresies and heretics he proves the faith of the orthodox, according to that Deuteronomy xiii, 1: "If there arise in the midst of thee a Prophet, etc., and he shall say to thee: Let us go and follow strange gods; thou shalt not hear the words of that Prophet: because the Lord thy God trieth you, that it may appear whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart," etc. Fifth, the furnace by which God proves, that is examines, judges, chooses and rewards, or reprobates and punishes, the hearts of all, is the keen judgment, both particular and universal, by which Christ the judge shall search the consciences of all, and shall adjudge the holy to heaven, the wicked to hell. Thus Daniel vii, 9, describing the judgment of God: "His throne," he says, "was like flames of fire; his wheels burning fire. A swift stream of fire issued forth from before him." Hence many of the ancients, such as Origen, St. Basil, Lactantius, St. Ambrose and Rupertus, have held the opinion that true fire has been placed by God before heaven, so that through it all holy souls going to heaven may be forced to pass, and be proved by it, and, if they be impure, be purified, as I said I Corinthians iii, 12.
17:4
In Hebrew, he hearkens to the language of perversity. For מדין mezin is put for מאזין maazin, says Aben-Ezra. The Septuagint: he gives heed to an unjust tongue, the unjust man likewise attends to lying lips. Thus the Author of the Greek Catena. But the Romans and St. Cyprian, book I, epistle 3, read the latter part differently in this way: but the just man does not attend to lying lips; the Syriac: the just man does not hear the tongue of the wicked. But the former reading agrees with the Hebrew, which for deceitful has שקר sceker, that is, a lie, deceit; whence the Chaldean translates it, falsehood and accusation in a perverse tongue. This saying teaches that the ears must be very carefully guarded. Wherefore the just man, in order to preserve justice and not become unjust, guards his ears, lest he hear those things by hearing which he prepares himself for obedience to iniquity. With good reason therefore St. Bernard, to incite us to the guarding of the ears, says: "The tongue easily slips, and no less easily slips into the heart, so that for many while speaking it has profited less that they have restrained their own, while they have not been cautious of another's. A brother is useful to you who speaks to you, a Religious is wise and fearing God; I say more: he is an angel, and an angel of light; even so beware, lest you hear whence you are harmed. Nor do I wish the person to be suspect to you, but the tongue, especially in common conversation." Thus St. Bernard, sermon On the threefold guarding of hand, tongue and heart. Secondly, our Salazar explains this saying as if showing punishment intended for the wicked and deceitful: Solomon shows, he says, in what manner God is accustomed to take vengeance on the bad and deceitful. For in order that he may repay like with like, he has thus ordained that the wicked man, who is injurious to others, be subjected to an evil tongue, and the deceitful man likewise, who practices deception on others, be adjudged to a deceitful tongue, so that he may be deceived by it. This is what those words mean, he obeys, he complies, that is, he is subjected or subdued; and the same reasoning applies to the words hears and hearkens. Whence St. Basil, in his homily On anger, compares reproachful and deceitful words to an echo, which repercusses and reverberates the sound received back to its source: "For not thus, he says, does an echo rebound upon those who cry out inopportunely, as reproach returns upon an unjust and reproachful man." To this saying the Septuagint subjoins another, which is not in the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac and Latin; and it is this: "The faithful man's whole world of riches is his; but the unfaithful man's, not even an obol," repeat and supply, "is the whole world," as if to say, To the unfaithful the whole world is not worth an obol; the unfaithful man is poor, and does not have an obol, even if he possessed the whole world. For world in Greek is κόσμος, which the Complutensians translate as ornament. Whence the Author of the Greek Catena thus translates: a faithful man possesses all that is ornamental in money; but to the perfidious not even an obol is available. Cassian explains this saying, Collation XXIV, chapter xxvi, concerning the hundredfold promised to those who leave all things for God's sake: "For that joy also which anyone had in the possession of a single field and house, a hundredfold greater joy of riches will he enjoy, who, passing into adoption as a son of God, will possess all things as his own, which are the Father's eternal, and by affection and virtue in imitation of that true Son will proclaim: All things that the Father has are mine, John xvi. These now, together with that penal anxiety and care of distraction, but secure and joyful as in his own possessions everywhere will succeed, hearing daily proclaimed to himself by the Apostle: For all things are yours, whether the world, or things present, or things to come, I Cor. iii. And from Solomon: The faithful man's whole world of riches. Thus also Didymus in the Catena of the Greeks. But St. Augustine, epistle 54 to Macedonius, near the end, citing this saying, applies its latter part to usurers. And he adds: "Money is badly held by the wicked, and is held so much better by the good, the less it is loved." This passage of St. Augustine is transferred into Canon Law and is found at 14, Question IV, chapter What shall I say, which is the penultimate. The same St. Augustine, book V of the Confessions, chapter iv, addressing God: "Unhappy man, he says, who knows all those things, but knows not thee; but blessed is he who knows thee, even if he knows not those things, etc. Thus the faithful man, whose whole world of riches is his, and possessing all things as if having nothing, cleaving to thee to whom all things serve, although he does not even know the circuits of the North, it is foolish to doubt that he is surely better than he who measures the heavens and numbers the stars, and weighs the elements, and neglects thee, who hast disposed all things in measure and number and weight." St. Jerome, however, in epistle 103 to Paulinus, exhorting him to contempt of riches and the world, thus speaks near the end: "It is an ancient saying: The miser lacks as much what he has as what he does not have. To the believer the whole world is riches; the unbeliever lacks even an obol. Thus let us live as having nothing, and possessing all things. Food and clothing are the riches of Christians. If you have your property in your power, sell it; if you do not have it, cast it away. He has given all to God who has offered himself; he easily despises all things who always thinks that he is about to die. Moreover, a believer is one who has placed all his faith and hope in God, believing and hoping that God will abundantly provide for all his necessities. Again, a believer is one who serves God faithfully and obeys his commands, and especially one who faithfully distributes the riches given to him by God to the poor, according to the law and will of God. Finally, St. Ambrose, book V, epistle 25 to the Church of Vercelli, somewhat before the end: "He," he says, "is rich in the Church who is rich for the poor, not for himself. In the Church indeed the believer is rich. For to the believer the whole world is riches. What wonder if the believer possesses the world, who possesses the inheritance of Christ, which is more precious than the world?" And below: "He therefore is rich who shall be the heir of God, the co-heir of Christ, etc. Do you wish to be rich? Be poor. Then you will be rich in all things, if you shall be poor in spirit. Not wealth, but disposition makes one rich. For the poor in spirit says: The Lord is my portion," etc., Psalm 118. St. Bernard gives an example in the Life of St. Malachy, inasmuch as he, poor in fact but rich in hope in God, built monasteries abundantly. Hear St. Bernard: "The servant of God found in God's purse what was lacking in his own. Deservedly indeed. For what is more just than that he to whom God was not his own, should enter into partnership with God, and there should be one purse for both? To the faithful man finally the whole world is riches. And what is he but a certain purse of God? Finally he says: Mine is the earth and the fullness thereof. Hence it is that Malachy, finding much silver, did not store it up, but distributed it. For he commands all the gift of God to be spent on God's work. He does not consider his own necessities or those of his own, but casts his care upon the Lord, to whom assuredly he does not hesitate to have recourse whenever necessity demands." The interpreter St. Ephrem, in the tract On the Fear of God, clearly translates: "To a faithful man (are) all the riches of the world; but to an unfaithful man not even an obol." Therefore to the believer the whole world is riches. First, because the whole world was created by God for the use of the faithful, not of the unfaithful; therefore all things are owed to the believer, nothing to the unbeliever. Second, because the believer uses the whole world not for luxury, but for necessity and for the service of God. Therefore all things serve the believer faithfully, nothing the unbeliever: for the sun serves and ministers to the believer while it holds a torch before him to serve God; fire, while it warms him; water, while it cools him; air, while he breathes through it; earth, while it sustains him; food, while it nourishes him; clothing, while it covers him; and so with the rest. Finally, the believer, content with his own modest lot, lives so tranquilly, joyfully and cheerfully as if he possessed the whole world: on the contrary, the unbeliever and miser, the more he has, the more he desires. Third, Didymus in the Greek Catena: He possesses all things, he says, who despises all things for Christ; for the believer is higher than the world, and with his mind fixed in heaven he treads and tramples all earthly things as if beneath his feet. See St. Chrysostom, homily 12 on the second epistle to the Corinthians. Fourth, because the believer in each created thing recognizes, loves, gives thanks to, and praises the Creator by whom and for whose honor they were made. But this knowledge, love, worship and praise of God are the true riches of the world. Thus Didymus in the Greek Catena. Fifth, because the believer uses the whole world rightly and holily for his own salvation and God's glory; the unbeliever and impious man, however, abuses it for his own lusts. But he is rich who knows how to use riches; he is poor who does not know how. Sixth, because the believer possesses God, whose is the whole world; therefore possessing God he possesses all things that are God's, namely all things that are in the world. Seventh, because for the believer God prepares blessedness and heavenly glory; but this among other gifts contains dominion of the world. For every blessed one is lord and king of the world, indeed Adam in paradise was as it were king of the world. This is what the Wise Man says, chapter 3, verse 7: "The just shall shine and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds. They shall judge nations and rule over peoples."
17:5
In Hebrew, he who mocks the poor (Vatablus, who scoffs at the poor) brings reproach upon his Maker; he who rejoices in affliction shall not be innocent, that is, shall not go unpunished; the Chaldean version: he who despises the poor provokes the wrath of the Creator; and he who rejoices in the destruction of another shall not be innocent; the Syriac: he who laughs at the poor stirs up his Maker's wrath; he who rejoices in the ruin of another shall not obtain mercy; the Septuagint: he who mocks the needy provokes (Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion: reproaches) him who made him; but he who rejoices at the perishing of another shall not be innocent; but he whose bowels are moved shall obtain mercy. This last part the Septuagint adds of its own, because it is tacitly contained by antithesis in the preceding hemistich. The author of the Catena of the Greeks reads: he who mocks the poor provokes God, who made him; but he who insults the afflicted with joy shall not go unpunished. And he adds the reason: Because he mocks the wise governance of God, which made this man poor and afflicted, so that you might have compassion upon him and exercise mercy toward him. Who therefore has become so savage and so forgetful of all humanity as to make a mockery of one whom you ought by every right to pity? Thus that author. Wherefore let us never wish to insult in the misfortunes of our neighbors, lest God's providence permit us also to be cast down into calamities once and again. And then he confirms the same thing by another argument: For if the foot, he says, should happen to strike against something or slip, shall the hand insult it? Surely the matter turns out otherwise; for the foot is healed by the pouring in of oil or by a plaster. If indeed we are one body, nothing is less in accord with reason than that one member of the body, which is somewhat afflicted, should be held up to ridicule, and consequently insulted. Rather it would be fitting to have pity on the afflicted and to grieve and lament with a pious affection of compassion.
17:6
The Septuagint translates καύχημα for glory, that is, boasting, as if to say, The children glory in having had wise and upright fathers, just as in turn the fathers glory in leaving behind them sons who are upright and heirs of their virtue. Whence the Zurich version translates it, the honor of children are their fathers; Vatablus, grandchildren are an ornament to the aged. For crown the Syriac translates, praise; the Chaldean, beauty; R. Solomon and Aben-Ezra explain it, as if to say, Grandchildren are the diadem of their ancestors and elders, whom they behold walking in the right path of virtue: upright parents in turn procure glory for upright children. R. Levi adds that grandfathers are rather crowned by grandchildren than fathers by children, because grandfathers, soon to die, love more their own likeness, which endures in grandchildren; but the love of fathers does not so overflow to grandfathers, but the glory of children are the parents themselves. Therefore this maxim admonishes parents to take care diligently that their children and grandchildren be educated; and in turn admonishes these to honor their parents and grandfathers with due respect. For it redounds greatly to the praise of the aged, that they have so educated their children and grandchildren, that they are surrounded and honored by them. Whence St. Ambrose, in chapter i of St. Luke: "It is, he says, a divine gift, the fruitfulness of a parent. Let parents therefore give thanks, because they have begotten; children, because they have been begotten; mothers, because they are honored with the rewards of marriage: for children are the wages of their military service." Moreover, "crown" is given to the parent; but to children "glory," because parents are as it were princes of their children, and as it were kings of their families. Whence Aristotle, book VIII of the Ethics, chapter x: "Society, he says, of father to children bears the image of a kingdom; for the born are a care to the father. Hence also Homer calls Jupiter father." And in chapter xi, he teaches that paternal right over children is kingly. "The crown of the aged, therefore," that is, ornament, is that they have not only children, but children of children, through whom they become more secure about posterity, through which they are in a certain way to be immortal, they who already recognize death drawing near, concerning which immortality of posterity the aged have some doubt, when they see their children without offspring. Whence the blessing of the Jews was to see children of their children, according to that in Psalm 127: "May you see your children's children, peace upon Israel." In turn parents are the glory and honor of their children, because their virtue and nobility adorn their children, and procure them honor. It is added that the morals and actions of children are attributed to their parents, as being their generators, educators and teachers. Wherefore, just as the depraved morals of children redound to the disgrace of parents, so conversely, their virtues are referred to the parents, as it were their first authors. Secondly, by this maxim Solomon signifies that the reward, and as it were the crown of a well and holy life lived by parents, is old age, if namely they arrive at such an age that they see children of their children, that is, grandchildren, in the third and fourth generation surrounding them like a crown; whence in turn the reward of good children and grandchildren is, if they have their fathers and grandfathers long surviving. "The glory of children therefore are their fathers," that is, this reward, this glory God is accustomed to render to upright and obedient children, that they see their fathers long surviving, which Plato esteems supremely fortunate, book III of the Laws. For this is a sign that fathers are treated kindly and comfortably by their children; for the reverence of children, with which they cherish, honor and support their parents, procures joy to the parents and thence longevity. Conversely, the harshness and impiety of children, who despise their fathers, abandon them, and treat them harshly, brings them sadness and speedy death. But this is a great disgrace and reproach to the children, just as previously it is great honor and glory to them. Wherefore Solomon tacitly admonishes here parents to educate their children well; and in turn children, that they, being well educated, render the like to their parents, and cherish and support them as they grow old; for thus dignity, honor and glory like a crown will accrue to both. Allegorically Bede: "The aged, he says, he calls the Patriarchs and Prophets, who by their children's children, that is, by the successors of the Apostles, are celebrated with worthy praise; and the glory is of the preachers of the New Testament, that they have merited to be the children of the ancient fathers."
17:7
For fool in Hebrew is נבל nabal, by which name was called the husband of Abigail, foolish at the same time and avaricious. Whence some Hebrews with Baumgarten translate it, it is not fitting for an avaricious man to have excessive speech, nor for a liberal man to have deceitful speech, that is to say, An avaricious man, because he is sordid, does not exceed in giving, but promises and gives little; but a liberal man, as he is liberal in promising, so also does not lie, but faithfully and liberally provides those things which he promised. For composite in Hebrew is יתר iether, which signifies excellence, dignity, remainder, superfluity, superabundance, expansion, extension, such as is in a string and rope. Whence iether also signifies a string and rope. Hence Our translator renders it, composite, namely aptly folded and twisted like a rope or string, which in a harp aptly composed produces a composite and modulated harmony. Whence first, R. Solomon renders it, glorious and proud words are not fitting for a fool, much less for a prince are lips of falsehood; secondly, the Chaldean, excessive speech is not fitting for the unwise, nor for a prince is a lip of falsehood; thirdly, Pagninus, an excellent tongue is not becoming to a fool; the Zurich Bible, magnificent speech; others, speech of dignity or authority; fourthly, Cajetan, excessive speech is not fitting for a fool; fifthly, the Septuagint, faithful lips are not fitting for a fool, nor are false lips fitting for the just. So also the Syriac. First, our Salazar thus explains it, that is to say, "A fool," that is a vile and abject man, is not becoming "composite words," that is feigned and deceitful ones, indeed these are wont to turn to reproach and contumely for him, how much more are the same not becoming for a prince, that is to say, If it turns to reproach for a vile man to lie and deceive, how much more will the same be reproachful for a prince? For to compose sometimes means the same as to feign, as in Daniel chapter ii: "Which you have composed a false interpretation and full of deception;" hence "composite words" are called feigned and fraudulent. But the Hebrew iether does not signify feigned or deceitful things. Secondly, R. Solomon, Cajetan and others explain it, that is to say, Words of excellence, superfluity or superabundance are not becoming for a fool, that is boasting, namely that he arrogate to himself more than is fitting, and appear to himself to be wiser than others, and wish to be heard, approved and praised before all. Conversely, words of falsehood are not becoming for a prince, because these are unworthy of him, and make him vile and scurrilous. Therefore, just as it is not becoming that a vile fool should boast and exalt himself through swollen and proud words: so conversely, it is not becoming for a prince, who is supreme, that through vile and vain words, especially falsehoods, he should debase and abase himself in the sight of the common people, indeed below the common people. Thirdly, Our translator most excellently renders "composite words:" for these are words of dignity and excellence, that is to say, Just as grave, composite, magnificent discourses are not becoming for a fool, since he has a light, uncomposed, abject and foolish mind: so in turn words that are uncomposed are not becoming for a prince, especially falsehoods. For just as the heart of a prince ought to be truthful, faithful, grave, moderate, prudent, composed: so likewise it is fitting that his words be truthful, faithful, grave, moderate, prudent and well-ordered. For "composite" words are those which have dignity, authority and weight, which therefore ought to be uttered not by a fool, but by a wise man or teacher or prince. Whence in chapter xxvi, verse 7, it is said: "As a lame man has beautiful legs in vain, so a parable is unseemly in the mouth of fools." And chapter xxv, 11: "Golden apples in beds of silver, he that speaketh a word in due season." Hence Lyra by "composite words" understands an embassy, so that it be a metalepsis, that is to say, It is not fitting that some embassy be imposed on a fool to grave men or princes, in which it is necessary to have composite words. To this exposition the version of the Septuagint and Syriac is akin, faithful lips are not fitting for a fool, nor are false lips fitting for the just. For, as Polychronius says in the Greek Catena: "Each speaks things discordant with his own thoughts." Where the antithesis is clear, that is to say, Just as fools, that is the impious, are wont to be unfaithful in words, and lie and deceive much: so conversely the just abhor falsehoods, and strive to be truthful and faithful in words: for they with their wickedness have lost conscience and reputation, these with their integrity firmly guard and preserve both. Moreover, lying is shameful for every man, but especially for a prince. First, because truth, fidelity and truthfulness befit the majesty of a prince; therefore he injures his own majesty and himself if he lies. For, as St. Cyprian wisely says, book I, epistle 3: "This is true madness not to think and not to know that lies do not deceive for long; that night lasts only so long as day shines forth; but when day is made clear and the sun rises, darkness and gloom give way to light, and the robberies that were raging through the night cease." That excellent one of the Military, to whom it is last and first to guard faith amid wars. For faith contains no matter more public than itself." The same, oration for Roscius of Comum: "It is treacherous and wicked to break faith, which sustains life." For, as Aristotle says, Rhetoric to Theodectus, book I, chapter 15: "When pacts are weakened and violated, the use of commerce among men is taken away." Wherefore the Romans placed an altar of Faith next to Jupiter in the Capitol, says Cato the Censor. "For faith," says Seneca, epistle 89, "is the most sacred good of the human heart." But Silius, more divinely, celebrates Faith with these praises:
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For 'expectation waiting' in Hebrew is שוחד scochad, that is, a gift or present. Therefore the Hebrews thus have it, a stone of grace a gift in the eyes of his master (who has it); to everything which he shall look upon, he shall act prudently; the Chaldean, a stone of gift by grace is in his eyes; he who takes it to every place whither he turns himself, acts prudently; Symmachus, the weight of graces; the Septuagint, the reward of graces, they say, discipline for those who use it; whithersoever he shall turn himself, he shall prosper. Therefore from the Hebrew the sense is clear, as if to say, A gift or present is like a precious gem, which draws to itself the eyes and hearts of those receiving it, and thereby bends them whither the giver of the gift wishes, so that he may obtain a suit or cause even scarcely just, according to that: Our Salazar ingeniously by a most pleasing gem understands transparent gems, through which beholding all things that occur, he views them pleasantly. Thus St. Isidore, lib. XVI of the Etymologies, cap. vii, relates that Nero was accustomed to watch the combats of gladiators, with a green emerald interposed: from which it came to pass that all things imbued with the same colour presented themselves to his eyes, and the spectacle became more pleasant. Therefore Solomon says: "A stone of grace a gift in the eyes of his master," as if to say, A gift bestowed upon a judge or prince is in the manner of a precious stone, beautiful and transparent placed before the eyes; because just as this by its colour infects all things and renders them pleasant, so also a gift placed before the eyes, by its colour likewise imbues the cause of the giver, and makes it appear more just and more conformable to equity to the beholder. The same by a most pleasing gem understands a gem which conciliates grace and love, such as St. Epiphanius asserts the sapphire to be, in his book On Gems, and St. Isidore the jasper. The ancients also thought the hyacinth to be such. Whence concerning the fifth species of hyacinths which approaches crystal, Pliny thus writes, lib. XXXVII, cap. ix: "Some prefer to call such pæderota, others anterotas, many the gem of Venus, which seems most to befit both in appearance and in the extreme colour of the gem." He adds that the Magi believe it to be beneficial to kings approaching. Thus the diamond is said to suppress anger and to foster the love of spouses, and therefore is called the gem of reconciliation, says Anselm Boethius, lib. II On Gems, cap. iv. The same, cap. clxxvii, asserts the navel of Venus (which is the name of a gem like a shell) to have its name from Venus, because it is believed to conciliate grace and love. I say is believed, because many of the powers of gems commonly credited are fabulous and false. The sense therefore is, as if to say, "A stone of grace (or benevolence) a gift in the eyes of the master," that is, a gift offered to a prince in like manner draws his grace, as some precious gem from those which have the power of exciting love and conciliating secret benevolence, as if to say, A prince receiving a gift from someone's hand, as it were inserts a ring into his own hand, with some gem enclosed from those which inspire benevolence and love to the heart. For just as a magnet draws iron as if animated: for the power of moving itself, it is said, seems to show a soul, although Scaliger rightly refutes this, and our Nicholas Cabeus, lib. II On the Magnet, cap. ii. Again, just as the power of the magnet is increased by mass: for the larger the magnet, the larger things it draws: so also the larger gifts are, the more they bind minds. Moreover, just as the power of the magnet is broken and as it were withers by cold, ice, rain, and especially if it long exists under water or in a damp place, as Cabeus teaches, lib. II On the Magnet, cap. ii, and assigns the reason; but he denies that garlic has this power of breaking the magnet, to which many have attributed the same, but falsely: so the power of gifts is broken if they proceed from a cold, lukewarm, and as it were watery mind: for a gift receives its estimation, power and weight from the mind of the giver; the mind therefore should equal the gift in love and benevolence, nay exceed it, and this should be signified by a cheerful countenance and words: for these are the indices of the mind. Finally Symmachus, for gem, or, as it is in Hebrew, stone, translates, weight (for formerly stones were used for weights) of grace a gift, as if to say, Just as the weight of a balance weighs down the pan into which it is placed and makes that pan outweigh the opposite pan, so a gift given to a judge weighs down the pan of his will, and thence of justice, and draws it to itself, and makes it so that it outweighs the adverse party, and his own appears more just and equitable. Now the Vulgate version, which translates it as "gift" or "expectation of one waiting," can indeed be explained in the same way as I have already said, but properly it signifies the thing which is expected, that is to say: When a thing (for example, a gift, benefit, dignity, victory, prosperous success, etc.) which someone has eagerly expected and long awaited is fulfilled and arrives, it so refreshes and satisfies his soul, as if he had obtained a most pleasing and precious gem: wherefore before he obtains it, while he still expects it, wherever he turns, he prudently understands, that is, he conducts himself prudently and intelligently, so that he may obtain that which he so eagerly expects. Or, as Jansenius says, that is to say: The thing expected by one waiting becomes great in his eyes, and is in his sight like a most pleasing gem: and so wherever such a one waiting turns, and whatever he undertakes, or wherever he goes, he strives to conduct himself prudently, so that he may not be defrauded of the most desired thing, but may obtain it at some time, according to that in chapter xiii, 12: "Hope that is deferred afflicteth the soul; but desire coming is a tree of life." Hence the root and, as it were, the a priori reason of this opinion is evident, namely that desire is in the soul what hunger is in the stomach. Just as therefore food is most pleasing to the hungry man, by which he satisfies his hunger: so to one desiring it is most pleasing to possess the desired thing, because that fulfills the desire and hunger of the soul. Jansenius adds that our interpreter appears to have read שחר scochar, that is, a thing sought in the morning, for שוחד scochad, that is, a gift: for this is the expectation of one waiting; for what one waits for, this he seeks and procures in the early morning; for the root שחר schachar signifies to handle, to rise in the morning, to seek in the morning. But it is not necessary to resort to this, especially since scochar is not in use among the Hebrews. Therefore the Hebrew literally has, a stone of grace, a gift in the eyes of his lords, that is, a gift which the lords always have in their eyes and love, which they wait for and eagerly expect. For what one loves and desires, this he continually beholds with his eyes; this therefore is "the expectation of one waiting." Note that the Hebrew השכיל haskil, that is, to understand, often signifies in Scripture to act prudently, as the Chaldean translator renders it in this place, to work diligently, to apply oneself carefully and watchfully to some matter, as in Psalm xl, verse 1: "Blessed is the man that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor," that is, blessed is he who thinks, as the Chaldean translator renders it, and carefully applies himself so that he may provide for the sick and the poor. Psalm xiii, 2: "That he might see if there be one that understandeth (acting intelligently and wisely), or that seeketh God." Psalm xxxv: "He would not understand to do well," that is, he would not seriously apply himself and devote himself to good actions; and elsewhere often. Finally, שוחד scochad, that is, a gift, in Scripture sometimes signifies a reward, as the Septuagint translates it here. For a reward is as it were a gift and recompense suitable and due to labor, so that the sense is, that is to say: A reward in the eyes of the laborer is, as it were, the most beautiful gem which incites him to labor strenuously; wherefore wherever he turns, that is, whatever he does by agreement and contract while laboring, he performs prudently and exactly, so that he may obtain the reward so greatly desired; which therefore the employer ought to give him immediately after the work is completed, if he wishes to satisfy his merit and expectation. Hence anagogically Bede understands by the most pleasing gem the heavenly rewards; for thus he says: "He who faithfully expects future rewards, rejoices as it were in the possession of the most splendid gem. For also in the Gospel the wise merchant for the acquisition of a precious pearl, that is, heavenly desire, sold all that he had; and such a laborer or exactor, whether adversities or prosperity befall him, is not turned from his intention, prudently understanding that to those who love God all things work together unto good." Thus also the saints do and suffer all things for the hope of future glory, and that they may not deviate even in the least from the way of virtue.
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In Hebrew, he who covers a transgression seeks love; and he who repeats, or changes, or varies the word, separates a leader. Thus Theodotion. For confederates, in Hebrew it is אלוף alluph, that is a leader, by which R. Solomon understands God, as if to say: He who imputes vices to another separates from himself God, who said and sanctioned: "Seek not revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of the citizens of thy people," Leviticus xix, 18. Better, others everywhere understand by leader leaders, by enallage of number. Our translator renders confederates, because leaders and princes are wont to confederate, and to sanction treaties among themselves. It can also be that alluph signifies a confederate by allusion to אלף eleph, that is a thousand, and to alluph, that is an ox: for oxen proceed and feed in herds as if confederated. Whence the Chaldean renders, he who repeats the word divides a friend; the Septuagint, he who unjustly conceals deeds seeks friendship; but he who hates (they read שנא sone, that is hates, for שנה scone, that is repeats) to conceal, divides friends and household members. Thus the Romans and others. Wrongly therefore in the Complutensian edition for divides is read contrarily κοσμεῖ, that is sets in order, erects; the Syriac, he who denies to conceal separates friends and household members; Symmachus, he who repeats and reiterates the word separates custom, that is the customary familiarity of friends; Vatable, he who conceals sin seeks friendship; but he who reveals the matter causes a prince to be divided from a prince, that is, he who does not reproach sin to another declares charity; but he who reproaches, even turns away friendly princes from himself. This is what Solomon said, chapter x, verse 12: "Hatred stirreth up strifes, and charity covereth all sins." First, St. Chrysostom in the Greek Catena, understanding by transgression his own, not another's, thus expounds it, as if to say: "He who by virtues conceals his own vices becomes a friend of God. Therefore by justice we conceal and abolish injustice; by temperance and chastity, lasciviousness and intemperance; by love and charity, hatred and enmity." But truly others everywhere understand by transgression in this place another's, not his own. Whence he who conceals another's transgression reconciles him to himself: but truly he who "varies the words," that is, he who exaggerates the transgression by the injury of another, amplifies it, and narrates it otherwise than it was done, he also dissociates the confederates "magnates," and among them stirs up suspicions, hatreds, quarrels and wars. Thus did St. Monica, mother of St. Augustine, do, of whom he himself writes in these words, book IX of the Confessions, chapter ix: "This also to that good handmaid of thine, in whose womb thou createdst me, my God, my mercy, thou hadst given a great gift, that between those at variance and discord, whatever souls she could, she showed herself so peaceful, that, when she heard from both sides many most bitter things of each other, such as discord swelling and undigested is wont to belch forth, when in the presence of a friendly woman about an absent hostile woman through bitter conversation the cruelty (or, as others read, the crudeness) of hatreds is exhaled; yet she would reveal nothing of one to the other, except what might avail to reconcile them. This good seemed small to me, unless I experienced innumerable crowds, sad from I know not what horrible pestilence of sins spreading most widely, not only that the words of angry enemies be revealed to angry enemies, but also that things not said be added; whereas on the contrary it should be enough for the human mind neither to stir up nor to increase the enmities of men by evil speaking, unless it also strove to extinguish them by good speaking: such as she was, taught by thee, the inward master in the school of the heart. Finally, she also gained her husband to thee in the extreme of his temporal life, and did not weep in him as a believer what she had endured in him as not yet a believer. From what has been said it is clear that the root, and as it were the reason a priori, of this sentence is charity. For indeed he who conceals the transgression of the transgressor reconciles him to himself and his friends, because he shows him remarkable charity, by which concealing his transgression he conceals his infamy, and preserves his honor and fame whole and unimpaired. For prudent men make much of reputation; wherefore they love wonderfully him who guards it: for great, and an allurement of love is love. On the contrary, he who rubs and spreads abroad the transgression, he wounds and injures the reputation of the transgressor, and therefore renders him hostile to himself and his friends, certainly from a defect of charity and prudence.
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In Hebrew, a rebuke penetrates the intelligent man more than striking the fool a hundred times; the Septuagint: threats crush the heart of the prudent, but the fool beaten does not feel; Theodotion: rebuke will come to the intelligent man more than striking the imprudent; the Chaldean: rebuke penetrates the intelligent man more than striking the fool a hundred times with rods; the Syrian: threats crush the heart of the wise; and in place of rebuke the fool is tormented, and does not feel. For "penetrates" in Hebrew it is תחת techath, which some derive from the root נחת nacha, that is, he brought down. Whence Vatablus and Cajetan translate, rebuke descends into his heart; R. Levi, it falls; Theodotion, it comes. But far more truly do others derive techath from חתת chatat, that is, he broke, he crushed. The reason for this meaning is first, that the prudent man follows the guidance of right reason. Therefore if you show him by true reason that he has erred, he will yield to truth and reason, he will acknowledge his error, he will correct his fault. But the fool does not follow the guidance of reason, but of imagination and desire; because he clings stubbornly to it, hence he cannot be torn from it except by many blows. Therefore the fool is like a brute animal, for example a dog, a horse, an ass. For just as a dog gnawing a bone does not allow itself to be torn from it except by many blows, indeed sometimes allows itself to be torn to pieces and killed rather than let go of the bone: so also the fool does not allow himself to be drawn away from his desires except by many lashes. Thus St. Jerome, whom Dionysius cites here: "There is no need," he says, "to strike twice one who does not resist, to whom his own reason is a teacher, to whom his own conscience is a rod." But to strike the resisting fool and impious man many times is necessary, so that he may walk in the right way, because his teacher is imagination, his nurse is desire. The second reason is, that the prudent man sins from light ignorance and weakness, which is easily healed by one correction and errs, but the fool from malice and obstinacy, which cannot be broken and shattered except by long and hard hammering of blows. Again, the prudent man is noble, honest and modest, to whom a word suffices for correcting his error; but the fool is cowardly, impudent and shameless, who must be compelled by many blows to his duty, according to that saying of Quintus Curtius: "A noble horse is ruled by the shadow of a rod, a cowardly one cannot even be spurred." And that: "Rule the wise man by a nod, the foolish by a rod, bend them." Whence St. Gregory, in the third part of the Pastoral, chapter eight: "Otherwise," he says, "are the shameless to be admonished, and otherwise the modest. For those indeed from the vice of shamelessness are restrained by nothing except harsh rebuke; but these are often brought to better by modest exhortation. Those do not know that they have sinned unless they are also rebuked by many; for these it often suffices for conversion that the teacher brings their evils to their memory at least lightly. Those are better corrected by one who reproves by attacking; but for these greater progress is brought if that which is reproved in them is touched as if from the side. The shameless people of the Jews the Lord rebuking openly says: Thou hast the forehead of a harlot, thou wouldst not blush, Jeremiah iii. And again he refreshes the modest one, saying: Thou shalt forget the confusion of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more, because he that made thee shall rule over thee, Isaiah liv." The third is, that the prudent man prudently believes and yields to words, lest he be compelled by blows; but the fool foolishly is not moved by words, but awaits blows, by which frequent striking finally hardens the skin, and he becomes insensible, as we see impudent youths are not moved by rods, but rather hardened, and slaves accustomed to the lashes of their masters make nothing of them. Whence comes that saying among the Comic poets, warning not to strike a slave who has already hardened and become callous to blows, as it would harm his hand rather than him: "Do not, I pray," he says, "strike a stone, lest you harm your hand," that is to say, he strikes a stone who strikes one incorrigible, or teaches one unteachable. Such is the drunkard and the intoxicated, who says, Proverbs xxiii, 35: "They have beaten me, and I felt it not; they drew me, and I knew it not; when shall I awake, and find wine again?" And the impious of whom it is complained in Jeremiah v, 3: "Thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved; thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive discipline; they have made their faces harder than a rock, and they would not return." For from those accustomed to it there is no suffering, and habit takes away the sense of evil, and in those who have once ceased to feel pain from blows, insensibility is put on, nor do they feel the blows, just as if they had a stony back.
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In Hebrew, truly the rebel seeks rebellion, and a cruel messenger shall be sent against him; the Septuagint has contradictions (Symmachus, contentions; Theodotion, exacerbation) every wicked man stirs up: but the Lord shall send an unmerciful angel (Symmachus, ἄσπλαγχνον, that is without bowels, or disemboweled) against him; or, as the Author of the Greek Catena says, the wicked and depraved all without exception stir up controversies and contradictions: but the Lord shall send a cruel angel against such men; the Chaldean, truly a bitter man seeks evil, etc.; R. Solomon, whose words are virulent and impudent, always seeks evil. First, Cajetan: First, he says, the particle אך is ambiguous; for it can be translated: "Only the rebel seeks evil," or "only the wicked seeks rebellion." Vatablus follows the former version, who has: "The rebel alone seeks evil." Which can be explained in two ways. First, as if to say, Other criminals commit evils when occasion is given for gain, honor or some other alluring thing; but the rebel deliberately seeks evils, so that he may foster rebellion; secondly, as if to say, The rebel seeks nothing good, but evil alone, because evils alone are useful to him for sustaining rebellion. This is made manifest by experience in public rebellions: in private matters we not rarely see the same thing happen. Thus in this time in many places heresy has been brought in by rebels, and the crimes consequent upon it, because this served rebellion; for indeed the faith and conscience of Catholics does not permit the stirring up of rebellion. The sense of the latter version is, as if to say, The wicked alone, that is the depraved and perverse, seeks rebellion; and because rebellion is a great crime, hence from God the avenger a cruel angel shall be sent against him. By this angel, that is messenger, understand either a demon, or an executioner, who punishes rebels, or someone similar sent by God for the chastisement of rebels. Second, Pagninus translates, truly a rebellious man seeks his own evil, and a cruel messenger shall be sent against him, as if to say, The rebel by rebelling against his prince or superior brings upon himself and creates evil, just as one who kicks against the goad: because he shall be oppressed and overthrown by the prince, who is more powerful. For the prince shall send against him a cruel messenger, namely a lictor or soldiers, who may seize and destroy him. A clear example is in Pharaoh, who rebelling against God and Moses, and disputing and contending with them, suffered the most grievous plagues of God sent by evil angels (as Psalm 77:49 says), and so at length he was drowned with his whole army in the Red Sea, Exodus 14. Pharaoh therefore is an example, nay a pattern, of the vengeance of rebels. Thus Core, Dathan and Abiron rebelling against Moses, were swallowed up alive by the earth, and snatched away by demons into Tartarus, Numbers 16. Third, some explain these things of a subject who resists and rebels against his Superior who corrects him humanely: for he shall fall into the hands of a severe Superior, who like a cruel angel shall break and crush his obstinacy with hard blows. Nay, the same Superior who before dealt with him kindly as with a sheep, seeing his obstinacy, shall put on the person of a lion, and shall rage against him like a lion. Thus St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 1 Apology and Flight, teaches that a Superior ought to imitate Proteus, and put on various forms, so that now in the form of a lamb with the obedient, now in the form of a lion with the rebellious he transforms himself.
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In Hebrew, to meet a bear robbed of her cubs is better than a fool in his folly. Supply, it is expedient, as if to say, It is better to encounter a bear than a fool, because a fool is more pernicious than a bear, as Aben-Ezra says: for a bear destroys the body, but a fool, that is, an impious man, destroys both body and soul. Again, bears, being brute beasts, you can avoid their rage by reason and counsel; but how can you avoid a fool who uses reason and abuses it, nay, arms himself with it? Finally, a fool is more savage than a bear, when you draw him away from his cubs, that is, his lusts, rebuke him and punish him. Symmachus: to meet a bear robbed of her cubs is better than a fool in his folly; supply, it is better. The Chaldean, however, says: a bear meets and terror comes to a wise man, he is not moved; and a fool in his folly falls; the Septuagint: anxiety shall befall a man of understanding, but the imprudent shall devise evils; the Syriac: thought and fear befall a wise man, and to a fool his folly. Pliny adds evidence of a bear's love for her cubs: "She warms her stiff offspring by pressing them to her breast, with no other covering than birds use for their eggs." And soon after: "Their eyes become dim frequently. The head is most weak in a bear, which is strongest in a lion: therefore when forced, they throw themselves from some cliff, covered with their paws; and often in the arena they are killed by a blow and expire. The Spanish believe poison is in the brain, and they burn the heads of those killed in the shows, testifying that a drink made from it drives them into bear-like madness. Nor is any other animal more cunning in mischief than stupidity [or rather, craftiness]." All of which apply most aptly to a fool: for his eyes of the mind are dimmed; his head is most infirm, destitute of all counsel, reason and wisdom; his brain is full of malice, deceits, frauds and insanity, which drive him and others into bear-like madness and impiety. Hence a bear is a symbol equally of deceit and ferocity. Thus St. Basil, homily 10 on the Hexaemeron: "Deceit," he says, "whenever it has made itself a dwelling in a soul as its artificer and contriver, is more implacable than any bear raging in its cave." Whence the malice of Antichrist, armed and strengthened with deceits, is compared to the feet of a bear, Apocalypse xiii, 2. But a she-bear is more deceitful than a bear. For in every kind of animal, as Aristotle says, lib. IX Hist. animal., "females are more malicious, more cunning, more treacherous, and more solicitous in rearing their young; males on the contrary are simpler and less treacherous." Moreover, a bear, when raging, throws stones from behind at anyone who meets or follows him, without discrimination: so a fool, if rebuked, throws insults and curses at the one rebuking him, nay, at any bystanders without discretion. Furthermore, a bear is mindful of injury: for after many months, nay years, he recognizes in a great crowd of hunters the one by whom he was harmed, attacks and kills him: so too a fool nurses his anger for months and years. Besides, a bear is moved by no mercy, but pursues his enemy unto death. Whence Ovid, lib. III Tristium, elegy 5: That a fool raging is more savage than a she-bear robbed of her cubs is evident from the fact that a she-bear is tamed by the appearance of a maiden and an infant: which a fool does not do. Aelian relates, lib. XIII Variæ Histor. cap. 1, that Atalanta, a most celebrated maiden, newly born and exposed by her father Jason, was nourished by a bear, which, robbed of her cubs by hunters, with udders swollen with milk, nourished the maiden, and thus both mitigated her own sorrow for her stolen cubs and gave life to the maiden. Add that a bear has much phlegm, by which it dilutes its anger and savagery. A sure sign of phlegm is that a bear in winter, when it gives birth, lies hidden for 40 days as if asleep and half-sleeping, and then lives without food, and yet grows fat, as Aristotle testifies, lib. VIII Hist. animal. cap. xvii, and Pliny, lib. VIII, cap. xxxvi, who writes thus of bears: "Males lie hidden for forty days, females for four months. In the first days they are pressed by such heavy sleep for fourteen days that they cannot even be roused by wounds. Then they grow fat in a wonderful way from lethargy. From those days they remain, and live by sucking their front paws." But a fool, while raging, turns entirely to bile, and converts all phlegm into choler and fury. The reason therefore a priori of this sentence is, that the ferocity which is natural to a bear is worse than stupidity, that is, wickedness, assumed by free will and deliberate malice by a fool, that is, a wicked man; and as it is worse, so it is also sharper and more ingenious for doing harm. An example of this sentence exists in Simeon and Levi, sons of Jacob, who, avenging the rape of their sister Dinah, more savage than raging bears rushed upon the Sichemites, and treacherously slew them all to a man, Genesis xxxiv, 25. We see similar things frequently in those who are driven by the fury of vengeance to the destruction of many.
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Septuagint, evils shall not depart from his house. The meaning is clear, as the Author of the Catena of the Greeks says: The wicked and ungrateful and faithless man, "who repays accepted benefits with harm, shall be involved by God the avenger in continual evils. And deservedly; for if he merits punishment who renders evil for evil, how much more shall he experience the evil of punishment who renders evil for good?" For this is a notable ingratitude not only, but also perfidy, which itself violates the laws of nature, which God therefore, as the avenger of nature and of crimes, is wont to punish and chastise with grave penalties, whether of infamy, or poverty, or diseases, or persecutions, or exile and imprisonment, or even death itself, and indeed after death in his children and family. This is what Christ complains of with great sorrow concerning the Jews through David: "They rendered me evil for good, and barrenness to my soul," Psalm xxxiv, 12. And: "They that render evil for good detracted from me, because I followed goodness," Psalm xxxvii, 21. Wherefore God punished the Jews, so ungrateful toward Christ, in that they rendered reproaches, curses and the cross for his teaching, labors and miracles, with the destruction and ruin of the whole nation, and punishes them to this day. For what they themselves cried out to Pilate when he wished to release Christ, crucifying him: "His blood be upon us and upon our children," we see fulfilled even to this day, while the vengeance of the blood of Christ pursues the Jews, fugitives throughout the whole world, everywhere on earth. Thus Lyra, Dionysius, Jansenius, Baynus, Arboreus and others. Mystically, Hugo adapts this saying to those who are indignant at their persecutors and others who vex them: for persecution is a great good, and therefore good, not evil, ought to be rendered in return. "Everyone," he says, "who is angry at one doing him harm renders evil for good; for every trouble and tribulation is good and salutary to man, either for satisfaction or for the approbation and increase of virtue; whoever therefore is angry at one troubling him is like a scabby child who is angry at his mother washing his head and reviles her. Likewise such tribulation is water to extinguish the fire of concupiscence: whoever therefore is angry at one troubling him is like one whose house is burning and who reviles one bringing him water to extinguish it. Likewise tribulation is patience of mind, Lamentations iii: He shall be filled with reproaches. Whoever therefore is angry at one troubling him is like a dog who bites the hand of one offering him bread." And shortly after he meets an objection: "But someone will say: And if those troubling do good, yet they do not do well, because they do not intend this, and therefore are not to be endured. Friend, the thorns which enclose and guard your vineyard do not intend to do this, but if for that reason you reject them, you are foolish." Moreover the root and reason a priori of this opinion is the law of retaliation, which commands that evil be rendered for evil, so that what someone unjustly did to another, the same he justly undergoes and suffers. Whoever therefore renders evil for good, merits that for this enormous evil he receive equal evils in return.
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Salonius understands by water the tongue, which is light and flowing like water; but this is mystical. In Hebrew, opening waters is the beginning of contention; and before the quarrel is mixed together, let it go; the Chaldean, he who sheds blood like water stirs up quarrels; and before the quarrel blazes up, it must be abandoned, that is to say, just as a kindled furnace or pyre, when a small amount of water is thrown in, is not extinguished, but by antiperiastasis is rather inflamed and blazes up more: so also, if blood is shed in a quarrel, the quarrel is not extinguished by it, but rather blazes up more, so that greater fights and slaughters are committed; the Syriac, he who sheds blood excites judgment before the prince; the Septuagint depart in another direction: They say, it gives power to the words of the beginning of justice; but poverty precedes contention and quarrel; others, the beginning of quarrels is like water bursting forth, etc. In our Latin version, equally as in the Hebrew, after the Hebrew manner the note of comparison like is to be understood, that is to say, just as he who opens a crack or hole in waters enclosed in a vessel or channel causes first indeed a little, but gradually with the hole and flow increasing, much water to flow out from there, which buries and lays waste entire fields: for a hole is easily opened, and once opened is difficult to close: so likewise he who gives the beginning to quarrels and disputes gives occasion and opens the way to great quarrels, brawls, seditions and wars, which afterwards is most difficult to calm, so that it happens that sometimes entire cities, provinces and kingdoms fall into schisms, and are stirred up into prolonged wars. For one quarrel sows not one quarrel, but many, just as from one grain many are sown. The proverb condemns heresiarchs and masters of sects most of all, according to the allegorical sense. The antistrophe to this saying is that adage of the Arabs, century 1, number 12: "Be like the wild ass upon whom hunters come," that is, flee most swiftly, when quarrels come upon you unexpectedly: for wild asses are swiftest in flight and running. And that paradox of Plato, which Cicero cites in the Tusculan Disputations: "Half is more than the whole." For often the greedy in a quarrel desire the whole, and will not agree with the opposing party offering half; but they pursue the whole through quarrel; so that often they lose their case, and those who greedily sought the whole, lose the whole; therefore to them "half is more than the whole." Thus St. Gregory of Nazianzus voluntarily yielded the Archbishopric of Constantinople so that he might calm the quarrels of bishops, using that saying of Jonah: "If on my account this tempest has come upon you, cast me into the sea, that you may cease to be tossed about;" who therefore in iambic couplets thus in number 53 advises: AND BEFORE HE SUFFERS INSULT, HE ABANDONS THE JUDGMENT. — It is an antithesis of the preceding hemistich, such as here occur frequently, that is to say, on the contrary, he who avoids quarrels, he immediately abandons the quarrel and forensic judgment, before he suffers insult. Or rather it is an inference and conclusion drawn from the prior hemistich, that is to say, he who gives the beginning to a quarrel opens the door to great disputes; therefore he who is wise abandons the quarrel and forensic judgment at the beginning, before he suffers insult, and before he entangles himself in a quarrel lasting through ages. That this is the sense is clear from the Hebrew, which has, before the quarrel is mixed together, let it go. Thus R. Solomon, Aben-Ezra, Jansenius and others; whence the Zurich Bible translates, as he who opens to waters (an exit and flow), so he who gives the first occasion for litigating: before the quarrel is mixed together, it is to be cast aside; and Vatablus, as it were he who opens the bank of a river, etc., for the water-keeper, who traces the higher beginning of quarrels, attributes it to the breaking of silence. St. Gregory, part III of the Pastoral, admonition 43: "Hence (from much speaking) stings are sown, quarrels arise, the torches of hatreds are kindled, the peace of hearts is extinguished. Whence well through Solomon it is said: He who lets loose water is the head of quarrels. For to let loose water is to relax the tongue into a flow of speech. On the contrary, even in a good sense again it is said: Deep water, the words from the mouth of a man. He therefore who lets loose water is the head of quarrels; because he who does not restrain his tongue dissipates concord." The same he has in book VII of the Morals, chapter seventeen. Secondly, you may fittingly expound it thus, that is, "He that letteth," or, as it is in Hebrew, openeth "water" of a river, or fountain or pool, so that namely that which is of common right he may divert to his own uses, and as it were appropriate it to himself, this is the origin and cause of quarrels. Thus we see millers, while they divert public water to their own mill, fall into disputes with boatmen, who complain that the water of the river is diminished by them, so that they can no longer navigate through it; and with farmers, who complain that the irrigation of the river is taken from and stolen from their fields; and with any others whatsoever, who feel that the same water-right has been taken from them, and they justly reclaim it. This proverb therefore signifies that the cause of frequent quarrels is when someone makes common goods, such as water, his own property; for then the rest, to whom the good was common, rise up against him, and bring a suit against him. Wherefore, he who is wise, "before he suffer reproach, forsaketh judgment," preferring to yield the thing which he had converted to his own uses, and to restore it to the public good, rather than fall into quarrels by which he brings upon himself ignominy and penalty, while as it were a plunderer of the public good he is condemned, disgraced and fined. I return to him that letteth the waters. Indeed we see at Rome frequent disputes arising concerning the waters of fountains, for example concerning the water of the Virgin, from which many drink, concerning the channels of fountains, which Sixtus V and Paul V, Pontiffs, brought into the city. For since these waters, divided by ounces and half-ounces into smaller tubes and channels, are variously sold, and often the fountains do not supply as much water as has been sold to anyone, or, if they do supply it, it is diverted elsewhere, which is easily done if someone inserts a larger or lower tube into the common basin, into which the fountain flows, than the tubes of others: for he will draw the greater and purer water with the loss of the others; then indeed those who have suffered loss bring a suit or move against the heirs who sold the water, and beseech that all tubes be inserted at the level of the common basin, and be reduced to the quantity of an ounce or half-ounce, by which they bought the water precisely, so that if larger ones remain, they draw more water than is proper, which accordingly diminishes the share owed to others. Thirdly, some expound it thus, that is, "He that letteth water," that is, he who letteth go the memory of benefits (which Plutarch, in the book On Friendship, calls "the vessel of gratitude") received from a friend, and forgets them, this man "is the head of quarrels," because benefits are the bond of friendship, which, if they are abolished by forgetful ingratitude, soon old injuries are reopened, and new ones follow, which are the seeds of quarrels. But to this exposition the other part of the hemistich does not cohere: "And before he suffer reproach, he forsaketh judgment." Fourthly, others think it is alluded to the water which is from the wheel of a mill; for this, being turned around by the inflowing water, if it does not have grain which it grinds, strikes the millstones themselves by its rotation so that from them as from flint it elicits fire, which, increasing from the collision of the stones, excites a great fire, by which the whole mill is burned up; in a similar manner the tongue in familiar conversations, when there is not underlying some useful matter, which, so to speak, it grinds, wears away the stone subject to it, that is, it turns itself to the detraction, reproaches and insults of neighbors, by which it stirs up the fire of quarrels, so much so that by its sparks not one house alone, but great cities not rarely burn down. The millstone therefore, exciting the fire of discord, is the unbridled tongue, concerning which St. James, chapter iii, 6: "The tongue," he says, "is set among our members, which defileth the whole body, and inflameth the wheel of our nativity, inflamed by hell." Where Vatablus: "The tongue," he says, "is that which brings the whole man into danger, when it is moved inconsiderately, so that after the manner of mills it sets the whole mill on fire, where by excessive motion it has conceived fire. And before he suffer reproach, he forsaketh judgment," namely the wise man abandons contention before the adversary casts insults upon him, and breathes any disgrace upon him. This sense is profound and fitting, but it supplies much, and adds to the sentence itself. Fifth, the Septuagint translates the Hebrew מדון madon, which our translator renders as "of quarrels," by "justice": for madon signifies a dispute, quarrel, contention and judgment; for disputes are conducted in judgment before a judge, so that the judge may decide and determine them from justice. Again, for "dismisses," or, as it is in Hebrew, "opens water," the Septuagint translates "gives power" or "gives license to words." They seem to allude to the clepsydra, which was formerly made from the flow of water (as now it is made from sand); for in former times actors and accusers in court would speak at the clepsydra, so that when it had run out, they would cease and give place to the defendants to defend themselves. Whence Apuleius, in the Golden Ass: "Again," he says, "summoned by the herald's loud call, a certain elderly accuser rises up, and to the space for speaking with a certain vessel in place of a neck, slender in form and tubular, and through this water poured in drop by drop, thus addresses the people." Hence from water the clepsydra is called in Greek, as it were κλέφωσα ὕδωρ, that is, stealing water. And Philostratus in the Sophist Hadrian calls sophists clepsydras, who exercised themselves to the flow of water. And Cicero, in book III of On the Orator, speaking of Pericles: "But him," he says, "no bawler had taught to bark at the clepsydra." Wherefore to dismiss water in the clepsydra is to give license and beginning to speak. Therefore the Septuagint thus translates: he gives power to words the beginning of justice; but contention and quarrel precede poverty; or, as the Author of the Greek Catena translates more clearly: "A just ruler imparts freedom and power to speech; but dissension and strife pave the way to poverty," that is to say, A just judge or ruler gives to litigants, namely both to the accuser for accusing and to the defendant for defending himself, a just space for speaking; but he who is cautious and prudent flees disputes and litigations, because these impoverish litigants and reduce them to poverty. For the expenses of litigants are many and continuous in advocates, procurators, witnesses, judges, etc., who drain the resources of litigants. Thus therefore the translation of the Septuagint, when explained, comes to the same thing as the Latin Vulgate. Symbolically our Alvarez de Paz, in the treatise On Interior Mortification, understands by waters the thoughts of the mind, which all the Saints gather and fix in God and heaven, and therefore lead a holy, quiet and joyful life. But if through carelessness they dismiss them and allow them to flow downward, namely so that thoughts flow in the fields and vanities of the world, immediately there arises in them distraction of mind, disquiet, dispute and quarrel, while concupiscence draws the mind downward, but charity upward. This quarrel of the soul the Apostle describes at length, Romans vii. Wherefore Christ said to Martha, who was anxious about many things: "Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the better part, which shall not be taken away from her," Luke x, 41. And St. Gregory Nazianzen, in the Poem On Blessedness:
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In Hebrew there is an elegant paronomasia: מצדיק רשע ומרשיע צדיק matsdic rasca umarscia tsaddic, that is, as Pagninus renders it, justifying the impious, and making the just impious, both are an abomination to the Lord; the Septuagint: he who judges the just man as unjust, and the unjust man as just, is unclean and abominable before God; Vatablus: equally (as it were, with equal injustice and equal iniquity) the Lord abhors both him who absolves the wicked and him who condemns the innocent; for equal injury is done to God, and equal is the perversion of justice, whether you derogate from it as it belongs to the just, or arrogate it to the unjust, from whom it is abhorred. The reason, as it were a priori, is that God by His essence is Himself uncreated, immense and fountainhead justice; from it therefore, as from a fountain, flows all created justice of Angels and men, which accordingly He loves as His own, and conversely hates and abhors all injustice, as essentially contrary to Himself and proceeding from the demon. This is wont to happen in three ways, through three degrees of impiety and impious judgment, gradually increasing. First indeed the Author of the Greek Catena expounds these things concerning private judgment. To judge, he says, in this place is not referred to the civil forum, but to the judgment and sense of the soul. For here to judge is the same as to reckon or esteem. This is gathered from the fact that he declares that before God he is unclean and execrable who judges the just man unjust, and conversely the unjust man just. But through this the Wise Man admonishes that we never prefer anything to the just or the true. For he who condemns the just and absolves the unjust does grave injury to the just, as being innocent and guiltless, and to justice and virtue itself. Finally it is occasion and cause that others imitate unjust morals, while the just reject them. Men often do this from private love or hatred; for whom they love, his acts, though vicious, they excuse and praise; whom they hate, his acts, though honest, they blame and interpret perversely. This is what the Psalmist complains of, Psalm ix: "The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and the unjust man is blessed." Thus many praise all acts, even vicious ones, of the rich, the noble, the powerful, by flattering, because they hope for office or benefit from them. Thus St. Jerome explains in his epistle to Philemon, whose words have been transferred into Canon Law, and are found 11, Question III, canon 54 If anyone has arranged, and canon 55 If anyone a man. "If anyone," he says, "believes a man who is not holy to be holy, and joins him to the society of God, he violates Christ, of whose body we are all members. He who says," he says, "the just unjust, and the unjust just, is abominable to God on both counts. Similarly he who says the holy is not holy, and again asserts the not holy to be holy, is abominable to God." Secondly, Baynus, Vatablus, Jansenius and others expound these things concerning forensic judgment, by which a judge, corrupted by love, or hatred, or fear, or bribe, condemns the innocent and absolves the guilty, according to that of Isaiah v, 23: "You who justify the impious for gifts, and take away the justice of the just from him." This is a notable injustice properly so called, overturning commutative justice, and therefore binding to restitution. For the judge is constituted by God, so that as it were a vicar in the name of God he may administer justice, and render to each his right; which if he does not do, he inflicts grave injury on God and on justice and on the innocent, and is bound to restitution of damage. Thirdly, this sentence can be understood of justice and injustice itself, as if to say: "He who justifies the impious," that is the impiety of the impious, "and he who condemns the just," that is the justice of the just, is abominable to God. Perverse men do this, who palliate vices with the name of virtues, and dishonor virtues with the appearance of vices: for example, who call piety hypocrisy, call frugality avarice, call prodigality liberality, call obscenity urbanity. Again they call the proud magnanimous, and the humble pusillanimous; they call the rash bold, the modest simple; they call the gluttonous jovial, the abstemious scrupulous, and so of the rest.
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In Hebrew, as the Pagninus and Aben-Ezra render it: Why is there a price in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, when he has no heart? That is, why does the fool have riches, since he lacks a heart, that is, since he is held by no desire for wisdom, and therefore is foolish and incapable of wisdom? The sense therefore is, as if to say, In vain does the fool, that is, the vicious man, have riches: for wisdom cannot be bought by them in itself, nor does he himself have a heart, that is, a mind and prudence, to acquire it, namely so that he might purchase with his riches books and wise men who would imbue him with wisdom; rather, since he himself is senseless and without understanding, he abuses riches for his vices, such as gluttony, lust, luxury. Riches therefore in the hand of a fool are like a sword in the hand of a madman, who, not knowing how to use it from his madness, abuses it to the injury of himself and others. It is a meiosis; for little is said, but more is signified; for it is said that riches do not profit, but it is signified that they harm, and especially greatly the fool, inasmuch as they make him proud, gluttonous, luxurious, etc. Solomon signifies that riches without wisdom are useless and vain, indeed harmful, because they ought to be wisely spent by the wise man through wisdom in useful works of piety and mercy. Whence the Septuagint, and from them St. Ambrose, in book I of the Duties, chapter twenty-seven, translate: Why do riches abound to the imprudent? For he who lacks understanding cannot acquire wisdom. Whence St. Ambrose infers: "Therefore prudence is the first source of duty." Secondly, the Chaldean renders it: What profit will trade or commerce be to the fool who has no heart, that is, knowledge? As if to say, The merchant who is wholly intent on trade and gain, so as to increase his riches, and yet has no heart, that is, no mind and prudence to acquire wisdom, that is, virtue by which he may live honorably and come to heavenly happiness and riches, this man is surely foolish, and in vain does he gather merchandise and riches. Whence Aristotle, in book II of the Rhetoric, chapter sixteen, says: "Riches, he says, are almost nothing other than madness." And St. Chrysostom, homily 7 on the epistle to the Colossians, says that the desire to become rich is Scylla and a monster more monstrous than Scylla, Chimera and Hippocentaur, and therefore the covetous man "has all beasts at once." The same St. Chrysostom in the Greek Catena: "The sense, he says, is mystical: Why is wisdom given to pagans or heretics except that they abuse it to their own damnation? Why do you hasten to become rich, when above all you ought to seek from yourself that which is more excellent than all money, and more necessary for the salvation of souls, namely wisdom?" From what has been said it is clear that the root and as it were the a priori reason of this sentence is the excellence of wisdom and the worthlessness of riches, from which it comes about that riches ought to serve wisdom as instruments, and be ruled by it, and be rightly and wisely spent, so that they may attain their end, to which they were created by nature and by God; whence it comes about that to the fool who lacks wisdom, riches are useless and harmful. Symbolically, Bede, Dionysius, Cajetan, Jansenius and others say: Spiritual riches, they say, are Scripture, talent, knowledge, eloquence, and even faith; but these do not profit a man, even a Christian, if he is foolish, that is, vicious, because through these he cannot acquire true wisdom, that is, grace and glory, because he is addicted to his vices.
He That Maketh High His House Seeketh Ruin This verse is lacking in the Hebrew, except that in it verse 19 there is: "And he that exalteth the door, seeketh ruin," whence Jansenius thinks this meaning flowed; but Our Author transcribed it from the Septuagint, which thus have it: he that maketh high his house seeketh destruction; but he that goeth crookedly to learn shall fall into evils. In Greek it is, ὁ δὲ σκολιάζων τοῦ μαθεῖν, which the Complutensians translate, refusing to learn shall fall into evils; but the Author of the Greek Catena thus: "He that shrinketh from learning what he ought to know shall fall into evils;" but the Romans: "He that goeth crookedly;" for σκολιόν in Greek is called oblique, crooked, winding, curved, distorted, rough, malign, depraved; hence σκολιάζω is the same as to make oblique, to twist, to curve. Grammatically, or through the bark of the letter, it signifies those who build high houses bring ruin upon themselves; for Now under this bark of the letter and sense as it were grammatical, parabolically, and as it were from the very marrow, it is signified first, that those who wish to enrich and exalt their fortunes and families by expense bring ruin upon themselves, both because things badly and quickly acquired are quickly dissipated, according to that in chapter thirteen, verse 11: "Substance hastily gotten shall be diminished;" and because all things of this world are perishable, and when they have reached the highest and the summit, they begin to fail and fall. Fourth, it signifies those who boast of their doctrine more than is fitting, and who wish to teach what they have not learned, that they may be held as teachers, and draw flocks of disciples after them, with disgrace to be abandoned or deposed, while their ignorance and vanity is laid bare. Thus Solomon himself interprets this proverb, when explaining it he adds: "And he that avoideth to learn, shall fall into evils," namely into disgrace, infamy, deprivation of the chair, etc. The reason a priori is, that evils cannot be avoided unless they be foreseen by prudence, and being foreseen be removed; but the fool neglects to learn prudence, whereby it comes to pass that through imprudence he falls into evils. For avoideth in Greek is σκολιάζων, that is, making oblique, twisting the structure of discipline and doctrine; for he who strives to erect without a master, who is as it were a skilled architect, he makes it oblique and twists it, and therefore renders it liable to ruin. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Just as he who raises a building higher without examination of plumb-line and rule, constructs a building about to fall immediately: so likewise wisdom which is built without a teacher and instructor, like an indirect and curved wall, when raised higher, weakened by many errors totters. For the instruction of a teacher is like a plumb-line and rule, by which the structure of wisdom is governed, lest it be curved by any errors or gape or crack. The Author of the Greek Catena adds, who thus explains it, as if to say: "He who exalts excessively the knowledge which he possesses, shall at length be cast down from it." And Hugh of St. Victor, book I of the Didascalicon: "The beginning of discipline," he says, "is humility, and inflated pride learns nothing, by which one wishes to fly to the summit of virtue without the aid of another man. He that maketh high his house seeketh ruin; and he that avoideth to learn, shall fall into evils. Not all who build high houses seek ruin, but those who without a firm foundation, and without the proper joining of stones, erect a great mass, and thus seek ruin, because when the foundations fail, that very mass brings ruin. Tropologically Solomon here admonishes to flee from high things, as being near to ruin; to pursue humble things, as being stable and secure, namely: Again the world, because it is proud, looks only at high things, hence imprudently neglects the foundations, as being low: whereby it comes to pass that high things resting on weak foundations fall. Thus that golden statue of Nebuchadnezzar, which represented the mind and vanity of the world, was high sixty cubits; but because it had not just width, hence it fell; for it was wide only six cubits, when it ought to have been ten cubits in width; for the width of a man is the sixth part of his height. A statue therefore of a man high sixty cubits requires ten cubits of width, as Vitruvius, Cardanus and others teach. Finally, Solomon here admonishes that the foundation and firmament of height and loftiness is humility; therefore the higher thou wishest to climb, whether on earth or in heaven, the more deeply humble thyself. The words of Augustine are well-known in sermon 10 On the Words of the Lord: "Dost thou wish to be great? begin from the least; thinkest thou to construct a great building of loftiness? first think of the foundation of humility."
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17. AT ALL TIMES LOVES HE WHO IS A FRIEND (Chaldean, COMPANION); AND A BROTHER IS PROVED IN DIFFICULTIES. — In Hebrew, and a brother to difficulty (or in difficulty) is born; Syriac, a brother to tribulation is born; Chaldean, a brother to the time of difficulty is born. This brother can be understood in two ways: first, for a brother properly so called; second, for a friend. In the first acceptation the sense will be, as if to say, A friend and a brother are alike, and of equal lot and condition. For just as a true friend, not a false one, is faithful to his friend at all times both adverse and prosperous: so likewise a brother especially in adversity shows himself faithful and truly a brother. For God and nature produce brothers for this reason, that they may stand by their brother in difficulties and help him. Thus Joseph nourished his brothers in the difficulties of famine, and Judas Maccabeus protected and avenged his brothers and kinsmen, and all Israel in the difficulties of persecution by Antiochus. For a brother is called as it were almost another self; and, as Petrarch says: "It befits those whom the straits of the same womb have contained, never to fail one another in whatever calamities and hardships of distress." This is what the Septuagint wishes when it translates, at all times let a friend be to you; but brothers in necessities are useful: for they are born for this reason, as if to say, See that you cultivate friendship with a friend and brother at all times, even adverse, so that he may always be a friend to you, and may feel you to be a friend; and in turn seek a friend who may be a friend to you at all times. Thus the author of the Greek Catena: "The sense is," he says, "do not abandon a friend in joyful times, nor in sad times; or if you wish to prepare for yourself any friends, prepare such as may stand by you at all times." In the second acceptation, which is more fitting in this place, the sense is, as if to say, A friend loves at all times, and thus shows himself in difficulties to be truly a friend, that is, a brother. For a friend is to his friend as it were a brother, indeed often more than a brother, according to that in chapter XVIII, 24: "A man that is friendly to society shall be more a friend than a brother." Against this precept sin delicate friends, who, struck by a light word from a friend, or affected by a slight injury, break the bond of friendship. Is it just that on the pretext of one small wrong the right and memory of so many and such great benefits should be abolished? O how true is that saying of Plautus in the Poenulus: "If you do any kindness, gratitude is lighter than a feather; if any wrong is done, they bear leaden angers." The foundation of this sentence and as it were the reason a priori is, that natural friendship, such as was that of the Philosophers and Gentiles, in order to be a virtue, is entered into not for the sake of utility, but of honesty. But the honest good surpasses the useful, and is of a higher order. Wherefore in order that you may protect this honest good, or the honesty of friendship, it is necessary that for its sake you postpone useful goods, and yield to them, and if need be, squander and lose them for the sake of a friend and friendship, and that you may stand by him in difficulties, when there is danger that you may lose wealth, liberty and dignity. For friendship is a greater good than all these. Add that friendship is entered into especially by this name and end, that a man in the adversities and difficulties of this life may have a friend who may lighten them, console, remove and dispel them by his counsel, aid and companionship, so that namely he may flee to a friend as to an asylum and ultimate refuge. This is signified by and a brother to difficulty is born, as the Hebrew has it, as if to say, Just as a brother is born to a brother, that he may help him in difficulty: so likewise a friend is prepared for a friend, and civilly as it were is born for this end and use, that he may help him in difficulty. For this is the aim of friendship; if you take this away, you take away friendship and its use. Again: "A brother in difficulty is born," as the ancients translate it, because just as a mother with great pain and difficulty brings forth from the womb a child and brother: so true and solid friendship, a true and solid friend, is brought forth and born in adversity, if in it he shows himself faithful and constant to his friend; just as patience is born from constant suffering of adversity, and martyrdom is born from constant endurance of torments and death for Christ. Wherefore the virtue of friendship is as it were conceived in prosperous times, namely in pleasant and benevolent conversation with a friend; but the same and its solidity and glory are properly generated in adverse times. For fidelity in adversities brings forth solid and stable friendship. Hence Nazianzenus in Iambic. 45: A brother therefore is shown not so much by the right of kinship, as by the occasion of necessity. Therefore just as the difficulty of the womb brings forth a child and brother, so the difficulty of tribulation as it were a womb brings forth and generates true and solid friendship and a friend. Moreover, Rabbi Levi thus explains "is born," as if to say: A brother by a brother, while he prospers, is often neglected; but if he should fall into calamity, he is immediately stirred up to run to his aid, nature impelling him to this, since he consists of the same framework of body and bones. But supernatural friendship is love and charity, which is supported by God, united and reconciled in God; for the sake of God whom you love, you also love your friend. Wherefore just as you prefer the love of God to the love of any earthly thing, so also the love of your friend; and just as in straits you do not abandon God, so neither your friend. For it is the same love by which you love God and your friend for the sake of God. Whence Bede, understanding by friend God, thus explains: "He who truly loves the Lord, keeps his love at all times; nor does he abandon in the anguish of passion him whom he confessed in the tranquility of peace," as St. Stephen, St. Lawrence, St. Vincent and the other Martyrs did. Thus St. Augustine (or whoever is the author), in the book On Friendship, chapter ten: "The foundation of friendship," he says, "is the love of God, to which all things that love suggests, or affection; all things that either some spirit secretly, or any friend openly persuades, are to be referred, and carefully examined: so that whatever is built upon it, may agree with the foundation; and whatever you find to exceed it, you should not hesitate to recall to its form, and to convert entirely according to its quality." The same, in chapter fifteen, citing this saying of Solomon: "Friendships," he says, "are to be dissolved, not entirely broken. Friendship is eternal; whence he who is a friend loves at all times. If he whom you love should harm you, you nevertheless love. If he should be such that friendship is withdrawn, let love nevertheless never be subtracted. Consult, as much as you can, for his welfare; look to his reputation, and never betray his secrets of friendship, even if he himself has betrayed yours." And in chapter nineteen: "Nothing," he says, "in friendship is more excellent than faith, which seems to be its nurse and guardian. It shows itself equal in all adversities and prosperities, in joyful and sorrowful, in pleasant and bitter things; looking with the same eye upon the humble and the exalted, the poor and the rich, the strong and the weak. Yet this faith lies hidden in prosperities, it stands out in adversities. For at all times he who is a friend loves." And in chapter twenty: "The form of friendship," he says, "is that which divine discourse prescribed: You shall love, he says, your neighbor as yourself. Then he whom you love will be another self, if you pour out your charity into him. For, as Ambrose says, friendship is not a tax, but full of beauty; it is the virtue of grace, not gain; because money is not polished, but grace; nor by the bidding of prices, but by the striving of benevolence. It ought not to be mercenary, but gratuitous. The friendships of the poor are more certain than those of the rich, since poverty so removes the hope of gain as to increase charity." Finally, following Solomon in his manner, Sirach, Ecclesiasticus VI, 7: "If you possess a friend," he says, "possess him in temptation, and do not easily believe him. For a friend is a friend according to his time, and will not remain in the day of tribulation." He has similar things in chapter thirty-seven, verse 4, where I have recited the sayings of the ancients on this matter. To this pertains that saying of Seneca: "Prosperity best prepares friends, adversity most certainly proves them." I have said more about friendship in Ecclesiasticus VI, 17. Mystically, Rabbi Halcusi in Galatinus, book III On the Mysteries of Faith, chapter twenty-eight: "At all times is a loving friend, and a brother is born to anguish or to tribulation. This," he says, "is the holy and blessed God, who said: I will be a brother to Israel in the hour of his tribulation, or anguish. As it is said in Psalm 121: For the sake of my brethren and friends or kinsmen, or companions of mine, I will now speak peace in you." Galatinus adds: "Thus far the tradition. From which it is clearly held that God is called the friend and brother of Israel, because he was about to be born according to humanity to anguish." For Christ in the incarnation especially showed himself a friend and brother to us, freeing us from the anguishes of sin, death and hell, indeed for this one reason alone he willed to be incarnate and born.
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18. A FOOLISH MAN SHALL CLAP HIS HANDS, WHEN HE HATH MADE A COVENANT FOR HIS FRIEND. — In Hebrew, a man failing in heart strikes his hand, making a pledge before his friend. Thus Pagninus; but the Septuagint, a foolish man claps and rejoices with himself, when also pledging he hath pledged his own friends. Some codices have, his own friend; and they add, and in his own lips a condition; but these are wanting in the Roman, Complutensian and Royal editions. The Chaldean, the son of a man lacking understanding strikes his hand, and pledges a surety for his friend; the Syriac, offers his hands; Vatablus, captive in mind he fixes his hand, and pledges a pledge in the sight of his neighbor. And he adds: "To fix the hand is to become surety; for those who become surety for others are accustomed to give the right hand;" the Zurich version, he who stipulates with his hand for his neighbor as surety is foolish. The author of the Catena of the Greeks from the Septuagint thus translates and thus explains: A foolish man claps with his hands, and foolishly flatters himself, just as also he who with a certain pledge hath bound his faith for his friend, when nevertheless he hath drawn upon himself a burning fire with his own lips. He who unjustly gratifies another, he says, kindles a judge against himself, and brings upon himself certain loss. Another: "He who on account of flattery, or some small gift, pledges for a friend, and doth not stir him up to pay the debt, treasures up against himself a consuming fire, and brings upon himself loss by no means common on account of the pledge. Observe, he doth not say simply the soul, but his own soul. Why doth he not also admonish that this benefit be rendered even to an enemy? because the hearers were not yet fit for that teaching which also commands that enemies be loved. Therefore, lest the discourse should bring about transgression, he ends the matter within the limits of friendship." Thus the anonymous author in the Catena of the Greeks. Note: For claps, in Hebrew it is תוקע tokea, which signifies he fixes, he strikes his hand, he stipulates, also he sounds, he claps: whence תקע teka is called a sound, and תקוע takoa a trumpet, a lituus, a tube. Our translator, the Septuagint and Theodotion translate, he claps with his hands, for clapping is of the hands, stamping of the feet. For to clap is to strike with the hands, and to make a noise as a sign of joy, as if congratulating and exulting over a thing well done, for example, that by his pledge he hath freed his friend from the creditor's hands and prison. "Thus the partridge claps with her wings, and the stork claps with her clattering beak," says Ovid, VI Metamorphoses. Thus, when a comedy was finished, they would say: "Applaud," that is, Applaud the comedy well performed. The a priori reason for this sentence is that he who pledges for another takes upon himself a great burden, namely the obligation to pay another's debt: wherefore the wise man, considering this, fears, and slowly comes to pledging. But the foolish man, because he doth not consider this burden, but only the present liberation of his friend, hence rashly claps and exults. Wherefore he often pays the deserved penalties of his foolishness and foolish pledging, when the debt for which he pledged, if the debtor be not able to pay, or be unwilling to pay, he himself is forced to pay. This sentence was assigned and explained in chapter VI, 1; wherefore I shall not add a word here. Mystically Bede: "He is foolish," he says, "who when he undertakes to govern the soul of his brother, glories in his own deeds, and doth not rather bestow upon him with humble compassion whatever help for salvation he can." Thus today many rejoice when they obtain rich pastorates, or bishoprics, or abbacies, when rather they ought to groan under so great a burden, that they take upon themselves the care of so many souls, and for them pledge their own soul and eternal salvation to God. Wherefore "a bishopric is a burden formidable to angelic shoulders," says the Council of Trent.
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19. HE THAT MEDITATETH DISCORDS, LOVETH QUARRELS: AND HE THAT EXALTETH HIS DOOR (some wrongly read mouth), SEEKETH RUIN. — In Hebrew, he that loveth transgression, loveth strife: and he that exalteth his door, seeketh breaking or rupture or destruction. The first hemistich you may render in two ways. In the first way, as if to say, He that loveth transgression, he loveth strife. Thus our version. For transgression is often the same as discord, rebellion, schism, apostasy. Thus Moab is said to have "transgressed the covenant," that is, to have rebelled against the king of Israel, IV Kings III, 5. In the second way, as if to say, He that loveth transgression is he who loveth strife. Thus Pagninus, Baynus and others. For strifes generate many quarrels, insults, blasphemies and other sins. Whence the Septuagint, he that loveth sin rejoiceth in quarrels, and the hard of heart cometh not to good things; the Chaldean, he that loveth sin, loveth strife; the Syriac, he that loveth iniquity, loveth iniquity and oppression: he that exalteth his gate, seeketh ruin for himself. St. Thomas, II II, Question XLI, article 2, to 5, understands discords and quarrels of others, as if to say, "He that meditateth discords, loveth quarrels; that is," he says, "he who intendeth to sow discords among some, procureth that they quarrel with one another." Others take discords as one's own. Now first, R. Solomon thus expoundeth: He that deviseth wickedness against a friend (in Hebrew pescha, that is, crime), he loveth quarrels: for he pursueth contentions and quarrels. "He that exalteth his door," that is, he who speaketh proudly and arrogantly, "seeketh ruin." Mouth therefore and door are the same, according to that of Micheas VII, 5: "Keep the doors (our version rendereth, bars) of thy mouth." For as a door closeth or openeth a house: so the mouth by silence closeth, by speaking openeth the secrets of the mind. Thus also Aben-Ezra: He that, he says, raiseth his voice, which is the door of speech, he procureth to bring upon himself extreme destruction: for the mouth is the door to the mind. Lyran addeth: He that exalteth his door, that is, he says, he that raiseth his mouth, exalting himself by boasting, and despising others before him, seeketh ruin; because he stirreth up many against him, who shall bring him to ruin. Secondly, R. Levi, as if to say, "He that meditateth discords, in Hebrew pescha, that is, evil, that is, he that wisheth to find a fault in those things which are said or done, and weigheth them most anxiously and keenly, loveth dissensions and quarrels, since thence quarrels are born. He that raiseth his door, so that in things he may observe that reason by which he may place himself in a seat of higher dignity, from which it cometh to pass that he findeth crime in things, esteeming himself a man of great worth and dignity and worthy of the highest honours; he, I say, seeketh his own destruction; for thus he bringeth upon himself the gravest evils. Which indeed is elegantly shadowed forth by this metaphor of one raising his door: for it can happen that he who buildeth his door on high, from thence falleth and is broken." Less correctly R. David Kimchi thus explaineth, as if to say, Every one who is occupied in buildings, namely in constructing lofty houses, shall be impoverished. Thirdly, Cajetan rendereth, he that loveth rebellion loveth contention; he that raiseth his door seeketh breaking, and thus explaineth: He that raiseth his door not so much by bodily exaltation as by usurped authority, wishing to be served by those entering the door of his house unpunished: for many nobles and princes thus exalt the door of their house, arrogating to themselves the right of impunity and asylum; but these seek breaking, because by the king or magistrate, whose it is to seize the guilty, his door is broken in, and he himself is afterwards, as it were, a rebel, ill punished by the same. Fourthly, Baynus, connecting these to the preceding verse concerning the fool's suretyship, thus explaineth, as if to say, It is not safe enough to be surety for a friend: for there are those whom it pleaseth to pursue quarrels; which appeareth from this, that they love ruin, or (as it is in the Hebrew) transgression, that is, they love not to stand by their promises. And as he who by building raiseth his gate, that is his house (the whole from a part) seeketh breaking and rupture of the building, while the height doth not correspond to the strength of the structure (although he perceiveth not this): so he who exalteth and raiseth the door of his mouth, promising greater things than he is able to perform, and for his promises wisheth to make his friend surety, he seeketh the breaking and ruin of his friend, with whom he loveth to litigate, after he hath transgressed, not performing his promises. According to the mystical sense, the proverb is against those who put their hand to the plough, and look back: who, since they promise more than they perform, by the exaltation of their mouth seek their own ruin. Thus Baynus. Fifth, our Salazar thus expounds it: He who exalts his door, that is, he who makes difficult approaches to himself, shall feel hatred, and from this ruin. For he who exalts the threshold of his door makes it so that entrance to him through the door is difficult. Sixth, and genuinely, as if to say: He who desires to introduce discord seeks quarrels: for from quarrels discord arises and grows. Or, as if to say: He who by pride and arrogance is so affected in mind that he always disagrees in judgment with others, and wishes to defend a contrary opinion to that of others, he truly shows himself to love quarrels, which are born from this disagreement and discord, and disturb the common peace. Whence he adds the cause of discord, saying: "He who exalts his door seeks ruin," as if to say: He who exalts his door, and consequently his house, is the cause of discord. For it is the cause why neighbors, not bearing that his house is raised and made prominent above theirs, and threatens them, so that it may obstruct their windows, air and ventilation, and so that he may have a view into it, and its gardens and courtyards, and may as it were dominate them, being indignant, move a suit against him, and compel him to pull it down and make it equal to the others, which is indeed a great infamy and ruin to him. Hence in cities, where civil order flourishes, magistrates do not permit anyone to build a house higher than others, but to build it to the height of neighboring houses, as I have seen all houses built to equal height in Antwerp. For this equal height of houses contributes to the elegance of the city, and to the convenience and peace of neighbors. This is the sense of the proverb as to the letter of the bark, under which proverbially, or by way of proverb, it is signified that the cause of discord is he who raises his house above others, that is, he who strives to excel and surpass others in any matter, so that he may despise others before him, and wish to command and dominate them. Wherefore against this man all rise up, and move suits against him, until they lay low his pride and height, and make him equal to themselves, and sometimes even inferior, and trample him underfoot. Therefore he who exalts his door before his neighbors, that is, he who strives to surpass others and excel before them, brings ruin upon himself. See what is said at verse 16. For it is a certain law of eternal truth, and a fitting order, that everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled. For pride is hateful to all, and the proud exaltation of oneself before others, since in a community all things ought to be common and equal. The root therefore of discord and quarrels is the desire for excellence. Thus teaches St. Thomas II II, Question XXXVIII, article 2, where, asking "whether discord is the daughter of vain glory," he answers: "It must be said that discord has affinity with envy, as to the recession from him with whom one disagrees, or with whom one contends; but as to that in which he who contends rests, it has agreement with pride and vain glory, inasmuch as namely one stands in one's own judgment." And a little before: "Discord is the daughter of vain glory, because each of those who are discordant stands in his own judgment, and one does not yield to the other. But it is proper to pride and vain glory to seek one's own excellence." This opinion therefore condemns the vice of ambition and preeminence, as being the cause of discord, quarrels, ruin and destruction. For just as upon a house higher than others the blasts of winds rise up, so upon an ambitious man rise up the blasts of words, nay the blasts of blows. This is to be seen in cities, colleges, monasteries, where we observe that those who prefer themselves to others, or withdraw themselves from common obedience, burden, law, become hateful and odious to others. Indeed in Rome a distinguished physician assured me that for 28 years he had served as a physician in various monasteries, and by continuous experience had discovered that those are most miserable in them, and are continually afflicted both in body and in mind, who withdraw themselves from common life under the pretext of health or otherwise, and seek singular things in food, clothing and other matters. Whence he concluded: "The best medicine of all diseases, both of body and of mind, both of individuals and of communities, is humility," by which a man prefers no one to himself, but makes himself equal to others and composes himself with them, nay subjects and postpones himself to all." Note here the style and depth of the Proverbs of Solomon: the style, by which he has joined together, namely the antecedents and consequents of what he said in the first hemistich, in the second; the depth, by which he assigns the causes and effects of the same things. For in the first he said that discord begets quarrels; in the second, their antecedents and consequents, namely causes and effects, he indicates, as if to say: Discord begets quarrels. But do you wish to know the origin and root of discord? behold, I point it out to you with my finger directed to the source, and I say the root is the appetite for preeminence. Do you likewise wish to know the effect and end to which they tend? behold, I assign to you ruin and destruction. Therefore see the chain of this vice: the appetite for excellence begets discord, discord begets quarrels, quarrels flowing together lead to mutual slaughter, to ruin and destruction. Thus high things end in low things, pride in abasement, height in ruin.
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20. HE THAT IS OF A PERVERSE HEART SHALL NOT FIND GOOD: AND HE THAT TURNETH HIS TONGUE, SHALL FALL INTO EVIL. — For "he that turneth his tongue," in Hebrew it is, turned, converted or perverted in his tongue; for the Hebrews lack compound words, whence they use a simple word for any compound. Hence the Chaldean translator renders it, "and he that is perverted in his tongue shall fall into evil." And thus the latter part corresponds to the former as an effect to its cause. For a perverted heart begets a perverted tongue, as if to say: He who has a perverted heart and mind shall not find good; but he who is so perverted in mind that he also utters a perverted tongue to the ruin of others, he shall surely fall into great evils and calamities. Thus Vatablus, who translates: "He that is perverted in heart shall not find good; but he that is perverted in his tongue shall fall into evil." Now "perverted in tongue" is, first, a liar; for he turns and perverts truth into falsehood. Wherefore Plato in the Sophist compares liars to potters, who turn and work clay to fashion earthen vessels. "Potters," he says, "are liars: for these fashion stories, those vessels." Second, they are detractors: for they turn the reputation of their neighbor into infamy, and not rarely turn truth into falsehood and pervert it; third, and most aptly, they are those who circumvent others with deceits and fraudulent words, and lead them into losses either of fortune, or of imprisonment, or of reputation, or of sin, or of faith, namely into heresy. The sense therefore is, as if to say: He who with a perverted heart plots evil against others is unworthy of good fortune and prosperity, and therefore is often deprived of it by God. But he who actually executes the deceits and evil he plots against others, and by fraudulent speech constructs them: he, surely, whether by the judge or by God the avenger, shall fall into evil, and often into that very evil which he constructed for others, as Aben-Ezra says, according to that: "Evil counsel is worst for the counselor;" as happened to Haman who laid snares for Mordecai, to Saul and Ahithophel who laid snares for David, to the counselors of Darius who laid snares for Daniel. This sense is favored by the fact that "he that turneth his tongue" is composed and, as it were, set in opposition on equal terms with "he that is of a perverse heart." For which in Hebrew is עקש ikkes, that is, perverted, crafty, deceitful, false, one who simulates and dissimulates, and deceives under the appearance of rectitude and truth; just as for "he that turneth his tongue" in Hebrew is נהפך nephach, that is, inverted in tongue, that is, one who turns, inverts, subverts, perverts his tongue. Whence in Exodus VII, it is attributed to the rod which was turned by Moses into a serpent, so that perverted tongues, which are human, turn them into serpentine ones: hence תהפכת tapuchot are called perverse things and perversities, and פוך puch is called paint, with which the face is painted, and its color is changed and turned. Second, Pagninus translates: "He that is perverted in heart shall not find good, and he that shall turn himself in his tongue shall fall into evil;" which the Septuagint thus clearly expounds: "He that is hard of heart shall not meet with good; a man easily changeable in tongue shall fall into evils." Which Rudolphus first attributes to the faithless, who do not keep faith given but deceive: for these on account of their perfidy incur lawsuits and grave penalties; second, Hugh and others attribute it to flatterers: for these like a polyp change and convert their faces and words to the nod of the prince or friend whom they flatter. Whence St. Basil compares them to the polyp, which takes on every color of the rock to which it attaches itself. Others compare them to the moon and planets, which change their light to the sun's gaze, and their motion to the guidance of the higher heavens. Recently a grave Catholic man in England, asked by a chief counselor of Queen Elizabeth, who wished to be held secretly a Catholic, what Catholics overseas thought of him, answered cleverly: "They think you are a planet, and move and turn with the motion of the first mover." What therefore is the motion of planets, such is the dizziness of sense and speech which flatterers undergo, so that they may gain the favor of princes; and therefore they often fall like those who, seized with dizziness, rush to the ground, as is seen in Turkish monks, who worship God by dancing in a circle, and turning themselves in a gyration repeatedly, so that from dizziness they fall to the ground, which they themselves call the Dance of Angels: and they do this in imitation of their false prophet Muhammad, who, when he suffered from headaches and epilepsy, and from it fell to the ground foaming, pretended that he was moved by enthusiasm, and conversed with Angels, as grave and eyewitness Greek men told me in Rome. In like manner flatterers fall, when their assent and dizziness, that is, their frauds and impostures, are discovered: for then princes pursue them with hatred, and punish and chastise them according to their deserts.
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21. A FOOL IS BORN TO HIS OWN SHAME (In Hebrew it is, to labour or sorrow: thus R. Levi); BUT NEITHER SHALL THE FATHER REJOICE IN A FOOL. — Our translation reads passively יולד iullad, that is, he was born: already others with different punctuation read actively יולד ioled; whence they translate with Pagnino, he that begets a fool to his own sadness shall beget him; Vatablus, he generates sorrow for himself; the Chaldean, he who begets a fool, sadness shall be to him; the Syrian, he who begets a fool to his own confusion, the father of the unwise shall not rejoice; the Septuagint for יולד iolid, reading לב veleb, that is and heart, translate, but the heart of the imprudent, sorrow possesses him that has it; the father shall not rejoice over the undisciplined son (Aquila, dissolute; Symmachus, foolish; Theodotion, senseless; Hebrew is נבל nabal, that is, a knave); but a wise son rejoices his mother, which words the Septuagint supplies, so that they complete the antithesis between the wise son and the foolish, and which are found in the Hebrew, cap. X, vers. 1, where I have explained them. The sense therefore is, as if to say, He who begets a fool, that is an imprudent and vicious one, he creates for himself labour in correcting him and rightly instructing him, and sorrow and sadness, while he experiences him incorrigible and incapable of discipline, and therefore he is to both his parents and to himself a matter of shame and reproach. The reason a priori is that prudence, fame, honesty and virtue are goods more excellent than life itself: wherefore parents, since they cannot live forever, beget sons, so that in them as it were their wisdom, honour and virtue may endure and be perpetuated: therefore they rejoice wonderfully, when they see themselves obtaining their wish, namely when sons imitating the probity of their parents prolong their glory and fame and propagate it to their grandchildren: conversely they grieve greatly, when they see themselves frustrated of their wish, namely when they see their sons to be wicked, who bring shame upon themselves and inflict dishonour. For it would be better to have died childless and without sons, and virtue to have died with them, than to leave behind children who would bring them infamy and dishonour, and scandalize the commonwealth. Note: The to in sorrow and shame does not signify the intention, or the end intended by the father: for no father intends his own shame, namely to beget a fool, who would be to him shame and sadness; but it signifies consequence or outcome, which happens to the father unwilling and against his will beyond his intention, as if to say, If a father beget a son, who then becomes unwise, that is wicked, this certainly redounds to and tends toward the father's shame and brings him reproach and sadness, and from this in turn brings him death. Thus Jacob says to his sons Genesis XLIII, 6: "You have done this to my misery, that you told him you had another brother," Benjamin namely, whom Jacob loved uniquely, and therefore was unwilling for him to be taken from him, and therefore he blames his sons because they told Joseph that they had left Benjamin at home: for from this Joseph took occasion to summon him, which brought misery and sadness to Jacob his father.
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22. A JOYFUL MIND MAKETH A FLOURISHING AGE: A SAD SPIRIT DRIETH UP THE BONES. — In Hebrew, a glad heart maketh good גהה geha, which our translator renders as age; the Syrian, body; others, health or soundness; others, medicine; others, brightness of face or appearance, as if גהה geha were derived from נגה naga, that is, it shone, it gleamed; others, elevation or relief, as if גהה geha should agree both in letters and in meaning with גאה gaa, that is, it lifted up, it exalted. First therefore Pagninus, Cajetan and Aben-Ezra, understanding after the Hebrew manner the particle of similitude caph, that is, as, translate it: a glad heart shall do good like medicine, as if to say, A glad heart brings with it a good affection, disposition and health like medicine. The best medicine of all diseases is gladness. Whence Galen teaches that many have escaped diseases by gladness alone, and Avicenna, book I, teaches that gladness is very beneficial to the sick. Seneca gives the reason: "For whatever hath lifted up the mind, also profiteth the body." Baynus however translates: "A glad heart maketh good medicine," that is, the gladness of the heart commends and maketh medicine efficacious, as if to say, Medicine shall not profit unless he who receiveth it have a glad mind, both because, as Cornelius Celsus teaches, book IV, anxiety and sadness themselves are a certain sickness, which, if it come upon the former sickness from which the sick man suffereth, shall make it worse and increase it; and because sadness bringeth cold, which hindereth the digestion and operation of medicine. The same happeneth in the spirit: for a sad mind cannot digest any medicine of admonition or correction; wherefore its spiritual sickness, namely the vice from which it suffereth, is well-nigh incurable. Secondly, R. Solomon: "A cheerful mind maketh the countenance bright and flourishing;" Baynus: "A glad heart maketh good the keenness of the eyes, which in the aged is wont to fail especially; and a sad spirit drieth up the bones, in which the strength of the body chiefly consisteth;" Marinus in the Lexicon: "A glad heart maketh good the brightness of the face, or profiteth the appearance." For a glad heart diffuseth its gladness into the countenance, and maketh it rosy, flourishing, lively, smiling and bright. Whence St. Antony among many thousands of monks was recognized by pilgrims from the brightness of his countenance alone, which the gladness of his mind suggested to them. For, as Pacatus saith in the Panegyric of the Emperor Theodosius: "The countenance is the revealer of the inmost affections of the mind, so that in the mirror of the brow there standeth the image of the soul." Sadness therefore dulls the eyes both of the mind and of the body, as gladness sharpeneth both. Thus Basil, Bishop of Seleucia, in his second oration On Lazarus: "Doth not sadness, saith he, when intent, beget death? Doth it not obscure the clarity and keenness of the mind, so that scarcely anything of those things which are fitting can be made known? Therefore at length let us sometime lift up the eye of the mind to heaven, and, putting aside sadness, turn our mind to that which is spiritual." Thirdly, the Syrian translates, a cheerful mind maketh the body beautiful. For, as R. Levi explaineth: "From the cheerfulness of the mind the pleasant form of the body is produced, when blood and the heat naturally inherent diffuseth itself widely through its parts: but a mind cast down and wrapped in sorrow, otherwise than gladness provideth, drieth up and shrivelleth the members, the blood and heat withdrawing themselves to the inmost seats of the body. From which we plainly understand that cheerfulness is praiseworthy, and on the contrary that sorrow is not free from vice." Fourthly, the Septuagint translate, a glad heart maketh to be well, but a sad man (Aquila, a spirit smitten; Symmachus, humbled; Theodotion, contrite) drieth up the bones, the bones are dried up. Fifthly, our translator aptly rendereth, a joyful mind maketh a flourishing age; Vatablus, maketh the body more vigorous; others, maketh youth to flourish. For the Hebrew יטיב ietib, that is, maketh good, is the same as maketh glad, pleasant, flourishing, verdant. The Zurich Bible, a glad heart maketh good health; but a sad mind exhausteth the bones; B. Antiochus, homily 25, a glad and cheerful heart produceth good health; but the bones of a sad man are dried up. The a priori reason is that joy is the flower, beauty, exultation, and as it were the life of the soul: but the soul is the life of the body; wherefore since joy gives the flower of life to the soul, it transmits the same through the soul into the body. It is added that joy and the other passions are not only in the mind, but also in the body; for they arise from the heart, as Aristotle teaches, lib. III On the Parts of Animals, cap. IV: "For the heart, he says, being the first part to exist, is sanguineous; moreover the motions of joy and sadness, and finally of all the senses, appear to arise from here and to end here." Therefore the joy of the soul through a similar sympathy produces the same affection in the body: for joy causes the vital spirits to be sharpened and to grow warm, and to spread themselves through the body, especially through the face. These spirits make the countenance and body vivid, blooming, healthy, vigorous, broad and joyful; sadness produces the contrary effect; for through it the heart contracts, the spirits are depressed, cold is induced: which three things make the body languid, weak and as it were lifeless. Wherefore Galen, lib. III On the Causes of the Pulse: "Joy, he says, has a great, rare and slow pulse; for through joy heat is diffused through the whole body, and more of its motion is carried outward, as in the sad it is inward. Whence their pulse becomes greater by right, though not more violent. Sadness has a small, languid, slow and rare pulse; for since sadness itself cools, and drives heat inward, it rightly produces effects contrary to those which follow joy." The same Galen, lib. On Recognizing and Curing the Diseases of the Soul, cap. VIII, says that he received these three teachings from his father, and by observing them came to sound longevity. The first: "I remain, he says, unafraid and unmoved toward all things which happen daily in life, just as I then saw my father remain; thus neither loss nor destruction of anything disturbs me with any perturbation. The second: My father accustomed me to despise glory and honor, so that I might have one naked truth in esteem. For I see some, when they think themselves despised by someone, or when they have lost some money, are afflicted with great sorrow. The third: Not to hunger, not to be cold, not to suffer thirst." Avicenna, lib. II: "Joy, he says, when frequent, makes the natural virtue stronger and the spirits more rarefied." Francis Valesius, On Sacred Philosophy, cap. LXXII: "Through gladness, he says, warmth is abundantly poured forth." The same is taught by Hippocrates, Cornelius Celsus, Fernel, Cardanus, lib. On Preserving Health, and everywhere by other physicians. Whence Seneca, lib. On the Happy Life, cap. V: "Sorrow, he says, does not befall a wise man; for his mind is serene, nor can that which would cloud it befall him. Nothing befits a man so much as a great spirit; but it cannot be great at the same time if fear and sorrow cloud and contract it. AND A SORROWFUL SPIRIT DRIETH UP THE BONES. — The reason is, because sadness eats away the marrows of the bones: for it contracts and withdraws the vital spirits, and therefore induces cold; by which it comes to pass that the vital humor, which irrigates and nourishes the bones through the marrows and other members, fails and dries up. For this humor is warm: for in warmth consists the life of man. Thus Galen, lib. On Preserving Health, cap. XVI: "From sadness, he says, men are seen to be more lean, and more dry, and less obedient to instruction plainly." And Hippocrates, lib. II On Diseases: "Care seems to be like a thorn in the viscera, and to prick them." Whence Theodotion translates, a contrite spirit (that is, a sad one, which like a thorn pricks) dries up the bones. To which that of David points, Psalm XXXI, 4: "I was converted in my affliction, while a thorn is fixed" in me, as the Greek texts add, that is, I was converted to God, while I feel myself fixed by Him with the thorn of tribulation and sadness. For, as Theodoret says there: "The sweetness of sin fixes a long bitterness of a thorn after itself." And St. Jerome: A thorn, he says, is the goad and conscience of sin, which always pricks the mind. And St. Gregory: "Every sin, he says, while it brings pleasure, as it were by pricking lances the mind." Hippocrates adds: "Where this anxiety seizes the soul, it flees light and men, and loves darkness, and fear invades, it is dry, and at contact it hurts, and it is terrified, and sees terrible phantoms and dreams." The same, lib. III, teaches that sadness kills those who labor under dropsy. The same: "Care, he says, is a grave disease." And Lucretius: And pain and disease, each a maker of death. The same is taught by Francis Valesius, Sacred Philosophy cap. LXXII, whose words I recited at Ecclesiasticus XXX, 25. The same is taught by the Fathers, equally as by philosophers and poets. St. Gregory Nazianzen, poem 3 On His Calamities: Care, he says, is a cross and a lethal poison to man. St. Chrysostom, homily 10 on the epistle to the Philippians: "Sorrows, he says, and anxieties, when they distract the soul beyond measure, deprive it of its strength." Blessed Antiochus, homily 25: "By no means should sadness be admitted, nor should such troublesome anguish of mind be received." And further: "A monk wasting away in sorrow is like one laboring under a burning fever; in no way will he be able to raise his mind to the study of contemplation, nor to sincere prayer, nor will he receive exhortation, nor counsel." So too St. Thomas, III, Question XXXVII, article 4, and Question XXXIII, article 1, where he teaches that delight, or joy, delights the heart and mind of man: "Which, he says, assents to the delightful thing, and rests in it, in a certain way presenting itself to it, and to receive it inwardly; and thus the affection of man is dilated through delight, as if surrendering itself to contain inwardly the delightful thing." Wherefore the Comic poet gives these wise teachings about joy and sadness, partly as dogmas, partly as admonitions: Sadness is the tightest bond of the heart. Fear of the future strangles all joy. Nothing eats away the soul like care. Entrust to fate cares unequal to your talent. As we are contracted by sorrow, so we are expanded by joy. The wise man restrains joys in silent breast. The cause of the greatest pain is the greatest joy. Life is death alive, destitute of all joy. Anguish of mind is the most powerful disease. Pain of mind brings languor of body. To a generous mind a sick body does no harm. Finally, St. Gregory of Nazianzus in his Distichs: "Sorrows, he says, bring premature old age to mortals. A troubled mind gnaws the bones like a worm; but the body, bidding all cares be well, flourishes exceedingly." The sum of all is, as it were: Joy alone provides a remedy for all diseases of mind and body, and makes the body vigorous and flourishing; sadness, however, drains and consumes the vital juice and blood, and thus consumes the marrow of bones, and so dries it up: whence it comes about that man wastes away, and gradually perishes in decay. See the sayings at chapter XV, 13, and more at Ecclesiasticus XXX, 22 and following, where the goods of joy and the evils of sadness are treated at length. Finally, Cajetan here: "Sadness, he says, is very hostile to the health of the body and to life, because it consists in fear contrary to vital motion. For the vivification of the body proceeds from the heart by way of the pulse. But sadness consists in the retraction of spirits." Mystically, Bede: "He who, he says, rejoices in the internal consolation of the Holy Spirit, is also adorned with the flower of good action, and awaits the fruit of heavenly rewards. But he who is troubled by the sadness of the world, which works death, in no way has the richness of divine charity in the strength of virtues which he appears to exercise; but wastes away as if with dried bones, because in the good works which he does, he has lost the grace of love." Thus from a good conscience the holy Anchorites always lived serene and joyful for a long time, as St. Paul the First Hermit lived one hundred and thirteen years, St. Antony one hundred and five, St. Romuald one hundred and twenty, Elias one hundred and ten, John of Tampes (whom by error they call of Temporibus) three hundred and sixty, though it is more true that he lived only one hundred and sixty; see the Theatre of Human Life, in the long-lived. The Seven Holy Sleepers are said to have lived and slept from the time of Decius until Theodosius for 160 years. Indeed, even now in monasteries very many virgins, dedicated to God, free from cares and sober, serene and cheerful, reach to the ninetieth and hundredth year, as Cardanus notes, book I On Preserving Health, chapter XVIII, and experience confirms. Thus for the same reason Josephus relates that many of the Essenes formerly reached to one hundred years, book II of the War, chapter VII. This is what Ecclesiasticus chapter XXX, 23 says: "Cheerfulness of heart is the life of man, and a treasure without defect of holiness; and the exultation of a man is length of days."
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23. A WICKED MAN TAKETH GIFTS OUT OF THE BOSOM, THAT HE MAY PERVERT THE PATHS OF JUDGMENT. — The Chaldean: that he may decline from the way of judgment; the Syriac: he who taketh gifts is wicked, for he declineth the way of judgment; the Septuagint: he who accepteth gifts unjustly in his bosom, his ways do not prosper; but the wicked man declineth the ways of justice. Wherefore R. Solomon translated and explained it wrongly thus: "A wicked man taketh gifts of words and prayers out of his bosom, and God accepteth them secretly between himself and that man, that the judgment to which the wicked man was liable, he may transfer from evil to good." For it is clear that here we are not speaking of God, but of the wicked man, who accepteth gifts, that he may pronounce sentence in favor of him who giveth them, and unjustly condemn the adverse party which upholdeth the just cause. Now "out of the bosom," or as the Septuagint hath it, "out of the bosoms," signifieth a gift given secretly and clandestinely. For they who favor unjust causes are wont to give gifts secretly to the judge, both because they are ashamed to buy an unjust sentence with gold, and because they fear lest, if the matter become known, they be summoned to the tribunal of a higher prince, and there pay the penalty for the gifts accepted and justice violated. Thus Aben-Ezra and R. Levi. Furthermore, this maxim can be understood both of him who giveth and of him who accepteth gifts. Of the giver, as if to say: The wicked man taketh out of his bosom, that is, draweth forth gifts, that he may secretly place them in the hands of the judge, and by them bend him to his favor, that he may adjudge the cause to him unjustly and contrary to the laws of justice. Solomon saith this, that judges and magistrates may take this as a mark, as it were, of injustice, and may know that they who favor an unjust or less equitable cause are those who strive to obtain and win by gifts what they cannot obtain by right. Most interpreters understand it of the accepter, as if to say: A counselor or judge, who accepteth gifts out of the bosom of the giver, is corrupted by them, as is wont to happen even to men otherwise just and tenacious of equity; for they silently draw forth the affection of him who accepteth, and bind him to the giver. For who doth not love him who loveth him, nay, who giveth him gifts? Who moreover is so hard of face as to show himself an adversary to the giver, nay, to condemn him? What mouth would dare to bark against him who feedeth it? Wherefore, as the blessed Gregory of Nazianzus saith in his Distichs: "When gold speaketh, all other speech is idle; for it persuadeth, even though it uttereth no voice. Men are taken by gold as birds by snares. Gold moveth minds, and stirreth the dumb to speak." The same, in Oration 24: "Gold," saith he, "is a hidden tyrant (because it forceth those desirous of gold, and oppresseth them as it were by tyranny, as Elias of Crete saith in the same place), by which now many things are tossed up and down as in a game of dice." The same, in his poem On His Own Life, citing the disputation of Zorobabel and his companions concerning the strongest: "Wine is strong, a king is strong, women are strong, but truth is strongest," III Esdras III, saith that gold is stronger than all these. For thus he singeth: Some one asserted that wine overcometh all things; another, woman; a third gave the palm to truth; but I would have given the greatest strength to gold, which turneth all things by its own will. Most excellently the blessed Peter Damian, book II, epistle 2, which in order is 23: "The sons," saith he, "of Samuel are read to have had no other crime, save that they loved gifts; and because they followed not the example of their father's purity, they irrecoverably lost the principality of the people of Israel. And it is to be noted, that when Scripture saith of them: They declined after avarice, they accepted gifts, it straightway added: They perverted judgment. For it is near and contiguous, that after a gift is accepted, judgment also be perverted by the corrupted judge." And after some intervening matter: "When gifts are accepted," saith he, "if we wish to do anything against the giver, straightway the words in our mouth become soft, the keenness of speech is blunted, the tongue is hindered by a certain blushing of shame. For the mind, conscious of the gift received, weakeneth the vigor of judicial censure, and represseth the freedom of eloquence. For although the judgment and rectitude be not wholly taken away, yet the authority of judging is enervated." Wherefore the Romans, by the law of the Twelve Tables, punished a judge who accepted bribes with death. But to the Hebrews, Moses, or rather God through Moses, strictly forbade the acceptance of bribes, Exodus XXIII, 8: "Nor shalt thou take bribes," he says, "which also blind the wise, and pervert the words of the just." Deuteronomy XXVII, 25, at the end, and therefore this most grave curse stands: "Cursed be he that taketh bribes to slay the innocent. And all the people shall say: Amen." Wherefore Isaiah, gravely accusing the Jews, chapter I, 23: "Thy princes," he says, "are faithless, companions of thieves; all love bribes, they follow rewards." On the other hand, he wonderfully extols him who refuses bribes, chapter XXXIII, 15: "He that walketh," he says, "in justices, and speaketh truth, that casteth away avarice from calumny, and shaketh his hands from all bribe, etc., he shall dwell on high; the munitions of rocks shall be his highness." And the Psalmist, Psalm XIV, 1, asking: "Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle?" answers among other things: "He that sweareth to his neighbour, and deceiveth him not: who hath not put out his money to usury, nor taken bribes against the innocent." Wherefore Samuel glories that he refused all bribes, I Kings XII, 3; and Paul, Acts XX, 33. Moreover, Cicero himself, in book I of his letters to his brother Quintus, who held the magistracy in Asia, gives him this notable warning: "Let this be your opinion, not only against those who have accepted anything, but also against those who have given it, that you will be their enemy, if you know of it; nor indeed will anyone give, when it shall be clear that nothing is usually obtained through those who pretend they have great influence with you." Furthermore, the Septuagint adds, saying: "The ways of him who unjustly accepteth bribes in his bosom shall not prosper;" because, as Job says, chapter XV, 34: "Fire shall devour the tabernacles of those who willingly accept bribes," namely the fire of the wrath and vengeance of God, who not rarely consumeth with corporeal fire the wealth obtained from bribes and other unjust means. Solomon teaches here that bribes have great power, but hidden power, which deceives even good and prudent men.
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24. IN THE FACE OF THE PRUDENT WISDOM SHINETH: BUT THE EYES OF FOOLS ARE IN THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. — First, the plain and genuine sense here is this, that is to say: In the face of the prudent and especially in his grave, modest, clear eyes, and composed to all honesty and virtue, the wisdom and virtue of his inner mind shineth forth; conversely, in the face and eyes of fools there gleameth the foolishness and madness of their heart, because their eyes are light, wandering, mobile, unstable, so that like a wheel they turn even to the ends of the earth looking about. Whence Vatablus translates it, the very countenance of the prudent beareth wisdom before it; but the eyes of fools wander to the ends of the earth. The reason is, because the heart and mind of the prudent is grave, stable and composed, which therefore composeth the countenance and eyes to honesty and gravity: but the mind of fools is light and wandering, and therefore maketh their eyes light and wandering, according to that: "The heart of the fool is like a wheel of a cart; and his thoughts are like a rolling axle," Ecclesiasticus XXXIII, 5. For the mind shineth through the body and face, as a torch through a lantern, and the sun gleameth and shineth through glass, according to that of Pacatus cited at verse 22: "In the mirror of the brow the image of the soul appeareth." And that of St. Bernard, On the Manner of Living Well, chapter LXV: "The face of man is the mirror of the heart." And Cicero, book III of On Oratory: "Every motion of the soul, saith he, hath its own certain variety from nature, and sound, and gesture; the image of the soul is the countenance." And St. Augustine: "A severe countenance is the guardian of discipline and probity; if this be absent, like a torch exposed to the wind of levity it is extinguished." For the body is the workshop of the soul, and especially the face. Therefore just as a craftsman in his workshop, for example a potter in his pottery and clay, painteth and formeth the conceptions and forms of his mind: so also the mind painteth and formeth its wisdom or folly, virtue or vice in the body, and especially in the face and its gestures and movements. Add that the acuteness of wit and maturity of judgment are often recognized from the physiognomy of the face and eyes. Whence the Septuagint translate it, the face of an intelligent man is wise; but the eyes of the imprudent are toward the ends of the earth. Hence Aristotle in the Physiognomics, chapter VI: "The signs of ingenuity are, saith he, flesh more moist and soft, not of good habit, nor very fat; which about the shoulders and neck is leaner, and which about the face, etc.; body white mixed with redness, and pure; skin thin, hair not very hard, nor very black; eye charopus, moist:" charopus, that is blue, such as is the color of the sea and sky, or tawny, such as that of eagles and lions: the Latins call it ravum. See the sayings at Ecclesiasticus chapter XIX, 27. Thus Bede, Lyra, Cajetan, Baynus, Jansenius and others everywhere. Hear Lyra giving the reason: "In the face of the prudent wisdom shineth, saith he, through maturity and honesty; because the disposition of the heart appeareth more in the face, in which are all the senses, than in other parts." Whence Bede, giving an example, nay an exemplar of all, Christ: "In the face, saith he, of the Lord Saviour the wisdom of divinity shone forth: which appearing in flesh, he demonstrated by the testimonies of virtues and doctrine. But the eyes of the Jews not believing were intent rather on accomplishing earthly desires, than on attending to his saving admonitions." Secondly, the Chaldean translateth it, the face of the prudent cheerful in wisdom; and the eyes of fools in the depths of the earth, that is to say: The face and eyes of the prudent, the just and the Saints are serene, joyful and cheerful, as a clear sky, to which they seem to strive to imitate and gaze upon: because the interior joy, which holiness of mind bringeth, shineth through and poureth itself forth into the face and eyes; but truly the face and eyes of fools, that is of the imprudent and impious, are cast down from fear of an evil conscience, sad and depressed to the earth, so that they seem to wish to penetrate and perceive the very depths and lowest parts of the earth, and as it were to look upon the place in the depths of hell prepared for them. The image therefore of the face of the wise man is, that it should bear before it courtesy with gravity, and cheerfulness mixed with severity, so that it be namely severely cheerful, and cheerfully severe. Such was the face of the Essenes, the Ascetics, of St. Anthony, of St. Athanasius, of St. Basil, whose image moreover was this, as much as his voice: "Paleness and leanness befit the monk." Truly Plutarch in the Morals: "As fountains, saith he, never lack moisture ever flowing from them, so the good man ever hath joy, even if external things change." Third, the Hebrew texts have, with face, or before the face, understanding wisdom, that is to say, The wise man always has wisdom before his eyes, he gazes upon it continually, according to its dictate and nod he does and works all things; whence the Syrian translator renders it, the face of the prudent man beholds wisdom; but truly the eyes of the fool are in the end of the earth, that is to say, The wise and holy man looks upon heavenly goods and rewards, which wisdom sets before him; but truly the foolish and impious man looks upon earthly goods, namely riches, honours, delights, which folly of concupiscence suggests and represents to him. He looks therefore to the ends of the earth, namely the limits of fields and estates of his own, so that he might extend and enlarge them, indeed he often looks to and desires the ends of the whole earth and dominion of the whole world, as Alexander, Cyrus, Pompey, Julius Caesar and other Romans did. Fourth, R. Solomon, Clarius and others, that is to say, The wise man is a friend, neighbour and familiar of wisdom: but truly the fool is so far removed from wisdom, as if he had eyes in the ends of the earth, placed and situated very far away from wisdom. To this Aben-Ezra adds: "Wisdom, he says, is before the prudent man: the fool's eyes wander about, so that he might seek wisdom in the extreme ends of the world, when he considers others of his regions to be mad like himself; and therefore he brings sorrow to his mother, when he wishes to transfer himself to distant regions." And R. Levi: "The prudent man, he says, easily finds the ways of wisdom obvious to himself, since from all things that exist, he is stirred up to acquire admirable wisdom; since also on account of the wisdom with which he is endowed, he understands higher things. On the contrary the foolish man, when he shall be vacant from the study of wisdom, will have his eyes fixed in the ends of the earth, thinking that he will find it only there; wherefore he has given himself entirely to idleness." And Vatablus, to the prudent man, he says, wisdom is always at hand; but the fool seeks it throughout the whole world, and does not find it. Akin to this is the saying of Ecclesiastes II, 14: "The eyes of the wise man are in his head, the fool walketh in darkness," that is to say, The wise man with eyes raised up in his head looks around at all things prudently and surveys them clearly, hence he walks in light: but the fool imprudent is carried away by blind error, whither his feet, that is his affections and concupiscences, lead him. Wherefore he seems to have his eyes not in his head, but in his feet. Hence Mystically St. Gregory, XVII Morals, cap. V, teaches that the just man considers the ways, that is the laws of God, which he beholds in his head, namely Christ; but the impious man looks upon his own ways, that is the conduct of his concupiscence: "For the way of the proud, he says, is pride; the way of the robber, avarice; the way of the lustful, carnal concupiscence. In his own ways therefore every wicked man casts down his eyes, because he is intent only upon vices, so that through these he might satisfy his soul. Whence through Solomon it is said: The eyes of fools are in the ends of the earth; because they behold with the whole intention of their heart only that by which they may be led to the end of earthly desire. Truly the sinner would not fix the gaze of his consideration upon the earth, if he would lift the eyes of his mind to the holy paths of his Redeemer. Whence through Solomon again it is said: The eyes of the wise man are in his head; because namely every wise man considers with sole intention him, whom he thinks himself to be a member of through faith." Again the mystical face of the wise man is the wonderful appearance and beauty of his mind, in which shines forth the splendour and majesty of wisdom and virtue, so that if one were to say he beholds it, we would discern certain rays of divinity in it, so much so that Seneca, who acknowledged wisdom and virtue natural only, not supernatural of grace, writes in epistle 145: "If it were permitted to us to look into the soul of a good man, O what a beautiful face, what a holy one, what shining forth from the magnificent and calm we would see! hence justice, from there fortitude, hence temperance and prudence shining forth. Besides these frugality, and continence, and tolerance, and freedom and courtesy, and (who would believe it?) in man a rare good of humanity, would pour forth their splendour upon it; then providence, then elegance, and from these magnanimity most eminent, how much would the good gods, how much beauty, how much weight and gravity add to it! what authority would there be with grace! No one who saw it would not at the same time call it venerable as well as lovable. If anyone should see this face higher and more shining than is accustomed to be seen among human things, would he not, as if struck dumb by the encounter of a divine being, stand still, and, so that it be permitted to have seen it, silently pray?" And soon after he adds this: "Then, as the very benignity of the countenance calls forth, brought forward he would adore and supplicate, and having long contemplated it standing out much, and above the measure of what is accustomed to be seen among us, elevated, with eyes mild indeed, but nevertheless burning with vivid fire; then at last fearing and amazed at that voice of our Virgil he would utter: O how shall I address thee, virgin! for truly thy countenance is not mortal, nor doth thy voice sound human. Be thou blessed, and lighten for us whatever labour we bear. She will be present and will lighten it, if we shall wish to honour her. But she is honoured not by the fat bodies of bulls slaughtered, nor by gold and silver hung up, nor by money poured into treasuries, but by pious and upright will. No one, I say, would not burn with love of her, if it should befall us to see her. Finally, to this maxim is akin that passage of Ecclesiastes, chapter VIII, verse 1: "The wisdom of a man shineth in his face, and the most powerful shall change his countenance." Where again I shall speak of this matter.
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25. THE WRATH OF THE FATHER IS A FOOLISH SON (the Septuagint, ἄφρων, that is, imprudent), AND THE SORROW OF THE MOTHER WHO BORE HIM. — In Hebrew, bitterness to her that bore him; Theodotion, παράπικρασμος, that is, exacerbation; Aquila and Symmachus, πικραίνων, that is, exacerbating his mother; the Chaldee, a foolish son exasperates his father, and exacerbates his mother. The sense is, as if to say, A foolish son, dissolute, disobedient, perverse provokes his father to wrath, his mother to bitterness and sorrow, both because he rejects their admonitions and instruction; and because by his wicked and infamous life he brings them shame and reproach; and because he squanders away their labours and wealth in feasting and luxury; and because he is rebellious against them, threatening them with words, and at times with blows, and even with death, and plotting such things. Should not therefore the father be wrathful with him, and rage against him not as a son but as an enemy, and should not the mother grieve and lament from the depths of her heart? For fathers, because they are men, are moved more by wrath than by sorrow on account of the wickedness of their sons: but mothers, because they are women, tender and loving their sons with gentle affection, are moved more by sorrow than by wrath. For who would be wrathful with a son of his womb, whom he brought forth with such pains, nourished with so many troubles, and reared with so much labour to the age of manhood? Solomon says this, both that he may deter sons from wickedness, lest they bring wrath upon their father and sorrow upon their mother; and that he may exhort parents to severe instruction and chastisement of their sons from tender years, lest, if they loosen the reins too indulgently towards them, they afterwards feel them to be wicked and rebellious with their own loss, wrath and sorrow. Wherefore God is wont to chastise this indulgence of parents by the rebellion of their sons, and by chastising to purge it, so that in that wherein they sinned, in the same they may be punished according to the law of retaliation. See what is said in chapter X, verse 1, where the same maxim is inculcated. Thus Ham, uncovering the nakedness of Noah his father, brought upon himself his wrath and curse: "Cursed," saith he, "be Chanaan (the son of Ham), a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren," Genesis IX, 25. Thus Esau, by taking wives of a strange nation, offended Isaac and Rebecca his parents, Genesis XXVI, 35. Thus Simeon and Levi, by slaying the Shechemites in vengeance for the rape of their sister Dinah, heard from their father Jacob: "Cursed be their wrath, I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel." Thus Absalom, by slaying Amnon his brother, incurred the indignation of David his father, and became an exile and a fugitive. Thus St. Augustine by his heresy and concubinage was the sorrow of Monica his mother, as he himself relates in book V of his Confessions. Symbolically, R. Solomon: A foolish son, saith he, was Jeroboam, who, being hostile to God, stirred up that wrath against himself and all Israel; the same brought bitter sorrow to his mother, that is, the Synagogue, whom he drew into the idolatry of golden calves, and thence into all evils.
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26. IT IS NOT GOOD TO INFLICT HARM UPON THE JUST, NOR TO STRIKE A PRINCE (Symmachus, magnificent) WHO JUDGES RIGHTLY. — In Hebrew, nor to strike princes on account of righteousness or equity; the Septuagint, neither to lay snares against just princes; the Chaldean and Syriac, it is not good to fine the just, nor to strike the just who speak what is right; Aquila, on account of, that is, because of, righteousness. First, Cajetan thus expounds it, as if to say: Although it is not good to inflict harm upon the just and innocent, yet it is worse to strike with tongue or hand, that is, to censure or beat a prince or judge, who, being just and innocent in himself, but having condemned as guilty and culpable one proved guilty through allegations and witnesses; so as to signify that it is not permitted to private persons to examine the judgment of a judge and to calumniate it, according to that saying of Maximus, sermon 5 from Epictetus: "As a just balance is neither corrected by a true balance nor examined by a false one: so also a just judge ought neither to be examined by the just nor to be accused by the unjust." Second, Baynus, referring the Hebrew גם gam, that is, also, to the one receiving gifts, verse 23, thus expounds it: To receive a gift from the bosom, to pervert judgment, is evil; also to condemn the just without a gift is evil, as if to say: Judges sin twice, who accept gifts: first, in that they accept gifts; second, in that they condemn the innocent. Third, more gravely and fittingly Jansenius: This sentence signifies, he says, two evils which most commit against justice, in that they both first unjustly harm the just, inflicting loss upon him in goods or body; and then they are troublesome to princes and judges, who have pronounced sentence in defense of the just against them, pursuing and striking them with tongue or even with hand. Solomon says this, says R. Levi, because to the impious every just man, who acts rightly, appears wicked: for the impious esteem only themselves and those like them as good, but those unlike them they judge as wicked; wherefore they afflict and persecute them as wicked and opposed to themselves. Fourth, more profoundly our Salazar, understanding by the just a judge, thus expounds it, as if to say: Whoever violates a judge most equitable, appointed and set over by the prince, does the same as if he should harm and violate the prince himself, whose person that judge sustains: for thus the common consensus of men holds, that injuries inflicted upon inferior magistrates pertain in some way to the prince. For which reason to kill or strike a magistrate is by law I to the Lex Julia in the Digest a crime of lèse-majesté; and by equal penalty what is committed against the person of the prince, the Caesars judged should be punished. Fifth, in Hebrew it is one sentence, which sounds thus word for word: It is not good to afflict or strike the just, to afflict princes over righteousness. Where also he connects this sentence to the preceding one, as Aben-Ezra teaches, as if to say: If as it is not good to offend parents, so also it is not good, but perverse, to offend just men: for these are in the manner of parents, because by word and example they propagate righteousness, and beget many just men like themselves in spirit; nor princes: for these are parents of the commonwealth and fathers of the fatherland, and as such are to be honored by citizens. Wherefore God avenges injuries to the just and princes equally as to parents. In this exposition it must be repeated in the latter hemistich from the former it is not good, as the bipartite sentence says. Whence Pagninus translates: also to condemn the just is not good, to strike the prince for righteousness is not good. Moreover, if anyone should not wish to repeat it is not good, but simply take the sentence from the Hebrew as one, as it sounds, he may say that the former part either serves the latter, or is explained by it, so that the just be called antonomastically a prince, who is a ruler, guardian, keeper and avenger of justice, as if to say: It is not good, that is, a bad thing, nay a most evil thing (for it is a meiosis, because little is said, and more is signified), and therefore provokes grave wrath and vengeance of God, to afflict the just antonomastically, that is, to strike a prince or magistrate, who is the guardian and avenger of justice, and whose person represents it in the commonwealth; whence also he is called by the common people justice. Or certainly by the just understand the king or supreme magistrate, who is the supreme guardian of justice; by princes understand judges and rulers subject and subordinate to the king, as if to say: He who afflicts the king, or strikes his princes, does this most evilly, because he afflicts and strikes the whole commonwealth: for this depends upon and is sustained by the king and princes, as upon its bases and columns. For when these guardians of justice are removed, justice is taken away from the commonwealth, and force, rapine, sedition, slaughter, and all injustice rush in, by which the whole commonwealth is confounded, destroyed, overthrown. Wherefore this sentence most excellently agrees with Christ and the Apostles, as if to say: He does most evilly, who afflicts Christ the just and the Holy of Holies; but he afflicts Christ, who afflicts his princes, namely the Apostles and rulers of the Church, who labor for the propagation of true faith and justice, strikes, kills, as the Jews and Gentiles did. Thus Bede: "This maxim," he says, "can be understood both of the prince and judge of the ages himself, who willed to be struck for our salvation; and of all the rulers of the Church generally, who were either stripped of their possessions by the impious, or were consumed by eternal death itself." There is added an anonymous writer in the Catena of the Greeks: "He who takes away what is fair and just from the just," he says, "and draws away the disciples of the just from the plain and straight path of virtues, though they would otherwise walk rightly, does a work not at all good. For since the just would possess them as his own peculium, he is compelled to suffer their loss; but he who lays snares for princes, even though just, attempts a thing not at all safe, nay truly exposed to great dangers. But he calls princes here those who reign in Christ and through Christ." All these senses are probable and apt; the third is simpler than the others, the fourth is deeper, the fifth is more conformable to the Hebrew.
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27. HE WHO MODERATES HIS WORDS IS LEARNED AND (and here it signifies, that is, as is evident from the Hebrew) PRUDENT: AND A MAN OF PRECIOUS SPIRIT IS ERUDITE. — In Hebrew, he restrains or contains his words, he who knows knowledge, precious in spirit a man of understanding. For precious in Hebrew is יקר iekar, for which Vatablus and others read וקר vekar, that is, and cold in spirit a man of understanding; cold in spirit is he who is not heated with anger or fervor of speaking, but moderate and often silent extinguishes love, fervor, zeal, as he knows how to restrain his affections and the itching to speak, I said cap. XVI, vers. 2; thus precious in spirit is he who, and as R. Solomon says, is sparing of speech. excels in notable charity and zeal. Whence the Chaldean translates, and he who is humble in spirit (for he who is humble in spirit breathes sparingly, and hopes for small things, whereas the proud breathes tumidly and aspires to great things), is a man of understanding; the Septuagint, he who spares to utter a harsh word, imposition that is, skilled or prudent is (Aquila, knowing); μακρόθυμος that is longsuffering, or patient, moreover a prudent man; the Syriac, he who restrains his words, knows knowledge; longsuffering and patient is wise. Learned, knowing, erudite is called by Solomon wise and prudent; and doctrine, knowledge, erudition is called prudence itself and virtue: for this is the practical knowledge of the Saints, as I have already often warned. Repeatedly Solomon commends moderation of the tongue and sparingness of words; for this is difficult, and is effected only by great prudence and virtue. Therefore he is wise who knows how to moderate his words, so that he speaks neither more nor less than is fitting, nor at any time or place pours out what he knows or thinks; but, as the Hebrew has it, restrains his words with himself, keeping silent what should be silent, and preserving for the opportune time what should be said, and bringing them forth with due moderation. It is asked, who is here called "of precious spirit," or, as it is in Hebrew, preciousness of spirit, that is precious in spirit; Zurich, of noble spirit? First, Aben-Ezra understands by spirit doctrine, by precious rare, as if to say: The doctrine of the taciturn is precious and rare, whereas on the other hand the foolish pours out everything he knows. Second, R. Levi understands by spirit speech, as if to say: The prudent man wishes his words to be precious, that is rare, not from pride, but from prudence. For speech is formed by this spirit, which we draw in by frequent breathing. Third, Baynus: Precious in spirit, he says, that is, endowed with a certain rare understanding of mind, he delights more in solitary contemplation and meditation than in conferring with others. Fourth, others understand by spirit the impulse to speak, according to that of Elihu swelling to speak: "The spirit constrains me in the belly of my womb. Behold my belly is as new wine without vent, which bursts the new bottles," Job XXXII, 18. Precious in spirit therefore is he who restrains the impulse to speak, who holds his words rare and dear; for what are rare, these are also precious. Moreover this rarity and sparingness of words requires first, that he speak only when driven by necessity or great utility; second, that while he speaks, he enunciate and comprehend the whole matter in few words; third, that he first weigh it exactly in his mind, premeditate and ponder it. Fifth, Lyra: A man, he says, of precious spirit, that is of soul, who namely holds his soul in price, is erudite in knowledge and morals, because in these consists the preciousness of the soul. Again the spirit is precious, which breathes great wisdom and prudence and instills it into his affairs. Sixth, others understand by spirit the secret, or the intention and depth of the heart; for spirit is the intimate sanctuary and secret of the soul, as if to say: He who is precious, that is rare and sparing, so as to reveal the secrets and depth of the heart, he is prudent. Seventh, Cajetan thus explains the whole of this verse from the Hebrew: The more anyone excels the rest in knowledge, the more he weighs his words, and considering many things retains his sayings with himself, aspiring to better things. "And a man of precious spirit is erudite;" that is, a man also excelling in the acuteness of intellect is held in great price, not of money, but of spirit; in price, I say, spiritual, to which all riches are incomparable. Eighth, physically and plainly there is a twofold spirit in man; each is necessary for speaking, indeed the maker of voice and discourse. The first is spiritual, which is the soul itself and its concepts, senses and desires, which stimulate it to utter these things by voice, as if to say: He who holds the senses and desires of his soul in esteem, so that he does not rashly pour them forth by speaking, but keeps them secret as it were precious, that is rare and dear to himself, this man is a learned man, that is prudent and wise. The second spirit is corporeal, namely the very breath or respiration by which we breathe; for this, striking against the teeth, palate, tongue and throat, produces voice and discourse, as if to say: He who holds his precious spirit and breath precious, by which he forms his voices and discourses, so that he can master it, govern it, keep it as it were a precious thing to himself, and rarely emit it forth by discourse, this man is "a learned man," that is wise; by which he signifies that voice and discourse ought to be held by us at such a price, and with such care, as is the very breath by which it is formed, and on which the life of man depends. For respiration causes life: "So life and death are in the hand of the tongue," chapter XVIII, verse 21. That this is the meaning is evident from the preceding hemistich. For he who moderates his discourses is learned and prudent, which explains what is subjoined parabolically and elegantly: "And a man of precious spirit is learned." Therefore "a man of precious spirit" is he who moderates his discourses. Second, because it is said in similar phrase and sense in chapter XXIX, verse 11: "A fool uttereth all his mind: but a wise man deferreth, and keepeth it in till afterwards." And chapter I, verse 23: "Behold I will utter to you the words of my spirit, and will shew you my words." Therefore "a man of precious spirit" is he who knows how to restrain his spirit, as I said mildly above, lest he break forth rashly into words, by which he displays himself and his senses, and pours forth and divulges whatever he has in his mind, but puts a price and weight upon his mouth and words, namely whose precious, that is rare and mature, are his discourses, and who is sparing of words. This spirit therefore is called precious, first, because it is of great value and price; second, because it is noble, as Vatablus translates it; third, because it is rare; fourth, because it is dear; fifth, because it gives esteem and weight to words and deeds. Thus Proverbs XXV, 17, for what Our translation renders: "Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house, lest he be satiated, and hate thee;" in Hebrew it is, make thy foot precious from the house of thy neighbour, that is, visit thy neighbour more rarely, lest thou become vile to him and cease to be held in esteem. And Isaiah XIII, 12: "A man shall be more precious," that is rarer, "than gold," because almost all shall be slain. Precious therefore often in Scripture is the same as rare; for everything rare is dear and precious. Hence in I Kings III, verse 1, it is said: "The word of the Lord was precious in those days," that is, God gave no oracles, or certainly rare ones, at that time. Psalm CXV, 5: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints," that is, it happens most rarely and with great difficulty that God permits his servants to be slain by the savagery of enemies, according to that Psalm LXXI, verse 14: "Their name is honourable before him." Where St. Jerome translates from the Hebrew, their blood is precious in his eyes, that is, he will not easily permit their blood to be shed. A learned man therefore, that is a wise man, is precious, that is most sparing in words. On the contrary it is said of the fool, Proverbs chapter XXV, 28: "As a city that lieth open and without walls, so is the man that cannot refrain his spirit in speaking." Words therefore ought to be weighed by delay and slowness, examined, and tested by the touchstone of reason, the mouth is to be opened by the key of reason alone. For St. Chrysostom wisely says in Psalm L: "Let us guard our mouth perpetually, applying reason to it as a key." See the words of James I, 19. To this pertains the saying of Anacharsis who, when asked what in man was best and what worst, answered: The tongue; sensing that the tongue is of supreme moment and price: for if it be rightly governed, it is of the greatest utility; if otherwise, it is most pestilential. Thus Laertius, book I, chapter IX. Hence also Bias, when the king of the Egyptians Amasidas commanded him to send back what in the victim which he had sent to him was best and worst; sent back a tongue cut out, signifying that the tongue is a thing both best and most precious, if thou use it moderately: thus worst, if thou abuse it. Thus Plutarch, tract. On Talkativeness. Moreover, the same sense is had in what others reading in Hebrew וקר vekar translate, and a man cold in spirit is a man of prudence. For he is "cold" "in spirit" who does not itch to speak; but is remiss, slow and moderate in this, such as are most apt for governing: for those who burn and itch to speak, and wish to blame, censure and cut to the quick all things that are done contrary to laws, these offend many and profit little; but those who prudently dissemble many things, and are cold in commanding, reproving, admonishing, these by their modesty and moderation win over the minds of their subjects to themselves, and obtain from them what they wish; but these are precious, that is, few and rare. That saying is well-known: "Let a prince see all things, dissemble many, punish few." Philip II, King of Spain, was cold in spirit, and on this account obtained the name of a prudent prince in governing. In order that anyone may attain to this, it is necessary that he mortify his passions, tame his anger, curb his pride, master all his affections, and thus put on moderation of mind, gentleness and patience, so that he may appear phlegmatic, not choleric. Hence the Chaldean interprets cold in spirit as humble and modest in spirit: for the humble breathe modestly in speaking, and exhale submissive words; but the proud puff out their cheeks, and exhale swollen words with a tumid mouth. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 14 on Genesis, compares the humble to divers, who holding their breath descend into the depths of the sea, so that there they may gather pearls and treasures. In a similar manner indeed the humble, restraining his spirit, immerses himself in the depths of God, and there gathers precious treasures of graces. Finally, our Salazar translates the Hebrew יקר iekar as, compacted in spirit; for it is derived from קרה kora, that is, timber, and קרא kara, that is, to compact; whence קרת keret is a city, which consists of and is held together by many contignations of houses. He translates therefore, but a man compacted in spirit is prudent, that is, as the Septuagint has it, patient and long-suffering, who namely is silent to reproaches, taunts, calumnies and injuries, and does not respond harshly, but gently, is a prudent man. For he truly will be able to usurp the name of long-suffering and patient, whose spirit and mind is compacted, and as it were bound together with beams driven in. Hence St. Chrysostom, in his homily On Patience, calls "patience the strongest beam of the whole building," "upon which the rest of the mass of the roof rests." Moreover, one may call a man of compacted spirit him who has affixed his spirit by internal mortification to the wood of the cross, and has pierced his concupiscences with nails driven through like beams. This sense is ingenious and pious; would that it were equally genuine and solid! For the Hebrew iekar nowhere signifies compacted; whence neither does any other Interpreter translate it thus.
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28. A FOOL ALSO, IF HE HOLD HIS PEACE, SHALL BE COUNTED WISE: AND IF HE CLOSE (in Hebrew, stopping up; Aquila and Theodotion, obstructing; Vatablus, commanding) HIS LIPS, A MAN OF UNDERSTANDING. — The word "also," says Aben-Ezra, pertains to a greater amplification of the praises of him who is sparing in speech, so that even a fool, who applies himself to silence, is accustomed to be held wise. The Arabic version: and he who has no understanding, when he is asked about wisdom, this shall be reckoned to him as wisdom. He who makes himself silent shall be reckoned ingenious. The Wise Man here gives counsel to the foolish, namely that he be silent; for thus he shall be reckoned not foolish, but wise. The reason a priori is, both because by silence he conceals his foolishness, and because silence is the mark of a wise mind. Whence Solon, to someone saying that he did not speak because he was mad, said: "No fool can be silent;" and also because, as Rabbi Levi says, silence befits the wise: for it draws the mind from the mouth to the heart, that he may think what he ought prudently to do and to say. A fool therefore, being silent, appears like a statue of wisdom or of some deity, which does not speak, yet is honored by all because it represents wisdom or divinity. Thus indeed the fool by his taciturn gravity represents the wise man. The Septuagint in the Greek Catena translates: a fool asking wisdom shall be reckoned wise; and he who makes himself mute shall appear to be prudent. The Complutensian editors less correctly omit "wisdom." For the Septuagint corrected at Rome has: to the fool asking wisdom, wisdom shall be reckoned. And thus St. Justin reads it, in his epistle to Zenas and Serenus, and Cassian, Conferences IV, chapter IX: "To discern divisions," he says, "and the lines of questions is a portion of understanding, and the greatest part of intelligence is to know what you do not know. For which reason it is said: To the fool asking wisdom, wisdom shall be reckoned; because although he who asks is ignorant of the force of the proposed question, yet because he inquires prudently, and understands that he does not understand, this very thing is reckoned to him for wisdom, in that he prudently acknowledged what he did not know." Wherefore it is wrongly read in St. Hilary on Psalm CXVIII, letter H: "In the Proverbs," he says, "of Solomon we find written: By not knowing wisdom, to those asking wisely wisdom is attributed;" when in a very ancient book of the most learned Cardinal Sirletus it appears to have been written: "To the fool asking wisdom, wisdom is attributed." For St. Hilary, explaining this very thing, immediately adds: "In which sense it seems to be shown that he who does not understand, and asks wisely, is believed to be wise," because this question is a sign that he wishes to be instructed and to learn wisdom. The Septuagint adds the first hemistich of their own, to signify that in two ways a fool can consult for himself and his reputation so as to be held wise: first, if he asks wisely; second, if he is silent: for a wise question is indeed a mark of a wise mind, and at the same time draws a wise answer from the wise man, by which he learns what he himself ought wisely to answer and to speak in a similar question. This especially befits young men: for it is their part to ask the elders, that they may draw wisdom from them. Thus Christ, when twelve years old, was found in the temple by his mother in the midst of the doctors, asking them and hearing them, Luke II, 46. Solomon drew this maxim from Job chapter XIII, verse 5: "O that you would altogether hold your peace, that it might be esteemed wisdom in you!" From Solomon the Philosophers, both Hebrew and Greek and Latin, drew the same. The saying of the Hebrews is: "A bottle full of coins will not sound; if one or two coins be in it, it will make a sound and ring." Thus indeed the more learned a man is, the more modest and taciturn he is; the more unlearned, the more bold and talkative, that he may show his wisdom (in reality foolishness and arrogance). Seneca in the Proverbs: "He who knows not how to be silent," he says, "knows not how to speak;" for by being silent we premeditate what ought to be said. And: "Taciturnity is to a foolish man in place of wisdom," because it restrains him from uttering the foolish, superfluous, impertinent, perverse things which he bears in mind. Theophrastus to someone who was continually silent at a banquet: "If you are unlearned and imprudent," he said, "you act prudently; but if you are learned, imprudently." Thus Laertius relates it, book V, chapter II. But Plutarch writes that he spoke in this manner: "If you are a fool, you do a wise thing; if you are wise, a foolish one." For it is no small part of wisdom to conceal foolishness by silence. It is the doctrine of St. Cyril, which Dionysius here cites: "Be sparing of words, and listen willingly." Finally, it is the law of St. James, nay of the Holy Spirit: "Wherefore, my dearest brethren, let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak," James I, verse 19. The foolish and garrulous do not observe this. For, as St. Gregory says: "The wicked, as they are light in sense, so are they precipitate in speech; because what a light mind conceives, a lighter tongue forthwith utters."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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Sometimes the angels by divine order punish men (e.g.: Gen. 19:11; II Sam. 24:16-17). In Prov. 17:11 there is mention of a cruel angel who will be sent by God against the sinner.
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To justify sometimes means to declare just an individual; for example, Prov. 17:15: "Qui iustificat impium et qui condemnat iustum, abominabilis est uterque apud Deum"; Mt. 12:37: "Ex verbis tuis iustificaberis et ex verbis tuis condemnaberis"; in these texts, …
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.