"The most acceptable worship is that which comes from cheerful hearts." 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal : You may be plundered by a jilting whore; Your ships may sink at sea with all their store : Who gives to friends, so much from fate secures ; That is the only wealth for ever yours."-MART. 1. v. Epig. 42. To break or dig through a wall is a frequent expression with the Greeks. See Job. XXIV. 16. "In sooth it is very orderly to steal and dig through walls." ARISTOPH. Plut. v. 565. 22. The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. Things changed are changed according to parts; for instance, The body is brought back to a sound state of health when the eye is restored to a healthy condition." ARISTOT. Metaph. 1. x. c. 11. "There are some philosophers who think that the soul is a light, there being nothing to which the soul is so much averse as ignorance and that which is dark or obscure. Light is sweet to the soul, but she takes no delight in anything, however desirable in other respects, that is in darkness."-PLUT. de occult. viv. c. 6. "That by which we reason, remember, and exercise prudence, is the light and brightness of the soul."-IBID. de sen. repub. tract. c. 15. "To faith under the description of 'Single Faith' Numa instituted an anniversary festival."-LIV. 1. I. c. 21. 24. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. "The more men indulge in the desire of wealth, the less will they esteem virtue ; for virtue is so at variance with wealth, that supposing each to be placed at the opposite end of a balance, they would always weigh the one against the other." PLAT. de rep. 1. VIII. c. 6. "If you do not drink with those with whom you used to drink, you cannot appear equally agreeable to them. If you do not sing with those with whom you used to sing, you cannot be equally dear to them. Choose which you will. If it is better to be modest and decent than to have it said of you-What an agreeable fellow! give up the rest; renounce it; withdraw yourself; have nothing to do with it. Characters so different cannot be confounded. You cannot act both Thersites and Agamemnon. If you would be Thersites you must be hump-backed and bald: if Agamemnon, tall and handsome, and a lover of those who are under your care."-EPICT. 1. IV. c. 2. 25. Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment ? "SOCRATES. I go about doing nothing else than persuading you, both young and old, to take no care either for the body or for riches, prior to or so much as for the soul, how it may be most perfect, telling you that virtue does not spring from riches, but riches, and all other human blessings, both private and public, from virtue.” PLAT. Socr. apol. c. 17. "Doth any good man fear that food should fail him? It doth not fail the blind; it doth not fail the lame: shall it fail a good man? A paymaster is not wanting to a soldier, or to a labourer, or to a shoemaker; and shall one be wanting to a good man? Is God so negligent of his own institutions; of his servants; of his witnesses ?” "Receive my counsel, and EPICT. 1. III. c. 26. 2 O that we lov'd ourselves but half so well!"-Juv. Sat. x. v. 346. 34. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. "Tranquillity excludes all manner of tumult. Nothing can be more miserable, nothing more ridiculous, than to be always in fear: what madness is it for a man to anticipate his misfortunes !"-SENEC. Epist. 96. "O when will you behold the day, when you shall know that time does not belong to you; when in a pleasing tranquillity, and the full enjoyment of self-complacency, you are regardless of to-morrow."-IBID. Epist. 32. MATTHEW VII. 3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? "No one, sees faults clearly in himself; but if another behave ill, he will observe it."-MENAND. apud Stob. XXIII. while 66 Why are you so sharp-sighted, O malicious fellow, after your neighbour's faults; you overlook your own."- PLUT. de tranq. an. c. 8. "ASTAPHIUM. He who accuses another of dishonesty, him it behoves to look into himself."-PLAUT. Trucul. Act 1. sc. 2. "Our neighbour's hunch upon his back is known; But we forget what rises from our own."-CATUL. carm. 22. "We perceive what is defective more readily in others than we do in ourselves." CIC. de off. 1. 1. c. 41. "While you carelessly pass by Your own worst vices with unheeding eye, Why so sharpsighted in another's fame," Strong as an eagle's ken, or dragon's beam? But know that he with equal spleen shall view, With equal rigour shall your faults pursue. Search your own breast and mark with honest care What seeds of folly Nature planted there."-HOR. 1. I. sat. 3. Persius satirises the man who "Like a mean fellow as he is, can say to a blind man, Ho! you blind fellow ! fancying himself to be somebody."-PERS sat. I. v. 128. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Calypso assures Ulysses, when giving him her counsel- HOм. Odyss. 1. v. v. 188. Mæandrius, addressing the citizens of Samos, declares "I shall certainly avoid doing that myself which I deemed reprehensible in another."-HDT. 1. III. c. 143. "Be such to your parents as you would wish your children to be to you. You will then govern your anger if you treat the delinquent in the same manner as you would wish to be yourself treated in the like case."-Isoc. Orat. 1. "The ancient magistrates of Athens and Lacedæmon were far from behaving insolently in their office, but treated those who were subject to their authority in the same manner as they themselves would wish to be treated by their superiors."-IBID. Orat. 4. Aristotle speaks with censure and contempt of those "Who are not ashamed to inflict upon others things which they would consider neither just nor expedient for themselves. They require that they should be treated with justice; but they care nothing about justice towards others."-ARISTOT. Polit. 1. VII. c. 2. Seneca quotes as a proverbial saying "Do as you would have others do to you."-SENEC. Epist. 92. "We never ought to behave to an adversary in such a manner as would shock ourselves, were he to behave so to us."-QUINTIL. 1. xi. c. 1. 13. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14. Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. "Choose sin-by troops she shall before thee stand; Long, rugged, steep, th' ascent and rough the road." Plato remarks on the above HES. oper. et dies, v. 285. "Hesiod is pointed out by the many as a man of wisdom, because he asserted that the road to wickedness is smooth, and offers itself to be traversed without difficulty, being very short."-PLAT. de leg. 1. Iv. c. 9. ""Tis said that virtue dwells on high, Mid rocky steeps that seek the sky; Where o'er a hallow'd realm she holds her sway. No mortal eye her form hath met Save his, from whose heart galling sweat Breaks out, and wins to manhood's top the way." SIMONID. apud Anthol. Græc. In the fable of Prodicus, given by Xenophon in his Memorabilia, Sensuality endeavours to seduce Hercules by the promise "I will lead you through those paths which are smooth and flowery, where every delight shall court your enjoyment, and sorrow and pain shall never appear." Virtue, on the contrary, forewarns him— "The wise governors of the universe have decreed that nothing great, nothing excellent, shall be obtained without care and labour: they give no real good, no true happiness, on other terms."-XEN. Mem. 1. II. c. 1. Maximus Tyrius, referring to the same fable, says― "The way of virtue is for the most part rugged, and but little of it smooth: therefore a good man who resolves to enter upon it and pursue it must prepare for labour and be ready to endure."-MAX. TYR. Diss. 4. "SOCRATES. sensible? Did you not say that you called the many senseless and the few "ALCIBIADES. I did say so."-PLAT. Alcib. II. c. 15. "To err is manifold; for evil, as the Pythagoreans conjecture, belongs to the infinite, and good to the finite; but it is only possible to act rightly in one way. Hence the one is easy, but the other is difficult; it is easy indeed to deviate from the mark, but difficult to hit it; and on this account excess and defeat belong to vice, but the medium to virtue."-ARISTOT. Eth. 1. II. c. 1. "This life is conducted by two opposite principles and two opposite powers; the one leading us to the right and by a direct way, the other, on the contrary, turning us back and hindering us.' ."-PLUT. de Isid. et Osirid. C. 45. "One way to the city of Virtue leads through verdant meads shaded by beautiful trees and refreshed by meandering rivulets; there is nothing that can render the way tedious or fatiguing to the traveller. Another is, on the contrary, full of rocky fragments and sharp stones, and at the first view gives you nothing to expect but a parching sun, ardent thirst, and a difficult ascent along a craggy track over barren mountainous ridges. LUCIAN. Hermotim. c. 25. "Philosophy, where in all the world is she to be met with? I, for my part, have never yet been able to find out her abode, though I have taken all imaginable pains in the search, through the ardent desire I have to make her acquaintance." IBID. Piscat. c. 11. "The door of philosophy is neither manifest to all nor known to every one.” IBID. C. 13. "The reply of Socrates to a vicious woman who boasted that she could entice all his disciples from him, but that he could not withdraw one of her followers from her, was -No wonder; for you lead all by a downward path; but I persuade them to strive after virtue, and this is a steep road and little frequented."-ÆL. Var. hist. 1. XIII. c. 31. "Virtue's paths untrodden lie, Those paths that lead us upwards to the sky." HOR. 1. III. carm. 24. 15. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. "Of all things it is the most dreadful and disgraceful for shepherds to breed, as guardians of the flock, such kind of dogs and in such a manner, as that either through want of discipline, or hunger, or some other ill habit, the dogs should themselves attempt to hurt the sheep, and so resemble wolves rather than dogs. Must we not take care, then, that our allies act not thus towards our citizens?"-PLAT. de rep. 1. III. c. 22. 16. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles ? "No lovely rose, Or hyacinth, from the rude bramble grows; Can gentle words or courteous acts proceed."-THEOGN. v. 537. "How can a vine have the properties, not of a vine, but of an olive tree? or an olive tree, not those of an olive, but of a vine ?"-EPICT. 1. II. c. 20. Every "Good does not spring from evil, any more than a fig from an olive tree. leaf and fruit answers its own seed: that which is good cannot degenerate: as what is fit and honourable cannot rise from what is wrong and vile, so neither can good spring from evil: for fit, and good, is the same thing."-SENEC. epist. 87. 26. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell and great was the fall of it, "It is not, O Athenians! it is not possible to found a lasting power upon injustice, perjury, and treachery. They may perhaps succeed for once, and borrow for a while a gay and flourishing appearance. But time betrays their weakness, and they fall to ruin of themselves. For, as in structures of every kind the lower parts should have the greatest firmness, so the grounds and principles of actions should be just and true." DEMOSTH. Olynth. 1. MATTHEW VIII. 2. And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. "The power of the Deity is infinite. As nothing but the will is necessary for the motion of our bodies, so the divine will of the gods can, with the like ease, create, move, and change all things."-Cic. de nat. deor. 1. III. c. 39. 5. There came unto him a centurion. The following are given from among numerous instances of the use of the word centurion, a captain of a hundred soldiers, among the Romans. "These arms, these centurions, these cohorts, do not announce danger to us, but protection."-Cic. pro. Milon. c. 1. "I appeal to you, O centurions, and to you, O soldiers, in this time of danger." IBID. C. 37. "There were in that legion two centurions of great bravery, F. Pulfio and L. Varenus."-CES. de Bell. Gal. 1. v. c. 44. Horace says that his father, though poor, yet disdained for his son "The country schoolmaster, to whose low care The great centurion sent his high-born heir."-HOR. 1. 1. sat. 6. "Lucius Virginius held an honourable rank among the centurions, in the camp near Algidum."-Liv. 1. III. c. 44. 11. And I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. 12. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Socrates speaks of the future blessedness as being a state of delightful converse with the renowned heroes and venerable sages of antiquity. "If on arriving at Hades, released from those who pretend to be judges, one should find those who are true judges, and who are said to judge there, Minos and Radamanthus, Æacus and Triptolemus, and such others of the demi-gods as were just during their own life, would this be a sad removal? At what price would you not estimate a conference with Orpheus and Musæus, Hesiod and Homer? I should be willing to die often if this be true."-PLAT. Apolog. Socr. c. 32. |