CHAPTER VII Basil’s meek and gentle reproof
CHAPTER VII
Basil’s meek and gentle reproof
And when he had somewhat suppressed the tumult of his soul, he said:—
[BASIL.] If you have renounced my interests, and have no further respect and consideration for me, (why so, I know not,) you should still be careful of your own reputation. But now you have opened all men’s mouths, and all say you have refused this ministry through love of vain glory; and there is no one who can deliver you from such an accusation.
33. I cannot even bear to appear in public, so many come to me and revile me daily; for when they see me anywhere in the city, those who are at all intimate with me, take me aside and subject me to the chief share of the blame. For, say they, you who knew his mind (and none of his interests was hidden from you), should not have kept it to yourself, but ought to have imparted it to us, and we should not have been by any means unprovided with a scheme for his capture.
34. Now inasmuch as I did not know you had long since resolved upon this, I am put to shame, and I blush to tell them, lest they should suppose our friendship to be mere pretence. But if it is so, and verily it is, and you cannot deny it, after what you have now done in regard to me, it would still be well to conceal our failings from those who are without, and yet entertain a moderately good opinion of us.
35. I am reluctant to tell them the truth, and how the case stands between us, and so I am compelled to keep silence, and to bend towards the ground, and to avoid those who are coming towards me, and to get out of the way.
36. For even if I escaped the former censure, I must afterwards of necessity be condemned for mendacity. Because they will never believe that you range Basil alongside of others who are not suffered to know your affairs.
37. But I have not much to say about these things, inasmuch as it has thus seemed good to you: and how shall we bear the shame of what yet remains? Some accuse you of caprice, and some, of vain glory; while the more unsparing of those that complain charge us with both together, and add that we have insulted those who have honoured us.
38. They say they should have suffered justly, even if they had been yet more dishonoured by us, because they passed by so many and so worthy men, and hastily invested with such honour as they never even dreamed to expect to receive, two striplings who but a day or two ago were still entangled by the cares of life, and who but a very short time had worn a sober countenance, and put on grave garments, and affected seriousness. Moreover, those who from early life to advanced age have performed their discipline, are among those who are under authority, and boys who have not even learned the laws by which rule should be exercised, direct them. Men who say these things and more than these, constantly assail me.
39. Now I am at a loss what answer I shall make to these things; so I pray you, tell me. For I do not think you took to flight heedlessly and without cause, and incurred the enmity of men who are so great, but that you were led to it with some reasoning and consideration, wherefore I also conjecture you have some reply ready by way of defence. Say then whether we can offer any just pretext to those who accuse us?
40. For I ask no apology for what I have been wronged in by you, nor for the deception you have practised, nor for your betrayal of me, nor for the advantages you have received through me at any former time.
41. For, if I may so say, I brought and placed my very soul in your hands; but you have used as much guile with me, as if you had needed to be on your guard against an enemy.
42. Yet you ought not to have avoided the gain yourself if you supposed this project beneficial; but if injurious, you ought to have delivered from harm myself also, whom you have always professed to honour above all others.
43. But you have done all you could to make me fall into the snare, and must needs have recourse to guile and hypocrisy, against one who had ever been wont to speak and act with you in everything honestly and frankly.
44. Nevertheless, in what I have said, I accuse you of none of these things now, nor do I reproach you on account of the loneliness in which you have placed me, by interrupting those conferences from which we often derived no ordinary pleasure and profit.
45. But I dismiss all these things, and endure them in silence and with meekness; not because you have slightly transgressed against me, but because I laid down for myself this law from the very day when I began to cherish affection for you,—that however willing you might be to grieve me, I would never impose upon you the necessity of an apology.
46. For that you have brought upon me no little injury, you yourself also know, if you but remember the words which have always been spoken of us by others as well as by ourselves. They were to this effect:—that it was a great gain for us to be of one accord, and that we were fortified by our affection towards each other.
47. And all said that our unanimity would confer no little benefit upon many besides. Yet I never imagined, so far as I am concerned, that I should render services to any; but I said we should realise from it at least this return, that those who sought to enter into conflict with us would find us hard to overcome.
48. Nor did I ever cease to remind you of this: “The time is one of difficulty; those who take counsel against us are many; the genuineness of love is perished, and the pest of detraction has been put in its place; we travel in the midst of snares, and walk about on the battlements of cities; those who are ready to exult in our misfortunes if anything should happen, are many and have beset us on every side; there is no one to condole with us, or at any rate such are very few; beware lest by separating we should at any time provoke great ridicule, and mischief surpassing the ridicule. Brother helped by brother is like a strong city, and a well fortified kingdom; do not dissolve this relationship, nor break down this barrier.”
49. This and more than this I was always saying, never suspecting anything of this sort, but supposing you were perfectly sound in regard to me, I only superfluously wished to heal one that was well. But it seems I was unwittingly administering remedies to a sick man. I was unfortunate enough to do no good, and no advantage has accrued to me from my excessive forethought.
50. For, casting all these things away, and not even giving them a thought, you abandoned me like a ship without ballast in an untried ocean, without considering those wild waves which I must encounter.
51. For if ever calumny, or ridicule, or any other reproach or insult should happen to be heaped upon me,—and such things often necessarily occur,—to whom shall I flee? To whom impart my grief? Who will be ready to protect me, and will restrain those who vex me, and cause them to vex me no more? Who will comfort me, and fit me to bear with the follies of others? There is no one; because you stand afar off from this dreadful conflict, and cannot so much as hear the clamour.
52. Know you not what mischief you have done? And even now, after you have smitten, do you perceive how deadly is the wound you have inflicted on me?
53. But put aside these matters,—for you cannot undo what has been done, nor find an explanation for the inexplicable,—what shall we say to others? What answer can we give to their accusations?