1. It is not without injury to the other party, dearly beloved, whenever, as need requires, one must set forth the proclamations of virtues by their merits, since when a man praises the better things, he chastises the worse. For undoubtedly the fool reckons himself marked out, if the wise man, praised by the judgment of the good, departs. But what shall we do, who can neither dispose good things without the rebuke of the wicked, nor condemn evil things without the mention of the good? He therefore will grant pardon who reckons himself to have received an injury in this work. For it is better that evil things depart, confounded by a conscious shame, only that those things which are worthy of praise not lie hidden.
Two things, therefore, come together into one: humility and pride, of which the nature of things does not allow the one to be set forth without shame to the other, since the one takes pride in its own acts, the other blushes at another's. It must be said, therefore, how much of usefulness humility has, that you may be able to understand how much of unhappiness weighs upon pride; and it must be set forth how much pride begets of hatreds, that you may learn how much of the grace of love humility acquires; so that each of you may more easily recognize what he ought to amend in himself, or what he can choose. The dominion of pride is not so to be chastened that the grace of humility be passed over; nor is humility so to be preferred that the vices of pride be kept silent.
For what does it profit to know the cause of a sickness, if you know not the medicine? Or what does it help to know the aid of health, if there be no care for restraining the disease? 2. Hear the Scripture saying concerning these things: God gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud (James 4:6). Learn now, dearly beloved, the recompense of each side; and you will understand what you ought to love, what to hate. Behold, here the one for love of humility is invited to grace, there the other for the crime of pride is consigned to punishment. Let each one therefore chasten in himself, if any swelling of spirit has grown up in him, lest he stir up against himself the arms of heavenly justice. But with difficulty and not without peril to his own life does that man pass, upon whom lies a cause of contention against a loftier power.
The soul is therefore to be bent toward all humility, that there may be with the Lord a place for obtaining grace. But you can understand how grievous is the guilt of a swollen brow, which it is necessary to restrain by so great a labor of Divinity. Well is humility always unharmed; for it knows not how to be conquered, for whom there is no cause of fighting. But pride is subject not only to hatreds, but even to perils. For with difficulty can it come about that he does not sustain a battle who proclaims an injury. But we easily exclude from ourselves all the peril of this necessity, if against the vices of pride we fight with humility. God gives grace to the humble, but resists the proud. 3.
If you inquire diligently, dearly beloved, into all the things by which from the beginning of the world we have begun to displease the Lord, you will find that the chief of all vices was pride, and you will easily recognize in what humility has merited heavenly grace, or pride has fallen into the offense of Divinity. In short, the outcome of the devil taught that man is imperiled by pride: who, established in a loftier place, despised things lowlier; and, on account of the vice of a presumptuous mind, being cast down from angelic dignity, received the sentence of a tyrannical condemnation. You see therefore that he plays the parts of pride who is zealous for pride. But what remains for him, except the sentence of condemnation, over whom arrogance holds dominion?
Let us compare, if you please, evils with goods, and worse things with better, and you will understand with how great an envy a man labors day by day through the vice of pride. But the person need not be sought far off. Do you but assume the office of frankness, and at once you will recognize the mind of the proud man. What life, I ask, is theirs, whose hatreds are daily? Never indeed does that man pass a day without either his own or another's sin, who walks along, lifted up with a haughty brow, since among higher and lower persons he is ever either despised or feared. Pride is a vice of vileness, and a sign of ignobility; but the nobility of mind knows not how to be exalted. Ever, among the unworthy, does a haughty brow grow together with power; but where there is the splendor of life, humility idly charms. 4.
I speak of that true and holy humility which the love of religion and of God persuades, not which the fear of domination extorts. We make mention of that humility which is joined in the fellowship of charity; which is not extorted by the authority of command, but is nourished by a rule of living. Let no one indeed reckon that the manners of nature are to be imputed only to vices, since a haughty brow is nourished with means, and dominion grows with power. When would medicine suffice for weak bodies, if wounds were born together with the man? Pride is nourished, while this man judges himself wiser in words, that man judges himself better in birth; this one while he will not be moved from his place, that one while he thinks himself able to be despised. Thus we see hatreds grow through the vice of pride in the comparison of person:
while this one heaps a weight of gold and silver before the eyes of flatterers, that one sets against it the ambition of honor; this one while he prefers in himself an abundance of wealth, that one an abundance of words; this one while he wishes to be sought out for his counsel, that one desires to be greeted for the sake of his banquet. The vices of pride can scarcely be enumerated! And if a man could conquer or beware of them, he would incur no snare of diabolical condemnation. Behold, this one, that he may always seem new, gives an excuse to those who would greet him; that one, that he may be greeted daily, feigns sickness; this one, that he may find a place for imputing blame, pretends to be solicitous about all things — not because he desires the absent one, but that he may accuse him as guilty of neglect of duty.
For he inquires from what morning hour the one greeting him has besieged his door, that he may impute why the retinue of his friends was lacking. Thus, when he who is present is not admitted to the greeting, he who is absent is set down as guilty; as though, when the door is closed to this one who comes, an offense is prepared for that one who is absent. I do not wish to speak of those loftinesses of spirit, when he goes out with a long-premeditated haughty brow, and by their own places and their own merits appoints his arrangements; so that to these he offers kisses, to that one he presents his chest. No word is welcome to him, no affection of familiar conversation is preserved: some he passes over with his eyes, others he despises with his speech, that he may show himself angry to the other. What hope of living, I ask, is there, where one man, under the appearance of friendships, presumes upon domination;
does another man, by too much compliance, endure servitude? 5. But let us consider what sort of man this proud fellow is when, among equals, he takes his seat by chance to pronounce sentence in judgment. I seem to see battles of words framed in belching pomposity, when one man is eager for mercy while the other feigns a zeal for justice; not that he may keep faith with an upright verdict, but that he may await the favor of a superior person. For he pretends to have felt otherwise, so that he may dissent from the other's opinion. He thinks nothing right in the deliberations except what he alone has thought; he counts nothing just except what he has persuaded himself is so. He wishes to be heard alone, and to be praised alone by the mouth of all; nor is there lacking, which is the worst of it, one who takes his side in this.
For pride quickly gives place to flattery, when either the one seeks favor or the other fears to give offense. Nor is pride a small thing even at banquets, when a higher place is prepared at the couch, and a couch is spread so much more loftily that he seems rather to hang than to recline. Thus pride submits to insult, lest it seem to suffer injury. It is asked who may offer a hand to him as he rises, who may steady his shoulder, who may support his side. No one can excuse me from saying that this vice is not a mark of tyrannical domination. For the service which one man renders to another, if it is not bestowed for this alone, that he may protect the weak, stands proven to be servitude. In which matter I praise the patience of poverty, which, when forsaken by its own virtues, becomes a servant to the manners of others.
But why do we lay so great a weight of pride upon the rich alone, when we frequently see men set in the utmost want defiled by a like wretchedness of spirit? Of whom that wisest Solomon says: Three things my soul hates... a poor man that is proud, and the rest that follows (Sir. 25:3-4). Without doubt he exceeds all measure of pride who has no awareness of his own resources. In the greatest and loftiest men, humility is to be preferred, but no one marvels at a humble poor man; for he humbles himself unwillingly, whom the necessity of poverty bends down. Humility in a poor man is pleasing, in a rich man glorious; humility among enemies is winning, but pride even among friends is unwelcome. 6.
Let us, on the contrary, beloved, inquire what are the goods of humility. Humility is always winning and obliging, pleasing in friendships, unmoved amid insults: it is not exalted by prosperity, not changed by adversity; it neither demands service nor extorts it; it is first in the office of greeting, slower to take a seat; it does not wait to be escorted by a flattering throng; it does not ambitiously desire to be saluted; it does not require the pursuit of praise nor await the favor of a voice; it hates the choirs of those who acclaim, because a good conscience is not praised without a blush. It does not seek the voices of flatterers, save he who knows himself unworthy of praise; and he who deserves it is always more modestly praised by the zeal of friends.
But where unworthiness holds sway, a man reckons his deeds are being marked if he departs unpraised. Humility is hedged about with goodness. As it knows not how to do injury, so from insult it seeks no requital. The humble man in contentions would rather be silent than conquer, in judgments he acquiesces to seem unskilled rather than to be judged shameless; he is not ready with words, not prepared to answer. But the speech of the proud is quick and glib, full of insults and crammed with injuries, never sent forth without a wound, never hurled without pain; whose blow is incurable and whose stain irremediable. But where a fault of words has reached its mark, healing soon follows through amends. 7. This therefore we must love.
It befits us, beloved, to seek this, to choose this, to hold fast to this, that we may not lose the grace promised as the gift of reward. Hear the evangelist saying: He that humbles himself shall be exalted; and he that exalts himself shall be humbled (Luke 14:11; 18:14). That exaltation is condemnation, which exercises the power of the coming judgment against the arrogant and haughty. Therefore our spirit must be bowed down, so that, every mark of pride being trodden underfoot, the zeal of hatreds may be laid to rest. Thus it will come to pass that a man may pass from a lowlier place to loftier heights, and, rewarded with worthy honor, may obtain the grace of heavenly power.