論天意(十講) 第 1 章 第 5/11 段

yet to blaspheme God, who with greater wisdom and greater care provides for our souls, and who, by the supply of good things and by the fear of the lash, both teaches the elements of virtue and tears up by the root the disease of wickedness, and secures the soul's pure health? Cease, therefore, your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking blasphemy.

"Turn away from evil, and do good." Behold the care that surrounds you, and hymn Him who provides for you, so that, seeing your gratitude for His graces, He may both now overwhelm you with benefactions, and count you worthy of the promised goods;

of which may we also be found worthy, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ages of ages.

That both wealth and poverty are useful for life

Many times now, together with the Prophet, I have said to those who transgress the law:

'Do not transgress the law' — and to those who sin:

'Do not lift up the horn, do not raise your horn on high, and do not speak iniquity against God' — to those who say that he has left without a pilot the creation which he made,

of God — as though neither the sun, going forth from its chamber like a bridegroom, and reaching the furthest bounds both in brightness and in heat;

nor the moon, changing its phases and fashioning the measures of time;

nor the stars, rising and setting, guiding seafaring travelers as their hosts, and rousing farmers to the harvest and the sowing of seed;

not the succession of the seasons, not the changes of the solstices, not the timely and fitting birth-pangs of the clouds, not the concord of earth and sea, not the streams of rivers, not the flowing waters of springs, not the abundance of fruits, not the variety and usefulness of animals, not the fashioning of the body befitting a rational being, not the immortality of the soul governing the body with wisdom, not the manifold, countless arts that provide not only what is necessary but also what exceeds need, nor all the other things which the great Giver daily brings to human nature —

but though enjoying all these things, they rage and are out of their minds, and call this abundant care 'neglect,' and set before us wealth and poverty, and accuse the unevenness of life.

Come then, taking as ally of our argument the one who wisely steers the vessel of the inhabited world, let us meet their objections, dissolve their counter-arguments, and show that the accusation woven by them is but a spider's web.

'Why is it,' they say, 'that the most wicked of men grow rich, and are surrounded on every side by countless goods, and journey through life with fair winds, and take the streams of wealth as provisions for injustice? For prosperity becomes fuel for the flame of greed, and wickedness, taking wealth as its collaborator, kindles the greatest torch, and power, when added to the will, makes the evil unbearable;'

'while those who are devoted to virtue live together with poverty, suffer misery in ill fortune, lack even the necessities, go squalid, filthy, bowed down to the earth, are insulted, are treated with contempt, and endure countless griefs.'

Let us, then, first ask them what limit of happiness they claim there to be.

And if they should say wealth, we shall immediately refute their falsehood.

For how can that which, as they themselves said, is a collaborator of injustice, be the maker of happiness? For if by means of it those who live in wickedness raise their eyebrows, and puff out their cheeks, and, borne on horses and chariots, strut through the marketplace, despising others as much as they themselves deserve to be despised — commit injustice, are greedy, appropriate what belongs to others, covet what does not belong to them, seize their neighbor's goods, revel in the goods of others, traffic in the misfortunes of the poor — and do all this using the power of wealth as their collaborator — how then is wealth the limit of happiness, and the ground of good fortune? But if they should say that virtue is the fairest of goods, and declare that its ardent lover and zealous laborer stands at the very summit of goods, why then do they gaze toward wealth, and call the rich enviable? For the abundance of money and the abundance of virtuous achievements are diametrically opposed.

Let us examine, then, making this a common inquiry, taking as our helper the light of truth, what the kinds of virtue are, and how the possession of them might easily come to someone.

We define virtue, then, as prudence, temperance, courage, justice, and the things begotten from these, or the parts of philosophy contained within them.

Let us examine, therefore, what each of the things just named signifies, and what meaning, or interpretation, or force it has.

Prudence, then, is the wakefulness of the rational faculty within us — just as, conversely, derangement and folly are its intoxication, begotten from the passions, and becoming like a kind of cloud that thickens and stands in the way, not allowing it to perceive together what is fitting.

The health of the rational faculty, therefore, is called prudence.

And again we call it freedom from the passions.

For again, when the rational faculty possesses a sound and unimpaired disposition, the passions relax, and ebb away, and are scattered, and their inflammation is dissolved, while the charioteer mind is carried in good order upon its horses.

The good order of the passions, then, and the health of the charioteer, we call temperance.

And we call courage the just movement of the spirited part;

just as, on the other hand, we call rashness its unjust and disorderly movement.

For the harmony of the appetitive and the spirited parts with the rational, and their good tempering with one another, brings about for us the possession of justice.

Since, then, we have learned what the parts of virtue are, and what notion and power each of them has, come, let us again inquire whether it is possible for one who wishes to attain these to succeed by using wealth as a collaborator, or by taking poverty as a helper toward their possession.

But wealth, having many turmoils, cares of every kind, and countless forms of stormy waves, is a schemer against virtue, but not its helper.

For concerning justice, what need is there even to speak, when even the objectors themselves agree that one who desires greater possessions has no wish to recognize the difference between unjust and just, but that to such people all things are disorderly, undefined, undiscriminated? That it is, then, not easy for those who use wealth as a collaborator to succeed in virtue, it is easy even for the most contentious to learn from what has been said;

but that poverty is a collaborator of philosophy, and that no one could otherwise attain the most perfect virtue, we shall learn at once.

For first, the scarcity of necessities compels the passions to submit to the rational faculty, and does not allow them to become inflamed and to leap up against the charioteer — which is what happens to those who live in luxury and gluttony.

Then, the soul, freed from superfluous burdens, being liberated from external turmoil, and enjoying complete quiet and calm, turns inward upon itself, both beholds its own proper dignity, and recognizes the servitude of the subject passions;

and holding fast to its dominion, it legislates good order for its subjects, and chastens the disorder of both through their mutual restraint.

And now it raises up desire against inflamed anger, and dissolves the latter's intensity by the former's gentleness;

and labors, in turn, cooperate with the rational faculty toward the good order of the passions;

for the necessity of want rouses one to diligent labor, the scarcity of necessities brings on labors, and the hardship of labors, withering the passions, does not allow them to become inflamed, since it consumes their fuel.

Why then are you ungrateful, seeing poverty yoked together with the righteous, and slander the instrument of virtue — doing something like what one would do if he were to praise thrones, and benches, and couches, and doors, and the beauty of buildings, yet mock the tools of the builder and carpenter, and find fault with the adze, and the auger, and the other instruments by which each of those things comes into being? And that it is easier to attain virtue through poverty rather than through wealth is testified both by the disciples of impiety themselves, and also by those among the Greeks who were lovers of wisdom and had only the law of nature for their teacher:

'Unless one renounces all his possessions, he cannot be my disciple.' Yet nature alone was sufficient to teach them this.

For indeed the divine word offers no new teachings, but reminds us of the laws of nature; and whatever writings of nature time has corrupted through human indolence, these the Maker of nature inscribes anew through his own heralds.

For if wealth is evil, the blasphemy falls upon the one who gave it;

but we say that wealth and poverty are set before human beings by the Creator, like certain materials or instruments, and that through these human beings, like craftsmen, either fashion the statue of virtue or mold the statue of vice.

But through wealth one could scarcely carve out a few parts of virtue to beauty, whereas through poverty it is possible for many to fashion all its parts.

Let us not, then, mock poverty, the mother of virtue, nor indeed slander wealth, but let us rather accuse those who have not used it as they ought.

Since indeed iron too was given to human beings as a helper for building, farming, and seafaring, and as an aid to the other arts pertaining to life.

But those who rage against one another do not allow it to serve necessary needs alone, but even contrive one another's slaughter through it.

We do not, however, on this account accuse iron itself, but censure the wickedness of those who have used it badly.

So too the use of wine was given to human beings for gladness, but not for the derangement of the heart;

but those who honor excess, and are given over to wine-besotted revelry, make the begetter of gladness into the father of derangement.

But we, judging with a just verdict, call those who use the divine gift badly wine-besotted, and drunkards, and wicked, while we admire wine itself as a god-given gift.

So then, let us likewise judge between wealth and those who use it — let us acquit the one of the accusation, while as for the others, if they should prove to be just stewards of it, let us crown them with great praises;

but those who, having been appointed masters, corrupted their rule, and exchanged their mastery for slavery —

But perhaps someone might say — one of those who know only how to contradict what is well spoken:

But nevertheless, each thing has been entrusted with something of its own, and also contributes to the common good.

For sight guides the feet, and shows them what is smooth, and turns them away from rougher places, while it itself is carried by the feet.

And hearing too, receiving sounds, rouses sight to observation, while through sight it learns the makers of the sounds.

And that we may confirm what has been said by apostolic testimony: 'The eye cannot say to the hand,'

or again the head to the feet,

'but much rather those members of the body that seem weaker are necessary,' and upon those parts which we consider less honorable we bestow more abundant honor. And no one has ever been vexed at seeing a different function among the members, unless he were utterly deranged;

but rather he loves and admires the Maker, who has so wisely distinguished each part, assigned to each its fitting function, and made each one's own function common to all.

For neither does sight alone enjoy the things seen, nor hearing alone the things heard, nor the mouth alone the tastes, nor the nose alone the smells, nor the feet alone walking, nor the hands alone work, nor the stomach alone food, nor the heart alone warmth, nor the brain alone sensation;

but each has its own peculiar activity, yet contributes its benefit to the common good.

And the one warms the whole body entirely, the other nourishes it entirely;

and yet another brings some other tribute to the whole living being;

and the variety of activity is distributed among all the parts of the body, while all enjoy one another's benefit, and the usefulness becomes common.

And neither does hearing grow indignant at not seeing, nor does the eye chafe at not hearing, but each is content with the bounds set by nature, and renders the contribution which it was appointed from the beginning to bear.

But you are exceedingly indignant that not all people are washed over by the streams of wealth, and dwell in splendid houses, and adorn their bodies with the splendor of tunics and outer garments, and, riding upon horses and mules, have many going before them and following after, and a swarm of servants ministering to their needs, and gold-spangled couches, and soft, flowing bedding, and the contrivances of cooks, and the inventions of pleasures, and luxury brought in from every side, kindling their delights —

justice, courage, and prudence — whose very names they cannot bear even to hear? How could wealth have been possessed by all, if all were honored with equal rank? And how, if there had been equality of law, and all alike were furnished with money, would they have enjoyed the necessities of life? Or who would have endured to serve another, possessing the same abundance? Who would have tended the hearth and prepared dishes, had need not compelled him? Who would have baked bread, or ground the grain at the mill, and sifted the flour with a sieve, and kneaded it, and baked it, and endured the burning fire? Who would have brought the plow-oxen under the yoke, and tilled the earth, and cast the seed, and, having cut down the crop once it had sprouted and ripened, carried it to the threshing floor, and separated it from the chaff, had poverty not driven him to labor? Who would have devoted himself to quarrying stone, and brought the material of stones to buildings, and, fitting them together well and skillfully, constructed houses, had want not goaded and moved him to work? Who would have pursued the seafaring art? Who the trade of piloting, and the diligence of sailing? Who weaving and leatherworking? Who pottery and smithing? For if the possession of wealth had been equal, it would not have allowed one man to serve another;

but one of two things would necessarily follow: either every human being would eagerly pursue every art out of need, or all alike would perish together from the scarcity of necessities. And that it is among the impossible things for one man to pursue all the arts needs no argument, since experience itself bears witness.

For the mind, being divided between two things, and unable to master both, extracts certain elements from each, but receives an accurate and complete knowledge of neither.

It would remain, then, that all should undergo utter destruction because of the equal abundance of wealth, and that the same thing would happen to them as happens to those who, through satiety of food, destroy their very pleasure in eating.

For they too, by the ceaseless succession of dainties, blunt their appetites;

and these men, on account of their love of money, actually desire to lack even the necessities of life, and prefer the destruction that comes with wealth to a life lived with poverty.

But let us leave these men to their foolish talk, and let us here too demonstrate the providential care of God, and show that what they call inequality is in fact the occasion of a life full of contentment, and the foundation of the best social order.

For the Ruler of all things will here too be shown to preside with equality.

For first He gave the earth as a common floor to all, a common hearth, and nurse, and mother, and grave — one and the same origin of formation, the ancestral dust — and He stretched out heaven as a common roof.

Sun and moon and the other luminaries, like so many torch-bearers, He bestowed in common;

He poured out the air between them, having set forth this too as a kind of common wealth, alike for all.

For the rich do not draw in more of it than the poor; rather, here too poverty receives an equal share — or rather, a greater one;

for those nourished by poverty are more numerous, and possess stronger senses, free from superfluous burdens.

Rivers and springs, again, well up with waters common to all;

and bodies, too, He fashioned equal for both these and those;

or rather, here too the poor have the advantage;

for their bodies are stronger.

For want is the mother of health, according to the wisest of physicians;

and labors and exercises are helpers of health, according to this same teacher.

And the souls of both these and those have the very same nature;

one and the same origin of conception belongs to both these and those; marriage is the basis of one and the same act of procreation; the months of gestation are equal.

For time does not revere abundance of wealth, nor does it consent, out of deference to riches, to send forth the infant before the appointed limit, or to shut it up longer in the womb;

but alike proceeds forth both the child of the rich and the child of the poor.

The months lead to term alike for this woman and that one — or rather, if you trust experience, the poor woman's labor is easier, and her birth-pangs fewer.

For habituation to toil bestows ease.

Therefore they conceive alike, but they do not give birth alike; rather, where there is the comfort of wealth, there is greater difficulty, but where there is want of necessities, nature comes to the aid, soothing them with ease;

or rather, the Maker of nature, having thus tempered these unequal things, to the difficulty in childbirth arising from prosperity brings the comfort that comes from physicians and medicines, while to her who through poverty lacks this help He supplies the aid of nature itself.

Behold the scales of the righteous Judge, and move your tongue to praise;

behold too the newborn, coming forth equally naked;

alike it draws in the air, alike it draws the breast;

the poor man's child is not nourished with one kind of milk while a different kind is offered to the rich man's; but this one and that one alike enjoy the same and equal nourishment.

And not only do we all have one and the same entrance into life, but also an equal departure.

For one death receives us all;

for death does not fear wealth, nor dread bodyguards, nor shudder at the purple robe; it despises wall and towers and palaces alike, and enters within the very bedchambers; it does not pity one who weeps, nor take compassion on one who entreats, nor is it corrupted by gifts; it does not tolerate the physician's art, it proves the powers of medicines idle, nor does it often permit one to give final instructions and make known the heir of his estate — but it seizes, drags away, and separates the soul from the body.

Therefore both those who take pride in wealth and those who live with poverty have a common end, and likewise what comes after that end, and the departure from this life.

For alike putrefaction follows, and corrupt fluid flows down, and worms are bred, and the fierce eye is quenched and dissolves, and the insatiable mouth and the raging tongue become food consumed by worms.

And the proudly-arched neck is not only bent, but also dissolved;

and the puffed-up cheek is not only shrunk, but is also reduced to a little dust;

and the bloom of the cheek withers, and vanishes altogether;

and the fingers that wrote wickedness lie utterly scattered, their joints wholly undone.

Therefore all these things lie in store equally for rich and poor.

There remain, then, poverty and wealth, which you consider each man's own, but our argument will show, God helping us to say it, to be common.

For those who live with poverty likewise partake of the abundance of the rich.

From some they buy bread, and from others, delicacies;

others fit shoes to the feet, others make tunics, cloaks, and outer garments;

others make carpets, wreaths, and coverings;

and some supply houses, others couches and chairs, others kinds of vegetables and countless varieties of fruit, others wheat and barley and the produce of husbandry, without which it is impossible to live, even should one possess the gold of Croesus and Midas.

But for the poor man, even bread of millet or bran suffices, and whatever relish happens to be at hand is enough.

Does not wealth overleap seals and signets, and, bidding lock and door farewell, pass off into the hands of wall-breakers? No robber could ever seize the poor man's craft, but wealth is taken from its possessors not only by the robber, but also by the false accuser.

And the poor man sits in the marketplace, cutting leather, or hammering gold or silver, or selling clothing, or dealing in some other necessity.

But he who prides himself on his wealth, holding himself erect with head held high, and waving his hands about, comes to him attended by his many bodyguards;

and the one, as is fitting, sits — sewing leather, or engraving silver, or doing whatever else belongs to the craft he practices;

while the other stands there conversing, and by his very presence signifying his need.

Why, then, are you indignant, and why do you accuse poverty, when you see that wealth stands in great need of it, and that those who possess it are unable to live without it? Marvel rather at Him who has so wisely ordered these things, granting money to some and skills to others, and through mutual need drawing them together into concord and friendship.

For some furnish money, others provide the products of their craft.

For poverty vies in her own generosity, and surpasses wealth in her gifts.

For the very things that wealth accounts useless, poverty, transforming them by craft, shows to be necessary and fit for every use.

And if one examines closely, poverty even gathers the very materials of wealth;

for she mines the gold and silver, the bronze and iron, of which wealth consists.

For wealth comes into being gathered from every craft, and the crafts belong properly to poverty.

And again, taking these shapeless materials, poverty gives them form and shape, and fashions rings, earrings, necklaces, furnishings, bracelets, drinking-cups, and all the other things that puff up the cheek of the rich.

If, then, wealth too is constituted by means of poverty, and poverty has wealth as the helper of its crafts, why do you accuse equality of inequality? Why do you call friends enemies? And why do you slander the social order, through which life is more agreeable both for the poor and for the rich? For, receiving from one another what each lacks, both these and those fill up their need.

"Why, then, do most of the wealthy live in injustice? And why are not all nourished by righteousness?" But here again you would take away free will, and rob the living creature of the honor which he received from his Maker.

Moreover, the workers of wickedness would have had ample ground for an excuse, if in the present life the Judge had allotted wealth to the righteous alone.

For they would have said the very things which their teacher spoke against Job:

"Have you not hedged about all that is within and without their house? You have multiplied for them grain and wine;

but stretch forth your hand, and touch all that they have — surely they will curse you to your face." This is what those who live in wickedness would have said, had only those nurtured by virtue received the gift of wealth.

But since the Maker has set forth poverty and wealth in the midst, as it were certain materials, and some use them for the acquisition of virtue, while others use them as the occasion of vice, no excuse for pardon remains either for the rich or for the poor who live in wickedness.

For those who have managed their wealth well and rightly, neither increasing it by others' misfortunes, and who have made the needy sharers in their abundance, suffice for the condemnation of those who have used wealth unjustly and rapaciously;

and those who have tempered poverty with philosophy, and have borne its assaults with patience and nobility, will become true accusers of those who in poverty have learned to do evil.

Consider also the further providential ordering of the Pilot of all, that you may offer Him your hymn of praise with greater fervor.

For since He saw the abundant attendance surrounding the wealthy, He allotted health to poverty as its portion.

The one is carried in a litter, while the other walks, having no need of feet not his own.

And the one longs for the health of the poor man, while the other pities the sickness of wealth.

One may see this also in the case of illnesses: the one man, though tended by countless attendants, suffers bitterly and is unable to bear the onset of his disease,

and in the season of winter he lies in well-warmed rooms, tossing upon a soft couch, wrapped in many warm garments, with braziers set about him doing battle with the cold, countless remedies contending against the disease, the promises of physicians consoling his spirit, friends at his side, and by their conversation drawing out the barbs of his suffering;

but if it should be the season of summer, other rooms again receive him, thrown open, and readily admitting the breezes of the winds;

and if even these should cease, the attendants contrive wind by means of fans.

Branches are set round about on every side, fashioning a garden and making the house into a grove.

They contrive fountains of water on the third story, wishing to lay sleep upon his eyelids.

Yet though such care is offered him from every side, he suffers no less — stripping off his covers, turning himself about, signifying by the movement of his hands the hidden fire within.

But the poor man has but a single small dwelling, and this often on rent.

And there are some who, being unable even to pay rent, have the marketplace for a house, the ground for a bed, and refuse for bedding;

and no physician attends him, nor any cook to minister to the physician's orders, no manservant, no maidservant, and perhaps not even a wife to share his bed.

But for him all things become the providence of God, blunting the barbs of his sufferings, dimming his pains, quenching the flame of fever without medicine, and warding off harm — that from cold, that from heat, and that from the dampness beneath him.

No one instructs him which foods nourish the disease and which contend on the side of health; rather, without discrimination or distinction he eats whatever is at hand, and the harmful becomes beneficial, and cold water, when drunk, proves to be a remedy, and dry bread quenches the fever, needing neither softening applications from above nor purgatives injected from below.

For nature fills up the deficiency, and it is nature that supplies to the sufferer the help that comes from physicians.

And one may see the man cast upon the ground bearing his illness more easily than those who enjoy the aforementioned care.

Seeing, then, in each of the things that happen the guardian care of God, do not busy yourself inquiring curiously into each thing that occurs.

But if you wish to do this nonetheless, take piety as a fellow-worker in your inquiry.

Let this lead your course, let this guide you toward the investigation of what you seek.

Obeying this, take every occasion for the hymning of the Creator;