SOME FRAGMENTS.
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VII.Wealth is not a good thing; extravagance is a bad thing; soberness[1] is a good thing. And soberness inclines us to frugality and the acquisition of things that are good; but wealth inclines us to extravagance and draws us away from soberness. It is hard then for a sober man to be rich, or for a rich man to be sober.
VIII.If you had been born in Persia, you would not have been anxious to live in Greece, but rather to live a happy life where you were; why then, if you have been born in poverty, are you anxious to become rich instead of remaining in poverty and being happy there?
- ↑ σωφροσύνη (σώζω to save, φρήν the mind), inadequately rendered by 'moderation,' 'soberness,' 'temperance,' etc., is one of the most characteristic words of Greek literature, and expresses, as far as any one word can, the spirit of the best Greek art. To be σώφρων was, for a Greek philosopher, to be an ideal, regenerate man. This fragment then is exactly paralleled by Luke xviii. 24, 25. But how differently the truth is taught in each case: in one with all the fire of the Hebrews, in the other with all the light of the Greeks!
EVEN
