And the world, as it is larger, so it is fuller of dangers, as the greater sea is the more dangerous.And here, in the first place, man is separated from man by the difference of languages.For if two men, each ignorant of the other's language, meet, and are not compelled to pass, but, on the contrary, to remain in company, dumb animals, though of different species, would more easily hold intercourse than they, human beings though they be.For their common nature is no help to friendliness when they are prevented by diversity of language from conveying their sentiments to one another; so that a man would more readily hold intercourse with his dog than with a foreigner.But the imperial city has endeavored to impose on subject nations not only her yoke, but her language, as a bond of peace, so that interpreters, far from being scarce, are numberless.This is true; but how many great wars, how much slaughter and bloodshed, have provided this unity! And though these are past, the end of these miseries has not yet come.For though there have never been wanting, nor are yet wanting, hostile nations beyond the empire, against whom wars have been and are waged, yet, supposing there were no such nations, the very extent of the empire itself has produced wars of a more obnoxious description--social and civil wars--and with these the whore race has been agitated, either by the actual conflict or the fear of a renewed outbreak.If I attempted to give an adequate description of these manifold disasters, these stern and lasting necessities, though I am quite unequal to the task, what limit could I set? But, say they, the wise man will wage just wars.As if he would not all the rather lament the necessity of just wars, if he remembers that he is a man; for if they were not just he would not wage them, and would therefore be delivered from all wars.For it is the wrongdoing of the opposing party which compels the wise man to wage just wars; and this wrong-doing, even though it gave rise to no war, would still be matter of grief to man because it is man's wrong-doing.Let every one, then, who thinks with pain on all these great evils, so horrible, so ruthless, acknowledge that this is misery.And if any one either endures or thinks of them without mental pain, this is a more miserable plight still, for he thinks himself happy because he has lost human feeling.
CHAP.8.--THAT THE FRIENDSHIP OF GOOD MEN CANNOT BE SECURELY RESTEDIN, SO LONG AS
THE DANGERS OF THIS LIFE FORCE US TO BE ANXIOUS.
In our present wretched condition we frequently mistake a friend for an enemy, and an enemy for a friend.And if we escape this pitiable blindness, is not the unfeigned confidence and mutual love of true and good friends our one solace in human society, filled as it is with misunderstandings and calamities? And yet the more friends we have, and the more widely they are scattered, the more numerous are our fears that some portion of the vast masses of the disasters of life may light upon them.
For we are not only anxious lest they suffer from famine, war, disease, captivity, or the inconceivable horrors of slavery, but we are also affected with the much more painful dread that their friendship may be changed into perfidy, malice, and injustice.And when these contingencies actually occur,--as they do the more frequently the more friends we have, and the more widely they are scattered,--and when they come to our knowledge, who but the man who has experienced it can tell with what pangs the heart is torn? We would, in fact, prefer to hear that they were dead, although we could not without anguish hear of even this.
For if their life has solaced us with the charms of friendship, can it be that their death should affect us with no sadness? He who will have none of this sadness must, if possible, have no friendly intercourse.Let him interdict or extinguish friendly affection; let him burst with ruthless insensibility the bonds of every human relationship;or let him contrive so to use them that no sweetness shall distil into his spirit.But if this is utterly impossible, how shall we contrive to feel no bitterness in the death of those whose life has been sweet to us? Hence arises that grief which affects the tender heart like a wound or a bruise, and which is healed by the application of kindly consolation.For though the cure is affected all the more easily and rapidly the better condition the soul is in, we must not on this account suppose that there is nothing at all to heal.Although, then, our present life is afflicted, sometimes in a milder, sometimes in a more painful degree, by the death of those very dear to us, and especially of useful public men, yet we would prefer to hear that such men were dead rather than to hear or perceive that they had fallen from the faith, or from virtue,--in other words, that they were spiritually dead.Of this vast material for misery the earth is full, and therefore it is written, "Is not human life upon earth a trial?"(1) And with the same reference the Lord says."Woe to the world because of offenses!"(2) and again, "Because iniquity abounded, the love of many shall wax cold."(3) And hence we enjoy some gratification when our good friends die; for though their death leaves us in sorrow, we have the consolatory assurance that they are beyond the ills by which in this life even the best of men are broken down or corrupted, or are in danger of both results.
CHAP.9--OF THE FRIENDSHIP OF THE HOLY ANGELS, WHICH MEN CANNOT BE SUREOF IN THIS
LIFE, OWING TO THE DECEIT OF THE DEMONS WHO HOLD IN BONDAGE THE WORSHIPPERSOF A
PLURALITY OF GODS.