Cornelius a Lapide

Ecclesiasticus XLII

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

In the preceding chapter he taught about what things one should be ashamed: now he teaches about what things one should not be ashamed. Therefore, just as there he assigned sixteen species of good shame, so here he assigns thirteen species of bad shame. Then from verse 9 to 15, he treats of the guarding of daughters and the avoidance of women. Finally, from verse 15 to the end he delivers an encomium on the wisdom and omniscience of God in the admirable fashioning, dispensation, and governance of the sun, the sea, and the other works.

Vulgate Text: Ecclesiasticus 42:1-26

1. Do not repeat a word you have heard about the revelation of a hidden matter, and you will truly be without shame, and you will find grace in the sight of all men: do not be confused for all these things, and do not show partiality so as to offend. 2. Concerning the law of the Most High, and the covenant, and concerning the judgment of justifying the ungodly, 3. concerning the word of companions and travelers, and concerning the giving of an inheritance to friends, 4. concerning the equality of the balance and weights, concerning the acquisition of much and little, 5. concerning the corruption of buying and of merchants, and concerning the strict discipline of children, and flogging the side of a worthless servant until it bleeds. 6. Over a wicked woman a seal is good. 7. Where there are many hands, lock up; and whatever you hand over, count and weigh it: and describe in writing everything given and received. 8. Concerning the discipline of the senseless and the foolish, and of elders who are judged by the young; and you will be learned in all things, and approved in the sight of all the living. 9. A daughter is a hidden source of sleeplessness for her father, and worry about her takes away his sleep, lest in her youth she pass the flower of her age, and when she has lived with a husband she become hateful: 10. lest she be defiled in her virginity, and be found with child in her father's house: lest when she has lived with a husband she transgress, or certainly become barren. 11. Over a lustful daughter strengthen your guard: lest she make you come to reproach before your enemies, to infamy in the city, and the reproach of the people, and confound you before the multitude of the people. 12. Do not gaze at every person for beauty: and do not linger in the midst of women: 13. for from garments comes the moth, and from a woman comes the wickedness of a man. 14. For better is the wickedness of a man than a woman who does good, and a woman who brings shame and disgrace. 15. I will therefore be mindful of the works of the Lord, and I will declare what I have seen. In the words of the Lord are His works. 16. The sun giving light has looked upon all things, and the work of the Lord is full of His glory. 17. Has not the Lord made the saints to declare all His wonders, which the Lord Almighty has established to be confirmed in His glory? 18. He has searched out the abyss and the hearts of men: and has considered their cunning. 19. For the Lord knows all knowledge, and has looked into the sign of the age, declaring the things that are past and the things that are to come, revealing the traces of hidden things. 20. No thought escapes Him, and no word hides from Him. 21. He has adorned the great works of His wisdom: He who is before the ages and unto the ages, and nothing has been added, 22. nor is anything diminished, and He has no need of anyone's counsel. 23. How desirable are all His works, and how like a spark that one may contemplate! 24. All these things live and remain forever, and in every necessity all things obey Him. 25. All things are double, one against one, and He has made nothing to be lacking. 26. He has confirmed the good things of each. And who will be satisfied beholding His glory?

First Part of the Chapter

1. DO NOT REPEAT A WORD YOU HAVE HEARD ABOUT THE REVELATION OF A HIDDEN MATTER. — These words belong to the end of the preceding chapter. For this is the sixteenth and last thing to be ashamed of. Hence the Greek announces these things with the same phrase as the preceding ones, in this manner: apo deuteroseos kai logou akoes kai apokalypseos peri logon kryphion, that is, from repetition, and from a word of hearing, and (the "and" is exegetical, meaning the same as "that is") from the revelation of hidden words; supply and repeat, be ashamed; the Zurich Bible: Be ashamed to communicate to another what was received by hearing, and to babble secret things. Therefore, "do not repeat," that is, do not iterate, "a word of hearing," which you heard as a secret: what was once told and entrusted to you, do not wish to say a second time, or to reveal to another. Hence, explaining, he adds: "About the revelation of a hidden matter," understand and repeat, "be ashamed," as if to say: "To repeat a word of hearing" is nothing other than to reveal a hidden matter: of which thing everyone ought to be ashamed; for it has the appearance of unfaithfulness and betrayal. To this end is that saying of Isocrates to Demonicus: "Guard the deposits of words more carefully than those of money. For good men ought to show a custom more faithful than an oath." Maximus, Sermon 20, praises Demosthenes, to whom when someone reproached the bad breath of his mouth, he replied: "You speak well, for many secrets have rotted in it." For things heaped up in secrecy tend to rot.

AND YOU WILL TRULY BE WITHOUT SHAME (aischynteros, that is, modest), AND YOU WILL FIND GRACE IN THE SIGHT OF ALL MEN. — as if to say: If you observe these sixteen things to be ashamed of, which I have just recited, and blush at them, and consequently avoid them, you will certainly be modest and decent, and far from all shame and disgrace, and therefore pleasing to all men. For the modest person carefully avoids all shameful things, that is, whatever can create for him confusion, that is, shame and embarrassment.

Just as conversely the shameless and unabashed person does many things boldly and shamelessly, which bring him confusion and ignominy. The Tigurine: Thus at last you will truly be modest, and win grace among all men.

DO NOT BE CONFOUNDED ON ACCOUNT OF ALL THESE THINGS, AND DO NOT SHOW PARTIALITY SO AS TO SIN. — This is the antithesis of the preceding. Up to now he has listed sixteen things of which one should be ashamed; now contrariwise he adds thirteen of which one should not be ashamed. Therefore properly here begins Chapter XLII. He says then: "Do not, on account of all these things" which I am about to say, "be confounded," in Greek aischynthes, that is, be abashed, be embarrassed, blush — so as to omit and neglect them out of shame. Whence explaining this he adds: "And do not show partiality so as to sin," that is, Do not out of fear and embarrassment so respect and revere some person that on account of him you commit something against law, equity, or propriety, and sin. For it is a perverse shame that forces or impels one to sin. The Tigurine: In all these things do not give place to shame; do not yield to a person so as to sin; others: Let not these things shame you; nor accept a person so as to sin.

2. CONCERNING THE LAW OF THE MOST HIGH, AND HIS COVENANT, AND CONCERNING A JUDGMENT TO JUSTIFY THE UNGODLY. — Repeat, "do not be confounded." This is the first thing about which one should not be ashamed, that is, Do not be confounded, nor let it shame you, about the law of God the Most High, namely that you keep or defend it. For it is itself the "covenant," that is, the last will of God containing His pacts and promises, which He promised and prepared for those who keep the law. For many out of shame do not dare to keep the law of God publicly before worldly and vain men, whom Christ threatens: "Whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words, the Son of Man shall be ashamed of him" (Luke 9:26). The Tigurine: Do not give place to shame concerning the law and covenant of the Most High, that is, Let no shame constrain you to violate the law and covenant of God; or better: if you have kept the law and covenant of God, let no embarrassment affect you on that account. The law of God commands us to suffer injuries, to offer the other cheek to the one who strikes us, to serve our servants. If we do these things, it is unjust that we should be affected by embarrassment on that account, even if others reproach us for it. Indeed, we should so far from being ashamed of the law of God that we ought to exult and glory in it, according to that passage, Chapter 39:11: "He shall glory in the law of the covenant of the Lord." For the highest glory of man is that he obey, comply with, and serve his God, according to that passage, Chapter 23:38: "It is a great glory to follow the Lord." Hugo takes "covenant" to mean the new covenant, which Christ instituted and ratified by His death, about which St. Augustine says: "O wonderful dispensation — from the Testator the heirs flee, and thieves gaze upon Him on the cross!" In this testament He bequeathed seven things: to the poor the kingdom of heaven, to the meek the land of the living, to the mourning consolation, to those who hunger for justice fullness, to the merciful the attainment of mercy, to the pure of heart the vision of God, to the peacemakers the sonship of God.

The second thing not to be ashamed of is the truthfulness of judgment, that is, Do not be confounded, that is, be not suffused with shame; and do not show partiality, so that out of respect and reverence for some person, "concerning judgment," that is, in judgment, you justify the ungodly — so that to curry favor with the powerful you pervert judgment, and deny the case to him who has the right, and award it to him who has no right. The Tigurine: Do not give place to shame; do not yield to a person (for this must be repeated in all the following cases) in judgment, so as to judge in favor of the ungodly. St. Isidore gives the reason, Book III of the Sentences, Chapter 53: "For those who pervert judgment out of favor to kinship or friendship, or out of hatred of enmity, without doubt are known to sin against Christ, who is truth and justice. This is what God reproves in the mystical sense through Ezekiel, Chapter 13, verse 19: 'And they violated Me before My people, for a handful of barley and a morsel of bread, to kill souls that should not die, and to give life to souls that should not live.'" For, as St. Gregory explains, Homily 27 on the Gospels: "He kills the one who should not die, who condemns the just; and he tries to give life to one who shall not live, who attempts to absolve the guilty from punishment." It is a well-known saying that a judge, if it were possible, ought to be blindfolded, so as not to recognize any of the litigants. Hence Plutarch in his book On Isis says: "At Thebes, the statues of judges are seen without hands, and the eyes of the chief judge are closed, because justice is neither captured by gifts nor swayed by the faces of men." Likewise Deuteronomy 1:19, God thus instructs judges: "Judge what is just: whether he be a citizen or a stranger. There shall be no distinction of persons; you shall hear the small as well as the great, nor shall you show partiality to anyone, because judgment is God's." Here applies that saying of Peter of Ravenna, quoted by Nanius, in The Judge: "Nothing shines so gloriously in a judge as to love and administer justice without any partiality. For as Cicero proverbially says: He puts off the character of a judge, whoever puts on that of a friend. Equity, which the judge serves, hates the left hand of hatred and the right hand of love. For such ought the minister of law to be, that in his hand the scales of justice waver or totter by no person's authority."

3. CONCERNING A MATTER OF COMPANIONS AND TRAVELERS. — The third thing not to be ashamed of is: Do not be confounded "concerning a matter of companions and travelers," in Greek, peri logou koinonou kai hodoiporon. Which first, the Tigurine translates: Do not give place to shame in greeting companions and travelers; Vatablus: In addressing companions and guests. Second, Palacius says: Companions are accustomed to say certain words which suffuse us with shame; travelers do the same, who in order to provoke laughter hurl jests at the one they meet. We are therefore warned not to be flushed with embarrassment at the words of companions, for they are not enemies who say these things to injure us, but are companions who provoke us to blush out of laughter or love. Similarly with the words of travelers, for they do not pour out those scurrilous things as an insult, but to lighten the labor of the journey.

Third, others better translate logon, that is "word," as account, case, suit, business, that is, Do not be ashamed, in a case, suit, or matter which your companion has with strangers (such as travelers are), to stand upright for truth and equity; so that out of fear and reverence for a companion joined to you by friendship, you might favor him beyond what is right and unjustly condemn strangers — preferring to offend God rather than your companion, and to violate justice rather than friendship.

The second explanation is plain, natural, and obvious; but the third is deeper, and the phrase "do not show partiality so as to sin" in verse 1, which must be applied to the following cases, seems to demand it. Rabanus, Lyranus, and Dionysius explain these differently; but the sense already given seems to be the genuine one.

The fourth is: Do not be confounded CONCERNING THE DISTRIBUTION OF AN INHERITANCE AMONG FRIENDS — in Greek hetairon, that is, companions and associates; who share in the same inheritance and ought to obtain their portion, that is, In the distribution and division of an inheritance to be divided equally and faithfully among companions and heirs, do not out of shame favor one more than another, or give and allot more to one than to another. For this is against distributive justice, and often commutative justice, when, namely, heirs have acquired a right to the inheritance by testament, bequest, donation, etc. Whence the Tigurine translates: Do not give place to shame in dividing an inheritance among partners.

Palacius explains differently, that is, If a friend entrusted an inheritance to your good faith, which you were to give to some other person, let no shame of poverty compel you not to keep faith and to bestow the inheritance on him to whom it is owed by the trust. For to usurp it for yourself is the crime of theft.

4. CONCERNING THE EQUALITY OF THE BALANCE AND WEIGHTS, CONCERNING THE ACQUISITION OF MUCH AND LITTLE. — The fifth thing not to be ashamed of is the equality and justice of the balance and weights, that is, Do not be confounded, nor let it shame you to be exact in maintaining the equality of measures and weights — even if you see others everywhere committing fraud in this matter, and they laugh at you as scrupulous and imprudent, as one who does not know how to secretly increase your wealth by wicked arts, according to Psalm 61:10: "The sons of men are liars in balances, that they may deceive by vanity together." The Tigurine: Do not give place to shame in making the balance or weights equal, in Greek peri akribeias zygou, that is, in the accurate examination of the balance and weights. For many greedy shopkeepers, even if they do not deliberately seek unequal weights, nevertheless neglect to examine whether they are unequal; indeed, when they suspect them to be so, they dissimulate and are glad, thinking that the sin of injustice in this inequality is covered by ignorance or affected unawareness — in which matter they gravely err.

Mystically, Rabanus says: "A deceitful balance is found not only in the measurement of money, but also in judicial discernment. For he who hears the case of the poor one way and the case of the powerful another way, who hears a friend one way and a stranger another way, surely weighs with an unjust balance. But also he who judges his own good deeds as better than those of his neighbors, and his own faults as lighter than those of others, weighs with a deceitful scale. Likewise he who places unbearable burdens on men's shoulders, but does not wish to touch them with one of his own fingers. Also he who does good things in public and evil things in secret, is abominated by the Lord for the iniquity of the deceitful balance. But he who acts sincerely in all things, who discerns case and case with an equal scale, this man surely conforms to the will and action of a just judge." I will enumerate other mystical sevenfold balances, by which the individual works of each person are to be weighed, at Proverbs 11:1.

Sixth: Do not be confounded "concerning the acquisition of much and little," that is, Do not let it shame you that others unjustly gain much through deceitful weights, while you through just ones gain little; for it is better and more fruitful to gain a little justly than much unjustly. Or, that is, Do not let it shame you for your justice and your just fortune, whether you gain and possess much or little; but be content with your lot justly obtained. For justice is worth more than immense riches; just poverty is worth more than unjust abundance. Again, do not let it shame you to pursue small gains, because through small gains multiplied one gradually arrives at great ones. Whence there is a proverb of the Hebrews: "It is better to gain many fives than few tens;" because many fives added together will make a greater number than few tens. So Palacius. Whence the Tigurine: Do not let it shame you in possessing whether much or little. Here applies the paradox of the merchant, which I mentioned above: "I grew rich by buying dear and selling at a cheap price." Lyranus and Dionysius explain it differently, that is, Let it shame you to gain much through robbery, and likewise let it shame you to gain little through your sloth and laziness. But the former sense is the genuine one.

5. CONCERNING THE CORRUPTION OF BUYING AND OF MERCHANTS, AND CONCERNING MUCH DISCIPLINE OF CHILDREN, AND MAKING THE SIDE OF A WICKED SERVANT BLEED. — The seventh thing not to be ashamed of is: Do not be confounded "concerning the corruption of buying and of merchants." So Rabanus, Lyranus, Dionysius; although some others read "correction" instead of "corruption," and give this sense: Do not let it shame you to correct and rebuke the frauds and injustices which are committed by merchants in buying and selling. So Jansenius reads and understands it, who adapts and reconciles the alternative reading, which has "corruption," in this way: Do not let it shame you about the rebuked or defective corruption of buying and of merchants. But the Roman edition, Rabanus, Lyranus, Dionysius, and others consistently read "corruption," that is, Do not let it shame you that you see many merchants like yourself corrupting the goods they sell and their prices, and thus growing very rich, while you sell goods whole and at a just price, and therefore grow rich only a little. For the integrity of conscience with poverty is worth more than the corruption of conscience with great treasures.

Or rather, that is, Do not let it shame you to break up the buying, in Greek prasin, that is, the selling or public auction of merchants, when they form a monopoly and among themselves, as often happens, conspire either tacitly or expressly not to buy goods for more, or not to sell for less; although they increase or decrease the price beyond what is just. That is, Do not let it shame you to disturb and break up the monopolies and unjust conspiracies of merchants, by which they either sell goods for more than is just, or buy for less than is just — by offering, namely, a higher price in buying, and a lower one in selling, and that one justly moderate.

Certain Greek codices favor this exposition, which have: Do not let it shame you peri adiaphthorou praseos, that is, concerning uncorrupted buying, that is, buying in good faith, which is done at a just price. Commonly, however, they read peri diaphorou praseos, that is, Do not let it shame you concerning a different sale — namely, that you differ in price from other merchants who are excessively rigid, and sell your goods at a moderate price. Add that diaphoreo (from which diaphoron is derived) means to scatter, tear apart, destroy, dissolve, break up — which our translator renders as "corrupt," that is, Do not let it shame you to scatter and break up the unjust conspiracies of merchants, by which they explicitly or implicitly conspire to buy goods for less than is just, or sell for more than is just; for thus you will champion justice and introduce a just price for goods into the commonwealth. By "buying" is understood selling, and conversely by "selling" understand also buying; for these are correlative; and in a public transaction, which prasis signifies, as in any other, both must necessarily be involved.

Jansenius explains differently: Do not let it shame you, in disputes, controversies, and lawsuits (for this is what to diaphoron signifies) which arise between merchants concerning selling and buying, to judge for equity without favor or embarrassment, and to award the matter to him to whom it is owed by justice — even if you must offend the opposing party who is your friend.

Now the Greek codices corrected at Rome, instead of diaphorou, that is "different," contrarily read adiaphorou, that is "indifferent," in this sense: Do not let it shame you concerning an indifferent sale, namely, that you sell to all at an indifferent and equal price — not at a higher price to foreigners than to citizens, not at a higher price to soldiers than to peasants, not at a higher price to enemies than to friends. Whence the Tigurine: Do not give place to shame in an equable sale of goods; others: in an indifferent sale by merchants, that is, "one which is equable and not variable, whose terms are not diverse, so that a thing for sale is sold for more or less." Another again translates: Do not let it shame you concerning the trade in indifferent, that is, fortuitous goods and merchants; another: Do not let it shame you concerning an indifferent sale, so that there is an opposition between "indifferent," that is, any person whatsoever, and a merchant. That is, Do not let it shame you to sell at an equable price and indifferently at the same price to commoners, peasants, and others who are not merchants, as to the merchants themselves.

The eighth thing not to be ashamed of is "much discipline," in Greek paideia, that is, instruction, correction, chastisement "of children." For there are many who are ashamed of it and omit it, lest they be considered too harsh toward their children, or too petty and scrupulous; the result being that children, indulging their own liberty and desire, become insolent, rebellious, obscene, quarrelsome, and prone to every evil. The Tigurine: Do not give place to shame in the frequent chastisement of children.

The ninth is: Do not be confounded, nor let it shame you, concerning "a very wicked servant," in Greek ponero, that is, depraved, perverse, malicious, "to make his side bleed," that is, to make him bloody with whips, and to beat him until he bleeds. The Tigurine: Do not give place to shame in making the side of a wicked servant bloody with blows. For the hardness of a servant must be broken by the hardness of blows, and a bad wedge must be sought for a bad knot. Yet one must take care that this is not done out of anger, lest measure be exceeded. For this reason Plato, says Lyranus, did not wish to chastise his offending servant by himself, but handed him over to another to be chastised, lest in anger he might exceed measure and be charged with cruelty.

Mystically, the depraved servant is concupiscence and the flesh prone to gluttony and lust; this must be chastised with disciplines, hair shirts, and blows, even unto blood, so that it may submit to the spirit — as did St. Dominic, founder of the Order of Preachers, who every night struck himself three times with an iron chain until he bled: first, for his own sins; second, for the souls suffering in purgatory; third, for all those living in mortal sin. Likewise the other St. Dominic Loricatus, who every day performed disciplines throughout the entire Psalter; Blessed Peter Damian; St. Vincent, who everywhere established public processions of those flagellating themselves unto blood; and in this year at Rome, Cardinal Alexander Ursini, who both at other times and on the vigils of the Blessed Virgin, in her honor, was accustomed to scourge himself until he bled, in order to offer her himself, his blood, and his life.

6. OVER A WICKED WOMAN A SEAL IS GOOD. — For "seal" the Greek has sphragis, that is, a seal, a lock, an enclosure. This is the tenth thing not to be ashamed of, that is, If you have gotten a depraved and perverse wife or daughter, do not let it shame you to apply strict custody over her; indeed, if necessary, to shut her in and lock her up with bolts, lest she give free rein to lust or perpetrate some other crime that will bring you far greater shame and ignominy than her confinement. Therefore a greater shame must be averted by a lesser one. The Tigurine: Do not give place to shame in a mark usefully applied to a wicked woman; others: It is good that a wicked woman be sealed up.

7. WHERE THERE ARE MANY HANDS, LOCK UP; AND WHATEVER YOU HAND OVER, COUNT AND WEIGH IT: AND RECORD EVERYTHING GIVEN AND RECEIVED. — This is the eleventh thing not to be ashamed of, that is, Where there are many people and servants, and many hands, so that it is probable that some among them are thievish, lock up and bolt your possessions, lest anyone steal them. But when you must hand over household goods, whether for the table, bedroom, or similar purpose, lest anything be lost from them either by theft or negligence: first, count them, and count them out to the other person, so that he returns them to you in the same number; second, if it is something weighed on a balance and valued by weight, weigh it, so that he returns it to you at the same weight; third, in the account book record everything given, as well as received, so that it is clear what you gave, what you received from what was given, and what remains for you to collect. For this exact diligence will not be turned into shame and ignominy for you by prudent men, but rather into prudence and foresight — even if thievish servants and the like therefore call you miserly, tight-fisted, and scrupulous. Therefore industrious stewards of princes, cardinals, churches, monasteries, etc. use this practice, and by this method keep their goods intact. For it is a proverb of the Spaniards, says Palacius: "In an open threshing floor, even the just man sins." For opportunity makes the thief. The Tigurine, to express these with the same syntax as the preceding, translates "lock up" as "by locking," because, she says, in Hebrew the same form serves for the infinitive and the imperative. But although for the Hebrews the form is the same, for the Greeks it is not the same but different: for kleison is only an imperative meaning "lock up," and not an infinitive meaning "to lock" or "by locking." Thus the Tigurine reads: Do not give place to shame, by locking (that you lock storerooms and chests) where there are many hands; in what you are about to hand over to someone, by allotting it by number and weight, and attesting everything given or received with written records.

8. CONCERNING THE DISCIPLINE OF THE SENSELESS AND THE FOOLISH, AND CONCERNING ELDERS WHO ARE JUDGED BY THE YOUNG. — The twelfth thing not to be ashamed of is "the discipline of the senseless;" but is it the active kind, namely that which you give and teach to a senseless person, or the passive kind, namely that which you receive and learn from a senseless person? Palacius takes it passively, that is, If a fool has taught you something, do not let it shame you to learn from him. The saying goes: Sometimes even a gardener speaks apt words. And sometimes a pearl lies hidden beneath a shell. Take as your examples the Silenus of Alcibiades, and St. Augustine, ready to be taught even by a boy. Therefore one should attend not so much to who speaks, as to what is said. So Palacius.

But it is better to take "discipline" actively, for this properly befits the senseless and the fool, that is, Do not be confounded, nor let it shame you to give discipline, that is, to correct and chastise a senseless and foolish person, that he may desist from his folly; for shame holds many back from this chastisement, lest they appear to be dealing with fools, from whom in turn they must hear and receive foolish taunts and jests. Whence the Tigurine translates: Do not give place to shame in instructing the senseless and foolish; Vatablus: in chastising them; others: Do not let it shame you in the chastisement of a demented and foolish person.

The thirteenth and last is: Do not be confounded "concerning elders who are judged by the young — concerning elders," namely, to be helped and defended, says Jansenius. Or more properly and genuinely: Do not let it shame you "concerning elders," that is, of the elderly, in Greek eschatogeran, that is, of the extremely old, the decrepit, the aged. For the Hebrews take "min," that is "from/concerning," with the ablative, in the sense of the genitive, that is, Do not let the extreme old age of seniors shame you, so that you protect them when they are petulantly judged, mocked, and harassed by younger people. Do not let it shame you to take up the cause of the decrepit and to defend them against the petulance of young people who mock them. Our translator immediately connected to eschatogeran, that is "elders," to apo, that is "concerning," which preceded. But others, referring the same word to paideia, that is "discipline," translate thus: Do not let it shame you concerning the discipline of the decrepit, that is, do not let it shame you to admonish and modestly correct decrepit persons when they argue with young people who mock them as if deranged, saying: Good sir, you are old and aged — do not bother with what these insolent youths say; pass by as though you do not hear; thus you will avoid and put an end to quarrels and insults. It is not fitting for you, a decrepit old man, to contend with youths, for this is unbecoming to your age, gravity, and prudence. Whence the Complutensian and Roman editions translate: Do not be confounded concerning the discipline of the demented, and the foolish, and the decrepit who litigates with young people. The Tigurine: Do not give place to shame when a decrepit man goes to law with youths, so that you favor either the decrepit man or the youths against justice, and foster and defend the case of the unjust: but to him to whom the right belongs, whether he be decrepit or young, award and assign it. Others translate: Do not let it shame you, nor show partiality toward a decrepit old man (in defending, or admonishing, and directing) disputing with young people.

Moreover, Palacius takes this clause, as well as the preceding one, passively, that is, If even elders teach you something, learn from them, although they may be judged or even mocked by young people; for there is wisdom in gray hairs. He also adds: Another sense can be: If elders are dragged to judgment by young people, do not let it shame you to render a just verdict against an old man; just as Daniel, Chapter 13, although a boy, judged and condemned the adulterous elders who were plotting against Susanna.

AND YOU WILL BE LEARNED IN ALL THINGS, AND APPROVED (in Greek dedokimasmenos, that is, proven) IN THE SIGHT OF ALL THE LIVING. — So the Roman edition; for this is what the Greek pantos zontos, that is "of every living being," signifies. Therefore Jansenius and others wrongly read "of men" instead of "of the living." The sense is: If you have been ashamed of and avoided these sixteen things to be ashamed of, which I have enumerated, and conversely have not been ashamed of the thirteen things not to be ashamed of, but have done them boldly, you will be pepaideuemenos, that is, rightly instructed, well-mannered, truly wise and prudent, and as such you will be proven, praised, and celebrated by all the living. The Complutensian translates: And you will be learned, truthful, and approved before every living being; the Tigurine: Thus at last you will truly be learned, and commended to every living being; Vatablus: approved.

SECOND PART OF THE CHAPTER

ON THE CUSTODY OF DAUGHTERS AND AVOIDING WOMEN. FOR THESE BRING UPON A MAN THE SHAME AND INFAMY WHICH HE HAS BEEN DISCUSSING UP TO NOW.

9. A DAUGHTER IS TO HER FATHER (in Greek patri, that is, "to a father" in the dative) A HIDDEN ANXIETY, AND CONCERN FOR HER TAKES AWAY SLEEP, LEST IN HER YOUTH SHE PASS HER PRIME, AND HAVING LIVED WITH A HUSBAND BECOME HATEFUL. — The sense is: A daughter brings to her father a hidden vigilance; that is, the father must secretly watch over the condition and morals of his daughter; and this vigilance, this wakeful and perpetual anxiety that she be given in marriage at the proper age and not be deceived by some young man, or absorb and learn anything depraved, so torments and afflicts the father that it often robs him of sleep at night. The Tigurine: A daughter brings her father hidden vigilance, and anxiety for her drives away sleep. Now the first anxiety of a father concerning his daughter is that which he adds: Lest in her father's house she grow past her prime (so it should be read with the Roman editions, not "become an adulteress," as Jansenius, Palacius, and others read), in Greek parakmase, that is, lest she grow beyond her youth, lest she pass the flower of her age (for this is what akme signifies), lest she grow old, lest she decline in vigor, lest she wither with age. The Tigurine: Lest the ripeness of her age pass away. The Roman: Lest she become overripe (less correctly the Complutensian: Lest perhaps she abuse the flower of her age), so that with the flower of youth now past and the vigor of her age fading, she may be unable, being less comely and less graceful, to find a husband equal to herself, according to that which Paul, alluding to this, says in 1 Corinthians 7:36: "But if any man thinks that he appears unseemly concerning his virgin, because she is past her prime (in Greek hyperakmos, which is the same as our parakmase), and so it must be: let him do what he wishes: he does not sin if she marries." Hence again the father fears lest his daughter, having grown up, "having lived with a husband," may become "hateful to him" and be divorced by him. For often the flowers of youth pass away, and love passes with them; and those who as young women were a delight to their husbands, when aged become a source of disgust. For this reason the Hebrews were permitted a bill of divorce, which they gave to a hated wife, and thus sent her away from themselves — often with her ignominy and loss, as well as that of her parents. Whence the Syriac translates: A daughter is a very great burden to her father, and care for her takes away his sleep in her youth, lest she be spoken of badly and be spurned by her husband.

The a priori reason is the lightness, weakness, inexperience, and inconstancy of the female sex and age. Well known is the saying: What is lighter than the wind? Lightning. What is lighter than lightning? Rumor. What is lighter than rumor? A woman. What is lighter than a woman? Nothing.

The extrinsic reason is that there are very many Pharaohs, Abimelechs, Shechems, Theseuses, Parises, Jasons, and very many other most cunning scouts of the beauty and chastity of girls, most treacherous plotters, most violent ravishers, and most wicked corrupters, so that an Argus with a hundred eyes is needed as guard to protect the virginity of daughters against them. For snares are set for virgins more than for the corrupted, and this by the cunning of the devil, in order to take away and destroy the flower and glory of virginity, than which a daughter has nothing more precious. Whence, as St. Augustine says, Epistle 5: Of old, "the disgraces of the gods were not only placed in stories to be heard, but were also set forth in theaters to be watched, where there were more crimes than deities." To this saying of Sirach corresponds that antistrophe from Ben-Sira, Alphabet 2, letter Teth: "A vain treasure (which is hidden in vain and to no purpose, since it does not wish to be hidden; whence others translate, a vain concealment) is a daughter to her father, who while he fears, does not sleep at night." And letter Yod: "He sleeps, he does not sleep (that is, sleeping he does not sleep; he sleeps scarcely and little, and anxiously) the guardian of a little girl: perhaps in her youth she will be deceived, and having become older will play the harlot." For a virgin who has suffered dishonor, when she has grown up and passed marriageable age, generally becomes a prostitute. And letter Cheth: "Sons are dear to every man, but woe to the father of daughters." Which the Hebrew Rabbis say: "Blessed is he who has male children; but woe to the father of females." The same add that "the whole machinery of the world mourns when a girl is born; and conversely rejoices when a male is born." But these are the inventions of the Rabbis.

10. LEST SHE BE DEFILED IN HER VIRGINITY, AND IN HER FATHER'S (HOUSE) BE FOUND PREGNANT. — The second anxiety of a father concerning his daughter is that before marriage, while the virgin dwells in her father's house, she not be deceived and impregnated by some young man; which will be both ignominious and harmful to her and to her father, for no honorable man will wish to marry one who has been violated. The Tigurine: Lest she be polluted by rape in her virginity, nor become pregnant in her father's house.

LEST HAVING LIVED WITH A HUSBAND SHE TRANSGRESS, OR INDEED BECOME BARREN. — The third anxiety of the father is that his daughter, living in marriage with her husband, may not become unfaithful and transgress the faith and law of marriage through adultery; nor become barren. The Tigurine: Lest at some time, joined to a husband, she commit a disgrace; or lest, given in marriage, she become barren. Ben-Sira agrees, letter Kaph: "When your daughter is married, you will be very anxious about her, saying: Perhaps she will have children, perhaps she will not; and when she grows old, perhaps she will practice sorcery." For many old men and old women, on account of poverty, persecution, jealousy, revenge, or other vexation, become sorcerers and witches, and give themselves over to the devil so that they may be freed from misery by him, or obtain a desired good. Here applies that saying of Pollio: "He who multiplies wives multiplies sorceries." For a jealous wife, to attract her husband to herself and turn him away from her rival, will give him a love potion, or poison to her rival to destroy her.

Furthermore, Lyranus explains the phrase "become barren" and gives the cause: From excessive intercourse, he says, for this causes barrenness; for lust in a tender age excites excessive appetite, and this excessive intercourse; hence barrenness results. It can also be explained thus: Or indeed, as a punishment for the lust committed in her father's house, God may make her barren in her husband's house.

11. OVER A WANTON DAUGHTER STRENGTHEN YOUR GUARD: LEST SHE MAKE YOU A REPROACH TO YOUR ENEMIES, A BYWORD IN THE CITY, AND AN ACCUSATION AMONG THE PEOPLE, AND PUT YOU TO SHAME IN THE MULTITUDE. — For "wanton" the Greek has adiatreptos, which our translator, at Chapter 26:13, renders as "she who does not turn away," that is, lascivious, brazen, shameless, prone to lust. For such a one a firm guard must be applied, lest, if she is permitted to act freely with young men, she prostitute herself to them, and thus bring disgrace upon her father: "By detraction," that is, on account of the detraction of neighbors and citizens, who disparage both the family for its wantonness and the father for his negligent custody — and call him the father of a harlot. "And by the accusation (so it should be read with the Roman editions, not 'dejection') of the people," by which the common people openly reproach the father for his daughter's fornication and for his tacit consent to it, and throw it in his face. In Greek: Lest she make you epicharma, that is, a laughingstock, a derision, a source of congratulation to enemies, and a byword in the city, infamous among the people. The Complutensian: Lest she make you a mockery to enemies, a topic of gossip in the city, and a name among the people. The Roman: Lest she make you a joy to enemies, a byword in the city, and a name among the people, so that the people publicly call and name you a pimp, a cuckold, a fornicator, etc. The Tigurine: Apply a guard to your shameless daughter, lest she make you a laughingstock to enemies and a byword to the city; lest she make you notorious among the people, or render you ignominious in the public. For by the law of Moses, a daughter who had committed fornication in her father's house was ordered to be stoned before the very house of her father, Deuteronomy 22:21, which was the greatest ignominy both to father and daughter. Whence the Syriac: My son, over your daughter set a guard, lest she bring you a bad name, and a byword, and reproach among the people, and in the assembly of your city bring upon you ignominy in the reproach of the people.

12. DO NOT GAZE AT ANY PERSON FOR BEAUTY: AND DO NOT SIT IN THE MIDST OF WOMEN. — That is, Gaze at no person (for in Hebrew, "not any" is the same as "none"), do not stare more intently at anyone's face, do not fix your eyes on anyone's appearance. For this is prying and often dangerous to chastity; for the appearance and beauty not only of women but also of young men is enticing, and stimulates the concupiscence of both women and men. The Syriac reads: Do not reveal to any man what is in your heart; and among women do not adorn your words. The Complutensian: Do not gaze at any person for appearance; and do not sit in the midst of women. The Tigurine: Do not contemplate any person on account of beauty (Vatablus: Do not judge anyone by appearance); nor sit among women; others: Do not gaze at any person on account of beauty; nor sit in the midst of women. St. Cyprian, On the Singularity of Clerics: "Do not be constantly among women." For from constant presence follows familiarity, and from familiarity, boldness. Whence he concludes: "Everywhere the presence of women is to be tasted, not prolonged; but a kind of fleeting approach is to be offered to women, as if in passing." It is memorable what we read of Blessed Hugh of Grenoble, that although he was bishop of that city for 52 years, and regularly heard the confessions of matrons, even those who confessed frequently, he nevertheless recognized none by face, but some only by voice. So continent was he, and so much a guardian of his eyes; and he kept them downcast, fixed not on faces but on the ground.

Wisely St. Augustine, in his Rule, which is found at the end of volume 1, Chapter 21, thus decrees concerning the eyes: "Even if your eyes are cast upon some woman, let them be fixed upon none. For when you go out, you are not forbidden to see women; but to desire them, or to wish to be desired by them, is sinful. Nor is the concupiscence of women aroused only by touch and affection, but also by sight. Do not say that you have chaste minds if you have unchaste eyes, because an unchaste eye is the messenger of an unchaste heart. And when unchaste hearts announce themselves to each other by mutual glances, even with the tongue silent, and when they delight in each other's love according to the concupiscence of the flesh, even with bodies untouched by impure violation, chastity itself flees from their conduct. Nor should he who fixes his eye on a woman, and delights that hers is fixed on him, think that he is not seen by others when he does this; he is certainly seen, and by those who he thinks do not see him. But suppose he is hidden and seen by no human being — what will he do about that Inspector from above, from whom nothing can be hidden? Is He to be thought not to see, because He sees with as much patience as wisdom? Therefore let the holy man fear to displease Him, lest he wish to please a woman wrongly. Let him consider that He sees all things, lest he wish to see a woman wrongly. For the fear of Him has been commended in this matter also, where it is written: He who fixes his eye is an abomination to the Lord."

13. FOR FROM GARMENTS COMES THE MOTH, AND FROM A WOMAN THE WICKEDNESS OF A MAN. — So the Roman and other editions; for the Greek omits the word "of a man"; some Complutensian and Roman texts substitute "of a woman" for "of a man." Whence the Tigurine: For as the moth is born from garments, so from a woman comes womanly wickedness; others: and from a woman the malice of a female. The Syriac: For just as the moth falls upon a garment, so jealousy falls upon a woman on account of the malice of her companion. But the Latin reading is much more fitting and true, which St. Cyprian and other Fathers follow. This is a very apt simile, by which lust is compared to the moth.

For first, as Jansenius rightly says, just as the moth is born in garments and draws its origin from them, so in the very sight of women and conversation with them there is ingrained the wickedness of a man, which is thereby naturally generated, corrupting the mind of a man no less than the moth corrupts garments. Just as therefore garments must be carefully guarded lest the corrupting moth be bred in them, so also the mind of a man must be fortified with watchful custody, lest corruption be bred in it from the company of women; which if once admitted, just as the moth bred in a garment always creeps and eats away the entire garment, so also lustful thought received into the mind gradually creeps forward and eats away all its beauty, unless it is met in time. Famous is that saying of Musaeus: "The beauty of a woman is sharper than a swift arrow. The eye is the path; from the blows of the eye the wound spreads and rushes into the inmost heart of a man." And that of the Philosopher: "What is beauty? A brief tyranny, a charming deception, an ivory loss, an anxious kingdom, a flower that easily falls, a friendly enmity, a harmonious discord, a fleeting splendor, a sweet snare of the senses." Briefly but forcefully, our Campian in the booklet Ten Reasons of Faith thus depicts all the beautiful things of the world: "Despise gold, glory, delights, and pleasures. For what else are these but the entrails of the earth, melodious air, a cookshop of worms, and beautified dunghills?"

Second, just as it is natural for the moth to arise from a garment, so for a man's concupiscence to arise from a woman: the moth is born in and from a garment without your wishing anything of the kind; so too desire is born from a woman without your wishing it, indeed while you resist it. Well known is that saying attributed to St. Jerome: "Woman is fire, man is tow, the devil is the bellows;" for he blows so that the tow may conceive the fire of concupiscence and blaze up with it.

Third, the moth is born imperceptibly in a garment and eats it away and consumes it without being noticed; so too lust arises imperceptibly from the association of a man with a woman, even among the chaste and Religious, so that they see themselves captured and inflamed before they have felt the fire and the burning.

Fourth, just as the moth consumes both the garment and itself together with the garment, so lust destroys and kills both itself and the lustful person with it. See what I have said about the moth at Hosea 5:12.

Hear St. Cyprian in his treatise On the Singularity of Clerics, treating this passage and urging clerics to flee from women: "From coals, sparks fly out; from iron, rust; disease is nourished; asps hiss; and a woman pours forth the pestilence of concupiscence, which Solomon thus compares, saying: From garments comes the moth, and from a woman the wickedness of a man." And shortly after: "He who has despised the bond of marriage, yet is otherwise bound by feminine chains, although he is not joined in any intercourse, is nevertheless always delighted by desire, by sight, by conversation, by association. For if he did not have desire for a woman, he would never have taken a woman for his pleasures." And further on: "It would be more tolerable to hear a basilisk hissing than her (a woman's) singing." And indeed we see today some good men, even clerics, being so subtly seized by a secret love — if not carnal, certainly sensual — for the women whose confessions they hear or whom they strive to advance in piety, that they themselves do not know they are held by it. Whence Rabanus says: "She ministers to you dangerously, whose face you frequently contemplate. For unchaste eyes know not the beauty of the soul, but of bodies." Therefore St. Jerome warns Nepotian, saying: "All the maidens and virgins of Christ, either be equally unacquainted with them, or equally love them. Do not dwell under the same roof, nor trust in your past chastity. You cannot be holier than David, nor wiser than Solomon. Remember always that a woman cast the colonist of paradise out of his possession. When you are ill, let any holy brother attend you, and a sister, or mother, or some woman of proven faith before all. I know some who recovered in body, and began to be sick in soul."

St. Basil, Admonition to a Spiritual Son: "See to it," he says, "that the beauty of the body does not seduce you, and that you do not lose the beauty of your soul. Do not gaze with a wicked eye upon the appearance of a woman, lest death enter through your windows. Do not open your ears to carry out their words, nor desire wickedness in your soul. Do not wish to touch the flesh of a woman, lest through her touch your heart be inflamed, and by your spirit you slide into perdition. For just as hay near fire is burned, so he who touches the flesh of a woman does not escape without harm to his soul; and even if he escapes chaste in body, he nevertheless departs corrupted in mind and heart. Tell me, I ask you, my son, what are the profits of the soul — to love the beauty of the flesh? Is it not like hay which, when struck by the heat of summer, dries up, and gradually loses its former beauty? The appearance of human nature is similar: with old age succeeding, all former beauty perishes; and those whom she previously stirred to love of herself, she afterward becomes their object of hatred.

The same author, in On Holy Virginity, compares a woman to a magnet; for just as a magnet draws iron to itself, even from a distance, so the appearance and voice of a woman attracts a man to herself. The same, on Isaiah Chapter 3, compares a woman to a basilisk, which kills by its gaze those upon whom it looks: "For by her very gaze," he says, "she announces the obscene impurity of the soul. For when she smiles sweetly and with charming eyes, she entices to the fulfillment of lust. For with the casting of her eyes she shoots a plainly deadly arrow; and thus is confirmed the rumor about the nature of the basilisk, which they say corrupts its beholders by its gaze alone."

14. FOR BETTER IS THE WICKEDNESS OF A MAN THAN A WOMAN WHO DOES GOOD, AND A WOMAN WHO BRINGS SHAME AND DISGRACE. — This saying seems paradoxical and difficult to explain and believe; whence it is usually cited by Catholics against heretics who teach that the Sacred Scriptures are plain and clear. I remember in Belgium, on a ship at Antwerp, when a certain heretical woman was shamelessly boasting of being a Bible expert, a Catholic threw these words in her face to draw out their meaning; whereupon she fell silent, either because she did not know the meaning, or because she was embarrassed to unfold it, since the matter was indelicate for her sex; and thus she exposed herself to the mockery of all.

First, therefore, the Scholia attributed to Vatablus criticize our translator and the other interpreters, because their version and meaning seems insufficiently pious. For how, they ask, is the wickedness of a man better than the beneficence of a woman? Therefore they translate thus: Better is the ugliness of a man than a beautiful woman. For the Hebrew ra signifies both evil and ugly, just as tob signifies both beautiful and good, according to: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity!" But the Greek poneria signifies malice, not ugliness; and agathopoios signifies a beneficent woman, not a beautiful one. Whence Josephus, although a Hebrew, in Book II Against Apion, cites this passage as the Greek and our translator have it, and calls Ecclesiasticus a divine law, and cites testimony from it as from a divine law when he treats of marriage. For he says: gyne de cheiron, phesin (supply nomos, that is "the law," for he is speaking about it), andros eis ta panta, kai he poneria autou hyper agathopoiou gynaikos. The translator of Josephus partially rendered these words badly and partially skipped them; for one ought to translate thus: A woman is something worse than a man in all things, and the very malice of a man is to be preferred to the beneficence of a woman. Which is what Ecclesiasticus here says in so many words: "Better is the wickedness of a man than a woman who does good."

Second, Lyranus limits the saying to cohabitation, that is, It is better to live with a wicked man than with a beneficent woman. But this limitation does not untie the knot; nor is it added by Sirach, nor should it be added; for whether one cohabits or not, the wickedness of a man is better than a woman who does good.

Third, others commonly take "man" as reason, and "woman" as the senses and concupiscence, that is, It is better to be corrected and chastised by reason than to be soothed and enticed by the blandishments of concupiscence. But this is a mystical sense, not the literal one.

Fourth, the physician Levinus Lemnius, in Book IV of On the Hidden Wonders of Nature, Chapter 13, explains at length thus: "Better is the wickedness of a man than a woman who does good." This meaning, he says, I interpret as underlying the sentence: that even a lazy, slothful, drowsy man, unskilled and inexperienced in conducting business, trade, and all affairs, accomplishes his business somewhat more skillfully than a rash and reckless woman, who, with an empty pretension of wisdom and inconsiderate confidence, undertakes everything. That is, A woman does everything worse than a man. For a man who distrusts himself proceeds hesitantly and cautiously, supported by others' help, takes them into counsel, carries out and executes individual tasks, so that they achieve a more desirable outcome than if the same things were attempted by an arrogant woman, swollen with the conceit of wisdom, as they are generally observed to be. For the efforts and industry of such a woman largely turn out for the worse, which is expressed in the Belgian idiom: Set quaetste van een man is beter dan t'beste van eine vrouwe, that is, whatever work is completed and perfected by a woman's industry merits less praise than a man's rough and unfinished work — on account of her mind's poverty of counsel, slowness and dullness, the deficiency of natural heat, and because her languid spirit rests upon and is immersed in moist matter, so that the faculties of the soul show themselves more sluggishly and are ill-suited and poorly adapted to managing affairs. For this reason the Romans, who had the greatest care for adorning and stabilizing the republic, wanted matrons, as Cicero attests, because of the weakness of their nature, to be in the power of guardians and to hold no civil office. Paul likewise, who with tireless labor instructs the minds of men in solid faith and diligently forms them in piety, on account of woman's lack of self-mastery — that is, the passions turned away from temperance and moderation — commands silence upon her in the solemn assembly and meeting (1 Corinthians 14), and does not allow her either to perform the office of preaching, or to raise a question in assemblies, or to participate in votes, or to offer any opinion.

He then appends another exposition of this passage, that is, The wickedness of a man is preferable to a woman who is indeed honest, but who afterward becomes a cause of infamy, and from whose commerce disgrace is born — that is, it is better to contract or do business with a dishonest man than to deal with a deceitful woman; for although in appearance and at first sight she may seem to display honesty and propriety, and to show outwardly no deceit or fraud, nevertheless you will afterward find her inconstant, two-faced, captious, slippery, deceitful, fraudulent, and intent on imposture; so that if some man deceives someone or defrauds someone in business, the fraud and imposture of the man becomes justice compared to the wickedness and deceit of a woman. So Lemnius, in whose work the Censors expunged some things.

This latter exposition comes nearer to the truth and the genuine meaning of this saying.

The genuine sense, then, is this. He gives the reason (as is clear from the word "for," which the Latin has, even though it is absent in the Greek) for what he said: "Do not sit in the midst of women. For from garments comes the moth, and from a woman the wickedness of a man." Because, namely, a woman is an enticing, dangerous, and harmful thing, so that better is the wickedness, in Greek poneria, that is, malice, malignity, ill will, of a man, than the goodness, kindness, and beneficence of a woman. "Better," therefore, means "less evil"; or rather, "better," meaning "safer," is it to have dealings with or to fall in with a malevolent and harmful man than with a benevolent and beneficent woman. Both because a harmful man is an occasion for patience, humility, mortification, and other virtues, while a beneficent woman is an enticement to concupiscence and sin — and a twofold one at that. For first she entices and ensnares as a woman; second, as a beneficent one — for love and beneficence are a great bait of love. And also because against a harmful man, as against an enemy, you guard yourself and protect and fortify yourself; but against a beneficent woman you so little guard yourself that, willing or unwilling, you are forced to love her in return, and therefore she will eventually subject you to herself, and will so captivate you with love of herself that she will do with you whatever she wishes — as women led Solomon to idolatry, and Delilah betrayed Samson to the Philistines, etc.

Therefore better is the "wickedness," that is, the malignity, trouble, vexation, injury of a man, than a charming and beneficent woman; because she is a sweet poison, and by charming and doing good she incites a man's concupiscence and leads him to disgrace and ruin, according to the saying: A woman prostitutes herself to the man who benefits her. Solomon graphically describes this in Proverbs Chapter 7:10. But the malice and unjust vexation of a man indeed exercises patience, but does not create danger; whence it is left to be gathered that one must beware more of a woman, especially a kind and beneficent one, than of a man who is harsh, troublesome, rough, and fierce. That this is the meaning is clear from what follows: "And a woman who brings shame and disgrace." For the word "and" here is causal, meaning "because," that is, Because a beneficent woman by her enticements subjugates a man to herself, and confounds him, that is, brings ignominy upon him, and leads him to present and eternal disgrace — therefore she must be guarded against more than a malicious man. From these words it is clear, says Jansenius, that Sirach does not absolutely reject all beneficence from a woman, but only that which is the occasion of confusion and disgrace. For otherwise the beneficence of St. Cecilia was to the salvation, honor, and glory of St. Valerian, because she made him a Christian, a saint, and a martyr. So Clotilde by her graciousness tamed Clovis and made him a believer. Many other queens and holy virgins did the same. Whence some translate from the Greek: "The malice of a man is preferable to a beneficent woman; for a woman who is shameful is a disgrace." The Tigurine: Better is the wickedness of a man than a woman showing herself benign; a woman who is also the author of shameful turpitude. Which Vatablus explaining, says: "Better," that is, "less evil," meaning, "There is more danger from the kindness and courtesy of women for shameful loves than from the harsh wickedness of men."

So Palacius: It is better, he says, to deal with a wicked man than with a charming woman. For his wickedness drives you away and repels you from himself; but her blandishments attract and draw you to herself. Everyone hates a wicked man; there is hardly anyone who does not love a charming woman.

And Dionysius says: Better is the wickedness of a man than a woman who does good, not directly but occasionally, that is, a wicked man is less dangerous and harmful than a good woman, because he less entices to the inflammation of concupiscence; for the better and more charming a woman is, the more she arouses desire. That this is the sense is clear from what is added: "And a woman who brings shame and disgrace," that is, drawing to shameful lust, and to the great disgrace that follows from it. So Dionysius.

See Anastasius of Nicaea in Questions on Sacred Scripture, Question 63 (it is found in Volume 1 of the Library of the Holy Fathers), where among other things from St. Chrysostom he gives these praises — or rather epithets — to woman: "What is a woman? A shipwreck on land, a fountain of crime, a treasury of murders, a deadly encounter, a slip of the eyes, the ruin of souls, a lance through the heart, the destruction of youth, the scepter of the underworld, headlong desire. What is a woman? The calumny of saints, the repose of the serpent, the consolation of the devil, an inconsolable sickness, a burning furnace, a scandal to those who are saved, an incurable vice, constant quarrels, a hostelry for the dissolute, a workshop of demons. What is a woman? An amatory evil, a shameless medicine, an unconquerable beast, an onset and appetite, an unbridled mouth, a triumph of mysteries, a leader of darkness, a teacher of crimes, a wicked delight, an insatiable desire — when asleep, intemperance; when awake, anxiety; a clothed viper, a war that is willingly chosen, a daily loss, a storm of the house, a shipwreck for a husband, a cruel beast, a receptacle of adulterers, a weapon of the devil, a madness that is desired, the death of the whole world. Rightly did the Wise Man say: All malice is small compared to the malice of a woman."

He then adds that the remedy for that concupiscence is if one seriously reflects that a woman is a whitewashed sepulcher, which beneath her colored and ruddy skin covers filth, menstrual blood, dirt, and every putrefaction; which after a short time in old age and death will ooze from everywhere — from the eyes, ears, nose, and the whole body — with intolerable stench and horror.

Philosophers taught by experience taught the same thing. Socrates said: When a woman says she loves and desires you, then she is to be feared more than when she reviles you. Whence he preferred his own Xanthippe when reviling him, and even beating him, to another woman applauding him. He also used to say that he had acquired three evils: grammar, poverty, and a pernicious wife; of which he could have escaped two, but could not escape the third. Pythagoras, asked why he had given his daughter in marriage to an enemy, replied: Because I could give him nothing worse. Plautus, in the Truculentus: "For a woman," he says, "it is far more of a burden to do evil than to do good," meaning, A woman will much more easily do evil than good.

Mystically, St. Augustine in the book On the Spirit and the Soul, Chapter 41 — or whoever the author is, for he does not truly seem to be St. Augustine, since in Chapter 37 he cites Boethius, who lived nearly a hundred years after St. Augustine — yet the author is pious and learned. This author, I say, takes "man" as the higher reason in a person, which rules, and "woman" as the lower reason, which is ruled. "There is therefore," he says, "in reason something tending toward things above and heavenly, and this is called wisdom; and there is something looking toward things transitory and perishable, and this is called prudence. These two proceed from reason and subsist in reason. And reason divides itself into two, namely upward and downward: upward into wisdom, downward into prudence, as it were into man and woman — so that the man is superior and rules, while the woman is inferior and is ruled. Whence it was said: Better is the wickedness of a man than a beneficent woman. For better indeed is he who, inflamed by heavenly desire, afflicts the flesh, even by withdrawing necessities from it, than he who, dissolved by carnal affection, strives to satisfy it in all things that are comfortable."

Second, St. Gregory, in Book 11 of the Moralia, Chapter 26, whom Rabanus here and the Gloss follow, takes "man" as strong and discerning minds, and "woman" as weak and undiscerning ones: "Better," he says, "is the wickedness of a man than a beneficent woman. For by 'man' any strong and discerning person is meant; but by 'woman,' a weak or undiscerning mind is understood. And it often happens that even a discerning person suddenly falls into sin, while another who is undiscerning and weak exhibits a good work. But he who is undiscerning and weak is sometimes more puffed up by the good he has done, and falls more gravely into sin; while the discerning person, from the fact that he understands he has done wrong, draws himself back more strictly to the rule of discernment, and rises higher toward justice from the very point where he seemed for a time to have fallen from justice. In this regard it is rightly said: Better is the wickedness of a man than a beneficent woman, because sometimes even the fault of the strong becomes an occasion of virtue, and the virtue of the weak becomes an occasion of sin."

Third, St. Bernard, Sermon 12 on the Song of Songs, takes "man" as preachers and those who labor for the salvation of others; who, although they sometimes sin, are nevertheless better than "women," that is, hearers and disciples who live holy lives for themselves alone and benefit only their own souls. "For you indeed," he says, "do good by watching over your own keeping; but he who helps many does better and more manfully. And if he cannot fulfill this without some iniquity, that is, without a certain inequality in his life and conduct, remember that charity covers a multitude of sins." Therefore better and more pleasing to God is an apostolic man, even if he falls into some defects, than a solitary or a nun who is devoted to herself and to God alone, and therefore is free from the defects of the active life. Just as better is a hunting dog that catches hares, even if sometimes in running through thorns it bloodies its feet, than a pretty lapdog that is kept in its mistress's lap and daintily fed by her — as Christ revealed to one of the saints.

Fourth, our Alvarez de Paz, Book IV On the Dignity of Perfection, Chapter 16, takes "men" as the perfect, and "women" as the imperfect and lukewarm; whose goodness, he says, is therefore placed below the iniquity of the former, because a perfect person derives great humility from a small fall, while an imperfect person is often lifted up into vainglory and pride from a good work. Finally, better is the wicked man, that is, the public penitent, than the beneficent woman, that is, the Pharisee boasting of his fasts and prayers.

Morally, let Christians learn here, including priests and Religious, how much they should guard themselves against women, even those who do good, who are pious and devout (indeed more from these than from others), lest from this fire they conceive either a flame or at least smoke. St. Francis knew this, who (as the Annals of Wadding record, year of Christ 1219, numbers 43 and 47), foreseeing the dangers to reputation and spirit threatening his brothers from the care and familiarity with the Poor Clares (which shortly afterward under Urban IV the course of events confirmed), earnestly petitioned and obtained from Cardinal Hugolino, who later became Pope and was called Gregory IX, that his friars be released from that charge. Indeed, withdrawing his friars from them, he would often say with troubled spirit: "I fear that while God has taken away our wives, the devil has procured us sisters." Moreover, rebuking one of his friars who was visiting nuns, he ordered him to be plunged into a river, clothed as he was, in the coldest time of the year in December, adding: "Extinguish with this water the sparks which a gentle and mild, but dangerous fire has kindled in you; wash and wipe away with these waves the secret stains which perhaps have clung to you without your knowing it." Blessed Richer, a companion of St. Francis, had received from God the gift of extraordinary chastity, and yet he studiously avoided women. Asked why, he replied: "If I did not do this, perhaps by the just judgment of God I would be deprived of so excellent a gift." So the Annals of Wadding, year of Christ 1220, number 8. St. Thomas Aquinas said and did the same, as his Life records.

A memorable example is found in the same Annals, year of the Lord 1217, number 24. Sancia, he says, sister of Alphonsus II, King of Portugal, had in her court a noble and devout maiden named Maria Garcia. She wished to meet a certain pious and religious Franciscan Father (so holy that after his death, St. Anthony of Padua saw his soul ascending to heaven), and to be nourished by his pious conversations. When she repeatedly and with tears sought the same thing, the Father, importunately asked, came to her, carrying fire in one hand and straw in the other; and when he brought the straw to the fire and it immediately burst into flame, he added: "My lady, this is why I refuse your company, however pious it may be, and familiar conversation; because that very thing which straws have acquired from proximity to fire, Religious also acquire who converse with women too frequently or too familiarly; and they lose that immense fruit which they could receive from holy prayer and divine colloquy."

St. Ignatius, founder of our Society, as Ribadeneira says in his Life, book V, chapter 11, used to say that familiarity with all women indeed should be avoided, even those who are spiritual or wish to appear so; but especially those who are more dangerous by reason of age, condition, or station. From habitual association with them, usually either smoke follows or flame. "For from garments comes the moth, and from a woman the iniquity of a man." He likewise strictly forbade all members of his Religious order the care of nuns, as Ribadeneira reports, book XIII, chapter 14.

At which deed and word the maidservant departed suffused with blushes, and no longer sought the conversation of the Religious man. Let our monks and priests note this and imitate it.

St. Louis, from the same Order of St. Francis, and thence made Archbishop of Toulouse, so avoided women that he would not even converse more familiarly and alone with his own mother. To those who wondered and objected: "How do you flee women, you who were born of a woman?" he wisely replied: "I flee them precisely because I was born of one of them;" lest, that is, natural desire, which loves to revisit its origin, should goad me to return to them.

St. Francis Xavier used to say repeatedly that women are approached with greater danger and less fruit. See Tursellinus, in his Life, book VI, chapter 17.

Third Part of the Chapter: The Great Works of God's Wisdom and Omniscience

15. I WILL THEREFORE REMEMBER THE WORKS OF THE LORD, AND I WILL DECLARE WHAT I HAVE SEEN. — This is the conclusion of the work, and of the book of moral precepts (as is clear from the word "therefore"); for Sirach concludes these with a doxology and praise of God, as Religious men are accustomed to conclude their works with thanksgiving and glorification of God: among whom Titelmannus excels, who closes each book of his Physics with a pious hymn in which he presents the physical things treated in that book as celebrating the great works of their Creator. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: I have completed my Ethics, I have finished my precepts on morals; it remains for me to offer and refer back to God, who suggested these things to me. Therefore, to conclude, I will commemorate and celebrate the works of God, and God in His works. I began from God, I will end in God, and I will say to Him: "From You the beginning, in You the end." This is clear from the Greek, which instead of "therefore" has δή (or, as others prefer, δὲ), which is a particle of transition from one subject and part of a discourse to another, meaning furthermore, finally, indeed, now, come, moreover, at last, truly. Hence the Zurich version translates: Indeed I will commemorate the deeds of the Lord; others: I will now recall the works of the Lord; others: Furthermore, at last, or finally I will recount the works of the Lord, and what I have seen I will declare. "What I have seen," that is, what I have observed with my eyes, or read in books, or contemplated and beheld with my mind, or heard from others and learned. For "seeing," because it is the chief of the senses, is used for any sense, as I have often noted. "I have seen," therefore, is the same as "I have known."

IN THE WORDS OF THE LORD ARE HIS WORKS. — This should be punctuated with the Roman and Greek editions, so that a new sentence begins and ends here. Supply "were created, are preserved and governed," as if to say: By the word and command of the Lord all His works were created, and just as they were created by Him, so likewise by Him they are preserved and governed. For the preservation of a creature is nothing other than the continuation of its creation. Hence creatures at every single moment in which they are preserved by God are, as it were, being created by God; for they continually depend on the influx of God, who gives them their being and by giving preserves it, just as rays depend on the influx of the sun, so that if the sun should withdraw, the rays would immediately vanish: so likewise, if God should withdraw His influx, the entire world would immediately return and slide back into its nothingness from which it was drawn forth by God through creation. This is what the Psalmist sings, Psalm 32:6: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were established: and all their power by the breath of His mouth." And verse 9: "He spoke, and they were made: He commanded, and they were created."

Jansenius and others connect this sentence with the preceding ones in this manner and sense: "I will declare what I have seen in the words of the Lord, His works," that is, I will proclaim the works of the Lord which I have seen described in His words, that is, in Genesis and the other sacred books. Or: I will declare those works which I have seen and observed, not so much in my own words as in the words of the Lord. Hence the Zurich version translates: What I have seen I will set forth in divine words, His works, which Palacius explains as referring to prophecy, and from this concludes that Sirach was a Prophet, as if to say: I will set forth those things which I have seen with a mind illuminated by prophetic light. So Isaiah says, chapter 1, verse 1: "The vision of Isaiah which he saw," etc. But the Roman and Greek punctuation demands the former sense already given.

16. THE SUN ILLUMINATING LOOKED UPON ALL THINGS (Greek ἐπέβλεψε, that is, it inspected, that is, it inspects, it gazes upon); AND THE WORK OF THE LORD IS FULL OF HIS GLORY. — He explains "what I have seen" and "what I have seen I will declare," as if to say: I will declare and celebrate the glorious works of the Lord; because I have seen them by the light of the sun; for the sun illuminating all things inspects them, and presents what it has illuminated for all to inspect, and from this illumination of the sun it happens that the works of the Lord appear to each person, along with their beauty and splendor; and consequently the glory and majesty of the Lord shining forth in them is clearly perceived and beheld by everyone; so that all, if they wish to speak the truth, are compelled to exclaim: "The work of the Lord is full of His glory;" and with the Seraphim: "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory," Isaiah 6:3. Following whom, Isaiah and the other Prophets exclaimed the same, and even now holy and religious men contemplating these things exclaim it. Hence the Zurich version translates: The bright sun illuminates all things, and the work of the Lord is full of His magnificence. He indicates the purpose and use of the sun; for the sun was created by God among other reasons so that it might make all His works visible to men, and demonstrate to them their splendor and glory, and thus stir them to constant love and praise of God, according to that verse in Psalm 18:6, concerning the sun: "He rejoiced as a giant to run the way, his going out is from the end of heaven, and his circuit even to the end thereof: nor is there anyone who can hide from his heat." Thus stirred to the praise of God by gazing upon the sun and the sky, David sings: "O Lord our Lord, how admirable is Your name in the whole earth! For Your magnificence is elevated above the heavens, etc. For I will behold Your heavens, the works of Your fingers: the moon and the stars, which You have founded," Psalm 8:1. And Habakkuk chapter 3:3: "His glory covered the heavens: and the earth is full of His praise. His brightness shall be as the light, horns are in His hands;" and verse 11: "The sun and the moon stood still in their habitation, in the light of Your arrows they shall go, in the brightness of Your flashing spear." Truly, as often as we gaze upon the sun, we ought to burst forth into these and similar praises of God.

Note the word "looked upon": for some ancients believed the sun to be a soul, indeed to be God, who looks upon all things; hence it was called the eye of the world. From this also the Poet said God is the sun, who sees all things and hears all things. Accordingly the Persians worshipped the sun as a god, and called it Mithras. The ancient Romans used to salute the rising sun; indeed the Manichees defined the Most Holy Trinity thus: "Saying that the Father dwelt in a certain secret light; but the power of the Son in the sun, His wisdom in the moon; and the Holy Spirit in the air," says St. Augustine, book 20 Against Faustus, chapter 6. The same author, book 1 On Genesis against the Manichees, chapter 3: "They (the Manichees), he says, so worship the sun that they say it is a particle of that light in which God dwells." But this is an error, indeed a blasphemy. Therefore the sun is said metaphorically to "look upon"; because it scatters the rays of its light now upon this place, now upon that, and thus illuminates and makes visible.

Palacius notes that God is not less present in a worm than in the sun and the sky, although in the sun the glory of God appears greater to men than in a worm: for in truth a worm, indeed a fly, is more excellent than the sun; because a fly is animate, the sun inanimate. So St. Augustine, book 1 On the Two Souls, against the Manichees, chapter 3: "And here, he says, if perchance being disturbed they should ask me: Did I suppose that even the soul of a fly should be preferred to this light? I would answer: Yes, nor would the fly frighten me, which is small, but which is alive and firm. For the question is what gives life to such tiny members, what drives so small a body here and there according to its natural appetite, what moves its running feet in rhythm, what directs and vibrates the little wings of the flying creature? Whatever this may be, to those who consider well, it stands out so great in so small a thing that it is to be preferred to any brilliance that dazzles the eyes."

Note, secondly: The sun rising at dawn, looking upon all creatures, but especially birds, stirs them to joy, song, and praise of God's glory. Hence they are called solar birds, especially the nightingale, which surpasses the other birds with its most sweet singing, to invite men from sleep to sing with it the praise of God. Hence St. Ambrose, book 5 of the Hexaemeron, chapter 12: "I do not doubt, he says, that among songbirds one cannot feel sleep, without being provoked by such grace to wakefulness." And soon after: "Whence comes to me the voice of the parrot and the sweetness of the blackbirds? If only the nightingale would sing, which might rouse the sleeper from slumber. For that bird is accustomed to signal the rising of the dawning day, and to bring a more abundant joy at daybreak."

The same St. Ambrose, in his sermon on Malachi chapter 1, which is found at the end of volume 2, teaches us that, like birds, we ought to praise God both morning and evening and give Him thanks: "Do we not see, he says, the tiniest birds, when dawn brings forth the brightening day, resounding with various delight in the little chambers of their nests, and zealously doing this before they set out, so that since they cannot praise their Creator with speech, they may soothe Him with sweetness? And how each one of them, since it cannot do so by confession, betrays its homage through melodies; so that she seems to give more devout thanks who has sung more sweetly: and likewise to do the same when the day's course is completed. What then does this song arranged at fixed times and constant attention mean, except that it is a kind of boundless confession of thanksgiving? For the innocent bird, since it cannot praise its Shepherd with speech, flatters Him with sweetness." And after some things: "Birds therefore give thanks for cheap morsels: you are fed with the most precious feasts, and you are ungrateful! Who therefore would not blush, having the sense of a man, to close the day without the celebration of psalms, when the birds themselves leap about to show gratitude with the sweetness of the psaltery? Not to resound with the sweetness of verses the glory of Him whose praise the birds proclaim with melodious song? Imitate therefore, brother, the tiniest birds, giving thanks to the Creator morning and evening. And if you are more devout, imitate the nightingale, for whom the day alone does not suffice for declaring praises, and she traverses the nocturnal hours with a wakeful song. And you therefore, surpassing the day with your praises, add nocturnal courses to your work, and console the sleepless industry of your undertaken labor with a series of psalms." Moreover, how wonderfully present in the nightingale is the grace of praising and singing, by which she invites men to imitate her, Pliny graphically describes, book 10, chapter 29: "First, he says, there is to be admired so great a voice in so small a body, so persistent a breath.

a persistent breath. Then in one [bird] a perfect science of music — a modulated sound is produced: and now it is drawn out at length with a continuous breath, now varied with an inflected one, now marked off with a clipped one, joined with a twisted one; prolonged with a recalled one, darkened with an unexpected one; sometimes it even murmurs to itself; full, deep, sharp, rapid, extended, vibrating when it pleases, high, middle, low. And in short, everything in such tiny jaws that the art of men has devised with so many exquisite instruments of flutes. It has often been seen that, when commanded, it began to sing and alternated with an orchestra."

Allegorically, Rabanus says: "The Sun, he says, is Christ, who is both the light of divine wisdom and the splendor of justice. Of whom it is read elsewhere: The sun of justice shall arise for you who fear My name, and healing in His wings. He is the true light which illuminates every man coming into this world, and He beholds all things; because there is no creature invisible in His sight; for the work of the Lord is full of His glory, since His wisdom shines in His deeds. Hence it is said through the Prophet: How magnificent are Your works, O Lord! You have made all things in wisdom."

Finally, the Syriac version takes "glory" as the mercy of God. For it translates thus: As the sun which rises upon all things, the mercies of the Lord are manifested upon all His works.

17. HAS NOT THE LORD MADE HIS SAINTS TO DECLARE ALL HIS WONDERFUL WORKS, WHICH THE LORD ALMIGHTY HAS ESTABLISHED TO BE MADE FIRM IN HIS GLORY? — This should be read with the Roman and Greek editions corrected at Rome as a question, although the Complutensian edition reads these words assertively and translates: The Lord did not bring forward His saints to declare all His wonderful works. For no one is able to declare them all, because they are beyond telling, according to that verse in Job 5:9: "Who does great things and unsearchable, and wonderful things without number." But as I said, these should be read with a question mark; for although no one is able to declare individually the works of God and celebrate them worthily, yet everyone is able to declare and celebrate them in general, or according to their more illustrious kinds and species. For "established" the Greek is ἐστερέωσε, that is, He made firm, He stabilized; hence στερέωμα is called the firmament. For "almighty" the Greek is παντοκράτωρ, that is, conquering all, containing all, all-powerful, ruling over all. For "to be made firm" the Greek is στηριχθῆναι τὸ πᾶν, that is, that the universe might be established. Therefore Rabanus, Dionysius, and Lyranus less correctly read "stable" instead of "to be made firm." The meaning therefore is, as if to say: God Almighty made His works not fleeting, but firm, stable, and enduring, so that in them He might establish and stabilize His glory and magnificence throughout the entire universe. For instead of "His" the Greek has αὐτοῦ, that is, "of Him," namely of the Lord. Hence Vatablus clearly translates: Has not the Lord appointed all His miracles to be proclaimed by the saints (for all the works of God are wonderful, and therefore, as it were, miracles), which the Lord, the same Almighty, founded, and with His glory confirmed and established all things?

others: Has not the Lord accomplished in His saints that they might be able to declare His wonderful works, which the Lord Almighty has established, so that this universe might be stabilized by His glory?

Moreover, this glory is the glorious power, wisdom, and goodness of God, by which He both created all and each thing from nothing, and so preserves, increases, and multiplies them. Phidias so skillfully inserted his own likeness into the shield he had fashioned that one could not be removed or destroyed without the other. So God has inserted this glorious image of Himself into each created thing, and especially into man, so that it cannot be erased; indeed so that this work of His cannot be seen without seeing immediately in the author of the work, the author — God the Creator. See what has been said on Genesis chapters 1 and 2.

St. Gregory says admirably, 26 Morals, 8: "If we attentively observe exterior things, he says, through those very things we are recalled to interior ones. For the wonderful works of visible creation are the footprints of our Creator: for we cannot yet see Him Himself; but we are already tending toward the vision of Him, if we marvel at Him in the things He has made: we therefore call creation His footprints, because by following these things which are from Him, we go to Him." And shortly after: "The ways, he says, to the Creator are the carefully considered works of the Creator. While we observe these things that have been made, we marvel at the power of the Maker: on these paths all-wise Providence meets us; because the power of the Maker is set before us to be sought in everything that appears wonderfully made; and wherever the soul turns, if it attends vigilantly, it finds God in those very things through which it left Him; and from the consideration of those things whose love it abandoned, it comes to know His power; and through the things by which it perversely fell, through these same things, once converted, it is called back."

Anagogically, the holy Angels and blessed souls in heaven continually declare the wonderful works of God, saying with unceasing voice: "Holy, Holy, Holy," etc. If you ask: What are these "wonderful works?" I answer: They are certainly those which the Lord Almighty has confirmed and made stable in His glory. Indeed there are many wonderful works of God in this world! But God has not confirmed these to be stable: but the glory of the Blessed, the vision of the divine essence, love of Him, the heavenly city, the vault of heaven, the orders of the stars — these are the wonderful works, and as they are stable, so they are most worthy to be continually declared by the holy angels. Here the Theologian has the reason why God created the Saints; namely that they might declare the wonderful works of God. St. Paul gave another reason, namely that He might show forth in them the riches of His glory. Secondly, he holds that the Saints in glory declare all the wonderful works of God, inasmuch as they know in God all creatures which God has created. For it is a commonplace in the schools that the Blessed know all things which God contains eminently, though not those which He contains formally, says Palacius; which must be discussed elsewhere. Finally, the Syriac translates: The Saints of the Lord do not cease to number the giant prodigious magnitudes of His portents. He has given strength to those who fear Him to stand before His glory.

18. HE HAS SEARCHED OUT THE ABYSS AND THE HEART OF MEN, AND HAS CONSIDERED THEIR CUNNING, — that is, He has known their cunning by thinking it through. This is a Hebraism. He passes from God's majesty, power, and glory to celebrating His wisdom, omniscience, and providence. The Greek does not have the word "of men"; hence "their" must refer to "the abyss and the heart." For the Greek reads thus: Ἄβυσσον καὶ καρδίαν ἰχίγνευσε, καὶ ἐν πανουργεύμασιν αὐτῶν διενοήθη, that is, He searches out the abyss and the heart, and understands and considers their cunning; the Roman edition has "meditates upon"; others, "thinks about their craftiness." Therefore by "cunning" some understand the subtle reasons and secret counsels of divine wisdom and providence, which shine forth in created things, but especially in the abyss and in the human heart — indeed more truly are hidden in them. Lyranus understands the abyss as the devil, as if to say: God has thoroughly known their cunning, namely that of both the devil and the human heart. But this is a mystical interpretation. Therefore our Translator rightly read, or certainly understood, the word "of men" in the Greek; for cunning, that is, crafty counsels, machinations, and frauds, properly belong to them, which no one but God penetrates and searches out. Or certainly "the heart" is used distributively for the heart of each and every person, so that "heart" is the same as "hearts." Hence the Zurich version translates: He has searched out the deep and hearts, and thoroughly known their wiles. By "the abyss" therefore he understands any depth, such as the center of the earth, in which is hell, demons, and the damned; but especially the depth of the waters and of the sea: for this is properly called the abyss, Genesis 1:2, as if from ἀδύθω or βύσσω, that is, without a bottom; because the bottom of the sea is unknown to man and scarcely traceable: yet God searches it out, that is, knows it, and penetrates and sees through it to the very bottom; for God knows precisely how deep the sea is everywhere and in all places, how many drops of water are in it, how many fish, shells, gems, etc., what is on its floor, the number of grains of sand, pebbles, metals, etc. This is metalepsis; for "to search out" means to see through; because through investigation and scrutiny men arrive at knowledge and evidence of a thing. Similarly, "He has considered" means the same as He has known by thinking, as I said shortly before.

Similarly, God searches out, that is, penetrates and sees through, the heart of man, otherwise perverse and inscrutable, as Jeremiah says, chapter 17:9, to such a degree that He surveys and illuminates all its hiding places, recesses, and corners to the very depths from every side; and therefore He inspects and thoroughly knows all its cunning, that is, deceits, frauds, dissimulations, craftiness, and machinations. The heart of man is aptly compared with the abyss; because like the abyss it is deep, dark, obscure, and impervious, penetrable and visible to no man or angel, but to God alone. Hence some take "the abyss" here literally as the heart of man, so that the "and" is exegetical, meaning "that is," as if to say: The abyss, that is, the heart of man, deep and inscrutable like an abyss, is traced and intimately known by God alone. Hence the Syriac translates: He searches the abyss and the heart, and all the hidden things of men are manifest before Him like the sun.

19. FOR THE LORD KNOWS (the Zurich version has: holds, is versed in) ALL KNOWLEDGE, AND HAS LOOKED INTO THE SIGN OF THE AGE, DECLARING THINGS PAST AND THINGS THAT ARE TO COME, REVEALING THE TRACES OF HIDDEN THINGS; — The word "for" gives the reason for the preceding, as if to say: God knows the abyss and the hearts of men, because He is omniscient and knows everything knowable. For by "all knowledge" understand everything knowable, or everything that is known or can be known, whether by angels or by men; for God knows all of this, and perceives it in a single glance of His mind. This is metonymy; for the habit is placed for the object, namely knowledge for the knowable.

You may ask: What is the "sign of the age" that God inspects? Isidorus Clarius and Palacius read "bosom" instead of "sign"; but the Greek is σημεῖον, that is, sign. The Complutensian reads in the plural σημεῖα, that is, signs. First, Lyranus takes "the sign of the age" as the course of the ages; and Rabanus says: The Lord looks into the sign of the age, because all the ages of the world, both past and present, as well as future, are in His presence: since for Him nothing is past, nothing is future, but He sees all things as present.

Secondly, Dionysius takes "the sign of the age" as the measure of the age, and by "measure" metonymically takes all measured things, which are measured by time. "He has looked into the sign of the age," that is, he says, into the measure of eternal or perpetual things, knowing all things that are measured by time; concerning which Boethius says: "You who command time to proceed from eternity." And Job chapter 28, verse 3: "He Himself considers the end of all things." Hence the Syriac translates: All things that happen in the world are manifest before Him.

Thirdly, Palacius takes the sign, or as he reads it, the bosom of the age, as eternity; for this is the bosom and sign of all things that happen throughout every age and century. Note here, he says, that the object of the divine intellect is His own eternity: but eternity is one indivisible point, yet containing within itself every age and all times; for it is like a bosom, where all times and every age are enclosed. This same eternity is the sign and indivisible point from which every age begins and in which it ends. This same eternity therefore is the object into which God looks; it is the bosom of the age; it is the signs and the sign of the age. Therefore there is a most illustrious fourth praise of God, that He looks into eternity, in which all things are seen most presently. From which proceeds the fifth praise of God, namely that He "declares" with certainty "things past, and things that are to come."

Fourthly, astrologers take these as celestial signs or stars, and their constellations, namely the conjunction, motion, and influence of the stars on these lower things. Hence some of them believe that God described and foreshowed in the stars, as in signs, all the future changes and events of things on earth: therefore they conjecture the future from the stars, as from prognostics. But this is an error, which I refuted at Genesis 1:14. I acknowledge, however, as I said there, that the stars are signs of certain natural events. For this is said in Genesis 1:14, to which Sirach here alludes.

showed all the future changes and events of things on earth: therefore they conjecture the future from the stars, as from prognostics. But this is an error, which I refuted at Genesis 1:14. I acknowledge, however, as I said there, that the stars are signs of certain natural events. For this is said in Genesis 1:14, to which Sirach here alludes.

Fifthly, therefore, the genuine sense is, as if to say: God knows by what sign, or by what prior signs, the ages, times, and all things in them are changed, exchange their turns, and one succeeds another. For God, sweetly arranging and connecting the series of ages, has established certain signs known to Himself but unknown to us, which indicate future changes of things and dispose and prepare for them. For example, God decreed that in such an age, after so many centuries or thousands of years, Christ would come, and after Him the Antichrist; for He Himself designated for this the precise age, indeed the year, month, and day in which it would happen. Therefore from the year and age designated by Him, as from a sign established by Him, God knows at what time Christ would come, and when the Antichrist will come. So in the transfers of kingdoms and monarchies, God established for each one a certain measure or period of time and years, from which, as from a sign, He knows when this transfer will occur. Again, within those kingdoms He established certain signs of future transfer, decreeing, for example, that when the Assyrians, Greeks, Persians, and Romans had filled up the measure of their sins predetermined by God as the end of their monarchy; and when they had begun to stir up internecine seditions and schisms among themselves, then they would be overthrown, and the monarchy or kingdom would pass to their successors. For this has been, and still is, the natural and common cause and sign of the transfer of kingdoms.

The reason a priori is the interconnection of the universe and of all things in it; for God has connected all things of the world and of the passing age in a fitting and certain series and order among themselves, so that one thing would be the prior sign, indeed the cause, of the next and what follows. Hear Boethius, book 4 of The Consolation of Philosophy, prose 6: "Providence, he says, is the divine reason established in the supreme ruler of all things, which disposes all things; while fate is the disposition inherent in changeable things, through which Providence connects each thing in its proper order, etc. For the order of fate proceeds from the simplicity of Providence." And further on: "Therefore as reasoning is to understanding, as what is generated is to what is, as time is to eternity, as the circle is to its center point; so is the moving series of fate to the stable simplicity of Providence, etc. This constrains even the acts and fortunes of men by an indissoluble connection of causes; and since these proceed from the beginnings of immovable Providence, they too must necessarily be immutable; for things are best governed if the simplicity remaining in the divine mind produces an undeviating order of causes; and this order restrains changeable things, which would otherwise flow about randomly, by its own immutability: whence it happens that, although to you who are unwilling to consider this order, all things seem confused and disturbed; nevertheless their own measure, directing all things to the good, disposes them." And near the end: "For a certain order encompasses all things, so that what has departed from the assigned plan of order, falls back, though into a different, yet still into an order, lest anything be allowed to rashness in the kingdom of Providence." This infallible order of causes and interconnection of things, therefore, is the sign of the age; for from the cause, as from an infallible sign going before, God sees what will certainly follow and come to pass; for every disposition of His Providence is certain.

Moreover, by the sign or signs of the age or century, take metonymically the very designation of the age. Hence the Zurich version translates: He perceives the marking-out of the age; for God designated from eternity what would be done and would come to pass at any time, and from this designation of His mind, from His secret and decree, as from an infallible sign, indeed as from a most certain cause, He knows what will come to pass at any time anywhere in the world. For by "designation" he understands metonymically the things designated as future in every age, namely the course of the age and of events through each age, as Rabanus and Lyranus said. Sirach speaks anthropopathically, that is, in a human manner, and alludes to Genesis 1:14: "Let there be luminaries (the sun and moon, etc.), and let them be for signs and for times;" hence he himself, in the following chapter, verse 6, calls the moon "the sign of the age."

For men, especially in that primitive age, some believed — and even now some astrologers still believe — that signs of future things pre-exist in the heavens and stars; hence from the horoscope, that is, from the constellation that exists at anyone's birth, they conjecture and divine about his lifetime, that is, about all things that will befall him throughout his entire life: the horoscope therefore was for them the sign of the age. For reproving these, Jeremiah says, chapter 10: "Do not fear the signs of the heavens which the nations fear, for the laws of the peoples are vain," as if to say: The nations observe the stars and their conjunctions, aspects, and movements, as signs of future things, in order to divine the future from them. But they err; for God has placed the sign, or signs, of future things not in the heavens, but in His own mind, namely in His decree. He alone, therefore, can know them, and from them foreknow and foretell the future. Hence, explaining further, He adds: "Declaring things past and things that are to come," as if to say: God alone, from the signs which He has placed in His own mind, can know the future as well as the past: He alone, therefore, can foretell them. Hence God, through Isaiah, disputing with the idols and idolaters about divinity, uses this argument to prove that He alone is the true God and that the idols are false gods: because He alone truly and certainly foretells what is to come; but the idols falsely and mendaciously divine or conjecture those things. "Let them come forward, says Isaiah 41, and declare what is to come; tell us the things that have been,

Declare what is to come in the future, and we shall know that you are gods." For, as Tertullian says, Apology 20: "The testimony of divinity is the truth of divination." For divinity alone has the power of divining the future.

Finally, Sirach, explaining the same thing more fully, adds: "Revealing the traces of hidden things" (corruptly in the Roman Latin translations from the Greek, "of eyes" is read instead of "of hidden things"), as if to say: God alone knows the reasons and means by which hidden things — such as future events and the secret thoughts and intentions of hearts — can be traced and known as by certain signs and traces, and He reveals them to the Prophets and other Saints to whom He pleases, so that they may foretell them and make them known in advance to others.

Symbolically, the sign of the age is Christ the Lord, both as God — for thus through Him, as through His Word and idea, God made and consequently ordered and disposed the ages, Hebrews 1:2 — and as man; for thus through Him God predestined and disposed all the generations of the Church, of the faithful, of the saints, and of the elect. Hence He is called "the father of the world to come," Isaiah 9. Finally, He was set "as a sign which shall be contradicted," as Simeon foretold, Luke 2:34.

20. NO THOUGHT ESCAPES HIM, AND NO WORD IS HIDDEN FROM HIM. — "Not every," that is, none. Hence the Zurich version: No thought escapes Him, nor is any word secret from Him; others: nor does any word lie hidden from Him, as if to say: God sees through all the thoughts and words of men. Hence the Wise Man, deterring men from murmuring, uses this argument, that every murmur is heard by God the Judge and Avenger: "For God, he says, is the witness of his (the slanderer's) inmost thoughts, and the true searcher of his heart, and the hearer of his tongue. For the Spirit of the Lord has filled the whole world: and this (that is, this Spirit; but he says 'this' because he looks to the Greek πνεῦμα, that is, spirit, which is of neuter gender) which contains all things, has knowledge of the voice. Therefore he who speaks unjust things cannot be hidden, nor shall the chastising judgment pass him by," Wisdom 1:6. The meaning is, as if to say: The Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son contains all things, that is, by essence, presence, and power encompasses, embraces, and preserves all creatures; therefore all things are in the Holy Spirit; hence all things and voices occur within the scope and embrace of the Holy Spirit, not outside: therefore nothing can be hidden from Him, but He sees and hears all things as if before Him, indeed within Himself.

By "thought" understand also affection: for God sees through both. For, as St. Bernard says, On the Interior House, chapter 39: "Where your affection is, there is your thought; where your desire is, there is your heart; for we more frequently turn over in thought that whose love has more affected us." Do you wish therefore to know what you love? Notice what you often think about and turn over in your mind; for that is what you love.

21 and 22. HE HAS ADORNED THE GREAT WORKS OF HIS WISDOM: HE WHO IS BEFORE THE WORLD AND UNTO THE WORLD, NEITHER HAS ANYTHING BEEN ADDED NOR DIMINISHED, AND HE NEEDS NO ONE'S COUNSEL, — that is, as the Greek has it, μεγαλεῖα τῆς σοφίας αὐτοῦ, that is: He adorned the magnificent works of His wisdom, He who is before the age and unto the age; neither was anything added nor diminished, nor did He need anyone's counsel; the Complutensian, adding διά, that is "through," thus clearly has: He adorned the great works (His great works) through His wisdom, He who (they read δε instead of which the Romans read, καὶ ὅς ἐστι, that is "and insofar as He is") is before the age and unto the age, neither was He increased nor diminished, and He did not need any counselor; the Zurich version: He adorned the miracles of His wisdom, and since He subsists from before the age unto the perpetual age, He has neither been increased nor diminished, nor has He needed any counselor. He signifies therefore, first, that God has wonderfully adorned His magnificent works through His wisdom; for, as the Wise Man says of God, chapter 11:21: "You have disposed all things in measure, and number, and weight." The reason is that He is immense in essence, and equally so in wisdom and duration. For He exists from eternity before all ages, and the same will endure for ages upon ages; therefore all ages, and all things that happen in the ages, His wisdom immensely transcends, encompasses, and embraces. Accordingly, nothing has been added to these magnificent works of God through so many ages, nor has anything been diminished, but through so many ages they persevere in the manner in which God created them. For God perfected all things and perfectly adorned them, so that nothing can be added to them: "For the works of God are perfect," Deuteronomy 32:4. And: "God saw all the things that He had made, and they were very good," Genesis 1:31. The Complutensian and Zurich versions translate these words in the masculine about God, as if to say: Although God is so ancient that He was before the age and will endure unto every age; yet through so many spans of years nothing has accrued to Him, nothing has decreased, no wisdom, power, or perfection has been added to Him, nor has any departed. The reason is that He is in every respect immense and infinite; and to the infinite nothing can be added. Finally, since His wisdom is infinite and uncreated, He assuredly does not need any counselor or counsel. To this the Apostle alluded, Romans 11:33: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how incomprehensible are His judgments, and how unsearchable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counselor?"

23. HOW DESIRABLE (Greek ἐπιθυμητά, that is, lovable, delightful, desirable) ARE HIS WORKS, AND LIKE A SPARK THAT ONE CAN CONTEMPLATE! — He reads ὡς σπινθῆρος, that is, like a spark; the codices corrected at Rome read in the plural, ὡς σπινθῆρες, that is, like sparks. The meaning is, as if to say: O how beautiful, useful, lovable, and admirable are the works of God, whether you consider their beauty in themselves, or the use and advantages they bring to men! Certainly they are so beautiful that the Psalmist says: "You have given me delight, O Lord, in Your handiwork," Psalm 91. Indeed, because from that

they are to be loved: and because He Himself makes them, He in turn is to be supremely loved. For they are, as it were, "a spark" of divinity, and of divine power, wisdom, love, and beneficence, from which, as from a most ardent and efficacious fire, they leap forth like sparks, which it is therefore worthwhile to "contemplate" with attentive meditation. The elements, therefore, the heavens, the stars, are like sparks of divinity leaping forth from that God who is a consuming fire, Deuteronomy 4. So Isaiah, chapter 40:15, calls the same things "a drop from a bucket," which distills from God as from a bucket, indeed as from an ocean. Jansenius interprets differently: The works, he says, of God, "which it is" — that is, which it is permitted to us — "to contemplate," are "like a spark;" because we know only the smallest part of the works of God, according to that verse in Job chapter 26:14: "Behold, these things are said in part of His ways, and seeing we have scarcely heard a small drop of His word, who shall be able to behold the thunder of His greatness?" And shortly after in the next chapter the Wise Man says: "We have seen few of His works." Now the Complutensian, the Zurich version, and others remove the word "which" and so read: ὡς πάντα τὰ ἔργα αὐτοῦ ἐπιθυμητὰ καὶ ἕως σπινθῆρος ἐστι θεωρῆσαι, that is: How desirable are all His works, and even to the last spark one can contemplate them! The Zurich version: How delightful are His works, and visible even to the last spark! As if to say: All the works of God, great down to their smallest point, are worthy of consideration and admiration, to such a degree that if you attentively consider even a gnat and its individual members so skillfully distinguished and composed, you would be astounded, marveling at the immensity of divine wisdom in so tiny a creature. The same applies to any little flower. That saying is most true:

God Himself, the greatest, stands out in the smallest things.

See what I said about the smallest things at the beginning of the Prooemium on the Minor Prophets, and Zechariah 4:10. Another translates: "How desirable are His works, which one may behold (merely) as a spark!" which translation agrees with the sense assigned shortly before by Jansenius.

Learn from this that the world is a spark and a drop of divinity. Therefore from this spark we must ascend to the fire, from the drop to the sea, namely to God, and contemplate and admire Him in each creature, as St. Anthony did, St. Augustine in his Confessions, St. Ambrose, St. Basil in the Hexaemeron, St. Francis, St. Ignatius the founder of our Society, who from the smallest things, such as little flowers, would ascend in his mind to God, and would contemplatively admire His wisdom, goodness, and power. And he prescribed and established the same for us in his Rules, that we should strive in creatures to recognize the Creator, loving Him in all things and all things in Him, according to His most holy will. For God the Creator is intimately present in all things and in all His works by His essence, presence, and power, by which, just as He created them, so He preserves them — that is, continually, as it were, creates them — lest

they should return and revolve back into their nothingness, from which they were created. For this reason God is, says St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapter 10, παντοκράτωρ, that is, the All-holder, the ground and foundation of all things, because He is the seat of all, containing and embracing all things, and stabilizing, founding, and binding all things fast, and rendering the universe indissoluble in Himself; and producing all things from Himself as from an all-holding root, and converting all things to Himself as to the all-holding ground, and containing them as the all-capacious seat of all; fortifying all things contained in one surpassing connection, and not allowing them to fall away from Himself, lest having been moved from their most perfect dwelling they should perish." And in chapter 13: "Reaching to all things equally, and above all things with unfailing bounties and interminable works." Therefore all things, each and every one, intimately and essentially depend on God; indeed they depend more on God than on themselves, far more than a ray depends on the sun, from which it receives its entire being; or man on the soul, from which he receives life and essence. Hence Plato said God is the soul of the world; because God continually and most intimately infuses into all things the being that they have, more than the soul infuses into the body by animating it, giving it life, and exercising vital operations through it. This essential dependence of all things on God is signified by St. Bernard, book 5 of On Consideration, saying: "He who is God, without whom nothing exists, can no more not exist without Himself than anything can exist without Him. He is to Himself, He is to all things: and in this way He is in a certain manner alone; He whose Being is His own and of all things." Where he clearly teaches the essential dependence on God. And further on: "What is God? He from whom are all things, through whom are all things, in whom are all things. From whom all things creatably, not seminally; through whom all things, lest you should think there is one author and another craftsman; in whom all things, not as in a place, but as in a power." And indeed the Apostle, speaking of the Son of God or the Word, Hebrews 1: "Who being the brightness of His glory, he says, and the figure of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power." Where Anselm says: "He upholds all things, that is, He holds them up lest they fall and return to nothingness, from which they had been created by Him; and He sustains them not by labor and difficulty, but by the command of His power." For this reason St. Gregory teaches that God is above and below all things, so that He may contain and sustain all things. For thus he says in 2 Morals, chapter 12: "Measuring the heavens with His palm, and enclosing the earth in His fist, it is shown, he says, that He Himself is externally surrounding all things on every side which He has created. Through the throne over which He presides, He is understood to be interiorly and above; through the fist by which He contains, He is indicated to be exteriorly and below. For since He Himself remains in Himself in all things, Himself outside all things, Himself above all things, Himself below all things: He is superior by power, and inferior by sustaining; exterior by greatness, interior by subtlety: ruling above, containing below; surrounding without, penetrating within: not in one part superior and in another inferior; nor in one part

exterior, and in another remaining interior, but one and the same, wholly everywhere, sustaining by presiding, presiding by sustaining, penetrating by surrounding, surrounding by penetrating." Hence also the Scholastics precisely and in scholastic fashion teach that when God preserves things, He is continually creating them. So Scotus in book 2, distinction 1, question 5, asserts "that a thing can be said to be always being created as long as it endures, because it always receives being from God." And Gabriel Vasquez in book 1, disputation 74, number 17: "The preservation, he says, of a thing in its totality is true creation and production from nothing." And Ludovicus Molina, Part 1, Question 10, article 5, disputation 1: "By the same influx of an indivisible action, he says, by which He first bestowed being on the angel, He preserves him, and confers that same Being throughout the entire course of time which He first conferred on him; and this by the very fact that He does not cease from the indivisible action by which He first began to confer Being on him." Likewise Suarez, in his Metaphysics, throughout the whole of disputation 21, confirms the same at length. Therefore in each individual thing we ought to behold God hidden and most intimately present, the very soul and spirit, as it were, of each thing, and praise and admire Him in His works, and from them rise up to Him as to their Craftsman, and with Sirach contemplate and celebrate His omnipotence, wisdom, and goodness.

24. ALL THESE THINGS LIVE AND REMAIN FOREVER AND FOR EVERY NECESSITY ALL THINGS OBEY HIM. — "Live," that is, they flourish; the Zurich version: All these things flourish and last through the ages, and for all uses all things obey. For the Greek ζαία means use, necessity, work, utility, etc. In various ways, says Jansenius, he celebrates the works of God, which just as he commended for their beauty, so now he commends for their duration and obedience. He attributes life to them because they persist in their being and vigor. He says they "remain forever," because they endure either in themselves or at least in their species. They "obey" God "in every necessity," because through them whatever God wills is accomplished for every necessary use. For as the Psalmist says: "All things serve You." Moreover the Syriac translates: All His works are firm forever in truth, and they glorify in holiness, and they live and endure forever, and for all His purposes they are all prepared. St. Augustine says admirably, book 10 of The City of God, chapter 12: "Whatever, he says, is done wonderfully in the world, it is assuredly less than this whole world, that is, heaven and earth and all things that are in them; yet just as He who made it is hidden, so the manner in which He makes it is hidden and incomprehensible to the Lord: although therefore the visible miracles of nature have lost their value through the habitual seeing of them; yet when we wisely contemplate them, they are greater than the most unusual and rarest things." The same author on Psalm 144:4: "In that which you see, he says, what is praised there? The beauty, the usefulness, some virtue, some power of those things. If beauty delights you, what is more beautiful than He who made them? If usefulness is praised, what is more useful than He who made all things? If virtue is praised, what is more powerful than He by whom even these things were made

25. ALL THINGS ARE DOUBLE, ONE AGAINST ANOTHER, AND HE HAS MADE NOTHING TO BE LACKING. — He has celebrated the works of God from their beauty, their use, and their duration; now he celebrates them from their diversity and order, because they are so varied and dissimilar, indeed opposite; and yet are composed and joined together in a fitting order among themselves, so that from the discordant concord of diverse things, as of voices, they produce a most beautiful harmony. He says therefore, "all things are double," Greek δισσά, that is, they are twofold or twin, of which one is contrary to the other, as if to say: God, for the adornment of the universe, made it so that each thing would have its mate set alongside and opposite to it. "And He made nothing to be lacking," namely from its contrary, that is, He made nothing to have a defect of its paired opposite and antithesis, so that it would therefore be deficient and limp, as on one foot; but to each He appointed and set opposite its own mate. For the Greek has, He made nothing ἐλλεῖπον, that is, as the Complutensian has it, defective; others: deficient and incomplete, namely, that would not have its counterpart to which it might be compared and contrasted. So He opposed spirit to flesh, earth to heaven, water to fire, air to earth, angel to body, man to brute, humility to pride, chastity to lust, and the other virtues to the other vices. So Francisco Valles, Sacred Philosophy, chapter 76, where he shows that this statement should be understood not so much of individual things as of the genera of things. This is evident in the tree of the category of substance, in which substance is divided by two opposite differences, namely corporeal and incorporeal; and in a similar way any other genus is divided in continuous series by two opposite differences into two species. The same can be seen in the series of the other categories. Indeed in all created things there is a certain opposite duality, namely act and potency, or matter and form, male and female. See what was said at chapter 33:15, where Sirach repeated this statement; for there I explained it at length. Vatablus clearly translates: All things are twin, of which one is contrary to the other, nor has anything been made deficient; others: All things are paired, one contrary to the other, nor has He made anything lacking. Moreover the Arabic version translates: And all things were created two and two, one is against its companion, not creating any of them in vain, that is, to no purpose or to emptiness. See Francisco Valles, at the place already cited, where he gives these examples: Being, he says, is divided into two opposites, namely substance and accident; substance into corporeal and incorporeal; corporeal into corruptible and incorruptible; corruptible into simple and mixed; mixed into living and non-living; living into sentient and lacking sense; sentient into rational and irrational; simple, namely element, one active, another passive; and each of these is twofold. For one is hot, another cold; one moist, another dry. All other things are composed of the mixture of these. So all colors are composed of the mixture of white and black;

and flavors, of sweet and bitter; and sounds, of deep and high-pitched: and if one of these exists, it is necessary that the other opposite to it also exist, so that nothing is lacking to it or to the whole universe. Accordingly the Syriac translates: They are all paired and paired (combined), one opposite to the other; nor did He create any of them idly, but one of them by the other, in pairs. And who is satisfied gazing at their beauty? Here is fitting that verse of Ovid, Metamorphoses 1, on the first origin of things:

Cold things fought with hot, moist with dry, Soft with hard, things without weight with those having weight: God, and a nature better than this, settled the quarrel.

Tropologically, the Author of the Imperfect Work on St. Matthew, found in St. Chrysostom, homily 15: "Of all evils, he says, the first and strongest are three evils, namely gluttony, avarice, and vainglory (with which accordingly the devil tempted Christ in the desert), and see how against three evils three goods have been found, namely almsgiving against avarice, fasting against gluttony, prayer against vainglory. All evils have contrary goods by which they may be overcome, except vainglory. For however many good deeds you may have done wishing to suppress vainglory, you excite it all the more; and the reason is this, because every evil is born from evil, but vainglory alone proceeds from good: therefore it is not extinguished by good, but rather nourished. Therefore there can be no remedy against vainglory except prayer alone, and even this generates vanity, unless you have taken care, if perhaps you have prayed well."

26. HE HAS CONFIRMED THE GOOD THINGS OF EACH ONE. AND WHO SHALL BE SATISFIED SEEING HIS GLORY? — As if to say: God firmly guards and preserves the goods and endowments of each work and thing created by Him through the juxtaposition and opposition of its paired contrary. For one contrary is strengthened by the other: thus matter subsists through form, potency through act; white becomes more beautiful from black. Old age helps the young with counsel; the young help the old with strength; the nobles help the common people with arms; the common people help the nobles by providing them bread, drink, clothing, etc. Conversely, heat languishes and perishes without cold, dry without moist, white without black, etc. For a contrary by its opposition excites, sharpens, and intensifies the contrary opposed to it. And for this reason God has set opposite to each thing its contrary, as its rival and antagonist. That this is the meaning is clear from the Greek, which repeats the word ἕν from the preceding verse: ἕν τοῦ ἑνὸς ἐστερέωσε τὰ ἀγαθά, that is, one (of the paired and twin things opposed to each other in the preceding verse) has confirmed the goods of the one, that is, of the other mate; the Zurich version: one commends the goods of the other. For contraries placed next to each other shine forth more brightly.

Therefore, admiring this wisdom of God, he exclaims: "And who shall be satisfied seeing His glory?" The Syriac has "of them," namely of God's creatures; the Zurich version: And who can be sated by beholding the glory of God? Others: And who can be filled by seeing His glory? As if to say: Which of mortals, considering such glorious works of God, in which the glory of His divine goodness, wisdom, and power so shines and flashes, could sate himself with them? As if to say: No one. He speaks of wayfarers; for in heaven all the Blessed are sated with the glory of God, because they see Him face to face, but in such a way that satiety sharpens desire, and does not create or increase weariness; for they are sated by seeing God, and yet they always desire to contemplate Him, according to that verse: "I shall be satisfied when Your glory appears;" Psalm 16. To pass over in silence the infinite wonderful works of God, I bring forward just one: In India, especially in the Moluccas and

Java, there is a bird called the Manucodiata, completely lacking feet, and therefore surnamed Apus, because it flies perpetually in the air, and hence designated the Bird of Heaven or of Paradise; indeed some believed it slept, ate, and reproduced while flying. But Aldrovandus refutes this, book 12 of Ornithology, chapter 22, on the grounds that no animal can be in perpetual motion; and because if it slept on high, it would certainly fall to the earth by its own weight. Therefore instead of feet it has two threads in its tail, by which, when it is time to rest, it attaches itself to the branches of trees. Hence the Manucodiata is a symbol of the heavenly soul, continually dwelling in heaven with God and the Angels. Accordingly Lucas Contile, Emblem 78, depicts the Manucodiata soaring aloft with wings spread, looking up at heaven, with this motto beneath: "Upward without weight," as if to say: The human spirit should always aspire to higher things, and despise these earthly things as perishable and fragile. For the soul separated from the body seeks heaven, while the corpse turns to ashes. Charmed by the beauty of this emblem, says Aldrovandus, I took care to have a similar one painted in my little field, but with this motto: "So let the spirit seek the heights."

Note from the Scholastics and Lessius, On the Divine Perfections, book 14, chapter 1: The glory of God is twofold: internal and external. Internal glory is again twofold: objective and formal. The objective glory intrinsic to God is the divinity itself, or the splendor and excellence of the divinity and the divine Persons; for on account of this He is most worthy of being known, loved, praised, etc., by all. So everywhere in the Scriptures the excellence of the divinity, and all the signs of this excellence, are called the glory of God. The formal glory intrinsic to God is God's knowledge, love, and joy concerning Himself: that is, that He is infinitely and adequately known, loved, and relished by Himself with infinite joy and sweetness. For infinitely greater is the glory of God that His goodness and perfection are known, loved, and esteemed by Himself, than if He were loved and praised by infinite angels and men. In these two things consists the intrinsic glory of God, which He has possessed most fully from eternity: hence He did not create the world in order to acquire or increase this glory; but for another kind which is extrinsic to Him, and which is also twofold. One kind is objective, and consists in the excellence and beauty of created things, but especially of the children of God, as all the Blessed are. Just as

for the glory of a secular prince is said to consist chiefly in the splendor and beauty of his courtiers; so the external objective glory of God consists chiefly in the splendor and multitude of the heavenly courtiers, and secondarily, in other created things. The other is formal glory, which consists in the vision, love, joy, and acts flowing from these concerning God; namely insofar as He is known, loved, savored, praised, and blessed by the Blessed for all eternity. In this the entire external glory of God is completed, and toward it the entire beauty and splendor of created things is ordered. Sirach in this place treats of the external glory of God, which results from the beauty and comeliness of creatures.

Morally, the works of God, because they were created by Him for us, demand great gratitude from us, namely remembrance, love, service or obedience, and perpetual praise with thanksgiving; for God not only created and preserves all things that are in the world for us, but also makes them labor continually and serve us. For the heavens revolve for us, the sun shines, the stars give light, the winds blow, the clouds gather, the rains descend, the mountains rise, the rivers flow, the seas move, the earth sprouts, the water is made fruitful, and all of nature brings forth. All these things God has commanded to exist, to move, and to work thus for our sake, that they might serve and benefit us. "He makes His sun to rise upon the good and the bad, and sends rain upon the just and the unjust. He set man over the works of His hands. He subjected all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and moreover the cattle of the field: the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, which pass through the paths of the sea." If therefore He has consigned the whole of nature to our service, all reason demands that in return we consign our whole selves to His service. If by His command and impulse the whole world labors for us without cease, and serves our needs night and day; it is fitting that we serve Him our whole life without cease; especially since by the very fact that created things serve us, He Himself serves us, and continually labors for us in creatures and through creatures. For they are instruments, inasmuch as they have all their power from Him, and without His help and constant cooperation they can do nothing: but He is the principal mover, director, and author of all the benefits that come to us from created things. And so if God Himself continually labors for us to serve our needs, with what face shall we refuse to serve Him and labor for His glory? Hence St. Bernard, sermon On the Fourfold Debt: "Behold, he says, He who made heaven and earth is at your doors, and He is your Creator, you the creature; you the servant, He the Lord; He the potter, you the clay. Therefore you owe to Him everything that you are, from whom you have everything: who both made you and has done you good, who ministers to you the courses of the stars, the mildness of the air, the fruitfulness of the earth, the abundance of fruits. To Him truly you must serve with all your marrow, with all your strength, lest perhaps with the eye of indignation He should look upon you and despise you, and crush you forever."

And further on, after recounting the benefit of Christ's re-creation and redemption: "When therefore, he says, I shall have given to Him whatever I am, whatever I can do, is this not like a star compared to the sun, a drop to a river, a stone to a mountain, a grain to a heap? I have only two mites, indeed the most minute ones, body and soul, or rather one mite, my will, and shall I not give it to the will of Him, who so great has anticipated so small a one with such great benefits, who with His whole Self has purchased my whole self? Otherwise, if I retain it, with what face, with what eyes, with what mind, with what conscience do I approach the tender mercies of our God, and dare to claim for my ransom not drops but streams of His blood from the five parts of His body?" Therefore let my whole life serve You, O Lord; let every thought of mine be intent on Your glory, all my strength, all my zeal, all my action. Let all the powers of my mind and body be exhausted in Your service, so that I may repay at least something to Your love, and not be found altogether ungrateful before You. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all His repayments: who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your infirmities; who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with mercy and compassion; who fills your desire with good things," when "your youth shall be renewed like the eagle's."