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| Chapter III.—On Costly Vessels.
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Chapter III.—On Costly Vessels.
And so the use of cups made of silver and gold,
and of others inlaid with precious stones, is out of place, being only
a deception of the vision. For if you pour any warm liquid into them,
the vessels becoming hot, to touch them is painful. On the other hand,
if you pour in what is cold, the material changes its quality, injuring
the mixture, and the rich potion is hurtful. Away, then, with Thericleian
cups and
Antigonides, and Canthari, and
goblets, and Lepastæ,1391
| 1391
Limpet-shaped cups. [On this chapter consult Kaye, p. 74.] |
and the endless shapes of drinking vessels, and wine-coolers, and
wine-pourers also. For, on the whole, gold and silver, both publicly
and privately, are an invidious possession when they exceed what is
necessary, seldom to be acquired, difficult to keep, and not adapted
for use. The elaborate vanity, too, of vessels in glass chased, more
apt to break on account of the art, teaching us to fear while we drink,
is to be banished from our well-ordered constitution. And silver couches,
and pans and vinegar-saucers, and trenchers and bowls; and besides these,
vessels of silver and gold, some for serving food, and others for other
uses which I am ashamed to name, of easily cleft cedar and thyine wood,
and ebony, and tripods fashioned of ivory, and couches with silver
feet and inlaid with ivory, and folding-doors of beds studded with gold
and variegated with tortoise-shell, and bed-clothes of purple and other
colours difficult to produce, proofs of tasteless luxury, cunning devices
of envy and effeminacy,—are all to be relinquished, as having
nothing whatever worth our pains. “For the time is short,”
as says the apostle. This then remains that we do not make a ridiculous
figure, as some are seen in the public spectacles outwardly anointed
strikingly for imposing effect, but wretched within. Explaining this
more clearly, he adds, “It remains that they that have wives be
as though they had none, and they that buy as though they possessed
not.”1392
And if he speaks thus of marriage, in reference to which
God says, “Multiply,” how do you not think that senseless
display is by the Lord’s authority to be banished? Wherefore also
the Lord says, “Sell what thou hast, and give to the poor; and
come, follow me.”1393
Follow God, stripped of arrogance, stripped of
fading display, possessed of that which is thine, which is good, what
alone cannot be taken away—faith towards God, confession towards
Him who suffered, beneficence towards men, which is the most precious
of possessions. For my part, I approve of Plato, who plainly lays it
down as a law, that a man is not to labour for wealth of gold or silver,
nor to possess a useless vessel which is not for some necessary purpose,
and moderate; so that the same thing may serve for many purposes, and the
possession of a variety of things may be done away with. Excellently,
therefore, the Divine Scripture, addressing boasters and lovers of
their own selves, says, “Where are the rulers of the nations,
and the lords of the wild beasts of the earth, who sport among the
birds of heaven, who treasured up silver and gold, in whom men trusted,
and there was no end of their substance, who fashioned silver and gold,
and were full of care? There is no finding of their works. They have
vanished, and gone down to Hades.”1394
Such is the reward
of display. For though such of us as cultivate the soil need a mattock
and plough, none of us will make a pickaxe of silver or a sickle of
gold, but we employ the material which is serviceable for agriculture,
not what is costly. What prevents those who are capable of considering
what is similar from entertaining the same sentiments with respect to
household utensils, of which let use, not expense, be the measure? For
tell me, does the table-knife not cut unless it be studded with silver,
and have its handle made of ivory? Or must we forge Indian steel in order
to divide meat, as when we call for a weapon for the fight? What if the
basin be of earthenware? will it not receive the dirt of the hands? or
the footpan the dirt of the foot? Will the table that is fashioned with
ivory feet be indignant at bearing a three-halfpenny loaf? Will the lamp
not dispense light because it is the work of the potter, not of the
goldsmith? I affirm that truckle-beds afford no worse repose than the
ivory couch; and the goatskin coverlet being amply sufficient to spread on
the bed, there is no need of purple or scarlet coverings. Yet to condemn,
notwithstanding, frugality, through the stupidity of luxury, the author
of mischief, what a prodigious error, what senseless conceit! See. The
Lord ate from a common bowl, and made the disciples recline on the grass
on the ground, and washed their feet, girded with a linen towel—He,
the lowly-minded God, and Lord of the universe. He did not bring down a
silver foot-bath from heaven. He asked to drink of the Samaritan woman,
who drew the water from the well in an earthenware vessel, not seeking
regal gold, but teaching us how to quench thirst easily. For He made use,
not extravagance His aim. And He ate and drank at feasts, not digging
metals from the earth, nor using vessels of gold and silver, that is,
vessels exhaling the odour of rust—such fumes as the rust of
smoking1395
metal gives off.
For in fine, in food, and clothes, and vessels, and
everything else belonging to the house, I say comprehensively, that one
must follow the institutions of the Christian1396
| 1396 [See Elucidation I. ἐνστάσεσιν
τοῦ
Χριστιανοῦ.] |
man, as is serviceable and suitable to one’s person,
age, pursuits, time of life. For it becomes those that
are servants of one God, that their possessions and
furniture should exhibit the tokens of one beautiful1397
life; and that each individually should be seen in faith, which shows
no difference, practising all other things which are conformable to
this uniform mode of life, and
harmonious with this one scheme.
What we acquire without difficulty, and use with
ease, we praise, keep easily, and communicate freely. The things which
are useful are preferable, and consequently cheap things are better than
dear. In fine, wealth, when not properly governed, is a stronghold of
evil, about which many casting their eyes, they will never reach the
kingdom of heaven, sick for the things of the world, and living proudly
through luxury. But those who are in earnest about salvation must settle
this beforehand in their mind, “that all that we possess is given
to us for use, and use for sufficiency, which one may attain to by a few
things.” For silly are they who, from greed, take delight in what
they have hoarded up. “He that gathereth wages,” it is said,
“gathereth into a bag with holes.”1398
Such is he who gathers corn and
shuts it up; and he who giveth to no one, becomes poorer.
It is a farce, and a thing to make one laugh
outright, for men to bring in silver urinals and crystal vases de nuit, as they usher in
their counsellors, and for silly rich women to get gold receptacles for
excrements made; so that being rich, they cannot even ease themselves
except in superb way. I would that in their whole life they deemed gold
fit for dung.
But now love of money is found to be the stronghold
of evil, which the apostle says “is the root of all evils,
which, while some coveted, they have erred from the faith, and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows.”1399
But the best riches is poverty of desires; and the
true magnanimity is not to be proud of wealth, but to despise it. Boasting
about one’s plate is utterly base. For it is plainly wrong to care
much about what any one who likes may buy from the market. But wisdom
is not bought with coin of earth, nor is it sold in the market-place,
but in heaven. And it is sold for true coin, the immortal Word, the
regal gold. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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