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| Chapter V. The upright does nothing that is contrary to duty, even though there is a hope of keeping it secret. To point this out the tale about the ring of Gyges was invented by the philosophers. Exposing this, he brings forward known and true examples from the life of David and John the Baptist.
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Chapter V.
The upright does nothing that is contrary to duty, even
though there is a hope of keeping it secret. To point this out
the tale about the ring of Gyges was invented by the
philosophers. Exposing this, he brings forward known and true
examples from the life of David and John the Baptist.
29. To lay down
here already the result of our discussion, as though we had already
ended it, we declare it a fixed rule, that we must never aim at
anything but what is virtuous.631
| 631 Cic. de
Off. III. 7, § 33. | The wise man
does nothing but what can be done openly and without
falseness,632
| 632 Cic. de Off. III. 7,
§ 37. | nor does he do
anything whereby he may involve himself in any wrong-doing, even where
he may escape notice. For he is guilty in his own eyes, before
being so in the eyes of others; and the publicity of his crime does not
bring him more shame than his own consciousness of it. This we
can show, not by the made-up stories which philosophers use, but from
the true examples of good men.
30. I need not, therefore, imagine a great
chasm in the earth, which had been loosened by heavy rains, and had
afterwards burst asunder, as Plato does.633
For he makes Gyges descend into
that chasm, and to meet there that iron horse of the fable that had
doors in its sides. When these doors were opened, he found a gold
ring on the finger of a dead man, whose corpse lay there
lifeless. He desiring the gold took away the ring. But when
he returned to the king’s shepherds, to whose number he belonged,
by chance having turned the stone inwards towards the palms of his
hands, he saw all, yet was seen by none. Then when he turned the
ring to its proper position, he was again seen by all. On
becoming conscious of this strange power, by the use of the ring he
committed adultery with the queen, killed the king, and took possession
of the kingdom after slaying all the rest, who he thought should be put
to death, so that they might be no hindrance to him.
31. Give, says Plato, this ring to a wise
man, that when he commits a fault he may by its help remain unnoticed;
yet he will be none the more free from the stain of sin than if he
could not be hid. The hiding-place of the wise lies not in the
hope of impunity but in his own innocency. Lastly, the law is not
laid down for the just but for the unjust.634
For the just has within himself the
law of his mind, and a rule of equity and justice. Thus he is not
recalled from sin by fear of punishment, but by the rule of a virtuous
life.
32. Therefore, to return to our subject, I will
now bring forward, not false examples for true, but true examples in
place of false. For why need I imagine a chasm in the earth, and
an iron horse and a gold ring found on the fingers of a dead man; and
say that such was the power of this ring, that he who wore it could
appear at his own will, but if he did not wish to be seen, he could
remove himself out of the sight of those who stood by, so as to seem to
be away. This story, of course, is meant to answer the question
whether a wise man, on getting the opportunity of using that ring so as
to be able to hide his crimes, and to obtain a kingdom,—whether,
I say, a wise man would be unwilling to sin and would consider the
stain of sin far worse than the pains of punishment, or whether he
would use it for doing wickedness in the hope of not being found
out? Why, I say, should I need the pretence of a ring, when I can
show from what has been done that a wise man, on seeing he would not
only be undetected in his sin, but would also gain a kingdom if he gave
way to it, and who, on the other hand, noted danger to his own safety
if he did not commit the crime, yet chose to risk his own safety so as
to be free from crime, rather than to commit the crime and so gain the
kingdom.
33. When David fled from the face of King
Saul,635
because the king was seeking him in the
desert with three thousand chosen men
to put him to death, he entered the
king’s camp and found him sleeping. There he not only did
him no injury, but actually guarded him from being slain by any who had
entered with him. For when Abishai said to him: “The
Lord hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day, now therefore
I will slay him,” he answered: “Destroy him not, for
who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord’s anointed, and
be guiltless?” And he added: “As the Lord
liveth, unless the Lord shall smite him, or his day shall come to die,
or he shall die in battle, and it be laid to me, the Lord forbid that I
should stretch out my hand against the Lord’s
anointed.”636
34. Therefore he did not suffer him to be
slain, but removed only his spear, which stood by his head, and his
cruse of water. Then, whilst all were sleeping, he left the camp
and went across to the top of the hill, and began to reproach the royal
attendants, and especially their general Abner, for not keeping
faithful watch over their lord and king. Next, he showed them
where the king’s spear and cruse were which had stood at his
head. And when the king called to him, he restored the spear, and
said: “The Lord render to every man his righteousness and
faithfulness, for the Lord delivered thee into my hand, but I would not
avenge myself on the Lord’s anointed.”637
Even whilst he said this, he
feared his plots and fled, changing his place in exile. However,
he never put safety before innocency, seeing that when a second
opportunity was given him of killing the king, he would not use the
chance that came to him, and which put in his reach certain safety
instead of fear, and a kingdom instead of exile.
35. Where was the use of the ring in
John’s case,638
who would not
have been put to death by Herod if he had kept silence? He could
have kept silence before him so as to be both seen and yet not
killed. But because he not only could not endure to sin himself
to protect his own safety, but could not bear and endure even
another’s sin, he brought about the cause of his own death.
Certainly none can deny that he might have kept silence, who in the
case of Gyges deny that he could have remained invisible by the help of
the ring.
36. But although that fable has not the
force of truth, yet it has this much to go upon, that if an upright man
could hide himself, yet he would avoid sin just as though he could not
conceal himself; and that he would not hide his person by putting on a
ring, but his life by putting on Christ. As the Apostle
says: “Our life is hid with Christ in God.”639
Let, then, no one here strive to
shine, let none show pride, let none boast. Christ willed not to
be known here, He would not that His Name should be preached in the
Gospel whilst He lived on earth. He came to lie hid from this
world. Let us therefore likewise hide our life after the example
of Christ, let us shun boastfulness, let us not desire to be made
known. It is better to live here in humility, and there in
glory. “When Christ,” it says, “shall appear,
then shall we also appear with Him in glory.”640
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