On Consideration

The recent practice of the Tope to be gradually corrected, the old imitated

12. But suppose you were unexpectedly to devote yourself entirely to this philosophy. Your predecessors were not wont so to do ; you will be a nuisance to all the world, inas much as you are not walking in the footsteps of your fathers ; and, what is more, it will seem as though your conduct were designed to flout them. Besides this, you will be a target for the familiar proverb — ' the man who does what nobody else does is a marvel to everybody ' ; it will be hinted that you have a passion for admiration. And you cannot all at once, or altogether, either correct the faults of your critics or mod erate their excesses. After a time you will be able, according to the wisdom given to you by God, little by little and as oc casion offers, to take the business in hand. Meanwhile, by all means turn another man's badness to good account ; this you can do. Still, if we are to follow that which is good, not that which is new, there have not been wanting Roman pontiffs who found leisure in the midst of the weightiest affairs. When the city was besieged, and the sword of the barbarians was over the necks of the citizens, was Pope Gregory thereby deterred from writing words of wisdom at his leisure ? At that very time, forsooth, as appears from his preface, he expounded with no less diligence than elegance the concluding and most obscure portion of EzekieJ.

32 On Consideration