[811] 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9, 10.
[812] Cf. Tertullian, Apol. 33.
[813] Acts ix. 15.
[814] Wisd. iv. 11, 14.
[815] 2 Cor. v. 4.
[816] 2 Cor. v. 6.
[817] Ps. cxx. 5, 6, Vulg.
[818] Joh. i. 5.
[819] Eph. v. 8.
[820] A famous stoic who committed suicide in extreme old age. See Diogenes Laertius (vii. 1) for an account of his death.
[821] An academic philosopher of Ambracia, who is said to have killed himself after reading the Phædo of Plato.
[822] Cato of Utica, who, after the battle of Thapsus (46 b.c.), committed suicide to avoid falling into the hands of Cæsar.
[823] Isa. lxvi. 2.
[824] Jon. ii. 2-7.
[825] 1 Thess. iv. 13.
[826] Viz. Paulina, wife of Prætextatus and priestess of Ceres. See Letter XXIII. § 3.
[827] Gen. xxxvii. 35.
[828] 2 Sam. xviii. 33.
[829] Deut. xxxiv. 8.
[830] Nu. xx. 29.
[831] Gen. iii. 24: cf. Ezek. i. 15-20. Here as in his Comm. on Eccles. iii. 16-22, Jerome follows Origen, who, in his homily de Engastrimytho, lays down that until Christ came to set them free the patriarchs, prophets, and saints of the Old Testament were all in hell.
[832] Apud inferos--Luke xvi. 23.
[833] 2 Sam. xvii. 1-4.
[834] Acts viii. 2.
[835] Gen. 1. 7-10.
[836] Nu. xx. 29; Deut. xxxiv. 6-8.
[837] Josh. xxiv. 30.
[838] Ad inferos. Hades is meant, not Gehenna.
[839] Rom. v. 14.
[840] The Greek form of Joshua. Cf. Acts vii. 45, A.V.
[841] I learn from Dr. Neubauer, of Oxford, that this is still a practice during mourning among the Jews of the East. He refers to Tur Joreh Deah. §378.
[842] Gen. xxv. 34.
[843] Gal. iii. 27.
[844] 1 Pet. ii. 9.
[845] Lev. x. 6, 12.
[846] Lev. xxi. 10-12.
[847] Luke ix. 59-62.
[848] Lev. xxi. 12, Vulg.
[849] 1 Joh. ii. 27.
[850] Gen. xii. 1-4.
[851] Ruth i.
[852] Matt. i. 5.
[853] Or Melania. She went with Rufinus to the East, and settled with him on the Mt. of Olives; and incurred Jerome's resentment as Rufinus' friend. See Ep. cxxxiii. 3. "She whose name of blackness attests the darkness of her perfidy."
[854] Mark v. 39.
[855] Luke xxiv. 5.
[856] Joh. xx. 17.
[857] Luke ii. 36, 37.
Letter XL. To Marcella.
Onasus, of Segesta, the subject of this letter, was among Jerome's Roman opponents. He is here held up to ridicule in a manner which reflects little credit on the writer's urbanity. The date of the letter is 385 a.d.
1. The medical men called surgeons pass for being cruel, but really deserve pity. For is it not pitiful to cut away the dead flesh of another man with merciless knives without being moved by his pangs? Is it not pitiful that the man who is curing the patient is callous to his sufferings, and has to appear as his enemy? Yet such is the order of nature. While truth is always bitter, pleasantness waits upon evil-doing. Isaiah goes naked without blushing as a type of captivity to come. [858] Jeremiah is sent from Jerusalem to the Euphrates (a river in Mesopotamia), and leaves his girdle to be marred in the Chaldæan camp, among the Assyrians hostile to his people. [859] Ezekiel is told to eat bread made of mingled seeds and sprinkled with the dung of men and cattle. [860] He has to see his wife die without shedding a tear. [861] Amos is driven from Samaria. [862] Why is he driven from it? Surely in this case as in the others, because he was a spiritual surgeon, who cut away the parts diseased by sin and urged men to repentance. The apostle Paul says: "Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" [863] And so the Saviour Himself found it, from whom many of the disciples went back because His sayings seemed hard. [864]
2. It is not surprising, then, that by exposing their faults I have offended many. I have arranged to operate on a cancerous nose; [865] let him who suffers from wens tremble. I wish to rebuke a chattering daw; let the crow realize that she is offensive. [866] Yet, after all, is there but one person in Rome
"Whose nostrils are disfigured by a scar?" [867]
Is Onasus of Segesta alone in puffing out his cheeks like bladders and balancing hollow phrases on his tongue?
I say that certain persons have, by crime, perjury, and false pretences, attained to this or that high position. How does it hurt you who know that the charge does not touch you? I laugh at a pleader who has no clients, and sneer at a penny-a-liner's eloquence. What does it matter to you who are such a refined speaker? It is my whim to inveigh against mercenary priests. You are rich already, why should you be angry? I wish to shut up Vulcan and burn him in his own flames. Are you his guest or his neighbor that you try to save an idol's shrine from the fire? I choose to make merry over ghosts and owls and monsters of the Nile; and whatever I say, you take it as aimed at you. At whatever fault I point my pen, you cry out that you are meant. You collar me and drag me into court and absurdly charge me with writing satires when I only write plain prose!
So you really think yourself a pretty fellow just because you have a lucky name! [868] Why it does not follow at all. A brake is called a brake just because the light does not break through it. [869] The Fates are called "sparers," [870] just because they never spare. The Furies are spoken of as gracious, [871] because they show no grace. And in common speech Ethiopians go by the name of silverlings. Still, if the showing up of faults always angers you, I will soothe you now with the words of Persius: "May you be a catch for my lord and lady's daughter! May the pretty ladies scramble for you! May the ground you walk on turn to a rose-bed!" [872]
3. All the same, I will give you a hint what features to hide if you want to look your best. Show no nose upon your face and keep your mouth shut. You will then stand some chance of being counted both handsome and eloquent.
[858] Isa. xx. 2.
[859] Jer. xiii. 6, 7.
[860] Ezek. iv. 9-16.
[861] Ezek. xxiv. 15-18.
[862] Amos vii. 12, 13.
[863] Gal. iv. 16.
[864] John vi. 60, 66.
[865] Nasus. A play on the name Onasus.
[866] Cf. Persius, l. 33.
[867] Virg. A. vi. 497.
[868] Onasus means "lucky" or "profitable;" it is another form of Onesimus.
[869] Quoted from Quintilian i. 6, 34 (lucus a non lucendo).
[870] Parcæ, from parcere, to spare.
[871] Eumenides, the Greek name for the Furies.
[872] Pers. ii. 37, 38.