On the Meeting for the sake of seeking Instruction (156-160)

so that in proportion as the mind is more powerful and more efficacious than, and in short superior to, the hand, in the same proportion also do I look upon knowledge and wisdom as more admirable than encyclical accomplishment, and I honour them in a higher degree. Do thou, therefore, O thou who both art the mistress, and who art so accounted by me, take all my encyclical instruction and use it as thy handmaid, doing to it as it shall seem good to thee;

for I am not unaware that whatever pleases thee is in all respects good even though it may not always be pleasant, and is useful even though it be far removed from being agreeable. But admonition and reproof are both good and profitable to those who stand in need of correction, which indeed the holy scriptures call by another name, and denominate affliction.

On which account the historian presently adds, "And she afflicted her;" an expression equivalent to, she admonished and corrected her. For a sharp spear is very profitable for those who are corrupted by over security and indolences, just as it is of use with restive horses; since they can scarcely be subdued and made manageable by the whip and by gentle leading.

Do you not see how they are utterly unaffected by the prizes proposed to them? [*] They are fat, [*]

And Moses testifies to this view of the matter when he says, "He got fat, he became stout, he became swollen, and forsook God who had created him." [*] So that if excessive relaxation begets the greatest of all evils, impiety, its contrary, affliction, in accordance with the law produces that perfect good, much praised correction;