122 WORKS OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM. [HOMILY XV. pointing out how that evil may be yet more en tirely eradicated ; ifwe be not, saith he, "bitter" in spirit. For it is as is wont to happen with our bile, if there chance to be but little of it, there will be but little disturbance if the receptacle should burst : but if ever the strength and acrid- ness of this quality becomes excessive, the ves sel which before held it, containing it no longer, is as if it were eaten through by a scorching fire, and it is no longer able to hold it and contain it within its appointed bounds, but, rent asunder by its intense sharpness, it lets it escape and in jure the whole body. And it is like some very fierce and frightful wild beast, that has been brought into a city ; as long as it is confined in the cages made for it, however it may rage, how ever it may roar, it will be unable to do harm to any one ; but if it is overcome by rage, and breaks through the intervening bars, and is able to leap out, it fills the city with all sorts of con fusion and disturbance, and puts everybody to flight. Such indeed is the nature also of bile. As long as it is kept within its proper limits, it will do us no great mischief; but as soon as ever the membrane that incloses it bursts, and there is nothing to hinder its being at once dispersed over the whole system, then, I say, at that mo ment, though it be so very trifling in quantity, 1 yet by reason of the inordinate strength of its quality it taints all the other elements of our nature with its own peculiar virulence. For finding the blood, for instance, near to it, alike in place and in quality, and rendering the heat which is in that blood more acrid, and everything else in fact which is near it ; passing from its just temperature it overflows its bounds, turns all into gall, and therewith at once attacks likewise the other parts of the body ; and thus infusing into all its own poisonous quality, it renders the man speechless, and causes him to expire, expelling life. Now, why have I stated all these things with such minuteness? It is in order that, un derstanding from this bitterness which is of the body the intolerable evil of that bitterness which is of the soul, and how entirely it destroys first of all the very soul that engenders it, making everything bitter, we may escape experience of it. For as the one inflames the whole constitu tion, so does the other the thoughts, and carries away its captive to the abyss of hell. In order then that by carefully examining these matters we may escape this evil, and bridle the monster, or rather utterly root it out, let us hearken to what Paul saith, " Let all bitterness be " (not 1 [This seems to be in direct contradiction to what is said a few lines above, to wit, " If there chance to be but little of it, there will be but little disturbance if the receptacle should burst." The text in the former passage is in great uncertainty, however, and confusion. Field calls it a locus conclamatus. Perhaps, if the true text of that passage could be recovered, it would not be in conflict with the pas sage here.* G. A.] destroyed, but) " put away " from you. For what need have I of trouble to restrain it, what necessity is there to keep watch on a monster, when it is in my power to expel him from my soul, to remove him and drive him out, as it were, into banishment? Let us hearken then to Paul when he saith, " Let all bitterness be put away from you." But, ah, the perversity that possesses us ! Though we ought to do every thing to effect this, yet are there some so truly senseless as to congratulate themselves upon this evil, and to pride themselves upon it, and to glory in it, and who are envied by others. "Such a one," say they, " is a bitter man, he is a scorpion, a serpent, a viper." They look upon him as one to be feared. But wherefore, good man, dost thou fear the bitter person? " I fear," you say, " lest he injure me, lest he destroy me ; I am not proof against his malice, I am afraid lest he should take me who am a simple man, and unable to foresee any of his schemes, and throw me into his snares, and entangle us in the toils which he has set to deceive us." Now I cannot but smile. And why forsooth ? Because these are the arguments of children, who fear things which are not to be feared. Surely there is nothing we ought so to despise, nothing we ought so to laugh to scorn, as a bitter and ma licious man. For there is nothing so powerless 2 as bitterness. It makes men fools and senseless. Do ye not see that malice is blind ? Have ye never heard, that he that diggeth a pit for his neighbors, diggeth it for himself? How, itmay be said, ought we not to fear a soul full of tumult? If indeed we are to fear the bitter in the sameway as we fear evil spirits, and fools and madmen, (for they indeed do everything at random,) I grant it myself ; but if we are to fear them as men skill ful in the conduct of affairs, that never. For nothing is so necessary for the proper conduct of affairs as prudence ; and there is no greater hindrance to prudence than wickedness, and malice, and hollowness. Look at bilious per sons, how unsightly they are, with all their bloom withered away. How weak they are, and puny, and unfit for anything. So also are souls of this nature. What else is wickedness, but a jaundice of the soul? Wickedness then has no strength in it, indeed it has not. Have ye a mind that I again make what I am saying plain to you by an instance, by setting before you the portraits of a treacherous and a guileless man? Absalom was a treacherous man, and " stole all men s hearts." (2 Sam. xv. 6.) And observe how great was his treachery. " He went about," it saith, " and said, Hast thou no judgment? " 3 wishing to 2 [Compare Prov. xxv. 28. G. A.] 3 [/Hi) e<TTi trot Kpi<rts; but Sept. (2 Sam. xv. 3} has 6 aicovtoi OVK trri <roi irapa roO /3a<7iAe<os, which is well rendered by the Rev. Ver., But there is no man deputed of the king to hear thee." G. A.]