also have driven the unhappy man frantic. Thereupon, professional skill being baffled, and at the end of its resources and utterly thrown away, stratagem stepped in and displayed its power in the way which I will now relate. For the physician took an earthen cup brought straight out of the furnace, and having steeped it in wine, then drew it out empty, filled it with water, and, having ordered the chamber where the sick man lay to be darkened with curtains that the light might not reveal the trick, he gave it him to drink, pretending that it was filled with undiluted wine. And the man, before he had taken it in his hands, being de- ceived by the smell, did not wait to examine what was given him, but convinced by the odor, and deceived by the darkness, eagerly gulped down the draught, and being satiated with it immediately shook off the feeling of suffocation and escaped the imminent peril.55 Do you see the advantage of deceit? And if any one were to reckon up all the tricks of physicians the list would run on to an indefinite length. And not only those who heal the body but those also who attend to the diseases of the soul may be found continually making use of this remedy. Thus the blessed Paul attracted those multitudes of Jews:56 with this purpose he circumcised Timothy,57 although he warned the Galatians in his letter58 that Christ would not profit those who were circumcised. For this cause he submitted to the law, although he reckoned the righteousness which came from the law but loss after receiving the faith in Christ.59 For great is the value of deceit, provided it be not introduced with a mischievous intention. In fact action of this kind ought not to be called deceit, but rather a kind of good management, cleverness and skill, capable of finding out ways where resources fail, and making up for the defects of the mind. For I would not call Phinees a murderer, although he slew two human beings with one stroke:60 nor yet Elias after the slaughter of the 100 soldiers, and the captain,61 and the torrents of blood which he caused to be shed by the de- struction of those who sacrificed to devils.62 For if we were to concede this, and to examine the bare deeds in themselves apart from the intention of the doers, one might if he pleased judge Abraham guilty of child-murder63 and accuse his grandson64 and descendant65 of 55 Clement of Alexandria (Stromata vii.) illustrates the same doctrine of allowable deceit for a useful purpose by a similar reference to the practice of physicians. 56 Acts xxi. 26. 57 Ib. xvi. 3. 58 Gal. v. 2. 59 Philipp. iii. 7. 60 Numb. xxv. 7. 61 2 Kings i. 9–12. 62 1 Kings xviii. 34. 63 Gen. xxii. 3. 64 Ib. xxvii. 19. 65 Exod. xi. 2. 49 Book I