246 TREATISES ATTRIBUTED TO CYPRIAN. moon servethe purposeof her months, nor doesthe sun ran his course along the moments of the hours,nor doesthe banishment of the lightmake way for night. A joyous reposepossessesthe people,a calm home sheltersthem,where a gushing fountainin the midst issuesfrom the bosom of a broken hollow,and flowsin sinuousmazes by a coursedeep- sounding,at intervalsto be divided among the sourcesof riversspringingfrom it. Here thereisthe great praiseof martyrs,here isthe noblecrown of the victors,who havethe promiseof greaterthingsthan thosewhose rewards aremore abundant. And that eithertheirbody is thrown to wild beasts,or thethreateningsword isnot feared,isshown asthe reasonof theirdignity,ismanifestedas [theground of]their election.Because itwould have been inconsistent,thathe who had been judged equal to such a duty,should be kept among earthlyvicesand corruptions. 22. For you deserve,O excellentmartyrs,that nothing shouldbe deniedto you who are nourishedwith the hopeof eternityand of light;whose absolutedevotion,and whose mind dedicatedto the serviceof heaven,is evidentlyseen. Deservedly,I say deservedly,nothingisforbiddento you to wish for,sinceby your soul thisworld islookeddown upon, and the alienatedappearanceof the time has made you to shudder,as if itwere a confused blindnessof darkness; to whom thisworldisalwaysregardedinthe lightof a dungeon, itsdwellingsfor restraints,in a lifewhich has always been esteemed by you as a period of delayon a journey. Thus, indeed,in the triumph of victoryhe issnatchedfrom these evils,whom no vainambitionwith pompous stephas subdued, nor popular greatnesshas elated,but whom, burning with heavenly desire,Christhas added to His kingdom. 23. There is nothing,then,so greatand venerableasthe deliverancefrom death,and the causing to live,and the giving to reign for ever. This is fittingfor the saints, needfulforthe wretched,pleasingto all,in which the good rejoice,the abject are liftedup, the elect are crowned. Assuredly God, who cares for all,gave to lifea certain medicineas itwere in martyrdom, when to some He assigned