40. What sayest thou, my father? Is
this sufficient, and dost thou find an ample recompense for all thy
toils, which thou didst undergo for my learning, in this eulogy of
farewell or of entombment? And dost thou, as of old, impose
silence on my tongue, and bid me stop in due time, and so avoid
excess? Or dost thou require some addition? I know thou
bidst me cease, for I have said enough. Yet suffer me to add
this. Make known to us where thou art in glory, and the light
which encircles thee, and receive into the same abode thy partner soon
to follow thee, and the children whom thou hadst laid to rest before
thee, and me also, after no further, or but a slight addition to the
ills of this life: and before reaching that abode receive me in
this sweet stone, Stone, i.e. the
tomb in which his father was buried. which thou didst
erect for both of us, to the honour even here of thy consecrated
namesake, and excuse me from the care both of the people which I have
already resigned, Which I have
resigned, i.e., Sasima. Accepted, i.e.,
Nazianzus. and of that which
for thy sake I have since accepted: and mayest thou guide and
free from peril, as I earnestly entreat, the whole flock and all the
clergy, whose father thou art said to be, but especially him who was
overpowered by thy paternal and spiritual coercion, so that he may not
entirely consider that act of tyranny obnoxious to blame.