Pagans strive for an earthly crown:
should we not strive all the more for a heavenly?
Since I have mentioned crowns and athletes, let me add this. These men endure a thousand toils. They increase their bodily strength by every possible method. They pour sweat in the exercises of the gymnasium. They take many blows at the school of the physical trainer. They choose a strict diet, prescribed by their gymnastic masters. In short, they pass their whole time in such a way that their very life is a preparation for the contest. Then, when the moment comes, they strip for the race, undergo all the hardships, and run all the risks - for what? To gain a crown made of wild olive or parsley or some such thing! To come first and have their name trumpeted by a herald! But for us Christians, as a reward for the life we live, a whole host of prizes are waiting for us that are so wonderful in their grandeur, that they cannot be described in words. If however we sleep on both ears, and live a thoroughly loose life, how will we be able to reach out and seize our prizes with one hand? If we could do that, laziness would be a worthy way of life, and Sardanapalus26 would carry off the greatest prizes for happiness, or even Margites27 who was neither a ploughman nor a digger nor anything else useful in life (as Homer said, if he was the author of that particular book).
In reality, the saying of Pittacus28 is true: “It is hard to be good.” For even though we undergo many hard labours, it is only with great difficulty that we lay hold of those good things of heaven beside which no human good can compare. So we should not idle away our days. We must not give up our hopes of glory in exchange for an earthly comfort that can last only a short time. Not unless we wish to be condemned and to suffer punishment! I do not mean punishments here on earth, although a sensible man will try to avoid these too. I mean the punishments of hell, whether that is under the earth or wherever in the universe it might be. If someone fails in his duty through weakness, God may perhaps grant him some measure of mercy. But a man who has quite deliberately chosen the sinful path in life - well, there is no excuse that will save him from suffering the punishment many times over.
The mind, not the body, is the measure of the man!
The folly of gluttony
What shall we do, then? What else but devote ourselves to cultivating our inner life, employing our time on nothing else. We must not be enslaved by our bodies; we should satisfy bodily needs only where it is strictly necessary. But our minds we ought to supply with all the best things! We should make use of philosophy to free our minds from entanglement in bodily passions, which are like a prison. At the same time, we should make the body itself into the master of its own passions. Let us give the belly what it really needs, but not sugary delicacies, like those who hunt around everywhere for table-dressers and cooks, combing land and sea to find offerings for Dictator Belly. How pitiable such people are! In their ceaseless mania for food, they suffer pangs like those who are punished in Hades by being forced to thread wool with fire, and fetch water in a sieve, or pour it into a jar full of holes.29 Labour which never ends!
The good Pagans teach us how foolish it is
to overvalue physical appearance
Likewise, to lavish your time (beyond what is necessary) on caring about how your hair looks, or how your clothes look - this, according to the saying of Diogenes, is the sign either of a person cursed with ill-fortune, or else of an ill-doer.30 To be obsessed with fine clothes, and to be known as someone with this obsession, is really as shameful as chumming about with harlots, or seducing other men’s wives! What difference does it make to a sensible man whether he wears a costly robe or a cheap workman’s cloak, as long as it keeps him warm in winter and cool in summer? And the same principle applies everywhere else. We must not furnish ourselves more richly than need requires, nor be so concerned about the body that the soul starves. It is just as shameful for a man (if he deserves the name) to be fixated on fine clothes and to pamper his body, as it is to be debased by any other vice. The man who takes endless pains to render his body gorgeous, is a man who neither knows himself nor understands that wise precept: “What you can see of a man is not the true man. We need a higher wisdom to enable us to recognise ourselves.”31 But unless we purify our minds, this is as impossible as a bleary-eyed man gazing at the sun.
Learning from the Pagans: the moral power of music
Now this purifying of our souls, generally speaking, and to put it simply, is all about holding cheap the pleasures of the senses. So we do not feast our eyes on the silly shows of performers, and we do not ogle human bodies to excite sensual pleasure. We do not allow immoral songs to pour in through the ears and drench the soul. Undignified and smutty passions are naturally awakened by this sort of music. No, we promote a different kind of music, which is noble and leads to what is noble - the sort of music by which David, the poet of the sacred songs, freed king Saul from his madness.32 Pythagoras too, when he met some drunken revellers, commanded their flute player to change his melody and play the Dorian mode.33 The result was that the crowd came to their senses under the influence of this music, tore off their garlands of revelry, and went home ashamed. Others, however, behave like Corybantes34 when they hear the flute, and are whipped up into a Bacchic frenzy.35 Such is the difference between listening to wholesome music and immodest music. Since the latter is now all the rage, you should shun it as the basest of things.
Taming the body: Plato and Pythagoras
