De consolatione ethnica et christiana, censura theologica

IV.

These are the external principles of Ethnic Consolation.

1. The principal efficient cause is the ψυχικός natural/soulish man, that is, the animal man, who, since he is not capable of those things which are of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14), cannot recall ἀθυμίαν despondency/lack of courage, or tranquility and serenity of Soul, by his own δυνάμεσι powers/strengths, once the tempestuous and murky storm of sadness and pains has been driven away. Although it is commonly believed that all who are strong can give right counsel to the sick, nevertheless, regarding all of them, that which is in the proverb can be said: They are physicians for others, while they themselves are covered in ulcers. For they are not able to do otherwise than be less affected by the sense of their own evils for a brief moment of time. But if the animal man cannot raise himself up by consoling himself, any more than Cato the Younger raised himself up in his death struggle, what, I ask you, would the same person provide for another?

2. The instrumental cause is speech. It is said splendidly: ψυχῆς νοσούσης εἰσὶ ἰατροὶ λόγοι Words are physicians for the sick soul. Likewise: λόγῳ γὰρ ἐστι φάρμακον λύπης μόνον For speech alone is the medicine for pain. Likewise: τῷ μὲν τὸ σῶμα διατεθεμένῳ κακῶς, χεί’ ἐστιν ἰατροῦ. τῷ δὲ πάλιν ψυχὴν, φίλος. λύπην γὰρ σύνεσ’ οἶδε θεραπεύειν λόγῳ For the one whose body is disposed ill, there is need of a physician. But for the one whose soul is, a friend. For understanding knows how to heal pain with speech., as Menander judged.

But what speech, what charms, could have added heart to Darius, the last Persian Monarch, when, after such an inclination and mutation of his affairs, he was outwitted by Bessus, the Prefect of the Bactrians, and nefariously killed? Could that elegant sentiment of Eutemon of Cyme have been a solace to him: They bear miseries best who hide them: nor is there any fatherland so familiar to the unhappy as solitude, and the forgetting of their previous state. For those who place much in the mercy of their own people are ignorant of how quickly tears dry up?

Speech grinds an ulcerated soul with pain; if untimely witty, it offends as if by mocking; if gentle, it affects little; if mournful, it commands one to mourn in a certain way. Yet, are there any other forms of speech accustomed to be used in mourning by a carnal man?

3. The final cause is so that pain might be either soothed or wiped away: so that a man might not suffer human things turbulently. Yet, the rightfully done things of men, as well as their κατορθώματα rectifications/accomplishments, should not serve their own glory, but rather the sanctification of His name in whom they are, live, and move (Acts 17:28).