To turn your thought
upon these things, I sent you the book written long ago by the holy
father Augustine, concerning the Divine State. Have you read in it?'
'Some little,' answered Basil, 'but with wandering mind.'
'Therein you will discover, largely expounded, these reasonings I do
but touch upon. I would have you trace God's working in the past,
and, by musing upon what now is, ripen yourself in that citizenship
whereon you have prided yourself, though you neither understood its
true meaning nor had the strength to perform its duties. Losing
sight of the Heavenly City for that which is on earth, not even in
your earthly service were you worthy of the name of Roman; and,
inasmuch as you wronged the earthly Rome, even so did you sin
against that Eternal State of the Supreme Lord whereof by baptism
you were made a citizen. By such as you, O Basil, is the anger of
our God prolonged, and lest you should think that, amid a long and
bloody war, amid the trampling of armies, the fall of cities, one
death more is of no account, I say to you that, in the eyes of the
All-seeing, this deed of yours may be of heavier moment than the
slaughter of a battlefield.
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