You suffer emotions and
shed tears at merely hearing of these things: what must he have endured
at the sight of them? For if we, so long after the event, can not bear
to hear of this tragedy, tho it was another man's calamity, what an
adamant was he to look on these things, and contemplate them, not as
another's, but his own afflictions! He did not give way to dejection,
nor ask, "What does this mean? Is this the recompense for my kindness?
Was it for this that I opened my house, that I might see it made the
grave of my children? Did I for this exhibit every parental virtue, that
they should endure such a death?" No such things did he speak, or even
think; but steadily bore all, tho bereaved of them after bestowing on
them so much care. For as an accomplished statuary framing golden images
adorns them with great care, so he sought properly to mold and adorn
their souls. And as a husbandman assiduously waters his palm-trees, or
olives, inclosing them and cultivating them in every suitable way; so he
perpetually sought to enrich each one's soul, as a fruitful olive, with
increasing virtue. But he saw the trees overthrown by the assault of the
evil spirit, and exposed on the earth, and enduring that miserable kind
of death; yet he uttered no reviling word, but rather blest God, thus
giving a deadly blow to the devil.
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