Letter 254: Truth is powerful, Peter — and often silent.

To the same. You asked why inanimate things were struck. To accuse, I say, the stupidity of the Jews — because inanimate things were shattered by fear, while they themselves were turned to the nature of stones, insensible to fear and ungrateful toward beneficence. To Paul. The present life, O best of men, differs in nothing from a tent, having nothing firm, or lasting, or stable, or secure. "The affairs of mortals are a shadow," says the comedy. I do not know how you have been captivated by these things, even though you admire the comic poet.

ΤΟ ΑΥΤΩ. Τίνος χάριν, ἔφης, τα άψυχα ἐμαστίζετο; Τῆς Ἰουδαίων, φημὶ, κατηγοροῦντα ἡλιθιότητος· ὅτι τὰ C μὲν φόβῳ συνετρίβετο, αὐτοὶ δὲ εἰς λίθων φύσιν μεθίσταντο, καὶ πρὸς φόβον ἀναίσθητοι, καὶ πρὸς εὐεργεσίαν ὄντες ἀχάριστοι. ΣΜΔ΄. – ΠΑΥΛΟΣ Σκηνῆς οὐδὲν, ὦ βέλτιστε, ὁ παρών διενήνοχε ẞloς, οὐδὲν βέβαιον, ἢ μόνιμον, ἢ σταθερὸν, ἢ πά- γιον ἔχων. Σκιὰ γὰρ τὰ θνητῶν, λέγει ἡ κωμ- ῳδία (66). Οἷς οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅπως ἑάλως, καίτοι τὸν κωμι- κὸν θαυμάζων. Ἐνταῦθα μὲν γὰρ καὶ τὰ ἀγαθὰ καὶ τὰ χαλεπὰ πέρας ἔχει, καὶ τοῦτο τάχιστον· ἐκεῖ δὲ ἀθανάτοις ἀμφότερα παρεκτείνεται αἰῶσιν.