22.100    § 22 is a comparison of Ecclesiastical partisanship to the emulation and party spirit connected with the horse races in the amphitheatre.  I cannot bear your horse races and theatres, and this rage for rivalry in expense and party spirit.  We unharness, and harness ourselves on the other side, we neigh against each other, we almost beat the air, as they do, and fling the dust towards heaven, like those which are excited; and under other masks satisfy our own rivalry, and become evil arbiters of emulation, and senseless judges of affairs.  To-day sharing the same thrones and opinions, if our leaders thus carry us along; to-morrow hostile alike in position and opinion, if the wind blows in the contrary direction.  Amid the variations of friendship and hatred, our names also vary:  and what is most terrible, we are not ashamed to set forth contrary doctrines to the same audience; nor are we constant to the same objects, being rendered different at different times by our contentiousness.  They are like the ebb and flow of some narrow strait.101    Narrow strait, lit. Euripus.  For as when the children are at play in the midst of the market place, it would be most disgraceful and unbecoming for us to leave our household business, and join them; for children’s toys are not becoming for old age:  so, when others are contending, even if I am better informed than the majority, I could not allow myself to be one of them, rather than, as I now do, enjoy the freedom of obscurity.  For, besides all this, my feeling is that I do not, on most points, agree with the majority, and cannot bear to walk in the same way.  Rash and stupid though it may be, such is my feeling.  That which is pleasant to others causes pain to me, and I am pleased with what is painful to others.  So that I should not be surprised if I were even imprisoned as a disagreeable man, and thought by most men to be out of my senses, as is said to have been the case with one of the Greek philosophers, whose moderation exposed him to the charge of madness, because he laughed at everything, since he saw that the objects of the eager pursuit of the majority were ridiculous; or even be thought full of new wine as were in later days the disciples of Christ, because they spoke with tongues,102    Acts ii. 4. since men knew not that it was the power of the Spirit, and not a distraction of mind.

ΚΒʹ. Οὐ φέρω τοὺς ἱππικοὺς ὑμῶν, καὶ τὰ θέατρα, καὶ τὴν ἀντίῤῥοπον ταύτην μανίαν ἔν τε δαπανήμασι καὶ σπουδάσμασι. Μεταζεύγνυμεν, ἀντιζεύγνυμεν, ἀντιφρυασσόμεθα, μικροῦ καὶ τὸν ἀέρα παίομεν, ὥσπερ ἐκεῖνοι, καὶ βάλλομεν κόνιν εἰς οὐρανὸν, ὥσπερ οἱ ἐξεστηκότες: καὶ ὑπ' ἄλλοις προσώποις τὰς ἡμετέρας ἐκπληροῦμεν φιλονεικίας, κακοὶ γινόμεθα τῆς φιλοτιμίας διαιτηταὶ, καὶ κριταὶ τῶν πραγμάτων ἀγνώμονες. Σήμερον σύνθρονοι καὶ ὁμόδοξοι, ἂν οὕτω φέρωσιν ἡμᾶς οἱ ἄγοντες: αὔριον ἀντίθρονοι καὶ ἀντίδοξοι, ἐὰν ἀντιπνεύσῃ τὸ πνεῦμα. Μετὰ τῆς ἔχθρας καὶ τῆς φιλίας, καὶ τὰ ὀνόματα: καὶ, τὸ δεινότατον, οὐκ αἰσχυνόμεθα τοῖς αὐτοῖς χρώμενοι τῶν ἐναντίων ἀκροαταῖς: οὐδὲ ἐπὶ τῶν αὐτῶν βεβήκαμεν, ἄλλοτε ἄλλους ποιούσης ἡμᾶς τῆς φιλονεικίας. Εὐρίπων μεταβολαί τινες, ἢ ἀμπώτιδες. Ὥσπερ οὖν εἰ μειρακίων ἐν ἀγορᾷ παιζόντων ἐν μέσῳ καὶ παιζομένων, αἰσχρὸν ἂν ἦν λίαν καὶ οὐχ ἡμῶν, καταλιπόντας τὰς οἰκείας διατριβὰς, ἐκείνοις συμφέρεσθαι (οὐ γὰρ ὡραῖον γήρᾳ, παίδων ἀθύρματα): οὕτως οὐδ' εἰ, φερόντων καὶ φερομένων τῶν ἄλλων, αὐτός τι βέλτιον τῶν πολλῶν γινώσκων, δεξαίμην ἂν ἐκείνων εἷς εἶναι μᾶλλον, ἢ, ὅπερ εἰμὶ, μετὰ τῆς ἀφανίας ἐλεύθερος. Πρὸς γὰρ αὖ τοῖς ἄλλοις πάσχω τι καὶ τοιοῦτον, οὐ τὰ πολλὰ συμφέρομαι τοῖς πολλοῖς, οὐδὲ τὴν αὐτὴν βαδίζειν ἀνέχομαι: θρασέως μὲν ἴσως καὶ ἀμαθῶς, πάσχω δ' οὖν ὅμως. Ἀνιᾷ με τὰ τῶν ἄλλων τερπνὰ, καὶ τέρπομαι τοῖς ἑτέρων ἀνιαροῖς. Ὥστε οὐκ ἂν θαυμάσαιμι οὐδὲ τοῦτο, εἰ καὶ δεθείην, ὡς δύσχρηστος, καὶ ἀνοηταίνειν δόξαιμι τοῖς πολλοῖς, ὅ τις λέγεται τῶν παρ' Ἕλλησι φιλοσοφησάντων παθεῖν, ἐγκληθεὶς ὡς μανίαν τὴν σωφροσύνην, ὅτι διεγέλα τὰ πάντα, γέλωτος ὁρῶν ἄξια τὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς σπουδαζόμενα: ἢ καὶ γλεύκους νομισθείην εἶναι μεστὸς, ὡς ὕστερον οἱ Χριστοῦ μαθηταὶ τῷ λαλεῖν γλώσσαις: ἀγνοηθέντες, ὅτι Πνεύματος δύναμις ἦν, οὐ φρενῶν ἔκστασις.