On the Vices Opposed to the Virtues

1On the vices opposed to the virtues (under the name of Nilus of Ancyra). By the same author, a discourse to the same addressee, on the vices that are the counterparts of the virtues. Chapter 1. I consider it necessary also to set down in summary the vices that are the counterparts of the virtues, for your love of labor; seeing that thus far, having plowed the mind, we have cast the thorns of the thoughts out of the sown land. We have not attained to this by works which we ourselves have done, but having a pattern of sound words which we heard from the Fathers, and having become witnesses of some of the deeds.

But the whole is grace from above, which also shows to sinners the plots of the mind-deceivers, and which secures us, saying: ‘For what do you have that you did not receive?’ (1 Cor 4:7), so that through receiving we may give thanks to the Giver, since we do not attribute to ourselves any boast of glory, denying the gift. Therefore he says, ‘But if you did receive, why do you boast as if you had not received?’ (1 Cor 4:7) — ‘Already,’ he says, ‘you have become rich’ — you who toil in works; already you who have begun to be taught have been satiated — whose error has just now passed over into me; through which I have borrowed reasoning, concealing the poverty of my works, and through which I gave counsel with judgment, perverting the discipleship of being taught.

But nevertheless, if any forgiveness is held in store by you, grant it to me as well, so that we too may set down in summary, indicating, the vices that are the counterparts of the virtues: what gluttony is, against which is self-control; what fornication is, and temperance; what love of money is, and non-possession; sorrow, against which is joy; what anger is, and long-suffering; and listlessness, and endurance; what vainglory is, and freedom from vainglory; envy, and freedom from envy; pride, and humility. These, being counterparts and rivals and opposites of one another, we have thus set down in summary. Chapter 2. Gluttony, then, is the mother of fornication, the nurse of thoughts,

2the weakness of fasting, the muzzle of asceticism, the terror of contemplation, the portrait of foods, the sketch of seasonings, a loose foal, unbridled madness, a vessel of disease, the envy of health, the dam of the pipes, the groaning of the bowels, the end of insults, the partner of fornication, the filth of the mind, the weakness of the body, burdensome sleep, a smileless death. Self-control is the bridle of the belly, the whip of insatiability, the measure of proportion, the muzzle for gluttony, the renunciation of rest, the compact of hardship, the tamer of thoughts, the eye of wakefulness, the quenching of burning, the pedagogue of the body, the tower of labors, the wall of ways, the restraint of character, the checking of passions, the mortification of the limbs, the revival of souls, the imitation of the resurrection, the commonwealth of sanctification.

Fornication is the offspring of gluttony, the softener of the heart, the furnace of burning, the bridesman of idols, an unrelated deed, a shadowed form, an imagined embrace, a bed of dreams, an insensible intercourse, the deceit of the eyes, the shamelessness of the gaze, the disgrace of prayer, the shame of the heart, the guide of ignorance. Temperance is the robe of truth, the axe of licentiousness, the charioteer of the eyes, the overseer of thoughts, the circumcision of intention, the excision of licentiousness, the counter-plant of nature, the opponent of burning, the tiller of works, the fellow-worker of self-control, the lamp of the heart, the touchstone of prayer.

Chapter 3. Love of money is the poorhouse of idols, the prophecy of the crowd, the vote of the Sphinx, the reckoning of depositors, the wealth of captivity, the offspring of injustice, the fatness of diseases, the prophet of many years, the chant of industry, the counselor of wakefulness, the poverty of the belly, the cheapness of foods, insatiable madness, anxious vice. Non-possession is

3the uprooting of love of money, the rooting of freedom from love of money, the fruit of love, the cross of life, a painless life, an unenvied treasure, a carefree heaven, an undistracted sun, immeasurable matter, incomprehensible wealth, the sickle of anxiety, the practice of the Gospels, an unbound world, a swift-running combatant.

Sorrow is the inmate of loss, the companion of failure, the forerunner of exile, the memory of kinship, the attendant of distress, the schoolmate of listlessness, the accusation of provocation, the reminder of insolence, the darkening of the soul, the dejection of character, the drunkenness of prudence, a sleep-inducing antidote, the cloud of the form, the worm of the flesh, the sorrow of thoughts, the crowd of captivity.

Joy is the destruction of sorrow, the thanksgiving for misfortunes, the vision of prayers, the gladness of labors, the cheerfulness of well-doing, the inlay of renunciation, the vessel of hospitality, the refuge of hopes, the food of ascetics, the exhortation of mourners, the consolation of tears, the support of affliction, the vote for love, the fellow-vote for long-suffering.

Anger is the plundering of prudence, the dismantling of the good condition, the confusion of nature, a savage form, the furnace of the heart, a belching flame, the law of anger, the wrath of insults, the mother of beasts, a silent battle, the stumbling-block of prayer.

Long-suffering is the weapon of prudence, the court of anger for the heart, the infirmary of the heart, the admonition of the rash, the calm of the troubled, a harbor without winter, well-doing to those who grieve, gentleness toward all; being blasphemed, it blesses; being insulted, it rejoices; the consolation of the distressed, the mirror of those who hope, the prize of those who are ill-treated.

Chapter 4. Listlessness is an airy friendship, the leader-around of steps, the hatred of industry, the battle of stillness, the dizziness of psalmody, the shrinking from prayer, the inflation of asceticism, untimely

4drowsiness, circling sleep, the weight of madness, the hatred of the cell, the opponent of labors, the counterpart of endurance, the muzzle of meditation, ignorance of the Scriptures, the sharer of sorrow, the clock of hunger. Endurance is the cutting-off of listlessness, the cutting-down of thoughts, the remembrance of death, the meditation of the cross, fear nailed down, gold being struck, the lawbook of afflictions, the book of thanksgiving, the breastplate of stillness, the weapon of labors, a boiling zeal for noble toil, the exemplar of the virtues.

Vainglory is the fantasy of coincidence, the fashioning of love of labor, the opposite of truth, the foundress of heresies, the appetite for the first seat, being greeted last, the slavery of praises, a much-fashioned spirit, a myriad-toothed beast; vainglory is woven in the middle with pride and envy, being in one another and warring through one another — the thrice-woven chain of evils, the thrice-mixed cup of the passions, the triple tongue of the heretics.

Freedom from vainglory is the working of humility, the apostasy from pleasing men, the disregard of praises, the contemplation of knowledge, the opposite of the world, the good perception of the soul, the doctrine of cheapness, the hiding-place of labors, the enemy of good report, a hidden treasure in a corruptible body.

Envy is the garment of pride, the unclothing of humility, the root of slander, the eye-disease of cheerfulness, the hypocrisy of friendship, the deceit of boldness, the enmity of love, the zeal against the prosperous, the turmoil against the stable, the mockery against the well-spoken-of, the alteration of the eyes.

Who is the pure in heart — the one not caught disregarding, or falling short of, or being negligent of a commandment of God? And let Christ be our easy path in every work of His will. To Him be the glory unto the ages. Amen.