Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/94

 76 THE CLASSICAL HERITAGE [chap. (I, 222) ; quod ita naturae consentaneum sit, is Cicero's phrase (De Off., I, xxvii, 98). To be sure, in this first book of the De Officiis Ministrorum, he occasion- ally contradicts rules of pagan ethics, for example, as to vengeance, the permissibility of which he does not admit (I, 131 ; but see 139 ; cf. De Off., I, vii, 23). At the beginning of the second book Ambrose con- siders what constitutes blessed life (vita beata). The riches of this world do not bring this blessedness, but rather bar the path — woe unto ye rich ! Certum est solum et summum bonum esse virtutem, eamque abundare solam ad vitae fructum beatae : nee externis ant corporis bonis, sed virtute sola vitam praestari beatam, per quam vita aeterna acquiritur. Vita enim beata fructus prae- sentium : vita autem aeterna spes futurorum est (II, 18). Like the Stoics, Ambrose sees no blessedness in riches; virtue alone produces blessed life, through which eter- nal life is reached. For Ambrose the ultimate bless- edness lies in life eternal, which is the fruit of virtue, while the Stoics find it rather in virtue itself, with whatever may come therefrom here or hereafter. He adds : Scnptura autem divhia vitam aetemam in cogni- tione posuit divinitatis, et fructu bonae operationis (II, 5, citing John xvii. 3, and Matt. xix. 29). Here is a Christian statement which, however, Ambrose has not found inconsistent with a stoical way of reasoning. Having spoken thus generally as to what constitutes a blessed life, Ambrose proceeds to discuss the useful (utile), thus returning to Cicero's arrangement. Supe- riore libro ita divisionem fedmus, ut primo loco esset honestum et decorum, a quo officia ducerentur, secundo loco quid utile (II, 22-, cf. Cic. De Off. II, iii, 9).