The Rebuke of the Wise vs. the Laughter of Fools

A person is driven by grief or toward a house of drinking and laughter. The comparison made is such that they choose some things and flee others in many ways, one of which is from those who choose. The wise man chooses virtue, piety, 'to please God', and strives for piety, even if he must die. But the many-sided man, the fool, does not choose these.

From the things chosen, virtue is preferred, because the wise choose it, not the coarse, not the exhausted, not the fool. And from the facts, again the comparison is taken, the beautiful thing said by those judging and comparing. The necessary thing is taken when we say that the soul is more excellent than the body, and it is more fitting to care for it rather than the body. From the matter, toward which the choice and comparison happen, the precious thing is taken, since the soul is more precious. He who is sparing and caring of it cares for the precious and the better according to truth.

And there is also when the preference happens from the things accompanying. Thus it is not necessary to prefer living simply over dying. For even if someone prefers living over the one about to die through clamor or the justice of a judge or something else pursuing Christianity and the truth, it is for a little while. For if he does not die by the murderer, sometimes a disease having seized him interrupts life; it has difference only in time, that he who is immediately subject to the wrath of a judge dies, but to be destroyed by disease, life's end is uncertain, when. However, this is not for an infinity, but in more time he may remain. And thus the judgment happens from the singularity or the speed of the matter.

It is good to hear the rebuke of a wise man rather than the songs of fools. It seems to many that the rebuke from the wise should be avoided, especially when they are lovers of sin. For he having the desire to enjoy and to sin avoids the one forbidding these things. He who has no opinion at all rejoices in flatteries; he wants rather to hear the songs of flattery than the words of rebuke. For it is the part of a wise man to love the one rebuking. For it is said in Proverbs: but the impious and the evil man hates the one rebuking. For he says: 'He who rebukes the impious will be blamed and himself.' For he blames himself, the one rebuking the impious...

For the impious man is to be rejected and forbidden. And just as a physician who subjects those unable to be cured by cutting or cautery to such things is not a physician, but an ignorant physician, so he who reproves the incorrigible reproaches himself more, for he provokes them to speak against him.

And they show that one having such a fault does not know whom to reprove and whom not to. Such is the rebuke of the wise over the laughter of fools. Flatterers sing in a certain way; even if they speak moral words, they wish more to please than to benefit those who hear. Laughter is a word that stirs up pleasure, but rebuke, being corrective and persuading one to cease former works, demonstrates them, making it clear that they are things to be avoided and forbidden.

Is it the wise man who rebukes or the one being rebuked? It is the rebuke of the wise, not that which he himself undergoes, but that which he imposes on others. If you wish to take it as 'the rebuke of the wise' being that which he himself undergoes, that is a violent interpretation, yet he says this: the wise man receiving rebuke corrects himself and casts away those things for which the rebuke happened to him, and this is good for him. But he does not mean this, but rather that which he brings to those worthy of rebuke, so that the saying might be similar to this: 'He who brings wisdom from his lips strikes a heartless man with a rod.'

Just as the sound of thorns under a cauldron is so, such is the laughter of fools. And this too is vanity. For the thorns, when they are burned under a cauldron, produce a great noise. And so the laughter of fools is such, until they produce noises; it is not for the sake of refreshing the soul. If the soul does not laugh, it has not yet reached the point of rebuking. Often in the writings, the cauldron signifies punishment. 'For a east wind shall burn from the face of the countenance upon those inhabiting the land' (Ezekiel 20:45), when the people mocked the prophet, they laughed. Fools do not laugh until they have made a noise and sounds; they are more like jesters. And just as the thorns themselves, being burned under the cauldron, emit a noise, so their laughter is from a scorched, evil soul.