Chap. xii, ver. 2. — So then you alone are men, and with you wisdom shall die. 44. The folly of one proudly wise. — Whosoever esteems that he surpasses all in reason, what else does this man exult in but that he alone is a man? And it often happens that when the mind is led on high through swelling, it is raised into contempt of all and admiration of itself. For in the thought self-favors arise, and folly itself flatters him concerning the singularity of wisdom. He weighs the things he has heard, and the words which he utters; and he admires his own, laughs at others'. He, therefore, who esteems that he alone is wise, what else does he think but that this same wisdom dies with him?
For that which he denies to be present in others, ascribing it to himself alone, he assuredly shuts up within the span of his own brevity. But it must be weighed with what great discretion the holy man uses, that the arrogance of his proud friends may be repressed, when he at once adds: