Philosophy and Peace

Philosophi saeculi solent amorem veterem amore novo, quasi clavum clavo expellere. Quod et Assuero regi septem principes fecere Persarum, ut Vasthi reginae desiderium, aliarum puellarum amore compescerent. Illi vitium vitio, peccatumque peccato medicantur, nos amore virtutum, vitia superemus. Declina, ait, a malo, et fac bonum. Quare pacem, et persequere eam. Nisi oderimus malum, bonum amare non possumus. Quin potius faciendum est bonum, ut declinemus a malo. Pax querenda, ut bella fugiamus. Nec sufficit eam quaerere, nisi inventam fugientemque omni studio persequamur, quae exsuperat omnem sensum: in qua habitatio Dei est, dicente Propheta: Et factus est in pace locus ejus Sanctus Hieronymus, Epistula CXXV, Ad Rusticum Monachum

The world's philosophers are accustomed drive out an old love with a new one, as one nail another. So it was with the seven princes of Persia and king Assuerus, for they suppressed his desire for the queen Vashti by the love of other ladies. 1 They cured one fault by another fault and one sin by another sin; but we should overcome faults by the love of the virtues. 'Depart from evil,' it is said, 'and do good; seek peace and pursue it.' 2 For if we do not hate evil we are not able to love good. Or rather we must do good if we are to depart from evil. We must seek peace that we avoid war. And it does not suffice to seek it, unless when we have found it and when it flees from us we pursue it with all our strength, that which 'passes all understanding,' 3 in which is the habitation of God, for as the Psalmist says, 'In peace is His habitation.' 4 St Jerome, from Letter 125, To Rusticus the Monk 1 Esther 2:1-4 2 Ps 36.37 3 Philip 4:7 4 Ps 75.2