The Instructor 1.10.94

alone is praiseworthy. But I do not use this argument; rather I say that praise and blame, or something like praise and blame, are the most necessary medicines of all for human beings. Those who are hard to cure are beaten out like iron by fire and hammer and anvil, that is, by threat, reproof, and censure; while those who give heed to faith itself, being as it were self-taught and of good will, grow by praise: “For virtue, when praised, grows like a tree.” And it seems to me that Pythagoras of Samos understood this when he commanded: “When you have done base things, rebuke yourself; but when good, rejoice.” Reprimanding is also called admonishing (nouthetein); and admonition (nouthetēsis) is, by etymology, putting sense (nous) into the mind, so that the reprimanding kind is a gaining of sense. Countless precepts have been devised for the acquisition of good things and the avoidance of evil. “For there is no peace for the ungodly, says the Lord.” That is why he commands the infants through Solomon to be on guard: “Son, do not let sinners lead you astray, nor walk in their ways; do not go if they call you, saying: Come with us, share in innocent blood; let us unjustly hide a righteous man in the earth; let us swallow him alive like Hades.”