The nature of people never seems to change.

A portion of a letter from St. Cypian (Bishop of Carthage) to St. Donatus (Bishop of Arezzo) in the third century:

"This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair garden under the shadow of these vines, but if I climbed some great mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I would see. Brigands on the highroads, pirates on the seas, under all roofs, misery and selfishness.

It is really a bad world, Donatis, an incredibly bad world, and yet, in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. They have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure. They are3 despised and persecuted, but they have overcome the world.

These people, Donatus, are called Christians; and I am one of them.

(Both Cypian and Donatus were beheaded by Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate).