7
O most holy seven, brothers in harmony! For just as the seven days of creation move in choral dance around religion,
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so these youths, forming a chorus, encircled the sevenfold fear of tortures and dissolved it.
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Even now, we ourselves shudder as we hear of the suffering of these young men; they not only saw what was happening, not only heard the direct word of threat, but also bore the sufferings patiently, and in agonies of fire at that.
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What could be more excruciatingly painful than this? For the power of fire is intense and swift, and it consumed their bodies quickly.
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Do not consider it amazing that reason had full command over these men in their tortures, since the mind of woman despised even more diverse agonies,
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for the mother of the seven young men bore up under the rackings of each one of her children.
13
Observe how complex is a mother's love for her children, which draws everything toward an emotion felt in her inmost parts.
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Even unreasoning animals, as well as human beings, have a sympathy and parental love for their offspring.
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For example, among birds, the ones that are tame protect their young by building on the housetops,
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and the others, by building in precipitous chasms and in holes and tops of trees, hatch the nestlings and ward off the intruder.
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If they are not able to keep the intruder away, they do what they can to help their young by flying in circles around them in the anguish of love, warning them with their own calls.