18
Those who were left behind said to each of the brothers who were being dragged away, "Do not put us to shame, brother, or betray the brothers who have died before us."
19
You are not ignorant of the affection of family ties, which the divine and all-wise Providence has bequeathed through the fathers to their descendants and which was implanted in the mother's womb.
20
There each of the brothers spent the same length of time and was shaped during the same period of time; and growing from the same blood and through the same life, they were brought to the light of day.
21
When they were born after an equal time of gestation, they drank milk from the same fountains. From such embraces brotherly-loving souls are nourished;
22
and they grow stronger from this common nurture and daily companionship, and from both general education and our discipline in the law of God.