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I see the flower, I am reminded of my sin, through which the earth was condemned to bring forth thorns and thistles. Here, therefore, the grace of the spring flowers is short-lived, failing us while we still long for it; for no sooner have we plucked it than it withered in our hands. But there the flower does not shine brightly for a short time and then fail, but has lasting and eternal delight, a gracious and immortal appearance, unending enjoyment; the fragrance is insatiable, the beautiful color is perpetually radiant. violent winds do not distress them, new moons do not cause them to wither, frosts do not choke them, the burning heat of the sun does not scorch them; but a moderate breeze, providing a certain fine and sweet air and blowing gently and kindly upon them, preserves their grace unconquered by time and unfading. And the beauties of the plants are themselves also worthy of the creation and planting of the Creator; all that are shrubs and all that are bushes, the single-stemmed, the many-branched, the high-crested, the flourishing, the deciduous, the ever-leaved, the ones becoming bare, the evergreen, the fruitful, the 79afruitless; some serving for use, others contributing to enjoyment; all excelling in size and beauty, shady with their branches, abounding with fruits, for others they abundantly fulfill a different need and delight together. For of each of these fruits, great is the grace, but again, greater than the delight is the usefulness.

What speech will set before you the surpassing nature of that pleasure? For if one should compare the things there to the things here, one rather insults them by the comparison, as the image falls far short of the truth of the original. All things are perfect, all things are ripe, not having grown little by little; for it does not proceed from blossom to maturity over time, but springing up at once in their own maturity, and are results of nature, not of human artifice. There too are kinds of all sorts of birds, by both the bloom of their feathers and by the clear tone of their voice adding a certain wonderful enjoyment to the things seen; so that man feasts through all his senses, seeing some things, hearing others, touching others, smelling others, tasting yet others. And along with the birds are sights of all sorts of land animals, all of them tame, all familiar with one another, and easy to see as they listen and call out. The serpent was not dreadful then, but gentle and tame, not undulating fiercely and creeping on the face of the earth, but standing high upon its feet. So gentle were also all the other irrational animals, which now are completely untamable and relentless. There, then, God placed the man whom He had formed. He formed him elsewhere and brought him in there. For just as He first made the luminaries and then placed them in the firmament, so also He formed man from dust from the earth, and placed him in paradise. But note that it is not said 'whom He made,' but 'Whom He formed.' For that which He made is that which is 'According to the image'; and this is incorporeal. And the incorporeal is uncircumscribed by place. Nevertheless, however, of necessity the thing made follows the thing formed, that is, the soul follows the body. For the composite being must exist together, but place belongs primarily to the body, while the soul consequently is enclosed in a place through its relation to or mingling with the body, but not from its own nature, that is, its intellectual essence. Have I gladdened you with the narration of the delights of paradise, or have I grieved you more by the comparison with corruptible things? For surely your mind, thinking on high and super-cosmic things, since it indeed has its citizenship in heaven and looks to the dignity above, was considering the things of the promise and was looking around to hear something of the good things 81apromised to us, Which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man. Who then is the one narrating, if eye has not seen? If ear has not heard, how will yours receive it? If it has not entered into the heart of man, how will our mind contain it? Therefore we do not reject the corporeal, and we seek the spiritual. For as in the case of the Law there was indeed also the sensible, but it served as a type of the

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ἴδω τὸ ἄνθος, τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἀναμιμνήσκομαι τῆς ἐμῆς, δι' ἧς ἀκάνθας ἡ γῆ καὶ τριβόλους ἀνατέλλειν κατεδικάσθη. ἐνταῦθα μὲν οὖν ὀλιγοχρόνιος τῶν ἠρινῶν ἀνθέων ἡ χάρις ἔτι ποθοῦντας ἡμᾶς ἐπιλείπουσα· οὐ γὰρ ἔφθημεν δρεψάμενοι καὶ ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν ἡμῶν ἀπεμαράνθη. ἐκεῖ δὲ τὸ ἄνθος οὐ πρὸς βραχὺ διαλάμπον εἶτα ἐκλεῖπον, ἀλλὰ διαρκὲς τὸ τερπνὸν ἔχον καὶ ἀΐδιον, χαρίεσσαν τὴν ὄψιν καὶ ἀθάνατον, ἀσυντέλεστον τὴν ἀπόλαυσιν· ἡ εὐωδία ἀκόρεστος, ἡ εὔχροια διηνεκῶς ἐξαστράπτουσα. οὐ βίαι ἀνέμων παραλυποῦσιν, οὐ νεομηνίαι ἀπομαραίνουσιν, οὐ παγετοὶ ἀποπνίγουσιν, οὐχ ἡλίου φλόγωσις καταφρύσσει· ἀλλὰ πνεῦμα μέτριον, λεπτὴν καὶ ἡδεῖάν τινα παρεχόμενον αὔραν καὶ κούφως αὐτοῖς καὶ προσηνῶς ἐπιπνέον, ἀδάμαστον χρόνῳ καὶ ἀμάραντον τὴν χάριν αὐτῶν διασῴζει. τὰ δὲ τῶν φυτῶν κάλλη ἄξια καὶ αὐτὰ τῆς δημιουργίας καὶ φυτείας τοῦ κτίσαντος· ὅσα φρυγανικὰ καὶ ὅσα ἔνθαμνα, τὰ μονοστέλεχα, τὰ πολύκλαδα, τὰ ὑψίκομα, τὰ ἀμφιθαλῆ, τὰ φυλ λοβόλα, τὰ ἀείφυλλα, τὰ γυμνούμενα, τὰ ἀειθαλῆ, τὰ κάρπιμα, τὰ 79aἄκαρπα· τὰ μὲν τῇ χρείᾳ ὑπηρετούμενα, τὰ δὲ πρὸς ἀπόλαυσιν συμβαλ λόμενα· πάντα μεγέθει καὶ κάλλει διαφέροντα, κατάσκια τοῖς κλάδοις, βρύοντα τοῖς καρποῖς, ἄλλοις ἄλλην χρείαν ὁμοῦ καὶ τέρψιν ἀφθόνως ἀποπληροῦσιν. ἑκάστου γὰρ τῶν καρπῶν τούτων πολὺ μὲν τὸ χαρίεν, πλέον δὲ πάλιν τοῦ τερπνοῦ τὸ χρειῶδες.

Ποῖος λόγος παραστήσει σοι τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐκείνης τὸ ὑπερβάλλον; ἐὰν γὰρ συγκρίνῃ τοῖς ὧδε τὰ ἐκεῖ, καθυβρίζει μᾶλλον τῇ παραθέσει ἀποπιπτούσης πολὺ τῆς εἰκόνος πρὸς τὴν τοῦ πρωτοτύπου ἀλήθειαν. πάντα τέλεια, πάντα ὥριμα, οὐ κατὰ μικρὸν αὐξηθέντα· οὐ γὰρ ἀπὸ ἄνθους ἐπὶ τὴν ἀκμὴν τῷ χρόνῳ προέρχεται, ἀλλ' αὐτόθεν μετὰ τῆς οἰκείας ἀκμῆς ἐκφυέντα, καὶ ἀποτελέσματα φύσεως οὐκ ἀνθρωπίνης ἐπιτεχνήσεως. ἐκεῖ καὶ ὀρνίθων παντοδαπῶν γένη τῷ τε τῶν πτερῶν ἄνθει καὶ τῷ τῆς φωνῆς λιγυρῷ ἀπόλαυσίν τινα θαυμαστὴν προστι θέντα τοῖς ὁρωμένοις· ὥστε διὰ πασῶν τῶν αἰσθήσεων εὐωχεῖσθαι τὸν ἄνθρωπον τὰ μὲν ὁρῶντα, τὰ δὲ ἀκούοντα, ἄλλων ἁπτόμενον, ἄλλων ὀσφραινόμενον, ἑτέρων ἀπογευόμενον. σὺν τοῖς ὄρνισι δὲ καὶ χερ σαίων ζῴων παντοδαπῶν θεάματα, πάντων ἡμέρων, πάντων συνήθων ἀλλήλοις καὶ ἀκουόντων καὶ φθεγγομένων εὐσύνοπτα. οὐ φρικτὸς ὁ ὄφις τότε, ἀλλὰ προσηνὴς καὶ ἥμερος, οὐκ ἄγριον ἐπικυμαίνων καὶ ἕρπων κατὰ πρόσωπον τῆς γῆς, ἀλλ' ὑψηλὸς ἐπὶ ποδῶν βεβηκώς. τοιαῦτα μειλίχια καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ πάντα ἄλογα ζῷα, ὅσα νῦν ἀτίθασσα παντελῶς καὶ ἀμείλικτα. Ἐκεῖ οὖν ἔθετο ὁ θεὸς τὸν ἄνθρωπον ὃν ἔπλασεν. ἀλλαχοῦ ἔπλασε κἀκεῖ εἰσήγαγεν. ὥσπερ γὰρ τοὺς φωστῆρας πρῶτον μὲν ἐποίησεν ἔπειτα δὲ ἔθετο ἐν τῷ στερεώματι, οὕτω καὶ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἔπλασε μὲν χοῦν ἀπὸ γῆς, ἔθετο δὲ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ. σημείωσαι δὲ ὅτι οὐκ εἴρηται ὃν ἐποίησεν, ἀλλ' Ὃν ἔπλασεν. ὃ γὰρ ἐποίησε, τὸ Κατ' εἰκόνα ἐστίν· τοῦτο δὲ ἀσώματον. τὸ δὲ ἀσώματον τόπῳ ἀπερίγραπτον. ὅμως μέντοι ἀκολουθεῖ ἐξ ἀνάγκης τῷ πλάσματι καὶ τὸ ποίημα, τουτέστι τῷ σώματι ἡ ψυχή. ὁμοῦ γὰρ εἶναι δεῖ τὸ σύνθετον, ἀλλὰ προηγουμένως μὲν τοῦ σώματος ὁ τόπος, ἡ ψυχὴ δὲ κατ' ἐπακολούθησιν περικλείεται τόπῳ διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὸ σῶμα σχέσεως ἢ ἀνακράσεως, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐκ τῆς οἰκείας φύσεως εἴτουν τῆς νοερᾶς οὐσίας. Ἆρά σε εὔφρανα τῇ διηγήσει τῶν τοῦ παραδείσου τερπνῶν ἢ πλέον ἐλύπησα τῇ τῶν φθαρτῶν παραθέσει; πάντως γάρ σου ἡ διάνοια ὑψηλὰ καὶ ὑπερκόσμια φρονοῦσα, οἷα δὴ τὸ πολίτευμα ἔχουσα ἐν οὐρανοῖς καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἄνω ἀξίαν ἀφορῶσα, τὰ τῆς ἐπαγγελίας ἐνενόει καὶ περιεσκόπει ἀκούσεσθαί τι τῶν ἐπηγγελμένων ἡμῖν 81aἀγαθῶν, Ἃ οὔτε ὀφθαλμὸς εἶδεν οὔτε οὖς ἤκουσεν οὔτε ἐπὶ καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου ἀνέβη. τίς οὖν ὁ διηγούμενος, εἰ ὀφθαλμὸς οὐκ εἶδεν; εἰ οὖς οὐκ ἤκουσεν, πῶς τὸ σὸν ὑποδέξεται; εἰ ἐπὶ καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη, πῶς ἡ ἡμετέρα χωρήσει διάνοια; οὔτε οὖν τὰ σωματικὰ ἐκβάλλομεν καὶ τὰ πνευματικὰ ἐπιζητοῦμεν. ὡς γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῦ νόμου ἦν μὲν καὶ τὸ αἰσθητόν, ἀλλὰ τύπον ἐποίει τοῦ