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of the fast, during which our church was full of the multitude, the eagerness for hearing was intense, the pleasure great, and the mind of all was stirred up; and gathering all these things together, I recall those longed-for days. And if you are about to set a table, touch the food with this memory, and you will never be able to slip into drunkenness; but just as those who have a venerable, chaste, and freeborn wife, and are ardently inflamed with love for her, would not, even in her absence, fall in love with a prostitute and a corrupt woman, since the desire for the former pre-occupies their mind, not allowing another love to enter; so indeed it is with fasting and drunkenness. If, therefore, we remember that freeborn and chaste one, we shall with much ease beat back this common prostitute, and mother of all indecency—I mean drunkenness—since the desire for the fast, more forcefully than any hand, repels her shamelessness. For 54.634 all these reasons, I beseech you, let us always have those days in mind; and that I too may contribute something to that memory, I shall now try to bring forward the same subject that I was then preparing to treat, so that by the similarity in the teaching, some memory of that time might come to us. For you have perhaps forgotten, because in the meantime we have had many discourses, and on other subjects. For when our father returned from his long journey, it was necessary to tell all that happened concerning the military camp, and after that to address the Greeks, so that these, having become better from the calamity. and having deserted from the Greek error to us, to root them firmly with precision, and to teach them from what darkness they have been delivered, and to what light of truth they have run. After that again, for many days we enjoyed the festival of the martyrs, and it was inopportune while lingering at the tombs of martyrs, to depart without the encomiums fitting for the martyrs. These encomiums were followed in turn by the exhortation concerning oaths; for since we saw the entire peasantry entering the city, we wished, having given them these provisions for the journey, thus to send them all away from us.

2. For these reasons, therefore, it would not be possible for you to easily recall the inquiry we then had with the Greeks; but I, who have been constantly occupied with these things, and have this as my study, by telling you a few of the things said then, will be able to remind you most easily of the entire subject of our discourses. What then was our subject? We were investigating how from the beginning our God had foreknowledge of our race, and how he taught what was profitable, when there were no letters, nor had Scriptures been given; and we showed that through the contemplation of creation he guided them to the knowledge of God; when, taking hold not of your hand, but of your mind, I led you about everywhere in creation, pointing out heaven, and earth, and sea, and lakes, and springs, and rivers, and vast oceans, and meadows, and paradises, and the waving cornfields, and the trees laden with fruit, and seeing the mountain peaks covered with forests; when also concerning seeds, and concerning herbs, and concerning flowers, and concerning plants both fruitful and fruitless, and concerning irrational creatures, both tame and wild, aquatic and terrestrial, and amphibious, concerning those that cleave the air, concerning those that creep on the ground, and concerning the very elements of the universe I discoursed at length, and at each one we all cried out in common, as our mind failed us before the infinite wealth, and was not able to comprehend the whole; How magnified are your works, O Lord; in wisdom you have made them all. And we marveled at the wisdom of God not only because of the multitude, but also for both these reasons, that he made creation both beautiful and great and wonderful, and that again he placed many proofs of its weakness in the things that are seen; the one, that he might be marveled at for his wisdom, and for his own worship

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τῆς νηστείας, καθ' ὃν μεστὴ μὲν ἡ ἐκκλησία τοῦ πλήθους ἡμῖν ἦν, σφοδρὰ δὲ ἡ τῆς ἀκροάσεως προθυμία, πολλὴ δὲ ἡδονὴ, καὶ διεγηγερμένη πάντων ἡ διάνοια· καὶ πάντα ταῦτα συλλέγων, ἀναμιμνήσκου τῶν ποθεινῶν ἡμερῶν ἐκείνων. Κἂν μέλλῃς παρατίθεσθαι τράπεζαν, μετὰ τῆς μνήμης ταύτης ἅπτου τῶν ἐδεσμάτων, καὶ οὐδέποτε εἰς μέθην ἐξολισθῆσαι δυνήσῃ· ἀλλ' ὥσπερ οἱ γυναῖκα σεμνὴν καὶ σώφρονα καὶ ἐλευθέραν ἔχοντες, καὶ σφόδρα αὐτῆς περικαιόμενοι, οὐδὲ ἀπούσης αὐτῆς, πόρνης καὶ διεφθαρμένης ἐρασθεῖεν ἂν, τοῦ πόθου τοῦ περὶ ἐκείνην προκατέχοντος τὴν διάνοιαν, καὶ ἕτερον ἐπεισελθεῖν ἔρωτα οὐκ ἐῶντος· οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς νηστείας καὶ τῆς μέθης γίνεται. Ἂν τοίνυν ἐκείνης τῆς ἐλευθέρας καὶ σώφρονος μνημονεύωμεν, τὴν πάνδημον πόρνην ταύτην, καὶ πάσης ἀσχημοσύνης μητέρα, τὴν μέθην λέγω, μετὰ πολλῆς διακρουσώμεθα τῆς εὐκολίας, τοῦ πόθου τῆς νηστείας, πάσης χειρὸς σφοδρότερον, ἀπωθοῦντος τὴν ταύτης ἀναισχυντίαν. ∆ιὰ 54.634 ταῦτα δὴ πάντα, παρακαλῶ κατὰ νοῦν ἀεὶ τὰς ἡμέρας ἐκείνας ἔχωμεν· ἵνα δέ τι κἀγὼ πρὸς τὴν μνήμην ἐκείνην συμβάλωμαι, τὴν αὐτὴν ὑπόθεσιν, ἣν τότε κινεῖν παρεσκευαζόμην, ταύτην καὶ νῦν εἰς μέσον ἀγαγεῖν πειράσομαι, ὥστε καὶ τῇ κατὰ τὴν διδασκαλίαν ὁμοιότητι γενέσθαι τινὰ τοῦ καιροῦ μνήμην ἡμῖν ἐκείνου. Ὑμεῖς μὲν γὰρ ἴσως ἐπιλέλησθε, διὰ τὸ μεταξὺ πολλὰς γεγενῆσθαι διαλέξεις ἡμῖν, καὶ ὑπὲρ ἑτέρων πραγμάτων. Καὶ γὰρ ἐλθόντος τοῦ πατρὸς ἀπὸ τῆς μακρᾶς ἀποδημίας, ἀναγκαῖον ἦν τὰ κατὰ τὸ στρατόπεδον συμβάντα ἅπαντα εἰπεῖν, καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα πρὸς Ἕλληνας ἀποτείνεσθαι, ὥστε τούτους ἀπὸ τῆς συμφορᾶς βελτίους γενομένους. καὶ πρὸς ἡμᾶς ἐκ τῆς Ἑλληνικῆς αὐτομολήσαντας πλάνης, μετ' ἀκριβείας ῥιζῶσαι, καὶ διδάξαι, οἵου μὲν ἀπηλλάγησαν σκότους, οἵῳ δὲ προσέδραμον ἀληθείας φωτί. Μετ' ἐκεῖνο πάλιν, πολλὰς ἡμέρας τῆς τῶν μαρτύρων ἀπελαύσαμεν πανηγύρεως, καὶ ἄκαιρον ἦν ἐν τάφοις μαρτύρων διατρίβοντας, τῶν τοῖς μάρτυσι πρεπόντων ἐγκωμίων ἀμοίρους ἀπελθεῖν. Ταῦτα τὰ ἐγκώμια διεδέξατο πάλιν ἡ περὶ τῶν ὅρκων παραίνεσις· ἐπειδὴ γὰρ τὴν ἀγροικίαν ἅπασαν τῆς πόλεως εἴδομεν ἐπιβᾶσαν, ἐβουλήθημεν αὐτοῖς δόντες ἐφόδια ταῦτα, οὕτως αὐτοὺς ἐκπέμψαι παρ' ἡμῶν ἅπαντας.

βʹ. Ὑμῖν μὲν οὖν διὰ ταῦτα οὐκ ἂν εἴη δυνατὸν ῥᾳδίως ἀνενεγκεῖν τὴν τότε ἡμῖν γενομένην πρὸς Ἕλληνας ζήτησιν· ἐγὼ δὲ ὁ διὰ παντὸς ἐν τούτοις ἐσχολακὼς, καὶ ταύτην ἔχων μελέτην, ῥᾷστα πρὸς ὑμᾶς ὀλίγα τῶν τότε εἰρημένων εἰπὼν, ὁλοκλήρου τῆς τῶν λόγων ὑποθέσεως ἀναμνῆσαι δυνήσομαι. Τίς οὖν ἦν ἡμῖν ἡ ὑπόθεσις; Ἐζητοῦμεν πῶς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὁ Θεὸς ἡμῶν προενόει τοῦ γένους, καὶ πῶς τὰ συμφέροντα ἐπαίδευσεν, οὔτε γραμμάτων ὄντων, οὔτε Γραφῶν δοθεισῶν· καὶ ἐδείκνυμεν ὅτι διὰ τῆς κατὰ τὴν κτίσιν θεωρίας πρὸς τὴν αὐτοῦ θεογνωσίαν ἐχειραγώγησεν· ὅτε καὶ λαβόμενος ὑμῶν οὐχὶ τῆς χειρὸς, ἀλλὰ τῆς διανοίας, πανταχοῦ τῆς κτίσεως περιήγαγον, δεικνὺς οὐρανὸν, καὶ γῆν, καὶ θάλατταν, καὶ λίμνας, καὶ πηγὰς, καὶ ποταμοὺς, καὶ πελάγη μακρὰ, καὶ λειμῶνας, καὶ παραδείσους, καὶ κομῶντα τὰ λήϊα, καὶ βριθόμενα τοῖς καρποῖς τὰ δένδρα, καὶ καλυπτομένας δρυμοῖς κορυφὰς ὁρῶν· ὅτε καὶ περὶ σπερμάτων, καὶ περὶ βοτανῶν, καὶ περὶ ἀνθέων, καὶ περὶ φυτῶν ἐγκάρπων τε καὶ ἀκάρπων, καὶ περὶ ἀλόγων, ἡμέρων τε καὶ ἀγρίων, ἐνύδρων τε καὶ χερσαίων, καὶ ἀμφιβίων, περὶ τῶν τὸν ἀέρα τεμνόντων, περὶ τῶν χαμαὶ συρομένων, καὶ περὶ αὐτῶν τῶν τοῦ παντὸς στοιχείων πολλὰ διελέχθην, καὶ καθ' ἕκαστον ἐπεβοῶμεν κοινῇ πάντες, ἀτονούσης ἡμῖν πρὸς τὸν ἄπειρον πλοῦτον τῆς διανοίας, καὶ τὸ πᾶν καταλαβεῖν μὴ δυναμένης· Ὡς ἐμεγαλύνθη τὰ ἔργα σου, Κύριε· πάντα ἐν σοφίᾳ ἐποίησας. Οὐ διὰ τὸ πλῆθος δὲ μόνον ἐθαυμάζομεν τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν σοφίαν, ἀλλὰ καὶ δι' ἀμφότερα ταῦτα, ὅτι καὶ καλὴν καὶ μεγάλην καὶ θαυμαστὴν τὴν κτίσιν ἐποίησε, καὶ ὅτι πολλὰ πάλιν τῆς ἀσθενείας αὐτῆς δείγματα ἐναπέθετο τοῖς ὁρωμένοις· τὸ μὲν, ἵνα θαυμάζηται ἐπὶ σοφίᾳ, καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ λατρείαν