they press on with labors, and with unceasing cares of the soul, his heart convulsing on account of strange matters. For the perfect good does not reside in food and drink; even though nourishment especially comes to men from God; for none of the things given to us for our preservation is outside His providence. But the good man, having obtained wisdom from God, has obtained heavenly gladness; but the wicked man, on the other hand, driven by divinely sent evils, suffering from the disease of greed, both strives to gather many things, and hastens to reproach the one honored by God before the Master of all, offering useless gifts, having made the endeavors of his own wretched soul both deceitful and vain. 996

CHAPTER III. 1 And this time is full of all opposites, of births, then

of deaths, of the sprouting of plants, then of their uprooting; of healings and of killings, of the building up of houses and of their demolition, of weeping and of laughing, of mourning and of dancing. Now one gathers things from the earth, and now one has cast them away; and at one time one is mad for a woman, and at another time one loathes her. And now one has sought something, and now one has lost it; and now one has kept it, and now one has cast it away; at one time one killed, at another time one was murdered; one spoke, then was silent; one loved, then hated. For the affairs among men are at one time at war, and at another time at peace, the affairs swiftly falling from seeming goods into acknowledged evils. Let us cease, therefore, from unprofitable toils. For all these things, as it seems to me, were appointed to drive men mad with venomous goads. Indeed, a certain wicked observer of opportunities has encompassed this age, striving excessively to destroy the creature of God, having chosen to war against him from beginning to end. I am persuaded, therefore, that the greatest goods for man are cheerfulness and doing good, and indeed also that this temporary enjoyment comes from God alone, if righteousness should lead his actions. But of the eternal and incorruptible things, as many as God has firmly established, it is possible neither to take away anything, nor to add anything. For whomsoever, therefore, but it is, those things are both fearful and wonderful; and the things that have been, stand; but the things that will be, have already come to be according to what was foreknown. And the one who is wronged uses God as a helper. I have seen in the parts below, a chasm of punishment receiving the impious, and another place opened for the pious. And I considered that all things are alike held and judged by God, that the just and the unjust, the rational and irrational are the same. For time has been measured out to all alike, and death has been appointed, and that before God the tribes of beasts and of men are the same, but that they differ from one another only in the articulate nature of the voice; and that all things happen to them in a similar way, and that death proceeds, no more upon the rest of the animals than upon men. For the spirit is similar for all, and there is nothing more in men, but all things, in a word, are vanity, having received their constitution from the same earth, and will have their dissolution into the same earth. For it is uncertain 997 concerning the souls of men, whether they will fly upward, and concerning the others which the irrational creatures possess, whether they will flow downward. And it seemed to me that there is no other good, except luxury and the use of present things. For I thought it was not possible to come again to the enjoyment of these things, once a man has tasted death.

CHAPTER IV. 1 But having turned myself from all these thoughts, I considered

and I turned away from all forms of false accusations that wander among men, from which some, being wronged, weep and lament, having been violently cast down by those who should defend them, or

ἐπείγουσι καμά τοις, καὶ ψυχῆς φροντίσιν ἀδιαλείπτοις, σφαδαζού σης αὐτῷ τῆς καρδίας, ἀλλοκότων ἕνεκα πραγμά των. Οὐ γὰρ τὸ τέλειον ἀγαθὸν περὶ βρῶσίν τε καὶ πόσιν ἱζάνει· εἰ καὶ μάλιστα ἐκ Θεοῦ ἀνθρώποις γί νονται αἱ τροφαί· οὐδὲν γὰρ τῶν πρὸς σωτηρίαν ἡμῖν δεδομένων ἔξω τῆς αὐτοῦ ὑπάρχει προνοίας. Ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν ἀγαθὸς ἀνὴρ, σοφίας ἐκ Θεοῦ τυχὼν, εὐφροσύνης ἔτυχεν οὐρανίου· ὁ δ' αὖ πονηρὸς, θεηλάτοις ἐλαυνό μενος κακοῖς, πλεονεξίαν νοσῶν, πολλά τε ἀθροῖσαι σπουδάζει, καὶ τὸν ὑπὸ Θεοῦ τετιμημένον ἐναντίον τοῦ πάντων ∆εσπότου ὀνειδίσαι σπεύδει, δῶρα προ τείνων ἄχρηστα, δολερά τε ὁμοῦ καὶ μάταια τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ἀθλίας ψυχῆς σπουδάσματα πεποιημένος. 996

ΚΕΦΑΛ. Γʹ. 1 Χρόνος δὲ οὗτος πάντων γέμει τῶν ἐναντιωτή των, τοκετῶν, εἶτα

θανάτων, βλαστήσεως φυτῶν, εἶτα ἀνατροπῆς· ἰάσεων καὶ ἀναιρέσεων, οἴκων τε εὐορθώσεως καὶ καταλύσεως, κλαυθμῶν καὶ γελώ των, κοπετῶν καὶ ὀρχημάτων. Νῦν μὲν συνάγει τις τὰ ἀπὸ γῆς, νῦν δὲ ἐξέβαλε· καὶ ποτὲ μὲν ἐπιμέ μηνε γυναικὶ, ποτὲ δὲ αὐτὴν ἀποστυχεῖ. Καὶ νῦν μὲν ἐζήτησέ τις ὁτιοῦν, νῦν δὲ ἀπώλεσε· καὶ νῦν μὲν ἐφύλαξε, νῦν δὲ προήκατο· ἄλλοτε ἀπέκτεινεν, ἄλλοτε ἐφονεύθη· ἐλάλησεν, εἶτα ἡσύχασεν· ἠγάπησεν, εἶτα ἐμίσησε. Τὰ γὰρ ἐν ἀνθρώποις πράγματα ποτὲ μὲν πολεμεῖται, ἄλλοτε δὲ εἰρηνεύεται, ὀξυῤῥόπως τῶν πραγμάτων ἐξ ἀγαθῶν εἶναι δοκούντων εἰς ὁμολο γούμενα κακὰ μεταπιπτόντων. Παυσώμεθα τοίνυν ἐξ ἀνονήτων μόχθων. Ταῦτα γὰρ ἅπαντα, ὥς γέ μοι δο κεῖ, κέντροις ἰοβόλοις ἀνθρώπους ἐξοιστρεῖν ἐτέθη. Καιροσκόπος δή τις πονηρὸς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον περι κέχηνεν, ἀφανίσαι ὑπερδιατεινόμενος τὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ πλάσμα, ἐξ ἀρχῆς αὐτῷ μέχρι τέλους πολεμεῖν ᾑρη μένος. Πέπεισμαι τοίνυν τὰ μέγιστα ἀγαθὰ ἀνθρώπῳ εὐθυμίαν καὶ εὐποιΐαν ὑπάρχειν, καὶ μέν τοι καὶ τὴν πρόσκαιρον ταύτην ἀπόλαυσιν ἐκ Θεοῦ παραγενέσθαι μόνον, εἰ δικαιοσύνη τῶν πράξεων ἡγοῖτο. Τῶν δὲ αἰωνίων καὶ ἀφθάρτων πραγμάτων, ὅσα ὁ Θεὸς παγίως ὥρισεν, οὔτε τι ἀφελεῖν, οὔτε τι προσθεῖναι δυνατόν. Ὧι τινι οὖν, ἀλλ' ἔστιν, ἐκεῖνα φοβερά τε ὁμοῦ καὶ θαυμαστά· καὶ τὰ μὲν γενόμενα, ἕστηκε· τὰ δὲ ἐσόμενα, ἤδη κατὰ τὸ προεγνῶσθαι γεγένηται. Θεῷ δὲ κέχρηται ὁ ἀδικούμενος βοηθῷ. Εἶδον ἐν τοῖς κάτω μέρεσι, κολάσεως μὲν βάραθρον τοὺς δυσσεβεῖς δεχόμενον, εὐσεβέσι δὲ χῶρον ἕτερον ἀνειμένον. Ἐλογισάμην δὲ πάντα ὅμοια ὑπάρχειν παρὰ Θεῷ νομίζεσθαι καὶ κρίνεσθαι, ταυτὸν εἶναι δικαίους καὶ ἀδίκους, λογικὰ καὶ ἄλογα. Χρόνον τε γὰρ ἅπασιν ὁμοίως ἐπιμεμετρῆσθαι, καὶ θάνατον ἐπηρτῆσθαι, ταυτόν τε εἶναι παρὰ Θεῷ κτηνῶν τε καὶ ἀνθρώπων φῦλα, διαφέρειν δὲ ἀλλήλων, μόνῳ τῷ ἐνάρθρῳ τῆς φωνῆς· συμβαίνειν δὲ αὐτοῖς ἅπαντα παραπλήσια, καὶ τὸν θάνατον χωρεῖν, οὐδὲν μᾶλλον ἐπὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν ζώων, ἤπερ καὶ ἐπ' ἀνθρώπους. Πνεῦμα γὰρ πᾶσιν ὅμοιον εἶναι, καὶ πλέον ὑπάρχειν ἐν ἀν θρώποις μηδὲν, ἀλλὰ πάντα ἑνὶ λόγῳ εἶναι μάταια, ἀπὸ τῆς αὐτῆς γῆς λαβόντα τὴν σύστασιν, καὶ εἰς τὴν αὐτὴν γῆν ἕξοντα τὴν ἀνάλυσιν. Ἄδηλον γὰρ εἶναι 997 περί τε τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ψυχῶν, εἰ ἀναπτήσονται ἄνω, καὶ περὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἃς τὰ ἄλογα κέκτηνται, εἰ κάτω διαῤῥυήσονται. Καὶ ὅ μοι ἐδόκει μηδὲν ἕτερον ὑπάρχειν ἀγαθὸν, εἰ μὴ τρυφὴ καὶ τῶν παρόντων χρῆσις. Οὐ γὰρ εἶναι πάλιν ᾠήθην, ἐπὶ τὴν ἀπό λαυσιν τούτων ἐλθεῖν δυνατόν, ἅπαξ ἀνθρώπῳ θανά του γευσαμένῳ.

ΚΕΦΑΛ. ∆ʹ. 1 Ἀπὸ δὲ τούτων ἁπασῶν ἐμαυτὸν ἐπιστρέψας τῶν ἐννοιῶν κατεσκεψάμην

καὶ ἀπεστράφην πάντα εἴδη συκοφαντιῶν τὰ ἐν ἀνθρώποις πλαζόμενα, ἐξ ὧν τινὲς μὲν ἀδικούμενοι δακρύουσι καὶ θρηνοῦσι, βίᾳ καταβεβλημένοι τῶν ἐπαμυνόντων, ἢ