Now that we have laid down these premisses, it is time to examine in the light of them the question proposed to us. It was somewhat of this kind. “If the recompense of blessedness is assigned according to the principles of justice, in what class shall he be placed who has died in infancy without having laid in this life any foundation, good or bad, whereby any return according to his deserts may be given him?” To this we shall make answer, with our eye fixed upon the consequences of that which we have already laid down, that this happiness in the future, while it is in its essence a heritage of humanity, may at the same time be called in one sense a recompense; and we will make clear our meaning by the same instance as before. Let us suppose two persons suffering from an affection of the eyes; and that the one surrenders himself most diligently to the process of being cured, and undergoes all that Medicine can apply to him, however painful it may be; and that the other indulges without restraint in baths22    For an explanation of such a restriction, see Bingham, vol. viii. p. 109 (ed. 1720). and wine-drinking, and listens to no advice whatever of his doctor as to the healing of his eyes. Well, when we look to the end of each of these we say that each duly receives in requital the fruits of his choice, the one in deprivation of the light, the other in its enjoyment; by a misuse of the word we do actually call that which necessarily follows, a recompense. We may speak, then, in this way also as regards this question of the infants: we may say that the enjoyment of that future life does indeed belong of right to the human being, but that, seeing the plague of ignorance has seized almost all now living in the flesh, he who has purged himself of it by means of the necessary courses of treatment receives the due reward of his diligence, when he enters on the life that is truly natural; while he who refuses Virtue’s purgatives and renders that plague of ignorance, through the pleasures he has been entrapped by, difficult in his case to cure, gets himself into an unnatural state, and so is estranged from the truly natural life, and has no share in the existence which of right belongs to us and is congenial to us. Whereas the innocent babe has no such plague before its soul’s eyes obscuring23    ἐπιπροσθούσης its measure of light, and so it continues to exist in that natural life; it does not need the soundness which comes from purgation, because it never admitted the plague into its soul at all. Further, the present life appears to me to offer a sort of analogy to the future life we hope for, and to be intimately connected with it, thus; the tenderest infancy is suckled and reared with milk from the breast; then another sort of food appropriate to the subject of this fostering, and intimately adapted to his needs, succeeds, until at last he arrives at full growth. And so I think, in quantities continually adapted to it, in a sort of regular progress, the soul partakes of that truly natural life; according to its capacity and its power it receives a measure of the delights of the Blessed state; indeed we learn as much from Paul, who had a different sort of food for him who was already grown in virtue and for the imperfect “babe.” For to the last he says, “I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it24    2 Cor. iii. 2..” But to those who have grown to the full measure of intellectual maturity he says, “But strong meat belongeth to those that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised…25    Heb. v. 14.” Now it is not right to say that the man and the infant are in a similar state however free both may be from any contact of disease (for how can those who do not partake of exactly the same things be in an equal state of enjoyment?); on the contrary, though the absence of any affliction from disease may be predicated of both alike as long as both are out of the reach of its influence, yet, when we come to the matter of delights, there is no likeness in the enjoyment, though the percipients are in the same condition. For the man there is a natural delight in discussions, and in the management of affairs, and in the honourable discharge of the duties of an office, and in being distinguished for acts of help to the needy; in living, it may be, with a wife whom he loves, and ruling his household; and in all those amusements to be found in this life in the way of pastime, in musical pieces and theatrical spectacles, in the chase, in bathing, in gymnastics, in the mirth of banquets, and anything else of that sort. For the infant, on the contrary, there is a natural delight in its milk, and in its nurse’s arms, and in gentle rocking that induces and then sweetens its slumber. Any happiness beyond this the tenderness of its years naturally prevents it from feeling. In the same manner those who in their life here have nourished the forces of their souls by a course of virtue, and have, to use the Apostle’s words, had the “senses” of their minds “exercised,” will, if they are translated to that life beyond, which is out of the body, proportionately to the condition and the powers they have attained participate in that divine delight; they will have more or they will have less of its riches according to the capacity acquired. But the soul that has never felt the taste of virtue, while it may indeed remain perfectly free from the sufferings which flow from wickedness having never caught the disease of evil at all, does nevertheless in the first instance26    παρὰ τὴν πρώτην (i.e. ὥραν). partake only so far in that life beyond (which consists, according to our previous definition, in the knowing and being in God) as this nursling can receive; until the time comes that it has thriven on the contemplation of the truly Existent as on a congenial diet, and, becoming capable of receiving more, takes at will more from that abundant supply of the truly Existent which is offered.

Τούτων τοίνυν οὕτως ἡμῖν διῃρημένων καιρὸς ἂν εἴη διεξετάσαι τῷ λόγῳ τὸ προτεθὲν ἡμῖν πρόβλημα. τοιοῦτον δέ τι τὸ λεγόμενον ἦν: εἰ κατὰ τὸ δίκαιον γίνεται τῶν ἀγαθῶν ἡ ἀντίδοσις, ἐν τίσιν ἔσται ὁ ἐν νηπίῳ τελευτήσας τὸν βίον μήτε ἀγαθόν τι μήτε κακὸν ἐν τῇ ζωῇ ταύτῃ καταβαλόμενος, ὥστε διὰ τούτων γενέσθαι αὐτῷ τὴν κατ' ἀξίαν ἀντίδοσιν; ᾧ πρὸς τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τῶν ἐξητασμένων ὁρῶντες ἀποκρινούμεθα, ὅτι τὸ προσδοκώμενον ἀγαθὸν οἰκεῖον μέν ἐστι κατὰ φύσιν τῷ ἀνθρωπίνῳ γένει, λέγεται δὲ κατά τινα διάνοιαν τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ ἀντίδοσις. τῷ δὲ αὐτῷ ὑποδείγματι πάλιν τὸ νόημα τοῦτο σαφηνισθήσεται: δύο γάρ τινες ὑποκείσθωσαν τῷ λόγῳ ἀρρωστήματί τινι κατὰ τὰς ὄψεις συνενεχθέντες. τούτων δὲ ὁ μὲν σπουδαιότερον ἑαυτὸν ἐπιδιδότω τῇ θεραπείᾳ, πάντα ὑπομένων τὰ παρὰ τῆς ἰατρικῆς προσαγόμενα, κἂν ἐπίπονα ᾗ: ὁ δὲ πρὸς λουτρά τε καὶ οἰνοφλυγίας ἀκρατέστερον διακείσθω, μηδεμίαν τοῦ ἰατρεύοντος συμβουλὴν πρὸς τὴν τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ὑγίειαν παραδεξάμενος. φαμὲν τοίνυν πρὸς τὸ πέρας ἑκατέρου βλέποντες ἀξίως ἀντιλαβεῖν ἑκάτερον τῆς προαιρέσεως αὐτοῦ τοὺς καρπούς, τὸν μὲν τὴν στέρησιν τοῦ φωτός, τὸν δὲ τὴν ἀπόλαυσιν. τὸ γὰρ ἀναγκαίως ἑπόμενον ἀντίδοσιν ἐκ καταχρήσεως ὀνομάζομεν. ταῦτα καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸ νήπιον ζητουμένων ἔστιν εἰπεῖν, ὅτι ἡ τῆς ζωῆς ἐκείνης ἀπόλαυσις οἰκεία μέν ἐστι τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει, τῆς δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν νόσου πάντων σχεδὸν τῶν ἐν τῇ σαρκὶ ζώντων ἐπικρατούσης, ὁ μὲν ταῖς καθηκούσαις θεραπείαις ἑαυτὸν ἐκκαθάρας καὶ οἶόν τινα λήμην τοῦ διορατικοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀποκλύσας τὴν ἄγνοιαν ἄξιον τῆς σπουδῆς ἔχει τὸ κέρδος ἐν τῇ ζωῇ τῇ κατὰ φύσιν γενόμενος, ὁ δὲ τὰ διὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς φεύγων καθάρσια καὶ δυσίατον ἑαυτῷ διὰ τῶν ἀπατηλῶν ἡδονῶν κατασκευάζων τῆς ἀγνοίας τὴν νόσον, παρὰ φύσιν διατεθεὶς ἠλλοτρίωται τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν καὶ ἀμέτοχος γίνεται τῆς οἰκείας ἡμῖν καὶ καταλλήλου ζωῆς: τὸ δὲ ἀπειρόκακον νήπιον, μηδεμιᾶς νόσου τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ὀμμάτων πρὸς τὴν τοῦ φωτὸς μετουσίαν ἐπιπροσθούσης, ἐν τῷ κατὰ φύσιν γίνεται μὴ δεόμενον τῆς ἐκ τοῦ καθαρθῆναι ὑγιείας, ὅτι μηδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν τὴν νόσον τῇ ψυχῇ παρεδέξατο. καί μοι δοκεῖ διό: τινος ἀναλογίας οἰκείως ἔχειν ὁ παρὼν τοῦ βίου τρόπος τῇ προσδοκωμένῃ ζωῇ. καθάπερ γὰρ θηλῇ καὶ γάλακτι ἡ πρώτη τῶν νηπίων ἡλικία τιθηνουμένη ἐκτρέφεται, εἶτα διαδέχεται ταύτην κατάλληλος ἑτέρα τῷ ὑποκειμένῳ τροφή, οἰκείως τε καὶ ἐπιτηδείως πρὸς τὸ τρεφόμενον ἔχουσα, ἕως ἂν ἐπὶ τὸ τέλειον φθάσῃ: οὕτως οἶμαι καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν διὰ τῶν ἀεὶ καταλλήλων αὐτῇ τάξει τινὶ καὶ ἀκολουθίᾳ μετέχειν τῆς κατὰ φύσιν ζωῆς, ὡς χωρεῖ καὶ δύναται τῶν ἐν τῇ μακαριότητι προκειμένων μεταλαμβάνουσα, καθὼς καὶ παρὰ τοῦ Παύλου τὸ τοιοῦτον ἐμάθομεν, ἄλλως τρέφοντος τὸν ἤδη διὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς αὐξηθέντα καὶ ἑτέρως τὸν νήπιον καὶ ἀτελέστερον: πρὸς μὲν γὰρ τοὺς τοιούτους φησίν, ὅτι Γάλα ὑμᾶς ἐπότισα, οὐ βρῶμα: οὔπω γὰρ ἠδύνασθε: πρὸς δὲ τοὺς πεπληρωκότας τὸ μέτρον τῆς νοητῆς ἡλικίας Τελείων δέ ἐστι, φησίν, ἡ στερεὰ τροφή, τῶν διὰ τὴν ἕξιν τὰ αἰσθητήρια γεγυμνασμένα ἐχόντων. καθάπερ τοίνυν οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τοῖς ὁμοίοις εἰπεῖν εἶναι τὸν ἄνδρα τε καὶ τὸ νήπιον, κἂν μηδεμία νόσος ἑκατέρῳ τούτων προσάπτηται (πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἐν τῷ ἴσῳ τῆς τρυφῆς γένοιντο οἱ τῶν αὐτῶν μὴ μετέχοντες;), ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν μὴ κακοῦσθαι νόσῳ τινὶ καὶ ἐπὶ τούτου καὶ ἐπ' ἐκείνου λέγεται παραπλησίως, ἕως ἂν ἔξω πάθους ἑκάτερος ᾖ, τῶν δὲ κατὰ τρυφὴν ἡ ἀπόλαυσις οὐκέτι ὁμοίως παρὰ τῶν αὐτῶν ἐνεργεῖται (τῷ μὲν γὰρ ὑπάρχει καὶ διὰ λόγων εὐφραίνεσθαι καὶ πραγμάτων ἐπιστατεῖν καὶ εὐδοκίμως ἀρχὰς μετιέναι καὶ ταῖς τῶν δεομένων εὐεργεσίαις λαμπρύνεσθαι γαμετῇ τε συνοικεῖν, ἂν οὕτω τύχῃ καταθυμία, καὶ οἴκου ἄρχειν καὶ ὅσα μετὰ τούτων ἐστὶν ἡδέα παρὰ τὸν βίον εὑρεῖν: ἀκροάματά τε καὶ θεάματα, θῆραι καὶ λουτρὰ καὶ γυμνάσια καὶ συμποτικαὶ θυμηδίαι καὶ εἴ τι τοιοῦτον ἕτερον: τῷ δὲ νηπίῳ ἡ τρυφὴ τὸ γάλα ἐστὶ καὶ ἡ τῆς τιθήνης ἀγκάλη καὶ ἠρεμαία κίνησις τὸν ὕπνον ἐφελκομένη τε καὶ ἡδύνουσα: τὴν γὰρ ὑπὲρ τοῦτο εὐφροσύνην τὸ ἀτελὲς τῆς ἡλικίας χωρῆσαι φύσιν οὐκ ἔχει): τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον οἱ διὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐν τῷ τῇδε βίῳ τὰς ψυχὰς θρέψαντες καί, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, καταγυμνάσαντες ἑαυτῶν τὰ νοητὰ αἰσθητήρια, εἰ πρὸς τὴν ἀσώματον ἐκείνην μετοικισθεῖεν ζωήν, πρὸς λόγον τῆς ἐνυπαρχούσης αὐτοῖς ἕξεώς τε καὶ δυνάμεως τῆς θείας τρυφῆς μεταλήψονται, ἢ πλείονος ἢ ἐλάττονος κατὰ τὴν παροῦσαν ἑκάστου δύναμιν τῶν προκειμένων μετέχοντες: ἡ δὲ ἄγευστος τῆς ἀρετῆς ψυχὴ τῶν μὲν ἐκ πονηρίας κακῶν, ἅτε μηδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν συνενεχθεῖσα τῇ τῆς κακίας νόσῳ, διαμένει ἀμέτοχος, τῆς δὲ ζωῆς ἐκείνης, ἣν θεοῦ γνῶσίν τε καὶ μετουσίαν ὁ πρὸ τούτων λόγος ὡρίσατο, τοσοῦτον μετέχει παρὰ τὴν πρώτην, ὅσον χωρεῖ τὸ τρεφόμενον, ἕως ἂν καθάπερ τινὶ τροφῇ καταλλήλῳ τῇ θεωρίᾳ τοῦ ὄντος ἐναδρυνθεῖσα χωρητικὴ τοῦ πλείονος γένηται, ἐν δαψιλείᾳ τοῦ ὄντος κατ' ἐξουσίαν μετέχουσα.