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of elements from which we were also composed. For each thing is nourished by what is its own and similar, but is healed by its opposite. And of the elements, we partake of some directly, but others through certain intermediaries, like water, sometimes by itself, and sometimes through the medium of wine and oil and all the so-called liquid fruits (for wine is nothing other than water that has been given a quality by the vine). Likewise we also partake of fire, sometimes directly by being warmed by it, and sometimes through the intermediaries of what we eat or drink (for in all things a greater or lesser portion of fire is sown); in the same way also of air, directly by breathing and having it poured around us and drawing it in while eating and drinking, but through the intermediaries of all other things of which we partake; But of earth, we in no way partake directly, but through certain intermediaries (for earth becomes grain, and we eat grain); for larks and doves and often partridges feed on the earth; but man, through the intermediaries of seeds and fruits and meats. And since, not only for comeliness but also for the sensitivity of touch in which man especially surpasses all animals, he did not put on us either thick hide like oxen and the other pachyderms, or long and dense hair like goats and sheep and hares, or scales like snakes and fish, or hard shells like turtles and oysters, or soft shells like crabs, or wings like birds, we necessarily needed clothing, which supplies in us what nature has bestowed on the others. For these reasons, therefore, we need food and clothing; and of a dwelling, both for the same reasons for which we needed clothing and food, and not least for escaping wild beasts; And because of the imbalances of the qualities and the dissolution of the continuity of the body, we have come to be in need of doctors and healing; And since the change occurs according to quality, it is necessary to bring the state of the body into proportion through the opposite quality. For it is not the task of doctors, as some think, to cool down a heated body, but to change it to a balanced state. For if they were to cool it down, the condition turns into the opposite disease. Therefore, man has need of food and drink, because of depletions and excretions; of clothing, because of having no strong natural covering; of a house, both because of the imbalances of the environment and because of wild beasts; of healing, because of the changes of the qualities and the sensation given to the body. For if sensation were not present in us, we would neither feel pain nor, not feeling pain, would we need healing, and we would have perished in ignorance of the evil, not curing the affliction. And because of the arts and the sciences and the needs arising from them, we need one another. And because of needing one another, many of us, having come together into the same place, associate with one another according to the needs of life in our transactions, which gathering and cohabitation they named a city, so that we might reap benefits from one another near at hand and not from afar. For man is by nature a social and political animal. For no single person is self-sufficient for everything. It is clear, therefore, that cities were established because of transactions and learning. But man has obtained two of these exceptional privileges. For he alone obtains pardon when he repents, and the body of him alone, though mortal, is made immortal, and of the bodily, through the soul, and of the psychic, through the body. For man alone of rational beings has the exceptional privilege of being deemed worthy of pardon in repenting. For neither demons nor angels, when they repent, are deemed worthy of pardon. And in this most of all God is both shown and said to be just and merciful. For to the angels, who have no compulsion dragging them down into sin, but are free by nature from bodily passions and needs and pleasures, reasonably no pardon is given to them when they repent; But man is not only a rational being, but also an animal. And the needs of the animal and its passions often drag down

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στοιχείων ἐξ ὧν καὶ συνετέθημεν. ἕκαστον γὰρ τῷ μὲν οἰκείῳ καὶ ὁμοίῳ τρέφεται, τῷ δὲ ἐναντίῳ θεραπεύεται. τῶν δὲ στοιχείων τὰ μὲν προσεχῶς τε ἅμα, τὰ δὲ καὶ διὰ μέσων τινῶν προσφερόμεθα, ὡς ὕδωρ ποτὲ μὲν καθ' ἑαυτὸ ποτὲ δὲ καὶ διὰ μέσου τοῦ οἴνου καὶ τοῦ ἐλαίου καὶ πάντων τῶν καλουμένων ὑγρῶν καρπῶν (οὐδὲν γὰρ ἕτερον οἶνός ἐστιν ἢ ὕδωρ ὑπ' ἀμπέλου πεποιωμένον). ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ πυρὸς μεταλαμβάνομεν, ποτὲ μὲν προσεχῶς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ θαλπόμενοι ποτὲ δὲ διὰ μέσων ὧν ἐσθίομεν ἢ πίνομεν (ἐν πᾶσι γὰρ ἢ πλείων ἢ ἐλάττων μοῖρα τοῦ πυρὸς ἐγκατέσπαρται)· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ τοῦ ἀέρος, προσεχῶς μὲν ἀναπνέοντες καὶ περικε χυμένον ἡμῖν ἔχοντες καὶ ἐν τῷ ἐσθίειν καὶ πίνειν ἕλκοντες, διὰ μέσων δὲ τῶν ἄλλων πάντων ὧν προσφερόμεθα· τὴν δὲ γῆν προσεχῶς μὲν ἡμεῖς οὐδαμῶς, διὰ μέσων δέ τινων (γῆ μὲν γὰρ σῖτος γίνεται, σῖτον δὲ ἡμεῖς ἐσθίομεν)· κόρυδοι μὲν γὰρ καὶ περιστεραὶ πολλάκις καὶ πέρδικες τὴν γῆν σιτοῦνται· ἄνθρωπος δὲ διὰ μέσων τῶν σπερμάτων καὶ τῶν ἀκροδρύων καὶ τῶν σαρκῶν. ἐπειδὴ δὲ οὐ μόνον δι' εὐπρέπειαν ἀλλὰ καὶ δι' εὐαισθησίαν τὴν κατὰ τὴν ἁφὴν ᾗ μάλιστα πλεονεκτεῖ πάντα τὰ ζῷα ὁ ἄνθρωπος οὐ περιέθηκεν ἡμῖν οὔτε δέρμα παχὺ ὡς τοῖς βουσὶ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις τοῖς παχυδέρμοις, οὔτε τρίχας μεγάλας καὶ πυκνὰς ὡς ταῖς αἰξὶ καὶ τοῖς προβάτοις καὶ λαγωοῖς, οὔτε φολίδας ὡς τοῖς ὄφεσι καὶ τοῖς ἰχθύσιν, οὔτε ὄστρακα ὡς ταῖς χελώναις καὶ τοῖς ὀστρέοις, οὔτε ἁπαλόστρακα ὡς τοῖς καράβοις, οὔτε πτέρυγας ὡς τοῖς ὀρνέοις, ἀναγκαίως ἐσθῆτος ἐδεή θημεν, τῆς ἀναπληρούσης ἐν ἡμῖν ὅπερ ἡ φύσις τοῖς ἄλλοις ἐδωρήσατο. διὰ ταῦτα μὲν οὖν τροφῆς καὶ ἐσθῆτος δεόμεθα· οἰκήσεως δὲ καὶ διὰ ταῦτα μὲν δι' ἃ καὶ ἐσθῆτος καὶ τροφῆς ἐδεήθημεν, οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ καὶ διὰ τὰς τῶν θηρίων ἀποφυγάς· διὰ δὲ τὰς δυσκρασίας τῶν ποιοτήτων καὶ τὴν λύσιν τῆς συνεχείας τοῦ σώματος ἰατρῶν καὶ θεραπείας ἐν χρείᾳ κατέστημεν· τῆς δὲ μεταβολῆς κατὰ ποιότητα γινομένης, ἀνάγκη διὰ τῆς ἀντικειμένης ποιότητος εἰς τὸ σύμμετρον ἀγαγεῖν τὴν κατάστασιν τοῦ σώματος. οὐ γάρ, ὡς οἴονταί τινες, τὸ θερμανθὲν σῶμα καταψύξαι πρόκειται τοῖς ἰατροῖς, ἀλλ' εἰς τὸ εὔκρατον μεταστῆσαι. εἰ γὰρ καταψύξειαν, εἰς τὴν ἐναντίαν περιΐσταται νόσον ἡ δίαθεσις. χρεία τοίνυν ἀνθρώπῳ τροφῆς μὲν καὶ ποτοῦ, διὰ τὰς κενώσεις καὶ διαφορήσεις· ἐσθῆτος δὲ, διὰ τὸ μηδεμίαν ἔχειν ἐκ φύσεως ἰσχυρὰν περιβολήν· οἴκου δὲ, διά τε τὰς δυσκρασίας τοῦ περιέχοντος καὶ διὰ τὰ θηρία· θεραπείας δὲ, διὰ τὰς μεταβολὰς τῶν ποιοτήτων καὶ τὴν αἴσθησιν τὴν ἐνδοθεῖσαν τῷ σώματι. εἰ γὰρ μὴ προσῆν ἡμῖν αἴσθησις οὔτ' ἂν ἠλγοῦμεν οὔτ' ἂν θεραπείας ἐδεήθημεν μὴ ἀλγοῦντες καὶ διεφθάρημεν ἂν ἐν ἀγνωσίᾳ τοῦ κακοῦ τὸ πάθος οὐκ ἰώμενοι. διὰ δὲ τὰς τέχνας καὶ τὰς ἐπιστήμας καὶ τὰς ἀπὸ τούτων χρείας ἀλλήλων δεόμεθα. διὰ δὲ τὸ δεῖσθαι ἀλλήλων, εἰς ταὐτὸ πολλοὶ συνελθόντες κοινωνοῦμεν ἀλλήλοις κατὰ τὰς τοῦ βίου χρείας ἐν τοῖς συναλλάγμασιν, ἥντινα σύνοδον καὶ συνοικίαν πόλιν ὠνόμασαν, ἵνα ἐγγύθεν καὶ μὴ πόρρωθεν τὰς παρ' ἀλλήλων ὠφελείας καρπώμεθα. φύσει γὰρ συναγελαστικὸν καὶ πολιτικὸν ζῷον γέγονεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος. εἷς γὰρ οὐδεὶς αὐτάρκης ἑαυτῷ πρὸς ἅπαντα. δῆλον οὖν ὡς αἱ πόλεις διὰ τὰ συναλλάγματα καὶ τὰ μαθήματα συνέστησαν. δύο δὲ τούτων πρεσβείων ὁ ἄν θρωπος ἐξαιρέτων ἔτυχεν. καὶ γὰρ μόνος οὗτος συγγνώμης τυγχάνει μετανοῶν, καὶ τὸ σῶμα τούτου μόνου θνητὸν ὂν ἀπαθανατίζεται, καὶ τοῦ μὲν σωματικοῦ, διὰ τὴν ψυχὴν, τοῦ δὲ ψυχικοῦ, διὰ τὸ σῶμα. μόνος γὰρ ὁ ἄνθρωπος τῶν λογικῶν ἐξαίρετον ἔσχε τὸ συγγνώμης ἐν τῷ μετανοεῖν ἀξιοῦσθαι. οὔτε γὰρ δαίμονες, οὔτε ἄγγελοι μετανοοῦντες συγγνώμης ἀξιοῦνται. καὶ ἐν τούτῳ μάλιστα καὶ δίκαιος καὶ ἐλεήμων ὁ Θεὸς δείκνυταί τε καὶ λέγεται. τοῖς μὲν γὰρ ἀγγέλοις, μηδὲν ἔχουσιν ἐπανάγκασμα περιέλκον εἰς ἁμαρτίαν, ἀλλ' ἐλευθέροις οὖσιν ἐκ φύσεως τῶν σωματικῶν παθῶν τε καὶ χρειῶν καὶ ἡδονῶν, εἰκότως οὐδεμία δίδοται συγγνώμη μετανοοῦσιν· ὁ δὲ ἄνθρωπος, οὐ μόνον ἐστὶ λογικὸν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ζῷον. αἱ δὲ χρεῖαι τοῦ ζῴου καὶ τὰ πάθη πολλάκις περιέλκουσι