Chapter IV.—Men and Women Alike Under the Instructor’s Charge.

Let us, then, embracing more and more this good obedience, give ourselves to the Lord; clinging to what is surest, the cable of faith in Him, and understanding that the virtue of man and woman is the same. For if the God of both is one, the master of both is also one; one church, one temperance, one modesty; their food is common, marriage an equal yoke; respiration, sight, hearing, knowledge, hope, obedience, love all alike. And those whose life is common, have common graces and a common salvation; common to them are love and training. “For in this world,” he says, “they marry, and are given in marriage,”15    Luke xx. 34.    Or, society. in which alone the female is distinguished from the male; “but in that world it is so no more.” There the rewards of this social and holy life, which is based on conjugal union, are laid up, not for male and female, but for man, the sexual desire which divides humanity being removed. Common therefore, too, to men and women, is the name of man. For this reason I think the Attics called, not boys only, but girls, παιδάριον, using it as a word of common gender; if Menander the comic poet, in Rhapizomena, appears to any one a sufficient authority, who thus speaks:—

Ἄρνες, too, the word for lambs, is a common name of simplicity for the male and female animal.

Now the Lord Himself will feed us as His flock forever. Amen. But without a sheperd, neither can sheep nor any other animal live, nor children without a tutor, nor domestics without a master.”

Ὅτι ἐπ' ἴσης ἀνδρῶν καὶ γυναικῶν ὁ λόγος παιδαγωγός ἐστιν. Ταύτην τοίνυν πλέον τὴν ἀγαθὴν ἀσπασάμενοι πειθαρχίαν σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐπιδῶμεν κυρίῳ, τὸν βεβαιότατον τῆς πίστεως αὐτοῦ ἐξαψάμενοι κάλων, τὴν αὐτὴν ἀρετὴν ἀνδρὸς καὶ γυναικὸς εἶναι νενοηκότες. Εἰ γὰρ ἀμφοῖν ὁ θεὸς εἷς, εἷς δὲ καὶ ὁ παιδαγωγὸς ἀμφοῖν. Μία ἐκκλησία, μία σωφροσύνη, αἰδὼς μία, ἡ τροφὴ κοινή, γάμος συζύγιος, ἀναπνοή, ὄψις, ἀκοή, γνῶσις, ἐλπίς, ὑπακοή, ἀγάπη, ὅμοια πάντα· ὧν δὲ κοινὸς μὲν ὁ βίος, κοινὴ δὲ ἡ χάρις, κοινὴ δὲ καὶ ἡ σωτηρία, κοινὴ τούτων καὶ ἡ ἀρετὴ καὶ ἡ ἀγωγή. Ἐν γὰρ τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ, φησίν, γαμοῦσι καὶ γαμίσκονται, ἐν ᾧ δὴ μόνῳ τὸ θῆλυ τοῦ ἄρρενος διακρίνεται, ἐν ἐκείνῳ δὲ οὐκέτι, ἔνθα τοῦ κοινωνικοῦ καὶ ἁγίου τούτου βίου τοῦ ἐκ συζυγίας τὰ ἔπαθλα οὐκ ἄρρενι καὶ θηλείᾳ, ἀνθρώπῳ δὲ ἀπόκειται ἐπιθυμίας διχαζούσης αὐτὸν κεχωρισμένῳ. Κοινὸν οὖν καὶ τοὔνομα ἀνδράσιν καὶ γυναιξὶν ὁ ἄνθρωπος. Ταύτῃ μοι δοκοῦσιν οἱ Ἀττικοὶ παιδάριον ἐπικοίνως οὐ μόνον τὸ ἄρρεν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ θῆλυ κεκληκέναι, εἴ τῳ πιστὸς καταφαίνεται ὁ κωμικὸς ἐν Ῥαπιζομένῃ Μένανδρος ὧδέ πως λέγων τοὐμὸν θυγάτριον, ... πάνυ γάρ ἐστι τῇ φύσει φιλάνθρωπον τὸ παιδάριον σφόδρα. Ἄρνες δὲ δὴ ἐπίκοινόν ἐστιν ἀφελείας ὄνομα ἄρρενός τε καὶ θήλεος ζῴου· αὐτὸς δὲ ἡμᾶς ὁ κύριος ποιμαίνει εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας, ἀμήν. Ἄνευ δὲ ποιμένος οὔτε πρόβατα οὔτε ἄλλο οὐδέν πω βιωτέον, οὐδὲ δὴ παῖδας ἄνευ τοῦ παιδαγωγοῦ, οὐδὲ μὴν οἰκέτας ἄνευ τοῦ δεσπότου.