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of things seen. 4.5 For this reason, after saying that light was made, he added: "And God saw the light that it was good," and so for each thing. Then, lest he lengthen the account by naming everything, he declares about all things together simply and says again: "God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good." 4.6 Not because God knew that what was made was good after it was made; far from it. For if a human craftsman, having learned the things of his craft even before they are made, knows that the things about to be made by him are good, how much more did that ineffable wisdom, which brought all things into being by will alone, know even before their creation that they were good. 4.7 For he would not have brought them into being, if he did not know. For what reason, then, is it said this way? For the reason I stated. Having heard, therefore, the prophet saying to you that God saw and praised them, seek no longer another test and proof of their beauty, nor say: How are they good? For clearer than the proof through works is the declaration through the verdict and judgment of the maker. 4.8 For this very reason he also used a plainer expression. For just as if someone wishing to buy medicines, being inexperienced, were to bid them first be shown to the physician, and if he were to learn clearly that the latter, having seen them, approved, he seeks no other proof of their quality, but having heard that the physician saw and approved them, he is content with the expert's verdict, 4.9 so indeed also Moses, wishing to remove all shameless curiosity of those who would afterward enjoy the creation, reported and said that God saw and approved them and judged them to be good, and not simply good, but also very good. 4.10 Therefore, do not be curious, nor pry into what has been made with reasonings, having such a testimony of their beauty. For if you are not content with this saying, but wish to enter into an inquiry of the things that have been made, having only cast yourself into a strait of reasonings and waves working up a great storm, you will know nothing more, but you will work for yourself a grievous shipwreck. For you will not be able to find all the reasons for each of the things that have been made, but you will also slander many of those things that now seem good to you, if you use an ungrateful mind. 4.11 For so weak is the reasoning of men that it is often brought around to contraries and many stand diametrically opposed to one another in the judgment concerning creation. For the children of the Greeks, admiring it more than is proper and exceeding the measure, considered it to be a god. 4.12 But the Manicheans and again other heretics, some said it was not the work of a good god, while others, cutting off one part of it, ascribed it to some self-acting matter and judged it to be unworthy of the creation of God. Thus, as I said before, if one should use reasonings and an ungrateful mind, he will also slander many of the things that seem to be good. 4.13 For what seems to you to be more beautiful than the sun? But nevertheless this bright and pleasant star also harms weak eyes, and scorches the earth, sending forth hotter rays, and produces fevers, and often dries up the fruit and has made it useless, and has rendered trees fruitless, and has made part of the inhabited world uninhabitable for us. 4.14 What then, tell me? Shall we slander the sun for this? Far from it; but letting our reasonings be still and their clamor, let us take hold of that rock, and of the saying which says: "And God saw all that he had made, and behold, it was very good," since even these things which I have now enumerated are very good and useful. But, as I said before, one must always return to that saying and say: "Behold, all that God has made is very good." 4.15 But is living luxuriously and laughing and being in pleasure, good? Therefore, listen to Solomon, who experienced every kind of luxury, saying: "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting." But is night a bad thing? For it is necessary to handle the argument from its opposites. 4.16 And yet this is a rest from toils, a release from cares, a comfort in sickness, no small refreshment from fears and dangers; a young

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ὁρωμένων. 4.5 ∆ιὰ τοῦτο εἰπὼν ὅτι ἐγένετο φῶς, ἐπήγαγε· «Καὶ εἶδεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸ φῶς ὅτι καλόν», καὶ καθ' ἕκαστον οὕτως. Εἶτα ἵνα μὴ πάντα κατ' ὄνομα εἰπὼν μηκύνῃ τὸν λόγον, ὁμοῦ περὶ πάντων ἀποφαίνεται ἁπαξαπλῶς καὶ πάλιν λέγει· Εἶδεν ὁ Θεὸς πάντα ὅσα ἐποίησε, καὶ ἰδοὺ καλὰ λίαν.» 4.6 Οὐκ ἐπειδὴ μετὰ τὸ γενέσθαι ἔγνω ὁ Θεὸς ὅτι καλὸν τὸ γενόμενον· ἄπαγε. Εἰ γὰρ τεχνίτης ἄνθρωπος καὶ πρὸ τοῦ γενέσθαι τὰ τῆς τέχνης μαθὼν οἶδεν ὅτι καλὰ τὰ παρ' αὐτοῦ μέλλοντα γίνεσθαι, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡ ἄρρητος ἐκείνη σοφία βουλήματι μόνῳ τὰ πάντα παραγαγοῦσα καὶ πρὸ τῆς γεννήσεως ᾔδει ὅτι καλά. 4.7 Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἂν αὐτὰ παρήγαγεν, εἰ ἠγνόει. Τίνος οὖν ἕνεκεν οὕτως εἴρηται; ∆ιὰ τὴν αἰτίαν ἣν εἶπον. Ἀκούσας τοίνυν τοῦ προφήτου πρὸς σὲ λέγοντος ὅτι ὁ Θεὸς αὐτὰ εἶδε καὶ ἐπῄνεσε, μὴ ζήτει λοιπὸν ἑτέραν βάσανον καὶ ἀπόδειξιν τοῦ κάλλους αὐτῶν, μηδὲ λέγε· Πῶς καλά; Τῆς γὰρ διὰ τῶν ἔργων ἀποδείξεως σαφεστέρα ἡ διὰ τῆς ψήφου καὶ τῆς κρίσεως τοῦ ποιήσαντος ἀπόφασις. 4.8 ∆ιά τοι τοῦτο καὶ παχυτέρᾳ κέχρηται τῇ λέξει. Ὥσπερ γὰρ εἴ τις φάρμακα βουλόμενος ὠνεῖσθαι, ἄπειρος ὤν, κελεύοι πρότερον ἐπιδείκνυσθαι τῷ ἰατρῷ ταῦτα, κἂν μάθῃ σαφῶς ὅτι ἰδὼν ἐκεῖνος ἐπῄνεσεν, οὐδεμίαν ἑτέραν ἀπόδειξιν τῆς τούτων ἀρετῆς ἐπιζητεῖ, ἀλλ' ἀκούσας ὅτι εἶδεν αὐτὰ ὁ ἰατρὸς καὶ ἐπῄνεσεν, ἀρκεῖται τῇ ψήφῳ τοῦ τεχνίτου, 4.9 οὕτω δὴ καὶ ὁ Μωυσῆς πᾶσαν περιεργίαν ἀναίσχυντον περιελεῖν βουλόμενος τῶν μετὰ ταῦτα μελλόντων ἀπολαύειν τῆς κτίσεως, ἀπήγγειλε καὶ εἶπεν ὅτι εἶδεν αὐτὰ ὁ Θεὸς καὶ ἐπῄνεσε καὶ ἐψηφίσατο εἶναι καλὰ καὶ οὐχ ἁπλῶς καλά, ἀλλὰ καὶ καλὰ λίαν. 4.10 Μὴ τοίνυν περιεργάζου, μηδὲ πολυπραγμόνει λογισμοῖς τὰ γεγενημένα, τοιαύτην ἔχων τοῦ κάλλους αὐτῶν μαρτυρίαν. Εἰ γὰρ μὴ ἀρκεσθῇς τῷ ῥήματι τούτῳ, ἀλλὰ βουληθῇς εἰς ζήτησιν τῶν γεγενημένων ἐλθεῖν, εἰς εὔριπον λογισμῶν καὶ κύματα πολὺν ἐργαζόμενα χειμῶνα σαυτὸν ἐμβαλὼν μόνον, εἴσῃ μὲν πλέον οὐδέν, ναυάγιον δὲ ἐργάσῃ σεαυτῷ χαλεπόν. Οὐδὲ γὰρ δυνήσῃ τοὺς λόγους ἅπαντας ἑκάστου τῶν γεγενημένων εὑρεῖν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν δοκούντων εἶναι σοι νῦν καλῶν πολλὰ διαβαλεῖς, ἐὰν ἀγνώμονι κεχρημένος ᾖς τῇ γνώμῃ. 4.11 Οὕτω γὰρ ἀσθενὴς τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὁ λογισμὸς ὡς εἰς ἐναντία περιαχθῆναι πολλάκις καὶ ἐκ διαμέτρου κατὰ ἀλλήλων στῆναι πολλοὺς ἐν τῇ περὶ τῆς κτίσεως ψήφῳ. Ἑλλήνων μὲν γὰρ παῖδες ὑπὲρ τὸ δέον αὐτὴν θαυμάσαντες καὶ τὸ μέτρον ὑπερεκβάντες, θεὸν εἶναι αὐτὴν ἐνόμισαν. 4.12 Μανιχαῖοι δὲ καὶ ἕτεροι πάλιν αἱρετικοί, οἱ μὲν οὐκ ἀγαθοῦ θεοῦ ἔργον ἔφησαν αὐτὴν εἶναι, οἱ δὲ ἓν αὐτῆς ἀποτεμόντες μέρος, αὐτομάτῳ τινὶ προσέρριψαν ὕλῃ καὶ ἀναξίαν ἔκριναν τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ δημιουργίας εἶναι. Οὕτως, ὥσπερ ἕφθην εἰπών, εἴ τις λογισμοῖς καὶ ἀγνώμονι χρήσαιτο γνώμῃ καὶ τῶν δοκούντων εἶναι καλῶν πολλὰ διαβαλεῖ. 4.13 Τί γάρ σοι ὡραιότερον ἡλίου εἶναι δοκεῖ; Ἀλλ' ὅμως τοῦτο τὸ φαιδρὸν ἄστρον καὶ γλυκὺ καὶ ὀφθαλμοὺς λυμαίνεται ἀσθενοῦντας καὶ γῆν κατακαίει θερμοτέρας ἀφεὶς τὰς ἀκτῖνας καὶ πυρετοὺς τίκτει καὶ καρπὸν πολλάκις κατεξήρανε καὶ ἐποίησεν ἄχρηστον καὶ δένδρα ἄκαρπα εἰργάσατο καὶ μέρος τῆς οἰκουμένης ἀοίκητον κατέστησεν ἡμῖν. 4.14 Τί οὖν, εἰπέ μοι; διαβαλοῦμεν τὸν ἥλιον διὰ τοῦτο; Ἄπαγε· ἀλλὰ τοὺς λογισμοὺς ἡσυχάζειν ἀφέντες καὶ τὸν τούτων θόρυβον, ἐπιληψώμεθα τῆς πέτρας ἐκείνης, καὶ τῆς ῥήσεως τῆς λεγούσης· «Καὶ εἶδεν ὁ Θεὸς πάντα ὅσα ἐποίησε, καὶ ἰδοὺ καλὰ λίαν», ἐπεὶ καὶ αὐτὰ ἃ ἀπηριθμησάμην νῦν, καλὰ λίαν καὶ χρηστά. Ἀλλ', ὅπερ ἔμπροσθεν εἶπον, ἐπὶ τὴν ῥῆσιν ἐκείνην ἐπανιέναι χρὴ διαπαντὸς καὶ λέγειν· «Ἰδοὺ πάντα ὅσα ἐποίησεν ὁ Θεὸς καλὰ λίαν». 4.15 Ἀλλὰ τὸ τρυφᾶν καὶ γελᾶν καὶ ἐν ἡδονῇ εἶναι, καλόν; Οὐκοῦν ἄκουσον Σολομῶντος, τοῦ πᾶν εἶδος τρυφῆς ἐπελθόντος, λέγοντος· «Ἀγαθὸν πορευθῆναι εἰς οἶκον πένθους ἢ πορευθῆναι εἰς οἶκον πότου.» Ἀλλὰ νὺξ φαῦλον; δεῖ γὰρ ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων μεταχειρίσασθαι τὸν λόγον. 4.16 Καίτοι γε αὕτη πόνων ἀνάπαυσις, φροντίδων ἀπαλλαγή, νοσημάτων παραμυθία, φόβων καὶ κινδύνων οὐ μικρὰ ἀναψυχή· νεαρὸν