,

being contemplated, nor indeed has it subsisted at all in any of these things according to a natural affinity, nor is it a beginning, a middle, or an end; but, to speak comprehensively in a definition, evil is the privation of the activity of the powers inherent in nature toward their end, and absolutely nothing else.

Or again, evil is an irrational movement of the natural powers, based on a mistaken judgment, toward something other than their end; and by end I mean the cause of beings, for which all things naturally long, 14Β_040 even if the evil one, having completely covered his envy with a pretense of goodwill, and having deceitfully persuaded man to direct his desire toward something among beings other than the cause, created ignorance of the cause.

Therefore, the first man, having fallen short in the movement of his natural powers toward their end in activity, sickened with ignorance of his own cause, thinking that to be God, through the counsel of the serpent, which the word of the divine commandment had forbidden him to have. And so, having become a transgressor and ignorant of God, having inextricably mixed the whole of his intellectual power with the whole of sense perception, he drew upon himself the composite and destructive knowledge of sensible things, which is activated for passion, and he was compared to irrational beasts and was made like them, acting, seeking, and willing the same things as them in every way, and having more from his natural reason for the exchange to what is contrary to nature, toward irrationality.

Insofar, therefore, as man concerned himself with the knowledge of visible things according to sense perception alone, to that extent he tightened upon himself ignorance of God; insofar as he tightened the bond of this ignorance, to that extent he clung by experience to the sensible enjoyment of the material things he knew; insofar as he was sated with this, to that extent he kindled a passionate love for the self-love born from it; insofar as he carefully cultivated this love for self-love, to that extent he devised many ways of composing pleasure, as being both the offspring and the end of self-love; and since all vice is by nature corrupted along with the ways that constitute it, finding through this same experience that pain is in every case the successor of all pleasure, he had an impulse toward pleasure as a whole, and an aversion from pain as a whole, struggling for the one with all his power, and striving against the other with all zeal, thinking, which was impossible, that through such a method he could separate these from one another and have self-love joined to 14Β_042 pleasure alone, completely unacquainted with pain, ignorant through his passion, as it seems, that it is never possible for pleasure to exist without pain. For the toil of pain is blended into pleasure, even if it seems to escape the notice of those who have it because of the dominance of pleasure in the passion, since what is dominant is always by nature manifest, covering up the perception of what is present alongside it.

From here the great and innumerable crowd of passions burst into the life of men; from here our life became full of groaning, honoring the occasions for its own destruction and both discovering and cherishing for itself, through ignorance, the pretexts for corruption; from here the one nature was divided into myriad fragments and we of the same nature are prey to one another like crawling beasts. For laying claim to pleasure on account of self-love and again striving to flee pain for the same cause, we contrive the countless generations of the corrupting passions. For instance, if we take thought for self-love through pleasure, we beget gluttony, pride, vainglory, arrogance, avarice, greed, tyranny, haughtiness, boastfulness, despair, madness, conceit, pomposity, contempt, insolence, wantonness, jesting, profligacy, licentiousness, ostentation, the

ἐνθεωρούμενονοὔτε μὴν ἐν τούτοις πᾶσιν τὸ παράπαν κατ᾽ οἰκείωσιν φυσικὴν ὑφέστηκεν, οὔτε ἀρχὴ οὔτε μεσότης οὔτε τέλος ἐστίν, ἀλλ᾽ ἵνα ὡς ἐν ὅρῳ περιλαβὼν εἴπω, τὸ κακὸν τῆς πρὸς τὸ τέλος τῶν ἐγκειμένων τῇ φύσει δυνάμεων ἐνεργείας ἐστὶν ἔλλειψις, καὶ ἄλλο καθάπαξ οὐδέν.

Ἢ πάλιν, τὸ κακὸν τῶν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων κατ᾽ ἐσφαλμένην κρίσιν ἐστὶν ἐπ᾽ ἄλλο παρὰ τὸ τέλος ἀλόγιστος κίνησις· τέλος δέ φημι τὴν τῶν ὄντων αἰτίαν, ἧς φυσικῶς ἐφίεται πάντα, 14Β_040 κἂν εἰ τὰ μάλιστα τὸν φθόνον εὐνοίας πλάσματι καλύψας ὁ πονηρός, πρὸς ἄλλο τι τῶν ὄντων παρὰ τὴν αἰτίαν κινῆσαι τὴν ἔφεσιν παραπείσας δόλῳ τὸν ἄνθρωπον, τὴν τῆς αἰτίας ἐδημιούργησεν ἄγνοιαν.

Τῆς οὖν πρὸς τὸ τέλος ἐνεργείας τῶν κατὰ φύσιν δυνάμεων ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἐλλείψας τὴν κίνησιν, τὴν τῆς οἰκείας αἰτίας ἐνόσησεν ἄγνοιαν, ἐκεῖνο νομίσας εἶναι Θεὸν διὰ τῆς συμβουλῆς τοῦ ὄφεως, ὅπερ ἔχειν ἀπώμοτον ὁ τῆς θείας ἐντολῆς διετάξατο λόγος. Οὕτω δὲ παραβάτης γενόμενος καὶ τὸν Θεὸν ἀγνοήσας, πρὸς ὅλην τὴν αἴσθησιν ὅλην ἀπρὶξ ἀναμίξας τὴν νοερὰν δύναμιν, τὴν σύνθετον καὶ ὀλέθριον πρὸς πάθος ἐνεργουμένην τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐπεσπάσατο γνῶσιν, καὶ παρασυνεβλήθη τοῖς κτήνεσιν τοῖς ἀνοήτοις καὶ ὡμοιώθη αὐτοῖς, τὰ αὐτὰ αὐτοῖς κατὰ πάντα τρόπον καὶ ἐνεργῶν καὶ ζητῶν καὶ βουλόμενος, καὶ πλέον εἰς ἀλογίαν ἔχων τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν λόγου πρὸς τὸ παρὰ φύσιν τὴν ἄμειψιν.

Ὅσον οὖν κατὰ μόνην τὴν αἴσθησιν τῆς τῶν ὁρωμένων ἐπεμελεῖτο γνώσεως ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τοσοῦτον ἐπέσφιγγεν ἑαυτῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν ἄγνοιαν· ὅσον δὲ ταύτης τῆς ἀγνοίας συνέσφιγγε τὸν δεσμόν, τοσοῦτον τῆς πείρας ἀντείχετο τῆς τῶν γνωσθέντων ὑλικῶν αἰσθητικῆς ἀπολαύσεως· ὅσον δὲ ταύτης ἐνεφορεῖτο, τοσοῦτον τῆς ἐκ ταύτης γεννωμένης φιλαυτίας ἐξῆπτε τὸν ἔρωτα· ὅσον δὲ πεφροντισμένως περιεποιεῖτο τῆς φιλαυτίας τὸν ἔρωτα, τοσοῦτον τῆς ἡδονῆς, ὡς τῆς φιλαυτίας οὔσης καὶ γεννήματος καὶ τέλους, πολλοὺς ἐπενόει τρόπους συστάσεως· καὶ ἐπειδὴ πᾶσα κακία πέφυκε τοῖς συνιστῶσιν αὐτὴν συμφθείρεσθαι τρόποις, εὑρίσκων δι᾽ αὐτῆς τῆς πείρας πάσης ἡδονῆς εἶναι πάντως τὴν ὀδύνην διάδοχον, πρὸς μὲν τὴν ἡδονὴν τὴν ὅλην ἔσχεν ὁρμήν, πρὸς δὲ τὴν ὀδύνην τὴν ὅλην ἀποφυγήν, τῆς μὲν κατὰ πᾶσαν ὑπεραγωνιζόμενος δύναμιν, τῆς δὲ κατὰ πᾶσαν σπουδὴν καταγωνιζόμενος, οἰόμενος, ὅπερ ἀμήχανον ἦν, διὰ τῆς τοιαύτης μεθοδείας ἀλλήλων ταύτας διαστῆσαι καὶ μόνῃ τῇ 14Β_042 ἡδονῇ συνημμένην τὴν φιλαυτίαν ἔχειν παντελῶς ὀδύνης ἀπείρατον, ἀγνοήσας ὑπὸ τοῦ πάθους, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὡς οὐκ ἐνδέχεταί ποτε χωρὶς ὀδύνης εἶναι τὴν ἡδονήν. Ἐγκέκραται γὰρ τῇ ἡδονῇ τῆς ὀδύνης ὁ πόνος, κἂν λανθάνειν δοκῇ τοὺς ἔχοντας διὰ τὴν κατὰ τὸ πάθος τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐπικράτειαν, ἐπειδὴ τὸ ἐπικρατοῦν ἀεὶ διαφαίνεσθαι πέφυκεν, καλύπτον τοῦ παρακειμένου τὴν αἴσθησιν.

Ἐντεῦθεν ὁ πολὺς ὄχλος τῶν παθῶν καὶ ἀναρίθμητος εἰσεφθάρη τῷ βίῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων· ἐντεῦθεν πολυστένακτος γέγονεν ἡμῶν ἡ ζωή, τῆς οἰκείας ἀναιρέσεως τιμῶσα τὰς ἀφορμὰς καὶ τῆς φθορᾶς τὰς προφάσεις ἑαυτῇ διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν ἐξευρίσκουσά τε καὶ περιέπουσα· ἐντεῦθεν ἡ μία φύσις εἰς μυρία κατεμερίσθη τμήματα καὶ οἱ τῆς αὐτῆς φύσεως ἀλλήλων ἐσμὲν δίκην ἑρπετῶν θηρίων παραναλώματα. Ἡδονῆς γὰρ διὰ τὴν φιλαυτίαν ἀντιποιούμενοι καὶ ὀδύνην διὰ τὴν αὐτὴν αἰτίαν πάλιν φεύγειν σπουδάζοντες, τὰς ἀμυθήτους τῶν φθοροποιῶν παθῶν ἐπινοοῦμεν γενέσεις. Οἷον, εἰ μὲν δι᾽ ἡδονῆς τῆς φιλαυτίας φροντίζομεν, γεννῶμεν τὴν γαστριμαργίαν τὴν ὑπερηφανίαν τὴν κενοδοξίαν τὴν φυσίωσιν τὴν φιλαργυρίαν τὴν πλεονεξίαν τὴν τυραννίδα τὸ γαῦρον τὴν ἀλαζονείαν τὴν ἀπόνοιαν τὴν μανίαν τὴν οἴησιν τὸν τῦφον τὴν καταφρόνησιν τὴν ὕβριν τὸ βάκηλον τὸ εὐτράπελον τὴν ἀσωτίαν τὴν ἀκολασίαν τὴν περπερίαν τὸν