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is naturally suited to contribute to the healing of man, even things not useful for other needs. And let these things be said concerning the present state of our life; since in the beginning, none of the other animals dared to harm man; but all were servile and subject and obedient to him as long as he was master of his own passions and the irrationality within him; but not being master of his own passions but being mastered by them, he was reasonably mastered also by the beasts from without. For with sin also entered the harm from these. And that this is true is clear from those who have pursued the best life. For these were seen to be indisputably superior to the plotting of beasts, as Daniel was of the lions, and Paul of the viper's bite. Who then could worthily marvel at the nobility of this creature, who binds in himself the mortal with the immortal and joins the rational with the irrational, who bears in his own nature the image of the whole creation for which reasons he is also called a microcosm, who has been deemed worthy of such great providence from God for whom are all things both present and to come, for whom also God became man, who ends in incorruptibility and escapes the mortal; he reigns in the heavens, having been made in the image and likeness of God, he lives with Christ, he is a child of God, he is set before every principality and power? And who could declare the advantages of this creature? He crosses seas, he enters heaven by contemplation, he understands the motion and distances and measures of the stars, he enjoys the fruits of the land and the sea, he scorns beasts and sea-monsters, he masters every science and art and method, through letters he converses with whomever he wishes across borders, being in no way hindered by the body, he prophesies the future. He rules all things, he masters all things, he enjoys all things, he converses with angels and God, he commands creation, he gives orders to demons, he investigates the nature of existing things, he inquires into God, he becomes a house and temple of God; and all these things he purchases with virtues and piety. But lest we should seem to some to be writing a clumsy encomium of man and not only setting forth his nature as we proposed, let us somewhere here end the discourse, even if in speaking of the foremost advantages of his nature we are describing his nature itself. Knowing therefore how much nobility we have shared in and that we are a heavenly plant, let us not shame our nature nor be shown unworthy of so many gifts nor deprive ourselves of so much power and glory and blessedness, by betraying the enjoyment of all eternal things for a little time and a brief pleasure; but through good works and abstinence from evil and a right purpose, with which the Divine is especially accustomed to cooperate, and through prayers let us preserve our nobility. Concerning these things, then, this is sufficient. But since common reason suggests that man consists of soul and body, come, let us make a division and first discuss the soul, omitting the excessively subtle and precarious and for the many difficult-to-understand parts of the inquiry. 2 Concerning the soul The account of the soul is disputed by almost all the ancients. For Democritus and Epicurus and the whole system of the Stoic philosophers declare the soul to be a body. And these very ones, who declare the soul to be a body, differ concerning its substance. For the Stoics say it is a hot and fiery breath, but Critias blood, and Hippon the philosopher water, and Democritus fire. For the spherical shapes of the atoms being combined, fire and air, constitute the soul. And Heraclitus says that the soul of the universe is an exhalation from moist things, and that the soul in animals is by nature homogeneous, from both the external and the internal exhalation. Again, among those saying the soul is incorporeal there has been endless disagreement, with some saying it is a substance and immortal, but others that it is incorporeal but not a substance nor immortal. For Thales was the first to say the soul is ever-moving and self-moving; but Pythagoras, a self-moving number.

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πρὸς θεραπείαν ἀνθρώπου συντελεῖν πέφυκεν, καὶ τὰ μὴ ταῖς ἄλλαις χρείαις χρήσιμα. καὶ ταῦτα μὲν ὡς πρὸς τὴν νῦν κατάστασιν τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς βίου λεγέσθω· ἐπεὶ τό γε ἀρχαῖον οὐδὲν τῶν ἄλλων ζῴων ἐτόλμα καταβλάπτειν τὸν ἄνθρωπον· ἀλλ' ἦν αὐτῷ πάντα δοῦλα καὶ ὑποτεταγμένα καὶ πειθήνια ἕως ἐκράτει τῶν οἰκείων παθῶν καὶ τῆς ἀλογίας τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ· μὴ κρατῶν δὲ τῶν ἰδίων παθῶν ἀλλὰ κρατούμενος ὑπ' αὐτῶν, ἐκρατήθη καὶ παρὰ τῶν ἔξωθεν εὐλόγως θηρίων. συνεισῆλθε γὰρ τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ καὶ ἡ παρὰ τούτων βλάβη. ὅτι δὲ τοῦτό ἐστιν ἀληθὲς δῆλον ἐκ τῶν τὸν ἄριστον μετελθόντων βίον. κρείττους γὰρ ἀδηρίτως ὤφθησαν οὗτοι τῆς τῶν θηρίων ἐπιβουλῆς, ὡς λεόντων μὲν ὁ ∆ανιήλ, Παῦλος δὲ τοῦ δήγματος τῆς ἐχίδνης. τίς ἂν οὖν ἀξίως θαυμάσειεν τὴν εὐγένειαν τούτου τοῦ ζῴου, τοῦ συνδέοντος ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὰ θνητὰ τοῖς ἀθανάτοις καὶ τὰ λογικὰ τοῖς ἀλόγοις συνάπτοντος, τοῦ φέροντος ἐν τῇ καθ' ἑαυτὸν φύσει τῆς πάσης κτίσεως τὴν εἰκόνα δι' ἃ καὶ μικρὸς κόσμος εἴρηται, τοῦ τοσαύτης ἠξιωμένου παρὰ τοῦ θεοῦ προνοίας δι' ὃν πάντα καὶ τὰ νῦν καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα δι' ὃν καὶ θεὸς ἄνθρωπος γέγονεν, τοῦ λήγοντος εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν καὶ τὸ θνητὸν διαφεύγοντος· οὐρανῶν βασιλεύει κατ' εἰκόνα καὶ ὁμοίωσιν θεοῦ γεγονώς, Χριστῷ συνδιάγει, θεοῦ τέκνον ἐστί, πάσης ἀρχῆς καὶ ἐξουσίας προκάθηται; τίς δ' ἂν ἐξειπεῖν δύναιτο τὰ τούτου τοῦ ζῴου πλεονεκτήματα; πελάγη διαβαίνει, οὐρανὸν ἐμβατεύει τῇ θεωρίᾳ, ἀστέρων κίνησιν καὶ διαστήματα καὶ μέτρα κατανοεῖ, γῆν καρποῦται καὶ θάλασσαν, θηρίων καὶ κητῶν καταφρονεῖ, πᾶσαν ἐπιστήμην καὶ τέχνην καὶ μέθοδον κατορθοῖ, ὑπερόριον διὰ τῶν γραμμάτων οἷς βούλεται προσομιλεῖ μηδὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ σώματος ἐμποδιζόμενον, προφητεύει τὰ μέλλοντα. πάντων ἄρχει, πάντων κρατεῖ, πάντων ἀπολαύει, ἀγγέλοις καὶ Θεῷ διαλέγεται, τῇ κτίσει κελεύει, δαίμοσιν ἐπιτάττει, τὴν τῶν ὄντων φύσιν ἐρευνᾷ, Θεὸν περιεργάζεται, οἶκος καὶ ναὸς γίνεται Θεοῦ· καὶ ταῦτα πάντα τῶν ἀρετῶν ὠνεῖται καὶ τῆς εὐσεβείας. ἀλλ' ἵνα μὴ δόξωμέν τισιν ἀπειροκάλως ἀνθρώπου γράφειν ἐγκώμιον καὶ μὴ μόνον τὴν φύσιν ἐκτίθεσθαι καθὰ προε θέμεθα, αὐτοῦ που καταπαύσωμεν τὸν λόγον, εἰ καὶ τὰ μάλιστα τὰ τῆς φύσεως πλεονεκτήματα λέγοντες τὴν φύσιν αὐτὴν διηγούμεθα. εἰδότες οὖν ὅσης εὐγενείας μετειλήφαμεν καὶ ὅτι φυτόν ἐσμεν οὐράνιον, μὴ καταισχύνωμεν τὴν φύσιν μηδὲ τῶν τοσούτων δωρεῶν ἀποφανθῶμεν ἀνάξιοι μηδὲ ἑαυτοὺς τοσαύτης ἐξουσίας καὶ δόξης καὶ μακαριότητος ἀποστερήσωμεν ὀλίγου καιροῦ καὶ βραχείας ἡδονῆς πάντων τῶν αἰωνίων καταπροδόντες τὴν ἀπόλαυσιν· ἀλλὰ διὰ τῶν καλῶν ἔργων καὶ τῆς ἀποχῆς τῶν φαύλων καὶ τοῦ ὀρθοῦ σκοποῦ ᾧ μάλιστα τὸ Θεῖον συνεργεῖν εἴωθεν καὶ διὰ τῶν εὐχῶν τὴν εὐγένειαν διασώσωμεν. περὶ μὲν οὖν τούτων ἱκανὰ καὶ ταῦτα. ἐπειδὴ δὲ τὸν ἄνθρωπον ἐκ ψυχῆς εἶναι καὶ σώματος ὁ κοινὸς ὑποβάλλει λόγος, φέρε διελόντες πρότερον περὶ ψυχῆς διαλάβωμεν, τὰ λίαν λεπτὰ καὶ περισκελῆ καὶ τοῖς πολλοῖς δυσκατανόητα τῶν ζητουμένων παραλιπόντες. 2 περὶ ψυχῆσ ∆ιαφωνεῖται σχεδὸν ἅπασι τοῖς παλαιοῖς ὁ περὶ τῆς ψυχῆς λόγος. ∆ημόκριτος μὲν γὰρ καὶ Ἐπίκουρος καὶ πᾶν τὸ τῶν Στωϊκῶν φιλοσόφων σύστημα σῶμα τὴν ψυχὴν ἀποφαίνονται. καὶ αὐτοὶ δὲ οὗτοι, οἱ σῶμα τὴν ψυχὴν ἀποφαινόμενοι, διαφέρονται περὶ τῆς οὐσίας αὐτῆς. οἱ μὲν γὰρ Στωϊκοὶ πνεῦμα λέγουσιν αὐτὴν ἔνθερμον καὶ διάπυρον, Κριτίας δὲ αἷμα, Ἵππων δὲ ὁ φιλόσοφος ὕδωρ, ∆ημόκριτος δὲ πῦρ. τὰ γὰρ σφαιροειδῆ σχήματα τῶν ἀτόμων συγκρινόμενα, πῦρ τε καὶ ἀέρα, ψυχὴν ἀποτελεῖν. Ἡράκλειτος δὲ τὴν μὲν τοῦ παντὸς ψυχὴν ἀναθυμίασιν ἐκ τῶν ὑγρῶν, τὴν δὲ ἐν τοῖς ζῴοις ἀπό τε τῆς ἐκτὸς καὶ τῆς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐναθυμιάσεως ὁμογενῆ πεφυκέναι. πάλιν δὲ καὶ τῶν λεγόντων ἀσώματον εἶναι τὴν ψυχὴν ἄπειρος γέγονεν ἡ διαφωνία, τῶν μὲν οὐσίαν αὐτὴν καὶ ἀθάνατον λεγόντων, τῶν δὲ ἀσώματον μὲν οὐ μὴν οὐσίαν οὐδὲ ἀθάνατον. Θαλῆς μὲν γὰρ πρῶτος τὴν ψυχὴν ἔφησεν ἀεικίνητον καὶ αὐτοκίνητον· Πυθαγόρας δὲ ἀριθμὸν ἑαυτὸν κινοῦντα.