that which remains by itself should suffer no harm from communion with the worse, but the disorderly, bound by it and joined to the better, having harmed nothing, might by the constraints of the bonds be overcome for the better. For which reason the forging of the bonds was for the superior, but not for the inferior; but the binding was for the worse, so that it should not have power in any way to be loosed from the bonds. By such constraints this David, having bound us fast, holds us both now and from that time, we not being able to be loosed from his bonds, even if we should wish. Not therefore, even if we should go away, will he release our souls, holding them so bound together according to the divine letter.

7 However, having thus taken us from the beginning and having gone around us in every way, when the greater part had been accomplished by him and it seemed good to remain, thereupon, just as if some good farmer some fallow land, and indeed in no way fertile, but salty and scorched, both rocky underneath and friable, or not entirely barren nor indeed unsuited for growth, but indeed very productive, yet nevertheless dry and neglected, made harsh with thorns and wild shrubs and difficult to work; or as some husbandman a plant, that is, a wild one and indeed barren of cultivated fruits, yet not entirely useless, if someone with the art of planting, bringing a cultivated shoot, should graft it, having split it down the middle, then joining and binding it, until they sprout together so that both are nourished as one (for thus you might see a certain composite tree, and indeed a bastard, but fruitful from unfruitful, bearing the fruits of a good olive tree on wild roots); or wild indeed, yet not useless to a skilled husbandman, or even cultivated indeed, and otherwise fruitful, or from lack of skill again unpruned and unwatered and withered, being choked by the many superfluous shoots growing randomly, and being hindered by one another from reaching maturity in its growth and from bearing fruit; having taken certain ones such as these and with his own agricultural art going around and observing not only the things seen by all and viewed on the surface, but digging up and making trial of the inmost parts, asking and proposing and hearing the answers, when he perceived something not useless nor unprofitable nor ineffectual in us, he dug, he turned over, he watered, he set everything in motion, he brought to bear all his art and care, and he cultivated us; as for thorns and thistles and every kind of wild herb or plant, as much as our agitated soul, running wild, being as it were disorderly and rash, sent up and gave forth, he cut out and removed everything with refutations and prohibitions; laying hold of us and very Socratically at times even tripping us up with argument, if anywhere he saw us completely running wild like some of the wild horses, leaping outside the path and running about much at random, until by some persuasion and necessity, as if by a bridle, by the argument from our own mouth, he made us quiet for himself; with difficulty for us indeed and not without pain at first, as we were indeed unaccustomed and not yet practiced in following the argument, as he applied his own arguments, but nevertheless he was cleansing us. And in whatever way he had made us fit and well prepared for the reception of the words of truth, then indeed, as to a well-worked and soft earth ready to bring forth the seeds that were brought to it, he brought them unsparingly; making the sowing of the seeds timely, and all the rest of the care timely, cultivating each thing appropriately and with the appropriate arguments; all that was dull and spurious in the soul, whether it was so by nature or made thick by the excessive nourishment of the body, he sharpened and thinned with the subtle arguments and methods of logical problems, which, being unraveled from the simplest first principles, successive and variously twisted, proceed into a certain inextricable and hard-to-unravel complexity, rousing us as if we were sleeping, and teaching us to always hold to the things set before us, in no way slipping aside either from length or from subtlety. But as much as

τὸ μὲν μένον ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ μηδεμιᾶς ἀπολαύῃ βλάβης ἐκ τῆς πρὸς τὸ χεῖρον κοινωνίας, τὸ δ' ἄτακτον ἐξ αὐτοῦ καταδεθὲν καὶ συναρμοσθὲν τῷ κρείττονι, μηδὲν βλάψαν ταῖς ἀνάγκαις τῶν δεσμῶν πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ἐκνικηθῇ. ∆ιὸ καὶ κατεργάζεσθαι μὲν τοὺς δεσμοὺς τοῦ διαφέροντος, ἀλλ' οὐ τοῦ ἥττονος ἦν· συνδεῖσθαι δὲ τοῦ χείρονος, ὡς μηδ' ἐξουσίαν ἔχειν πως ἀπολελύσθαι τῶν δεσμῶν. Τοιαύταις τισὶν ἀνάγκαις ∆αυὶδ οὗτος συσφιγξάμενος ἡμᾶς ἔχει νῦν τε καὶ ἐξ ἐκείνου, οὐδ' εἰ βουλοίμεθα τῶν δεσμῶν αὐτοῦ λελύσθαι δυναμένους. Οὐ τοίνυν καὶ εἰ ἀποδημήσαιμεν, ἀνήσει τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν, κατὰ τὸ θεῖον γράμμα ἔχων οὕτω συνδεδεμένας.

7 Πλὴν οὕτως ἡμᾶς ἐξ ἀρχῆς ἑλὼν καὶ πάντα τρόπον ἐκπεριελθών, ἐπειδὴ ἤνυστο αὐτῷ τὸ πλεῖον καὶ μένειν ἐδόκει, τοὐντεῦθεν ὥσπερ εἴ τις ἀγαθὸς γεωργὸς γῆν ἀργήν τινα καὶ ἤτοι οὐδὲ εὔγειον οὐδαμῶς, ἀλλά τινα ἁλμυρὰν καὶ κεκαυμένην ὑπόπετρόν τε καὶ ψαφαράν, ἢ οὐ πάντη μὲν ἄφορον οὐδέ γε ἀφυῆ, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολυφυῆ μέν, χέρσον δὲ ὅμως καὶ ἠμελημένην, ἀκάνθαις καὶ θάμνοις ἀγρίαις ἐστρυφνωμένην καὶ δυσεργῆ· ἢ οἷά τις φυτουργὸς ἀνὴρ φυτόν, ἤτοι ἄγριον καὶ καρπῶν ἡμέρων ἄφορον μέν, οὐ μὴν πάντη ἄχρηστον, εἴ τις τέχνῃ τῇ φυτουργικῇ φέρων βλαστὸν ἥμερον ἐμφυτεύσαι, μέσον σχίσας, εἶτα συμβαλὼν καὶ συνδήσας, ἄχρις ἂν συμβλύ σαντα ὡς ἓν ἄμφω τρέφηται (οὕτω γὰρ ἂν ἴδοις δένδρον τι συμμιγές, καὶ νόθον μέν, εὔκαρπον δὲ ἐξ ἀκάρπου, καρποὺς ἐλαίας τῆς καλῆς ἐπὶ ῥιζῶν ἀναφέρον ἀγρίων)· ἢ ἄγριον μέν, οὐ μὴν ἄχρηστον ἀνδρὶ τεχνίτῃ φυτουργῷ, ἢ καὶ ἥμερον μέν, εὔκαρπον δὲ ἄλλως, ἢ ἀπορίᾳ τέχνης πάλιν ἀκλάδευτον καὶ ἀπότιστον καὶ αὐχμηρόν, πνιγόμενον ὑπὸ τῶν εἰκῇ πολλῶν καὶ περιττῶν ἐκφυομένων βλαστῶν, τελειοῦσθαι δὲ τῇ βλάστῃ καὶ φέρειν τὸν καρπὸν ὑπ' ἀλλήλων ἐμποδιζόμενον· τοιούτους τινὰς παραλαβὼν καὶ τέχνῃ ἑαυτοῦ τῇ γεωργικῇ ἐκπεριϊὼν καὶ κατανοῶν οὐ τὰ πᾶσιν ὁρώμενα μόνον καὶ ἐν ἐπιφανείᾳ βλεπόμενα, ἀνορύττων δὲ καὶ τῶν ἐνδοτάτων ἀποπειρώμενος, ἐρωτῶν καὶ προτείνων καὶ ἀποκριναμένων ἀκούων, ἐπειδὴ κατενόησέ τι οὐκ ἄχρηστον καὶ ἀνωφελὲς καὶ ἀνήνυτον ἐν ἡμῖν, ἔσκαλλεν, ἀνέστρεφεν, ἐπότιζεν, ἐκίνει πάντα, ἅπασαν προσῆγε τὴν παρ' αὐτοῦ τέχνην καὶ ἐπιμέλειαν, καὶ κατειργάζετο ἡμᾶς· ἀκάνθας μὲν καὶ τριβόλους καὶ πᾶν τὸ τῶν ἀγρίων γένος βοτανῶν ἢ φυτῶν, ὅσον ὑλομανοῦσα ἀνέπεμπε καὶ ἀνεδίδου σεσοβημένη ἡ ψυχὴ ἡμῶν, οἷα δὴ ἄτακτος οὖσα καὶ προπετής, πᾶν ἐκκόπτων καὶ ἐξαίρων τοῖς ἐλέγχοις καὶ τῷ κωλύειν· καθαπτόμενος ἡμῶν καὶ μάλα Σωκρατικῶς ἔστιν ὅτε καὶ ὑποσκελίζων τῷ λόγῳ, εἴ πη πάντη ἀφηνιάζοντας ἡμᾶς ὥσπερ τινὰς τῶν ἀγρίων ἵππων ἑώρα, σκιρτῶντας ἔξω τῆς ὁδοῦ καὶ πολλὰ ἐκπε ριτρέχοντας εἰκῇ, ἕως οὗ πειθοῖ τινι καὶ ἀνάγκῃ, ὡς ὑπὸ χαλινῷ τῷ ἐκ στόματος ἡμῶν λόγῳ, ἡσυχίους αὐτῷ κατεστήσατο· δυσχερῶς μὲν ἡμῖν καὶ οὐκ ἀλύπως τὸ πρῶτον, οἷα δὴ ἀήθεσι καὶ κατακολουθεῖν τῷ λόγῳ οὐδέπω μεμελετηκόσι προσάγων τοὺς παρ' ἑαυτῷ λόγους, ἀλλὰ γὰρ ἐκκαθαίρων ὅμως. Ἧι δ' ἂν ἐπιτηδείους ἡμᾶς ἐποιήσατο καὶ εὖ παρ εσκευάσατο εἰς παραδοχὴν τῶν τῆς ἀληθείας λόγων, τότε δή, οἷα εὖ κατειργασμένῃ γῇ καὶ ἁπαλῇ ἑτοίμῃ τε ἀναφύειν τὰ ἐπαχθέντα τῶν σπερμάτων, ἐπέφερεν ἀφειδῶς· εὔκαιρον καὶ τὴν τῶν σπερμάτων καταβολὴν ποιούμενος, εὔκαιρον καὶ τὴν λοιπὴν ἐπιμέλειαν ἅπασαν, οἰκείως ἕκαστα κατεργαζόμενος καὶ τοῖς οἰκείοις τοῦ λόγου· πᾶν μὲν ὅσον ἀμβλὺ καὶ νόθον τῆς ψυχῆς, ἢ πεφυκυίας οὕτως ἢ καὶ ὑπὸ τροφῶν περιττῶν τοῦ σώματος παχυνομένης, παροξύνων καὶ ἐξισχναίνων τοῖς λεπτοῖς τῶν λογικῶν παθημάτων λόγοις καὶ τρόποις, οἳ ἐξ ἁπλουστάτων τῶν πρώτων ἀνειλούμενοι ἐπάλληλοι καὶ ποικίλως στρεφόμενοι, εἰς ἀμήχανόν τινα καὶ δυσεξέλικ τον προΐασι πλοκήν, ἐξανιστῶντες ἡμᾶς ὥσπερ καθεύδοντας, καὶ ἔχεσθαι ἀεὶ τῶν προκειμένων, μηδαμῶς ὑπολισθαί νοντας μήτε ὑπὸ μήκους μήτε ὑπὸ λεπτότητος, ἐκδιδασκό μενοι. Ὅσον δὲ