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and the service of the hands assists the faculty of reason. And if someone were to say that the service of the hands is a property of the rational nature, he would not be entirely mistaken, not only turning his mind to this common and obvious point, that we signify speech with letters through the dexterity of our hands (for even this is not without rational grace, that we speak through letters, and in a way converse through the hand, preserving our utterances by the characters of the elements); but I, looking to another point, say that the hands cooperate in the enunciation of speech; or rather, before we examine these matters, let us consider the argument that has been set aside.

For the order of created things has almost escaped us; for what reason does the vegetation of things that grow from the earth come first, and then the irrational animals, and so after the creation of these, man. For perhaps we learn through this not only what is readily understood: that for the sake of the animals the grass appeared useful to the Creator, and for the sake of man, the beasts; for the sake of which, before the cattle, came their food, and before man, what was to serve human life. But it seems to me that through these things Moses reveals a certain hidden doctrine, and through mysteries hands down the philosophy concerning the soul, which even pagan learning imagined, but did not clearly understand. For through these things the Word teaches us that the vital and psychic power is to be considered in three distinctions. For one is only nutritive and generative, supplying what is suitable for the growth of what is nourished, which is called natural, and is observed in plants. For it is possible to perceive in growing things a certain vital power devoid of sensation. Another form of life besides this is one which has this, and has additionally received the ability to be ordered by sensation, which exists in the nature of irrational animals. For it not only is nourished and grows, but also has sentient activity and perception. But the perfect life in a body is seen in the rational, that is, the human, nature, being both nourished and sentient, and partaking of reason, and governed by intellect. Such a division of the subject might be made by us: Of beings, one part is intelligible, the other is entirely corporeal. But let the division of the intelligible into its own parts be set aside for now; for this is not our subject. Of the corporeal, one part is entirely devoid of life, the other partakes of vital activity. Again, of the living body, one part lives with sensation, the other is devoid of sensation. Then the sentient is divided again into rational and irrational. For this reason the lawgiver says that first after inanimate matter, as a kind of foundation for the form of animate things, this natural life was established, pre-existing in the vegetation of plants; then he introduces the generation of those things that are governed by sensation. And since, in the same sequence of those who have received life through the flesh, the sentient can exist by themselves even without the intellectual nature, but the rational could not otherwise exist in a body unless it were blended with the sentient; for this reason man was created last, after the plants and the beasts, as nature proceeded in an orderly way towards the perfect. For this rational animal, man, is a blend of every form of soul. For he is nourished according to the natural form of the soul; and to the nutritive power the sentient is joined, holding a middle place according to its own nature between the intellectual and the more material substance; being so much grosser than the one, as it is purer than the other. Then there is an assimilation and mingling of the intellectual substance with the subtle and light-like sentient nature, so that man has his constitution in these three; just as we have also learned such from the Apostle, in what he said to the Ephesians, praying for them that the complete grace of the body, and of the soul, and of the spirit might be preserved at the coming of the Lord, calling the nutritive part the body, signifying the sentient by the soul, and the intellectual by the spirit.

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καὶ τῇ τοῦ λόγου χρείᾳ συνεργός ἐστιν ἡ τῶν χειρῶν ὑπουργία. Καί τις ἴδιον τῆς λογικῆς φύσεως τὴν τῶν χειρῶν ὑπηρεσίαν εἰ πὼν, οὐ τοῦ παντὸς ἁμαρτήσεται, οὐ μόνον πρὸς τὸ κοινὸν τοῦτο καὶ πρόχειρον ἀποτρέχων τῇ διανοίᾳ, ὅτι γράμμασι τὸν λόγον διὰ τῆς τῶν χειρῶν εὐφυΐας ἐν σημαινόμεθα (ἔστι μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲ τοῦτο λογικῆς χάρι τος ἄμοιρον, τὸ φθέγγεσθαι διὰ γραμμάτων ἡμᾶς, καὶ τρόπον τινὰ διὰ χειρὸς διαλέγεσθαι, τοῖς τῶν στοιχείων χαρακτῆρσι τὰς φωνὰς διασώζοντας)· ἀλλ' ἐγὼ πρὸς ἕτερον βλέπων, συνεργεῖν φημι τὰς χεῖρας τῇ ἐκφωνήσει τοῦ λόγου· μᾶλλον δὲ πρὶν περὶ τού των διεξετάσαι, τὸν παρεθέντα λόγον κατανοήσωμεν.

Μικροῦ γὰρ ἡμᾶς τὸ κατὰ τὴν τάξιν τῶν γεγονότων διέλαθεν· τίνος χάριν προηγεῖται μὲν ἡ βλάστη τῶν ἐκ τῆς γῆς φυομένων, ἐπιγίνεται δὲ τὰ ἄλογα τῶν ζώων, καὶ οὕτω μετὰ τὴν κατασκευὴν τούτων ὁ ἄν θρωπος. Τάχα γὰρ οὐ μόνον τὸ ἐκ τοῦ προχείρου νοούμενον διὰ τούτου μανθάνομεν. ὅτι τῶν ζώων ἕνε κεν ἡ πόα χρήσιμος ἐφάνη τῷ κτίσαντι, διὰ δὲ τὸν ἄνθρωπον τὰ βοτά· οὗ χάριν πρὸ μὲν τῶν βοσκημά των, ἐκείνων τροφὴ, πρὸ δὲ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὸ ὑπ ηρετεῖν μέλλον τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ ζωῇ. Ἀλλ' ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ δόγμα τι τῶν κεκρυμμένων παραδηλοῦν διὰ τούτων ὁ Μωϋσῆς, καὶ τὴν περὶ ψυχῆς φιλοσοφίαν δι' ἀποῤ ῥήτων παραδιδόναι, ἣν ἐφαντάσθη μὲν καὶ ἡ ἔξωθεν παίδευσις, οὐ μὴν τηλαυγῶς κατενόησε. ∆ιδάσκει γὰρ ἡμᾶς διὰ τούτων ὁ λόγος, ἐν τρισὶ διαφοραῖς τὴν ζωτικὴν καὶ ψυχικὴν δύναμιν θεωρεῖσθαι. Ἡ μὲν γάρ τίς ἐστιν αὐξητική τε μόνον καὶ θρεπτικὴ, τὸ κατάλ ληλον εἰς προσθήκην τῶν τρεφομένων προσάγουσα, ἢ φυσικὴ λέγεται, καὶ περὶ τὰ φυτὰ θεωρεῖται. Ἔστι γὰρ καὶ ἐν τοῖς φυομένοις ζωτικήν τινα δύναμιν αἰ 145 σθήσεως ἄμοιρον κατανοῆσαι. Ἕτερον δὲ παρὰ τοῦτο ζωῆς εἶδός ἐστιν, ὃ καὶ τοῦτο ἔχει, καὶ τὸ κατ' αἴ σθησιν οἰκονομῆσαι προσείληφεν, ὅπερ ἐν τῇ φύσει τῶν ἀλόγων ἐστίν. Οὐ γὰρ μόνον τρέφεται καὶ αὔξε, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν αἰσθητικὴν ἐνέργειάν τε καὶ ἀντί ληψιν ἔχει. Ἡ δὲ τελεία ἐν σώματι ζωὴ ἐν τῇ λο γικῇ, τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ λέγω, καθορᾶται φύσει, τρεφο μένη τε καὶ αἰσθανομένη, καὶ λόγου μετέχουσα, καὶ νῷ διοικουμένη. Γένοιτο δ' ἂν ἡμῖν τοιαύτη τις ἡ τοῦ λόγου διαίρεσις· Τῶν ὄντων τὸ μέν τι νοητὸν, τὸ δὲ σωματικὸν πάντως ἐστίν. Ἀλλὰ τοῦ μὲν νοητοῦ παρείσθω νῦν ἡ πρὸς τὰ οἰκεῖα τομή· οὐ γὰρ τού των ὁ λόγος. Τοῦ δὲ σωματικοῦ τὸ μὲν ἄμοιρον καθόλου ζωῆς, τὸ δὲ μετέχει ζωτικῆς ἐνεργείας. Πάλιν τοῦ ζωτικοῦ σώματος τὸ μὲν αἰσθήσει συζῇ, τὸ δὲ ἀμοιρεῖ τῆς αἰσθήσεως. Εἶτα τὸ αἰσθητικὸν τέμνεται πάλιν εἰς λογικόν τε καὶ ἄλογον. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο πρῶτον μετὰ τὴν ἄψυχον ὕλην οἷον ὑποβάθραν τινὰ τῆς τῶν ἐμψύχων ἰδέας τὴν φυσικὴν ταύτην ζωὴν συστῆναι λέγει ὁ νομο θέτης, ἐν τῇ τῶν φυτῶν βλάστῃ προϋποστᾶσαν· εἶθ' οὕτως ἐπάγει τῶν κατ' αἴσθησιν διοικουμένων τὴν γένεσιν. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ κατὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ἀκολουθίαν τῶν διὰ σαρκὸς τὴν ζωὴν εἰληχότων τὰ μὲν αἰσθητικὰ, καὶ δίχα τῆς νοερᾶς φύσεως ἐφ' ἑαυτῶν εἶναι δύ ναται, τὸ δὲ λογικὸν οὐκ ἂν ἑτέρως γένοιτο ἐν σώ ματι, εἰ μὴ τῷ αἰσθητῷ συγκραθείη· διὰ τοῦτο τελευ ταῖος μετὰ τὰ βλαστήματα καὶ τὰ βοτὰ κατεσκευά σθη ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ὁδῷ τινι πρὸς τὸ τέλειον ἀκολούθως προϊούσης τῆς φύσεως. ∆ιὰ πάσης γὰρ ἰδέας τῶν ψυχῶν κατακιρνᾶται τὸ λογικὸν τοῦτο ζῶον ὁ ἄνθρω πος. Τρέφεται μὲν γὰρ κατὰ τὸ φυσικὸν τῆς ψυχῆς εἶδος· τῇ δὲ αὐξητικῇ δυνάμει ἡ αἰσθητικὴ προσ εφύη, μέσως ἔχουσα κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν φύσιν τῆς τε νοερᾶς καὶ τῆς ὑλωδεστέρας οὐσίας· τοσούτῳ παχυ μερεστέρα ταύτης, ὅσῳ καθαρωτέρα ἐκείνης. Εἶτά τις γίνεται πρὸς τὸ λεπτὸν καὶ φωτοειδὲς τῆς αἰσθη τικῆς φύσεως ἡ τῆς νοερᾶς οὐσίας οἰκείωσίς τε καὶ ἀνάκρασις, ὡς ἐν τρισὶ τούτοις τὸν ἄνθρωπον τὴν σύστασιν ἔχειν· καθὼς καὶ παρὰ τοῦ Ἀποστόλου τὸ τοιοῦτον ἐμάθομεν, ἐν οἷς πρὸς τοὺς Ἐφεσίους ἔφη, προσευχόμενος αὐτοῖς τὴν ὁλοτελῆ χάριν τοῦ σώμα τος, καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς, καὶ τοῦ πνεύματος ἐν τῇ παρ ουσίᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου φυλαχθῆναι, ἀντὶ τοῦ θρεπτικοῦ μέρους τὸ σῶμα λέγων, τὸ δὲ αἰσθητικὸν τῇ ψυχῇ διασημαίνων, τὸ νοερὸν δὲ τῷ πνεύματι.