demonstrating his power. 25. But none of these things that have been said obtained the greater honor without first having enjoyed the lesser. For it is necessary first to exist and so to enjoy the next gift, and after this the still greater one. Since, therefore, it was necessary through the goodness of God both that this sensible world be adorned for a rational animal, and that a rational nature be intermingled with the sensible things that are seen, he fashioned in the bodily instrument of the soul all that is most beautiful; for it is nourished and grows, and it begets and has sensation and appetitive and locomotive motion, all of which the rational and intellectual part in us has been entrusted by the Creator to govern. For it would be absurd for the body to obtain the greater thing, I mean, the rational soul, without first having acquired the good fortune of the lesser things. For who of those who are right-minded, let alone God, while bestowing the greatest things, would begrudge the small things? You have the solution to the difficulty, for what reason God made the flesh to have motion. 26. Since, therefore, God has thus created man, being a borderland of rational and irrational, mortal and immortal, in the soul He impressed the form of the good, and made it to look down on things that are perishable and in no way stable, and to long for eternal things and for good things that are suitable to the nature of the soul; for being itself immortal, it loves immortal things. But to the body He has given it to incline towards earthly things, things that are in no way fixed, but which admit of one change after another; for that which was created from earth longs for the alteration of its kin, and as something sentient it hastens to enjoy smooth things and things pleasant to the senses, and as something perishable it clings to temporary things. 27. Man, therefore, being a composite of soul and body, both having received the beginning of their being through the all-wise creation of God, is divided towards each nature, being pulled in opposite directions towards earth and heaven; for he is naturally disposed towards both, by soul and by body. Hence there is no one among men who does not know, by virtue of being rational, what the good is; and even if he wishes to wrong another, he himself does not tolerate being wronged, having from this a proof of his knowledge of the better. For even if the natural sharpness of the soul's activity is blunted, being yoked to the sluggishness of the body, yet it does not completely cast off its own powers, but just as while imparting life to the body it does not itself cease to live, so also while sharing its other things with it, it does not lose its experience. But indeed, the inclination toward worse things, which comes to us from the body, is also shown by the difficulty with which those who wish are accustomed to achieve virtue. Each, therefore, both soul and body, has the greatest power for that to which it is naturally disposed, with the inclination toward the worse never being able to take away from the soul the learning and knowledge of the good, nor, on the other hand, the knowledge of the good that is in us being able to take away the inclination toward the contrary. For if, along with the learning of the good, God had also made the entire inclination toward the good to be in us, the practice of the good would have come to us without training and without hesitation, or rather, irrationally. But since, on the one hand, the inclination toward the contrary is in us in the body, while on the other, we are taught the good by the soul—God having wisely contrived this, so that with sweat and toil man, who was formed from the earth, having demonstrated his worth, might have achievements of his own of which to be proud, being dragged down, on the one hand, by the nature of the body toward things pleasant and dear to the temporary and kindred things of the earth, but on the other hand, by the soul following the things commanded by God, having learned both what must be done and from what action one must abstain

αὐτοῦ δύναμιν ἐπιδεικνύμενος. 25. Τούτων δὲ τῶν εἰρημένων οὐδὲν τῆς κρείττονος ἔτυχε φιλοτιμίας μὴ πρότερον τῆς ἥττονος ἀπολαῦσαν. ∆εῖ γὰρ πρότε- ρον εἶναι καὶ οὕτω τῆς ἑξῆς δωρεᾶς ἀπολαύειν καὶ μετὰ ταύτην τῆς ἔτι κρείττονος. Ἐπεὶ οὖν ἔδει καὶ λογικῷ ζῴῳ τουτονὶ τὸν αἰσθητὸν κόσμον δι' ἀγαθότητα τοῦ θεοῦ κεκοσμῆσθαι καὶ λογικὴν φύσιν ἀναμεμίχθαι τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς τῶν ὁρωμένων, ὅσα κάλ- λιστα τυγχάνει τῷ σωματικῷ τῆς ψυχῆς ὀργάνῳ ἐνεδημιούργησεν· τρέφεται γὰρ καὶ αὔξει, γεννᾷ τε καὶ αἴσθησιν ἔχει καὶ κίνησιν ὀρεκτικήν τε καὶ μεταβατικήν, ἃ πάντα διακυβερνᾶν ἐπιτέτραπται παρὰ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τὸ ἐν ἡμῖν λογικόν τε καὶ νοερόν. Ἄτοπον γὰρ ἦν τοῦ κρείττονος τὸ σῶμα τυχεῖν, φημὶ δὲ τῆς λογικῆς ψυχῆς, μὴ πρότερον τῶν ἡττόνων τὴν εὐκληρίαν κτησάμενον. Τίς γὰρ τῶν εὖ φρονούντων, μή τί γε δὴ θεός, τὰ μεγίστα δωρούμε νος, φθονήσειε τὼν | μικρῶν; Ἔχεις τῆς ἀπορίας τὴν λύσιν, δι' ἣν αἰτίαν τὴν σάρκα κίνησιν ἔχειν πεποίηκεν ὁ θεός. 26. Ἐπεὶ οὖν τὸν ἄνθρωπον οὕτω δεδημιούργηκεν ὁ θεὸς μεθόριον ὄντα λογικῶν τε καὶ ἀλόγων, θνητῶν τε καὶ ἀθανάτων, τῇ μὲν ψυχῇ τὴν τοῦ καλοῦ τύπωσιν ἐτύπωσεν, ὑπερορᾶν τε πεποίηκε τῶν ἐπικήρων τε καὶ μηδαμῶς ἱσταμένων, ὀρέγεσθαι δὲ τῆς τῶν αἰωνίων καὶ καταλλήλως ἐχόντων τῇ τῆς ψυχῆς φύσει καλῶν· ἀθάνατος γὰρ αὐτὴ τυγχάνουσα, τῶν ἀθανάτων ἐρᾷ. Τῷ δὲ σώματι δέδωκε πρὸς τὰ γήϊνα ῥέπειν, τὰ μηδαμῶς ἑστηκότα, μεταβολὴν δὲ ἄλλοτε ἄλλην ἐπιδεχόμενα· τὸ γὰρ ἐκ γῆς δημιουργηθὲν τοῦ συγγενοῦς ἐπιποθεῖ τὴν ἀλλοίωσιν καὶ ὡς αἰσθητικὸν τῶν λείων τε καὶ τῶν αἰσθήσει προσηνῶν ἀπολαύειν ἐπείγεται καὶ ὡς ἐπίκηρον τῶν προσκαίρων ἀντέχεται. 27. Σύνθετος οὖν ἐκ ψυχῆς καὶ σώματος ὑπάρχων ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἀμφοτέρων ἀρχὴν εἰληφότων τοῦ εἶναι διὰ τῆς πανσόφου τοῦ θεοῦ δημιουργίας, πρὸς ἑκατέραν φύσιν μερίζεται, ἀνθελκόμενος πρὸς γῆν τε καὶ οὐρα-νόν· ὁμοφυῶς γὰρ ἔχει ψυχῇ τε καὶ σώματι πρὸς ἑκάτερα. Ἐντεῦθέν ἐστι μὲν ἀνθρώπων οὐδεὶς ὃς οὐχὶ τῷ λογικὸν εἶναι ἐπίσταται τὸ καλὸν ὃ τί ποτέ ἐστι· κἂν ἕτερον ἀδικεῖν ἐθέλῃ, ἀδικεῖσθαι αὐτὸς οὐκ ἀνέχεται, ἐντεῦθεν ἔλεγχον ἔχων τὴν τοῦ κρείττονος εἴδησιν. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀπαμβλύνεται τῆς ἐνεργείας ἡ κατὰ φύσιν ὀξύτης, τῇ τοῦ σώματος νωθρείᾳ συνεζευγμένης, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀποβάλλει τελέως τὰς ἑαυτῆς δυνάμεις, ἀλλ' ὡς τὴν ζωὴν μεταδιδοῦσα τῷ σώματι αὐτὴ τοῦ ζῆν οὐ παύεται, οὕτω καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν αὐτῷ κοινωνοῦσα οὐκ ἀπόλλυσι τὴν ἐμπειρίαν. Ἀλλὰ μὴν καὶ τὴν ἐπὶ τὰ χείρω ῥοπήν, τὴν ἐκ σώματος ἡμῖν ἐπιγενομένην, δείκνυσιν ἡ δυσκολία, μεθ' ὅσης κατορθοῦν τὴν ἀρετὴν ἔθος τοῖς βουλομένοις. Ἑκάτερον οὖν, ψυχή τε καὶ σῶμα, μεγίστην ἔχει τὴν δύναμιν πρὸς ὃ πέφυκε γεγονός, οὔτε τῆς περὶ τὸ χεῖρον ῥοπῆς ἀφελεῖν ποτὲ δυνηθείσης τῆς ψυχῆς τοῦ καλοῦ τὴν μάθησίν τε καὶ γνῶσιν, οὔτε μὴν τῆς ἐνούσης ἡμῖν εἰδήσεως τοῦ καλοῦ τὴν περὶ τὸ ἐναντίον ἀφελο-μένης ῥοπήν. Εἰ μὲν γὰρ μετὰ τῆς τοῦ καλοῦ μαθήσεως καὶ τὴν ῥοπὴν ἐπὶ τὸ καλὸν πᾶσαν ἡμῖν ἐνεῖναι πεποίηκεν ὁ θεός, ἀγυμνάστως καὶ ἀδιστάκτως μᾶλλον δὲ ἀλόγως ἡ τοῦ καλοῦ πρᾶξις ἡμῖν προσεγίνετο. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τῷ μὲν σώματι ἔνεστιν ἡμῖν ἡ ἐπὶ τὸ ἐναντίον ῥοπή, τῇ δὲ ψυχῇ τὸ καλὸν διδασκόμεθα, τοῦτο τοῦ θεοῦ σοφῶς τεχνιτευσαμένου, ἵνα σὺν ἱδρῶτι καὶ πόνῳ ὁ ἀπὸ γῆς πλασθεὶς ἄνθρωπος ἐπιδειξάμενος ἔχῃ καὶ τοῖς οἴκοθεν ἀποσεμνύνεσθαι κατορθώμασιν, ὑπὸ μὲν τῆς τοῦ σώματος φύ-σεως ἐπὶ τὰ προσηνῆ καὶ φίλα τοῖς προσκαίροις καὶ συγγενέσι τῆς γῆς κατασπώμενος, τῇ δὲ ψυχῇ τοῖς παρὰ θεοῦ κεκελευσμέ-νοις ἑπόμενος, τί τε πρακτέον καὶ τίνος πράξεως ἀφεκτέον μαθὼν