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you were constituted, so that you might be an image 36.205 of God, and be bound to what is worse, and what it is that moved you, what is the wisdom concerning you, and what is the mystery of nature; how you are measured by place, and your mind is not defined, but remaining in the same place it goes through all things; how vision is small, yet reaches very far, and whether it is a reception of what is seen, or a passage to it; how the same thing both moves and is moved, governed by will; what then is the cessation of movement; what is the division of the senses, and how through them the mind communicates with external things, and receives things from outside; how it takes up forms; and what is the preservation of what has been taken up, or memory; and what is the taking up of what is past, or recollection; how speech is the offspring of the mind, and begets speech in another mind, and how thought is transmitted by speech; how the body is nourished through the soul, and how the soul through the body partakes of passion; how fear congeals, and courage dissolves, and grief contracts, and pleasure diffuses, and envy wastes, and pride inflates, and hope lightens; how anger maddens, and shame reddens through the blood, the one boiling, the other retreating; and how the characters of passions are in bodies; what is the presidency of reason, and how it oversees all these things and tames the movements of the passions; how the incorporeal is held by blood and breath; and how the failure of these is the soul's departure. Understand these things, or one of them, O man; for I do not yet speak of the nature or motion of heaven, and the order of the stars, and the mixture of the elements, and the differences of animals, and the submissions and preeminences of heavenly powers, and all the things into which the creative word is divided, and the words of providence and administration; and then I do not yet say, Be of good courage; but, Still be afraid to approach the higher things, and those that are more beyond your power.

28. For especially, every contentious and ambitious argument is a training for contentiousness about greater things; and it is necessary, just as we form children in their first habits, so that they may escape later wickedness; so also with argument, not to appear rash and uneducated even concerning small things, so that we may not misuse the practice for greater things. For it is easier from the beginning not to yield to vice, and to escape it as it approaches, than to recover when it is advancing and to appear superior to it; just as it is easier to brace and hold a rock from the beginning, than to push it back when it is already rolling. But if you are more insatiable, and are unable to restrain the 36.208 disease, practice these things, be engaged in these; let your ambition be expended on things that are without danger.

29. You do not accept this, nor does your tongue have a bridle, nor are you stronger than the impulse, but it is necessary to be desperate in every way, and not to submit to the first powers, if there is not for them also a measure of knowledge, and to be greater than is profitable; but do not condemn your brother, nor call cowardice impiety, nor go away rashly condemning, or despairing, you who promise fairness. But here appear to me humble, while it is possible; here prefer your brother, not with your own harm, where to condemn and dishonor is to cast out from Christ and from the only hope, and to cut out with the tares the hidden wheat, and wheat perhaps more precious than you. But as for that, correct him, and this gently and kindly, not as an enemy, nor as a harsh physician, nor as knowing only this one thing, cautery and the knife; but as for this, condemn yourself. and your own weakness. For what if suffering from ophthalmia. or some other affliction of the eyes, you see the sun dimly? What then if everything seems to you to be spinning, perhaps because you are seasick, or drunk, and you suppose your own ignorance belongs to others? It is necessary to be turned about and to suffer many things, before condemning the impiety of another.

30. It is not the same to cut out a plant, or some temporary flower, and a man. You are an image of God, and you are speaking to an image of God, and are judged yourself by the judge; and you judge another's servant, and one whom another manages. Thus test your brother

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συνέστης, ἵν' εἰκὼν ᾖς 36.205 Θεοῦ, καὶ τῷ χείρονι συνδεθῇς, καὶ τί τὸ κινῆσάν σε, τίς ἡ περὶ σὲ σοφία καὶ τί τῆς φύσεως τὸ μυστή ριον· πῶς μετρῇ τόπῳ, καὶ νοῦς οὐχ ὁρίζεται, ἀλλ' ἐν ταυτῷ μένων πάντα ἐπέρχεται· πῶς ὄψις ὀλίγη, καὶ ἐπιπλεῖστον φθάνουσα, καὶ πότερον πα ραδοχή τίς ἐστι τοῦ ὀφθέντος, ἢ πρὸς ἐκεῖνο διά βασις· πῶς τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ κινεῖ, καὶ κινεῖται, διὰ βουλήσεως κυβερνώμενον· τίς δαὶ παῦλα κινήσεως· τίς ὁ τῶν αἰσθήσεων μερισμὸς, καὶ πῶς διὰ τούτων ὁ νοῦς ὁμιλεῖ τοῖς ἔξω, καὶ τὰ ἔξωθεν παραδέ χεται· πῶς ἀναλαμβάνει τὰ εἴδη· καὶ τίς ἡ τήρησις τοῦ ἀναληφθέντος, ἢ μνήμη· καὶ τίς ἡ τοῦ ἀπελ θόντος ἀνάληψις, ἢ ἀνάμνησις· πῶς λόγος νοῦ γέν νημα, καὶ γεννᾷ λόγον ἐν ἄλλῳ νοῒ, καὶ πῶς λόγῳ νόημα διαδίδοται· πῶς τρέφεται διὰ ψυχῆς σῶμα, καὶ πῶς ψυχὴ διὰ σώματος κοινωνεῖ πάθους· πῶς πήγνυσι φόβος, καὶ λύει θάρσος, καὶ συ στέλλει λύπη, καὶ διαχεῖ ἡδονὴ, καὶ τήκει φθόνος, καὶ μετεωρίζει τῦφος, καὶ κουφίζει ἐλπίς· πῶς ἐκ μαίνει θυμὸς, καὶ αἰδὼς ἐρυθραίνει δι' αἵματος, ὁ μὲν ζέσαντος, ἡ δὲ ἀναχωρήσαντος· καὶ πῶς οἱ χα ρακτῆρες τῶν παθῶν ἐν τοῖς σώμασι· τίς ἡ τοῦ λογισμοῦ προεδρία, καὶ πῶς πᾶσι τούτοις ἐπιστατεῖ καὶ ἡμεροῖ τὰ τῶν παθῶν κινήματα· πῶς αἵματι κρατεῖται καὶ πνοῇ τὸ ἀσώματον· καὶ πῶς ἡ τού των ἔκλειψις, ψυχῆς ἐστιν ἀναχώρησις. Ταῦτα, ἢ τούτων τι κατανόησον, ὦ ἄνθρωπε· οὔπω γὰρ λέγω φύσιν, ἢ κίνησιν οὐρανοῦ, καὶ τάξιν ἀστέρων, καὶ μίξιν στοιχείων, καὶ ζώων διαφορὰς, καὶ δυνάμεων οὐρανίων ὑποβάσεις καὶ ὑπερθέσεις, καὶ πάντα εἰς ὅσα ὁ δημιουργικὸς λόγος καταμερίζεται, καὶ λόγους προνοίας καὶ διοικήσεως· καὶ τότε οὔπω λέγω, Θάῤῥησον· ἀλλ', Ἔτι φοβήθητι προσβῆναι τοῖς ὑψηλοτέροις, καὶ τοῖς μᾶλλον ὑπὲρ τὴν σὴν δύ ναμιν.

ΚΗʹ. Μάλιστα μὲν γὰρ, γυμνασία τῆς περὶ τὰ μείζω φιλονεικίας, ἅπας λόγος δύσερις καὶ φιλό τιμος· καὶ δεῖ, καθάπερ τοὺς παῖδας πλάττο μεν ἐν τοῖς πρώτοις ἤθεσιν, ἵνα τὴν ὕστερον μοχθη ρίαν φύγωσιν· οὕτω δὴ καὶ τῷ λόγῳ, μηδὲ περὶ τὰ μικρὰ φαίνεσθαι θρασὺν καὶ ἀπαίδευτον, ἵνα μὴ περὶ τὰ μείζω τῇ μελέτῃ καταχρησώμεθα. Ῥᾷον γὰρ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς μὴ ἐνδοῦναι κακίᾳ, καὶ προσιοῦσαν διαφυγεῖν, ἢ προβαίνουσαν ἀνακύψαι καὶ φανῆναι ταύτης ἀνώτερον· ὥσπερ καὶ πέτραν ἀπ' ἀρ χῆς ἐρεῖσαι καὶ κατασχεῖν, ἢ φερομένην ἀνώσα σθαι. Εἰ δὲ ἀπληστότερος εἶ, καὶ κατέχειν τὴν 36.208 νόσον ἀδυνατεῖς, ταῦτα μελέτα, ἐν τούτοις ἴσθι· κενούσθω σοι τὸ φιλότιμον ἐν τοῖς ἀκινδύ νοις.

ΚΘʹ. Οὐ δέχῃ τοῦτο, οὐδὲ ἡ γλῶσσά σου χαλινὸν ἔχει, οὐδὲ κρείττων εἶ τῆς φορᾶς, δεῖ δὲ ἀπονοεῖ σθαι πάντως, καὶ ταῖς πρώταις δυνάμεσι μὴ ὑφ ίεσθαι, εἴπερ μὴ κἀκείναις μέτρον ἐστὶ τῆς γνώσεως, καὶ πλέον εἶναι μέγαν, ἢ ὅσον συμφέρον· σὺ δὲ μὴ κατακρίνῃς τὸν ἀδελφὸν, μηδὲ τὴν δειλίαν ἀσέβειαν ὀνομάσῃς, μηδὲ ἀπέλθῃς προπετῶς καταγνοὺς, ἢ ἀπογνοὺς, ὁ τὴν ἐπιείκειαν ὑπισχνούμενος. Ἀλλ' ἐνταῦθά μοι φάνηθι ταπεινὸς, ἕως ἔξεστιν· ἐνταῦθα τὸν ἀδελφὸν προτίμησον, μὴ μετὰ τῆς σεαυτοῦ βλάβης, ἔνθα τὸ κατακρῖναι καὶ ἀτιμάσαι, ἐκβαλεῖν ἐστι Χριστοῦ καὶ τῆς μόνης ἐλπίδος, καὶ τὸν λανθάνοντα σῖτον, καὶ σῖτον ἴσως σου τιμιώτερον συνεκκόψαι τοῖς ζιζανίοις. Ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν, ἐκεῖνον διόρθωσαι, καὶ τοῦτο πράως καὶ φιλανθρώπως, μὴ ὡς ἐχθρὸς, μηδὲ ὡς ἀπότομος ἱατρὸς, μηδὲ ὡς ἓν τοῦτο μόνον εἰδὼς τὴν καῦσιν καὶ τὴν τομήν· τὸ δὲ, σεαυτοῦ κατάγνωθι. καὶ τῆς ἀσθενείας τῆς σῆς. Τί γὰρ εἰ λημῶν. ἢ ἄλλο τι πάσχων τὰς ὄψεις, ἀμυδρὸν βλέπεις τὸν ἥλιον; Τί δαὶ εἰ στρέφεσθαί σοι τὸ πᾶν δοκεῖ, ναυτιῶντι τυχὸν, ἢ μεθύοντι, καὶ τὴν σὴν ἄγνοιαν ἑτέρων ὑπολαμβάνεις; Πολλὰ δεῖ στραφῆναι καὶ παθεῖν, πρὶν ἄλλου καταγνῶναι δυσσέβειαν.

Λʹ. Οὐκ ἔστιν ἴσον φυτὸν ἐκτεμεῖν, ἢ ἄνθος τι τῶν προσκαίρων, καὶ ἄνθρωπον. Εἰκὼν εἶ Θεοῦ, καὶ εἰκόνι Θεοῦ διαλέγῃ, καὶ κρίνῃ αὐτὸς ὁ κρίνων· καὶ κρίνεις ἀλλότριον οἰκέτην, καὶ ὃν ὁ ἄλλος οἰκονομεῖ. Οὕτω δοκίμαζε τὸν ἀδελφόν