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being kindled for a short time, then being completely extinguished. For to reptiles, I think, and to birds and to swimming creatures, or to speak more generally, to all the irrational beings, God has assigned such a life, but to those who bear the image of the maker himself in themselves, and also possess mind and have a share of rational judgment, the maker has allotted everlasting permanence, so that knowing their own maker and his power and wisdom, and following law and justice, they might live forever with these without toil, with which they strengthened the preceding life, although being in corruptible and earthly bodies. For as many things as have come into being for the sake of something else, when those things for whose sake they came into being cease, the things that came into being will themselves also reasonably cease to be and would not remain in vain, since there is no room for vanity in the things that have come into being from God. But those things that have come into being for the very purpose of being and living as is their nature, since the cause itself is comprehended in their nature and is contemplated in their very being alone, would never admit the cause which completely annihilates their being. And since this cause is always contemplated in their being, it is altogether necessary that the creature that has come into being also be preserved, both acting and suffering what is natural to it, with each of these things from which it came into being contributing its own part, and the soul both being and remaining constantly in the nature in which it was created and performing what is natural to it (and it is natural for it to rule over the impulses of the body and to always judge whatever occurs with the appropriate criteria and measures), and the body moving according to nature towards what is natural to it and receiving the changes allotted to it, and along with the others concerning age or form or size, the resurrection. For the resurrection is a certain kind of change, and the last of all, as is the change for the better of those still surviving at that time. But being confident in these things no less than in those which have already happened, and examining our own nature, we love the life with want and corruption as befitting the present life, and we firmly hope for permanence in incorruptibility; which we do not fashion idly from men, beguiling ourselves with false hopes, but we have trusted in a most unerring guarantee, the will of him who created us, according to which he made man from an immortal soul and a body, and also constructed mind for him and an innate law for the salvation and preservation of the things given by him, befitting a rational life and logical existence, knowing well that he would not have constructed such a creature and adorned it with all things for permanence, if he had not willed the created thing to remain. If therefore the creator of this universe made man so that he might partake of a rational life and become a spectator of both his magnificence and of the

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ἐπὶ μικρὸν ἐξαπτομένην εἶτα παντελῶς σβεννυμένην. ἑρπετοῖς γὰρ, οἶμαι, καὶ πτηνοῖς καὶ νηκτοῖς ἢ καὶ κοινότερον εἰπεῖν πᾶσι τοῖς ἀλόγοις τὴν τοιαύτην ζωὴν ἀπένειμεν θεός, τοῖς δὲ αὐτὸν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἀγαλματοφοροῦσι τὸν ποιητὴν νοῦν τε συνεπιφερομένοις καὶ λογικῆς κρίσεως μεμοιραμένοις τὴν εἰς ἀεὶ διαμονὴν ἀπεκλήρωσεν ὁ ποιήσας, ἵνα γινώσκοντες τὸν ἑαυτῶν ποιητὴν καὶ τὴν τούτου δύναμίν τε καὶ σοφίαν νόμῳ τε συνεπόμενοι καὶ δίκῃ τούτοις συν- διαιωνίζωσιν ἀπόνως, οἷς τὴν προλαβοῦσαν ἐκράτυναν ζωὴν καίπερ ἐν φθαρτοῖς καὶ γηΐνοις ὄντες σώμασιν. ὁπόσα μὲν γὰρ ἄλλου του χάριν γέγονεν, παυσαμένων ἐκείνων ὧν ἕνεκεν γέγονεν, παύ- σεται εἰκότως καὶ αὐτὰ τὰ γενόμενα τοῦ εἶναι καὶ οὐκ ἂν διαμένοι μάτην, ὡς ἂν μηδεμίαν ἐν τοῖς ὑπὸ θεοῦ γενομένοις τοῦ ματαίου χώραν ἔχοντος· τά γε μὴν δι' αὐτὸ τὸ εἶναι καὶ ζῆν καθὼς πέφυκεν γενόμενα, ὡς αὐτῆς τῆς αἰτίας τῇ φύσει συνειλημμένης καὶ κατ' αὐτὸ μόνον τὸ εἶναι θεωρουμένης, οὐδεμίαν οὐδέποτε δέξαιτ' ἂν τὴν τὸ εἶναι παντελῶς ἀφανίζουσαν αἰτίαν. ταύτης δὲ ἐν τῷ εἶναι πάντοτε θεωρουμένης, δεῖ σῴζεσθαι πάντως καὶ τὸ γενόμενον ζῷον, ἐνεργοῦν τε καὶ πάσχον ἃ πέφυκεν, ἑκατέρου τούτων ἐξ ὧν γέγονεν τὰ παρ' ἑαυτοῦ συνεισφέροντος καὶ τῆς μὲν ψυχῆς οὔσης τε καὶ διαμενούσης ὁμαλῶς ἐν ᾗ γέγονεν φύσει καὶ διαπονούσης ἃ πέφυκεν (πέφυκεν δὲ ταῖς τοῦ σώματος ἐπιστατεῖν ὁρμαῖς καὶ τὸ προσπῖπτον ἀεὶ τοῖς προσήκουσι κρίνειν καὶ μετρεῖν κριτηρίοις καὶ μέτροις), τοῦ δὲ σώματος κινουμένου κατὰ φύσιν πρὸς ἃ πέφυκεν καὶ τὰς ἀποκληρωθείσας αὐτῷ δεχομένου μεταβολάς, μετὰ δὲ τῶν ἄλλων τῶν κατὰ τὰς ἡλικίας ἢ κατ' εἶδος ἢ μέγεθος τὴν ἀνάστασιν. εἶδος γάρ τι μεταβολῆς καὶ πάντων ὕστατον ἡ ἀνάστασις ἥ τε τῶν κατ' ἐκεῖνον τὸν χρόνον περιόντων ἔτι πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον μεταβολή. Ἐπὶ δὲ τούτοις τεθαρρηκότες οὐ μεῖον ἢ τοῖς ἤδη γενομένοις καὶ τὴν ἑαυτῶν ἐπισκοποῦντες φύσιν, τήν τε μετ' ἐνδείας καὶ φθορᾶς ζωὴν στέργομεν ὡς τῷ παρόντι βίῳ προσήκουσαν καὶ τὴν ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ διαμονὴν ἐλπίζομεν βεβαίως· ἣν οὐ παρὰ ἀνθρώπων ἀναπλάττομεν μάτην ψευδέσιν ἑαυτοὺς βουκολοῦντες ἐλπίσιν, ἀπλανεστάτῳ δὲ πεπιστεύκαμεν ἐχεγγύῳ, τῇ τοῦ δημιουργήσαντος ἡμᾶς γνώμῃ, καθ' ἣν ἐποίησεν ἄνθρωπον ἐκ ψυχῆς ἀθανάτου καὶ σώματος νοῦν τε συγκατεσκεύασεν αὐτῷ καὶ νόμον ἔμφυτον ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ καὶ φυλακῇ τῶν παρ' αὐτοῦ διδομένων, ἔμφρονι δὲ βίῳ καὶ ζωῇ λογικῇ προσηκόντων, εὖ εἰδότες ὡς οὐκ ἂν τοιοῦτον κατεσκεύασεν ζῷον καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς πρὸς διαμονὴν ἐκόσμησεν, εἰ μὴ διαμένειν ἐβούλετο τὸ γενόμενον. εἰ τοίνυν ὁ τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς δημιουργὸς ἐποίησεν ἄνθρωπον ἐπὶ τῷ ζωῆς ἔμφρονος μετασχεῖν καὶ γενόμενον θεωρὸν τῆς τε μεγαλοπρεπείας αὐτοῦ καὶ τῆς ἐπὶ