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the links of the chain, it is possible, but the link at the other end of the chain was moved together with the first according to what is always consequent and next, with the motion proceeding from the first through the adjacent links. In this way human passions are entangled and intertwined with one another, and through one that has gained mastery, the remaining train of evils also enters together into the soul. And if I must sketch out for you this evil chain, suppose that someone through some pleasure was overcome by the passion of vainglory; but with vainglory the desire for more also followed. For it is not possible to become greedy, if that does not lead one by the hand to the passion. Then the desire to have more and to be superior either kindles anger towards an equal or pride towards a subordinate or envy towards a superior, and a consequence of envy becomes hypocrisy, of that, bitterness, of this, misanthropy, the end of all these things is a condemnation ending in Gehenna and darkness and fire. Do you see the train of evils, how all things depend on the one passion associated with pleasure? 4.6 Since, therefore, the sequence of such passions has once entered into life, we see from the counsel of the divinely inspired scriptures one way out from these, to be separated from such a life which has attached to itself the sequence of painful things. For it is not possible for one who lingers in Sodom to escape the rain of fire, nor for one who has gotten outside Sodom and then turned back again towards its desolation not to be fixed as a pillar of salt, but neither will one be freed from the slavery of the Egyptians who has not left Egypt, I mean this life beneath the water, and crossed not that Red Sea, but this black and gloomy sea of life. But if, as the Lord says, unless “the truth sets us free,” we remain in the evil of slavery, how is it possible to be in the truth for one who seeks falsehood and is “occupied in the error of life”? And how will someone escape this slavery who has given his own life subject to the necessities of nature? The argument concerning these things would become more clear to us through an example. Just as a river, made rough by winter currents and borne along according to its own nature, catching up in its stream wood and stones and everything in its path, is treacherous and dangerous only to those who are in it, but for those who keep their distance from it, it flows in vain, so also the turmoil of life only he who is in it endures, and he alone takes upon himself the passions, which nature, flowing according to itself, necessarily brings upon those who travel through it, overwhelming them through the evils of life. But if someone should leave “this torrent,” as the scripture says, “and the water that cannot be withstood,” he will surely be outside, according to the sequence of the Ode, of the hunt of the teeth of life, like a sparrow having flown through the snare on the wing of virtue.

4.7 For since, according to the example of the torrent spoken of by us, flooding with all kinds of disturbances and irregularities, human life is always borne along, poured out down the slope of nature, and nothing of the things eagerly sought in it is stable, nor does it await the satisfaction of those who desire, and all things that befall at once both approached and, having touched, ran past, and what is ever present escapes perception by the swiftness of its passing, with the eyes being snatched away by the onrush from behind; for this reason it would be advantageous to hold ourselves far from such a current, so that we, being encompassed by unstable things, might not neglect the things that are ever stable. For how is it possible for the

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τῆς ἁλύσεως ἀγκύλας δυνατόν ἐστιν, ἀλλ' ἡ κατὰ τὸ ἕτερον πέρας τῆς ἁλύσεως ἀγκύλη συνεκινήθη τῇ πρώτῃ κατὰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον ἀεὶ καὶ προσεχὲς ἀπὸ τοῦ πρώτου διὰ τῶν παρα κειμένων τῆς κινήσεως προϊούσης. Οὕτως ἐμπέπλεκται καὶ συμπέφυκεν ἀλλήλοις τὰ ἀνθρώπινα πάθη, καὶ δι' ἑνὸς τοῦ ἐπικρατήσαντος καὶ ὁ λοιπὸς τῶν κακῶν ὁλκὸς συνεισέρχεται τῇ ψυχῇ. Καὶ εἰ χρή σοι διαγράψαι τὴν πονηρὰν ταύτην ἅλυσιν, ὑπόθου τινὰ διά τινος ἡδονῆς τοῦ κατὰ τὴν κενοδοξίαν ἡττηθῆναι πάθους· ἀλλὰ τῇ κενοδοξίᾳ καὶ ἡ τοῦ πλείονος ἔφεσις συνηκολούθησεν. Οὐ γὰρ ἔστι πλεονέκτην γενέσθαι, μὴ ἐκείνης ἐπὶ τὸ πάθος χειραγω γούσης. Εἶτα ἡ τοῦ πλεονεκτεῖν καὶ προέχειν ἐπιθυμία ἢ ὀργὴν ἐξάπτει πρὸς τὸ ὁμότιμον ἢ πρὸς τὸ ὑποχείριον τὴν ὑπερηφανίαν ἢ πρὸς τὸ ὑπερέχον τὸν φθόνον, φθόνου δὲ ἀκόλουθος ἡ ὑπόκρισις γίνεται, ἐκείνης ἡ πικρία, ταύτης ἡ μισανθρωπία, τούτων ἁπάντων τὸ τέλος κατάκρισις εἰς γέενναν καὶ σκότος καὶ πῦρ καταλήγουσα. Ὁρᾷς τὸν ὁλκὸν τῶν κακῶν, ὅπως ἑνὸς τὰ πάντα τοῦ καθ' ἡδονὴν πάθους ἐξέχεται; 4.6 Ἐπειδὴ οὖν ἅπαξ εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὸν βίον ἡ ἀκολουθία τῶν τοιούτων παθῶν μίαν ὁρῶμεν ἐκ τῆς τῶν θεοπνεύστων γραφῶν συμβουλῆς τὴν διέξοδον τούτων, τὸ χωρισθῆναι τοῦ τοιούτου βίου τοῦ συνημμένην ἔχοντος μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ τὴν τῶν ἀνιαρῶν ἀκολούθησιν. Οὐκ ἔστι γὰρ ἐν Σοδόμοις φιλοχωρήσαντα διαφυγεῖν τὴν τοῦ πυρὸς ἐπομβρίαν, οὐδὲ τὸν ἔξω Σοδόμων γενόμενον εἶτα πάλιν ἐπιστραφέντα πρὸς τὴν ἐρήμωσιν ταύτης μὴ παγῆναι στήλην ἁλός, ἀλλ' οὐδὲ τῆς Αἰγυπτίων δουλείας ἀπαλλαγήσεται ὁ μὴ καταλιπὼν τὴν Αἴγυπτον, τὴν ὑποβρύχιον λέγω ταύτην ζωήν, καὶ διαβὰς οὐχὶ τὴν Ἐρυθρὰν ἐκείνην, ἀλλὰ τὴν μέλαιναν ταύτην καὶ ζοφώδη τοῦ βίου θάλασσαν. Εἰ δέ, καθώς φησιν ὁ κύριος, ἐὰν μὴ «ἐλευθερώσῃ ἡμᾶς ἡ ἀλή θεια», τῷ κακῷ τῆς δουλείας ἐναπομένομεν, πῶς ἔστιν ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ γενέσθαι τὸν ζητοῦντα τὸ ψεῦδος καὶ «ἐν τῇ πλάνῃ τοῦ βίου ἀναστρεφόμενον»; Πῶς δέ τις τὴν δουλείαν ἀποδράσεται ταύτην ὁ ταῖς ἀνάγκαις τῆς φύσεως ὑπο χείριον δοὺς τὴν ἰδίαν ζωήν; Γνωριμώτερος δ' ἂν γένοιτο ἡμῖν διά τινος παραδείγματος ὁ περὶ τούτων λόγος. Ὥσπερ τις ποταμὸς χειμερίοις ῥεύμασι τραχυνόμενος καὶ κατὰ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ φερόμενος φύσιν ξύλα τε καὶ λίθους καὶ πᾶν τὸ παρατυχὸν ὑπολαμβάνων τῷ ῥείθρῳ μόνοις τοῖς κατ' αὐτὸν γινομένοις σφαλερὸς καὶ κινδυνώδης ἐστί, τοῖς δὲ πόρρωθεν αὐτὸν φυλασσομένοις εἰκῆ ῥεῖ, οὕτω καὶ τὴν τοῦ βίου ταραχὴν ὁ κατ' αὐτὴν γεγονὼς μόνος ὑφίσταται καὶ μόνος ἀναδέχεται καθ' ἑαυτοῦ τὰ πάθη, ἅπερ ἂν ἡ φύσις ἀκολούθως ἑαυτῇ ῥέουσα τοῖς δι' αὐτῆς πορευο μένοις ἀναγκαίως ἐπάγηται διὰ τῶν τοῦ βίου κακῶν ἐπι κλύζουσα. Εἰ δέ τις καταλίποι «τὸν χειμάρρουν τοῦτον», ὥς φησιν ἡ γραφή, «καὶ τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ἀνυπόστατον» ἔξω πάντως ἔσται, κατὰ τὴν τῆς ᾠδῆς ἀκολουθίαν, τῆς θήρας τῶν ὀδόντων τοῦ βίου, καθάπερ στρουθίον τῷ τῆς ἀρε τῆς πτερῷ διαπτὰς τὴν παγίδα.

4.7 Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ κατὰ τὸ ῥηθὲν ἡμῖν ἐπὶ τοῦ χειμάρρου ὑπόδειγμα παντοίαις ταραχαῖς καὶ ἀνωμαλίαις πλημμυρῶν ὁ ἀνθρώπινος βίος ἀεὶ φέρεται κατὰ τοῦ πρανοῦς τῆς φύ σεως προχεόμενος καὶ οὐδὲν ἕστηκε τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ σπουδαζο μένων οὐδὲ ἀναμένει τὴν πλησμονὴν τῶν ἐπιθυμούντων, πάντα δὲ τὰ προσπίπτοντα ὁμοῦ τε προσήγγισε καὶ θιγόντα παρέδραμε, καὶ τὸ ἀεὶ παρὸν τῷ σφοδρῷ τῆς παρόδου διαφεύγει τὴν αἴσθησιν, ὑπὸ τῆς κατόπιν ἐπιρροῆς τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἁρπαζομένων· διὰ τοῦτο λυσιτελὲς ἂν εἴη πόρρω τοῦ τοιούτου ῥεύματος ἑαυτοὺς ἀνέχειν, ὡς ἂν μὴ τῶν ἀστάτων περιεχόμενοι τῶν ἀεὶ ἑστώτων ὀλιγωρήσαι μεν. Πῶς γὰρ ἔστι τὸν