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for me to judge those who are outside?" says the one who spoke. For those people are truly outside the courtyard of the word of the mysteries, not "dwelling in the shelter of God," but "lodging" in the fold of the evil one, those "taken captive to do his will" according to the voice of the apostle, and for this reason they do not understand that, since every virtue is seen in a mean, the turning aside to the adjacent extremes is a vice; for by taking the middle ground between deficiency and excess, one has everywhere distinguished virtue from vice.

7.2 But the argument would become clearer to us if shown by the facts themselves. Cowardice and rashness are two vices understood in opposition, the one through a deficiency, the other through an excess of confidence, and they contain courage as a mean between them. Again, the pious man is neither an atheist nor superstitious; for the impiety is equal in both cases, to think that there is no god and that there are many. Do you wish to recognize the doctrine through other examples? The one who has fled being stingy and profligate, by withdrawing from these opposing passions, has achieved liberality in his character; for such is liberality, neither to be disposed rashly toward immoderate and useless expenditures, nor to be stingy with necessities. So too in all the rest, lest we go through them one by one, the argument has identified virtue as the mean between opposites. Therefore, moderation is also a mean, and it has clear deviations toward vice on either side; for the one who is deficient in the tone of the soul and becomes easily overcome by the passion of pleasure and for this reason does not even approach the way of a pure and moderate life, has slipped "into dishonorable passions"; but the one who has passed beyond the firm ground of moderation and overshot the mean of virtue, has been brought down as if by some cliff by "the teaching of demons," "searing," as the apostle says, "his own conscience." For in that he defines marriage as an abomination, he brands himself with the reproaches of marriage; for if the tree is bad, as the gospel somewhere says, the fruit is in every way worthy of the tree. If then man is the shoot and fruit of the plant which is marriage, the reproaches of marriage certainly belong to the one who utters them.

7.3 But those men, branded in conscience and bruised by the absurdity of their doctrine, are refuted by such arguments. But we know these things also concerning marriage, that zeal and desire for divine things must come first, and that the function of marriage is not to be disdained by one who can make use of it moderately and with measure. Such was the patriarch Isaac, who not in the prime of his life, so that the marriage might not be the work of passion, but when his youth was already spent, received Rebekah in marriage for the sake of God's blessing on his seed, and having served the marriage up to one birth-pang, he was again wholly devoted to unseen things, having closed his bodily senses; for this, it seems to me, the history signifies by recounting the heaviness of the patriarch's eyes.

8.t Chapter 8 That it is difficult to attain the goal for the one who to many things

is divided in his soul.

8.1 But let these things be as they may seem to those who are skilled in discerning such matters; but let us proceed to what follows in the argument. What then was being said? that if it is permitted neither to depart from the more divine desire nor to avoid marriage, there is no argument that sets aside the economy of the

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μοι τοὺς ἔξω κρίνειν;» φησὶν ὁ εἰπών. Ἔξω γάρ εἰσιν ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐκεῖνοι τῆς τοῦ λόγου τῶν μυστηρίων αὐλῆς, οὐκ «ἐν τῇ σκέπῃ τοῦ θεοῦ», ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ μάνδρᾳ τοῦ πονηροῦ «αὐλιζόμενοι», οἱ «ἐζωγρημένοι εἰς τὸ ἐκείνου θέλημα» κατὰ τὴν τοῦ ἀποστόλου φωνήν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μὴ συνιέντες, ὅτι πάσης ἀρετῆς ἐν μεσότητι θεωρου μένης ἡ ἐπὶ τὰ παρακείμενα παρατροπὴ κακία ἐστίν· ὑφέσεως γὰρ καὶ ἐπιτάσεως πανταχοῦ τις τὸ μέσον ἀπο λαβὼν τὴν ἀρετὴν ἐκ τῆς κακίας διέκρινε.

7.2 Σαφέστερος δ' ἂν ἡμῖν ὁ λόγος γένοιτο ἐπ' αὐτῶν τῶν πραγμάτων δεικνύμενος. ∆ειλία καὶ θράσος δύο κακίαι κατὰ τὸ ἐναντίον νοούμεναι, ἡ μὲν κατὰ ἔλλειψιν, ἡ δὲ κατὰ πλεο νασμὸν πεποιθήσεως, μέσην περιέχουσιν ἑαυτῶν τὴν ἀν δρείαν. Πάλιν ὁ εὐσεβὴς οὔτε ἄθεος οὔτε δεισιδαίμων ἐστίν· ἴσον γὰρ ἐπ' ἀμφοῖν τὸ ἀσέβημα καὶ τὸ μηδένα θεὸν καὶ τὸ πολλοὺς εἶναι οἴεσθαι. Βούλει καὶ δι' ἑτέρων ἐπιγνῶναι τὸ δόγμα; Ὁ φυγὼν τὸ φειδωλὸς εἶναι καὶ ἄσωτος ἐν τῇ τῶν ἐναντίων παθῶν ἀναχωρήσει τὴν ἐλευθερίαν τῷ ἤθει κατώρθωσε· τοιοῦτον γάρ τι ἡ ἐλευθερία ἐστί, τὸ μήτε πρὸς τὰς ἀμέτρους καὶ ἀνωφελεῖς δαπάνας εἰκῆ διακεῖσθαι μήτε πρὸς τὰ ἀναγκαῖα μικρολόγως ἔχειν. Οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν λοιπῶν πάντων, ἵνα μὴ τοῖς καθ' ἕκαστον ἐπεξίωμεν, τὴν μεσότητα τῶν ἐναντίων ἀρετὴν ὁ λόγος ἐγνώρισεν. Οὐκοῦν καὶ ἡ σωφροσύνη μεσότης ἐστί, καὶ φανερὰς ἔχει τὰς ἐφ' ἑκάτερα πρὸς κακίαν παρατροπάς· ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐλλείπων κατὰ τὸν τῆς ψυχῆς τόνον καὶ εὐκαταγώνιστος τῷ τῆς ἡδονῆς πάθει γενόμενος καὶ διὰ τοῦτο μηδὲ προσ εγγίσας τῇ ὁδῷ τοῦ καθαροῦ βίου καὶ σώφρονος «εἰς τὰ πάθη τῆς ἀτιμίας» κατώλισθεν· ὁ δὲ παρελθὼν τῆς σωφρο σύνης τὸ βάσιμον καὶ ὑπερπεσὼν τοῦ μέσου τῆς ἀρετῆς, οἷον κρημνῷ τινι «τῇ διδασκαλίᾳ τῶν δαιμόνων» ἐγκατη νέχθη «καυτηριάζων», καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, «τὴν ἰδίαν συνείδησιν». Ἐν ᾧ γὰρ βδελυκτὸν εἶναι τὸν γάμον ὁρίζεται, ἑαυτὸν στίζει τοῖς τοῦ γάμου ὀνειδισμοῖς· εἰ γὰρ τὸ δένδρον κακόν, καθώς φησί που τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, καὶ ὁ καρπὸς πάντως τοῦ δένδρου ἄξιος. Εἰ δὴ τοῦ φυτοῦ τοῦ κατὰ τὸν γάμον βλάστημα καὶ καρπός ἐστιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τὰ τοῦ γάμου ὀνείδη πάντως τοῦ προφέροντος γίνεται.

7.3 Ἀλλ' ἐκεῖνοι μὲν στιγματίαι τὴν συνείδησιν καὶ κατα μεμωλωπισμένοι τῇ ἀτοπίᾳ τοῦ δόγματος διὰ τῶν τοιού των ἐλέγχονται. Ἡμεῖς δὲ ταῦτα καὶ περὶ τοῦ γάμου γινώ σκομεν, ὡς δεῖν προηγουμένην εἶναι τὴν περὶ τὰ θεῖα σπουδήν τε καὶ ἐπιθυμίαν, τῆς δὲ τοῦ γάμου λειτουργίας μὴ ὑπερορᾶν τὸν σωφρόνως τε καὶ μεμετρημένως κεχρῆσθαι δυνάμενον. Οἷος ἦν ὁ πατριάρχης Ἰσαάκ, ὃς οὐκ ἐν ἀκμῇ τῆς ἡλικίας, ἵνα μὴ πάθους ἔργον ὁ γάμος γένηται, ἀλλ' ἤδη τῆς νεότητος ὑπαναλωθείσης αὐτῷ δέχεται τὴν τῆς Ῥεβέκκας συνοίκησιν διὰ τὴν ἐπὶ τῷ σπέρματι τοῦ θεοῦ εὐλογίαν, καὶ μέχρι μιᾶς ὠδῖνος ὑπηρετήσας τῷ γάμῳ, πάλιν τῶν ἀοράτων ὅλος ἦν μύσας τὰ σωματικὰ αἰσθητήρια· τοῦτο γὰρ ἡ ἱστορία δοκεῖ μοι σημαίνειν τὴν βαρύτητα τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν τοῦ πατριάρχου διηγουμένη.

8.t Κεφάλαιον ηʹ Ὅτι δύσκολόν ἐστι τοῦ σκοποῦ τυχεῖν τὸν εἰς πολλὰ

τῇ ψυχῇ μεριζόμενον.

8.1 Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἐχέτω ὅπως ἂν ἔχειν δοκῇ τοῖς τὰ τοιαῦτα καθορᾶν ἐπιστήμοσιν· ἡμεῖς δὲ πρὸς τὰ συνεχῆ τοῦ λόγου προΐωμεν. Τί οὖν ἦν τὸ λεγόμενον; ὅτι ἐὰν ἐξῇ μήτε τῆς θειοτέρας ἐπιθυμίας ἀφίστασθαι μήτε ἀποφεύγειν τὸν γάμον, οὐδείς ἐστι λόγος ὁ ἀθετῶν τὴν οἰκονομίαν τῆς