20

For we have observed even in the smallest part of the body the shining providence of God. For what is more insignificant than hairs? and what among the parts of the body is so devoid of sensation? But yet reason has shown the necessary usefulness of these too; and eyebrows and eyelids bear witness, and those hairs that both adorn and cover the head at the same time also bear witness; for indeed, those who are stripped of them teach their usefulness. For first, they blush as if deprived of beauty; and then they devise certain other coverings, to fulfill their function. And as it seems, for this reason the Creator allowed some heads to be stripped of these, so that we may learn how the Maker, providing for these too, thus formed the living creature. Thus He adorns with a beard those who are now reaching manhood and passing the age of youth, and a certain part of the cheeks along with the chin. For at first down blossoms, and after this a moderate amount of hair covers, so that by its addition it might teach the difference of ages, and persuade by its appearance to abstain from childish trifles, and to accept serious works. But since for women birth pangs are sufficient for such instruction, He has thus crowned only the cheeks of men. But if anyone, taught only to speak against the truth, should bring forward the growths of hair in other parts of the body, let him learn that about these too he is ungrateful in vain. For nature has placed a natural covering on those parts on which we are eager to place man-made ones. For this reason, for those in whom the rational faculty does not yet know how to distinguish virtue and vice, nature has not placed the covering of hair; but those who have already begun to have knowledge, and have been taught the use of each of their members, she has adorned very well and exceedingly beautifully with this girdle, as if covering those who are blushing for things they ought not; for the progenitor Adam did not have this shame in paradise. "For the two were naked," he says, 83.612 "both Adam and his wife, and they were not ashamed." But after the transgression of the law, coming to a perception of their failings, and hearing the divine voice, they sewed fig leaves, and made for themselves girdles. Therefore observe, O bitter accuser of creation and providence alike, even in these members the care of the Maker. About which you blush even to hear, but the Creator exults even in forming; "For God saw," he says, "all that He had made, and behold, it was very good;" and, "Let us make for him a helper fit for him." And the first blessing of God: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it." But since the discourse has been forced, I know not how, to go forth to those members of the body that seem, according to the divine Paul, to be less honorable, behold again the ineffable love for mankind of the Maker. For the mouth, entrusted both to minister with speech, and to receive food, and to send it to the stomach, He placed near the eyes; but the passage for excretions, which is able to offend the sight, and to turn one from food, and to fill one with disgust, He has not only made somewhere far from these, but He has also rendered it completely invisible to them, turning the rectum backwards, and opening the passage between the buttocks, and by their projection again devising for it a natural covering. Therefore be ashamed at the immeasurable divine love for mankind; shudder at its ineffable care, seeing it create what you are ashamed to say, seeing it provide for what you blush even to remember. For since the visible part of the living being is mortal, and, as mortal, in need of food, of necessity He implanted in it also a mouth, and passages for excretions, and created winding intestinal tracts, which receive the sludge of the food, and not

20

ἐθεασάμεθα γὰρ καὶ ἐν τῷ βραχυτάτῳ μορίῳ τοῦ σώματος τὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ διαλάμπουσαν προμήθειαν. Τί γὰρ τριχῶν εὐ τελέστερον; τί δὲ οὕτως ἐν τοῖς τοῦ σώματος μο ρίοις αἰσθήσεως ἄμοιρον; Ἀλλ' ὅμως καὶ τούτων τὴν χρείαν ἀναγκαίαν ἔδειξεν ὁ λόγος· καὶ μαρτυ ροῦσιν ὀφρύες καὶ βλεφαρίδες, μαρτυροῦσι δὲ καὶ αἱ τὴν κεφαλὴν κοσμοῦσαί τε ὁμοῦ καὶ καλύπτουσαι· καὶ γὰρ καὶ τούτων τὴν χρείαν οἱ τούτων ἐψιλωμένοι διδάσκουσι. Πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ ἐρυθριῶσιν ὡς κάλλους ἐστερημένοι· ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ ἕτερα ἄττα ἐπινοοῦσι κα λύμματα, τὴν ἐκείνων χρείαν ἀποπληροῦντα. Καὶ ὡς ἔοικε, τούτου χάριν καὶ γυμνωθῆναι τούτων ἐνίας κεφαλὰς ὁ ∆ημιουργὸς συνεχώρησεν, ἵνα μά θωμεν ὅπως καὶ τούτων προμηθούμενος ὁ Ποιητὴς, οὕτω τὸ ζῶον διέπλασεν. Οὕτω τοὺς εἰς ἄνδρας λοι πὸν τελοῦντας, καὶ τὴν μειρακιώδη ὑπερβαίνοντας ἡλικίαν, τῷ γενείῳ κατακοσμεῖ, καὶ μοῖράν τινα τῶν παρειῶν σὺν τῷ ἀνθερεῶνι. Πρότερον μὲν γὰρ ἴουλος ἀνθεῖ, μετὰ δὲ ταῦτα κόμη μετρία καλύπτει, ἵνα τῇ προσθήκῃ διδάξῃ τῶν ἡλικιῶν τὸ διάφορον, καὶ πείσῃ διὰ τοῦ σχήματος, τῶν παιδικῶν μὲν ἀθυρμάτων ἀπέχεσθαι, τὰ δὲ σπουδαῖα τῶν ἔρ γων προσίεσθαι. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ γυναιξὶν αἱ ὠδῖνες εἰς τοιαύτην διδασκαλίαν ἀρκοῦσι, μόνων οὕτω τὰς τῶν ἀνδρῶν παρειὰς ἐστεφάνωσεν. Εἰ δέ τις μόνον ἀν τιλέγειν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ δεδιδαγμένος, τὰς ἐν ἄλλοις μο ρίοις τοῦ σώματος τῶν τριχῶν ἐκφύσεις προβάλ λοιτο, μανθανέτω καὶ περὶ τούτων μάτην ἀχαριστῶν. Αὐτοφυὲς γὰρ ἡ φύσις περιτέθεικε κάλυμμα, οἷς τὰ χειροποίητα περιτιθέναι σπουδάζομεν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο, οἷς μὲν τὸ λογικὸν οὐδέπω διακρίνειν ἀρετὴν καὶ κακίαν ἐπίσταται, οὐ περιτέθεικεν ἡ φύσις τὸ ἐκ τριχῶν περιβόλαιον· τοὺς δὲ ἤδη τῆς γνώσεως ἀρξα μένους, καὶ τῶν μελῶν ἑκάστου τὴν χρείαν δεδιδαγ μένους, εὖ μάλα καὶ λίαν καλῶς τούτῳ τῷ διαζώματι κατεκόσμησεν, ὥσπερ ἐρυθριῶντας ἐφ' οἷς οὐκ ἔδει καλύπτουσα· ταύτην γὰρ οὐκ εἶχεν ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ τὴν αἰσχύνην ὁ γενάρχης Ἀδάμ. «Ἦσαν γὰρ, φη 83.612 σὶν, οἱ δύο γυμνοὶ, ὅ τε Ἀδὰρ καὶ ἡ γυνὴ αὐτοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ᾐσχύνοντο.» Μετὰ δὲ τὴν τοῦ νόμου παρά βασιν, εἰς αἴσθησιν ἐλθόντες τῶν ἐπταισμένων, καὶ τῆς θείας φωνῆς ἀκούσαντες, ἔῤῥαψαν φύλλα συ κῆς, καὶ ἐποίησαν ἑαυτοῖς περιζώματα. Ἄθρει τοι γαροῦν, ὦ πικρὲ τῆς δημιουργίας ὁμοῦ καὶ τῆς προ νοίας κατήγορε, καὶ ἐν τούτοις τοῖς μέλεσι τὴν τοῦ Ποιητοῦ κηδεμονίαν. Περὶ ὧν σὺ μὲν καὶ ἀκούων ἐρυθριᾷς, ὁ δὲ ∆ημιουργὸς καὶ διαπλάττων ἀγάλλε ται· «Εἶδε γὰρ, φησὶν, ὁ Θεὸς πάντα ὅσα ἐποίησε, καὶ ἰδοὺ καλὰ λίαν·» καὶ, «Ποιήσωμεν αὐ τῷ βοηθὸν κατ' αὐτόν.» Καὶ πρώτη εὐλογία Θεοῦ· «Αὐξάνεσθε καὶ πληθύνεσθε, καὶ πληρώσατε τὴν γῆν, καὶ κατακυριεύσατε αὐτῆς.» Ἐπειδὴ δ' ὁ λό γος εἰς τὰ δοκοῦντα μέλη τοῦ σώματος, κατὰ τὸν θεῖον Παῦλον, ἀτιμότερα ὑπάρχειν, οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως ἐξελθεῖν ἐβιάσθη, βλέπε πάλιν τὴν ἄῤῥητον τοῦ Ποιη τοῦ φιλανθρωπίαν. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ στόμα, καὶ λόγῳ διακονεῖν, καὶ τροφὴν ὑποδέχεσθαι, καὶ παραπέμ πειν τῇ γαστρὶ πεπιστευμένον, πλησίον ἔθηκε τῶν ὀμμάτων· τὸν δὲ τῶν ἐκκρίσεων πόρον, ἀποκναίειν τὰς ὄψεις δυνάμενον, καὶ τροφῆς ἀποτρέπειν, καὶ βδελυγμίας ἀναπιμπλᾶναι, οὐ μόνον πόῤῥω που τού των πεποίηκεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ παντελῶς ἀφανῆ τούτοις κατέστησεν, εἰς τοὐπίσω τὸ ἀπευθυσμένον ἔντερον ἀποκλίνας, μεταξὺ δὲ τῶν γλουτῶν τὸν πόρον ἀνοί ξας, καὶ τῇ τούτων προβολῇ πάλιν αὐτοφυὲς αὐτῷ μηχανησάμενος κάλυμμα. Αἰσχύντητι τοιγαροῦν τῆς θείας φιλανθρωπίας τὴν ἀμετρίαν· φρίξον αὐτῆς τὴν ἄῤῥητον κηδεμονίαν, ὁρῶν αὐτὴν δημιουργοῦ σαν, ἃ σὺ λέγειν αἰσχύνῃ, ὁρῶν αὐτὴν προμηθουμέ νην, ὧν καὶ τὴν μνήμην ἐρυθριᾷς. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ θνητόν ἐστι τὸ ὁρώμενον τοῦ ζώου, καὶ τροφῆς ἅτε δὴ θνητὸν ἐνδεὲς, ἀναγκαίως αὐτῷ καὶ στόμα ἐνέφυ σε, καὶ πόρους ἐκκρίσεων, καὶ κύκλους ἐντέρων πολυελίκτους ἐδημιούργησε, τὸ ἰλυῶδες, τῆς τροφῆς ὑποδεχομένων, καὶ οὐκ