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such zealous pursuits? For the one who makes pleasure the goal of everything that happens, and neglects necessity for the sake of extravagance, how he will adorn the female musicians who create the song, and what sort of garment he will put on the female wine-pourers, it is better to be silent about such things and not to delve into the description of such matters in our account, so that through the accusation itself, the memory might not graze the wounds of those who are more passionate. For these things is gold, and for these is silver, that it may prepare such baits of luxury. Or is it for this reason that the passion for pleasure is called a serpent by the scripture, whose nature it is, if its head should slip through a joint in the wall, to bring all the rest of its coil along with it. What do I mean? Nature makes housing a necessity for humans, but through this necessity, 5.349 pleasure, slipping into the harmony of the soul, has perverted the need into a certain immeasurable extravagance of adornment and transformed the endeavor. Then the beast, pleasure, creeps on to certain vineyards and pools and parks and the adornments of gardens. After this, it is crowned with arrogance and, twisting with pride, yokes to itself rule over its own kind. Upon these things it drags along the trail of avarice, which is of necessity followed by licentiousness, the final and tail-end part of the bestial transformation caused by pleasure. But just as it is not possible to draw out the serpent from its tail, since its rough scales naturally resist 5.350 those pulling in the opposite direction, so it is not possible to begin from the end to banish from the soul the creeping thing of pleasure, unless one blocks off the first entry point to the evil. Therefore, the guide of virtue also commands us to watch for its head, calling the beginning of evil the head; if this is not admitted, what is left is powerless. For one who is altogether hostilely disposed toward pleasure would not be overcome by the partial attacks of the passion, but one who has admitted the beginning of the passion has admitted the whole beast into himself along with it. For this reason, after going through everything, he who makes public such passions takes up his account in summary. For having said from the beginning that 'I made my work great,' he now adds after the partial exposition of the events, 'I became great,' showing that his knowledge of the opposites did not come through small things, but that his experience advanced to the utmost magnitude, so that no memory of similar things among those who lived before him has an equal. For he says, 'I became great and I surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem,' and for what reason, having been educated in all wisdom, he descended to the experience of such things, he now revealed the purpose. For 'my wisdom,' he says, 'remained with me.' And he means through what has been said, that through wisdom I investigated every concept of enjoyment, and my mind rested on the highest point of what is to be found 5.351 in these things. For sight cooperated with desire, and the will, through the pleasure of sights, was sated with its heart's desires; so that nothing was left of the things devised for enjoyment, but the participation in pleasures became my portion of possession. Which seems to me to mean nothing other than that I encompassed in myself every concept of enjoyment, reaping gladness from the events as from some possession. For 'I did not withhold,' he says, 'my heart from any gladness,' 'and my heart rejoiced in all my labor,' 'and this was my portion from all my labor,' calling possession a 'portion.' Since, therefore, he went through luxury in detail, running from beginning to end and recounting everything in his account, through which pleasures are gathered for those who enjoy them, the beauties of buildings, the vineyards, the gardens, the pools, the parks, the rule over his own kind, the abundance of riches, the preparation for delights at banquets, all the 'delicacies,' as he himself calls them, in which his wisdom was occupied investigating such things and into

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τὰς τοιαύτας σπουδάς; ὁ γὰρ σκοπὸν ἑκάστου τῶν γινομένων τὴν ἡδονὴν ποιούμενος καὶ παριὼν τῇ περιεργίᾳ τὴν χρείαν, ὅπως μὲν κατακοσμήσει τὰς τὴν ᾠδὴν μουσουργούσας, οἵαν δὲ περιθήσει ταῖς οἰνοχοούσαις τὴν στολήν, σιωπᾶν χρὴ τὰ τοιαῦτα μᾶλλον καὶ μὴ ἐμβαθύνειν τῷ λόγῳ τῇ τῶν τοιούτων ὑπογραφῇ, ὡς ἂν μὴ δι' αὐτῆς τῆς κατηγορίας ἐπιξαίνοι τοῖς ἐμπαθεστέροις ἡ μνήμη τὰ τραύματα. διὰ ταῦτα ὁ χρυσὸς καὶ ὑπὲρ τούτων ὁ ἄργυρος, ἵνα τὰ τοιαῦτα παρασκευάσῃ τῆς τρυφῆς δελεάματα. Ἢ τούτου χάριν τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἡδονὴν πάθος ὄφις ὑπὸ τῆς γραφῆς ὀνομάζεται, ᾧ φύσις ἐστίν, εἰ ἡ κεφαλὴ πρὸς τὴν ἁρμονίαν τοῦ τοίχου παραδυείῃ, πάντα τὸν κατόπιν ὁλκὸν συνεπάγεσθαι. οἷον τί λέγω; ἀναγκαίαν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ποιεῖ ἡ φύσις τὴν οἴκησιν, ἀλλὰ διὰ τῆς χρείας ταύτης ἡ 5.349 ἡδονὴ τῇ ἁρμονίᾳ τῆς ψυχῆς παραδυεῖσα εἰς ἄμετρόν τινα καλλωπισμοῦ πολυτέλειαν τὴν χρείαν παρέτρεψεν καὶ τὴν σπουδὴν μετεποίησεν. εἶτα πρὸς ἀμπελῶνάς τινας καὶ κολυμβήθρας καὶ παραδείσους καὶ τὰ τῶν κήπων ἐγκαλλω πίσματα μεθέρπει τὸ θηρίον, ἡ ἡδονή. μετὰ ταῦτα ἐπικορυ φοῦται τῇ ὑπερηφανίᾳ καὶ τῷ τύφῳ περιελίσσεται τὴν κατὰ τῶν ὁμοφύλων ἀρχὴν ἑαυτῇ ὑποζεύξασα. ἐπὶ τούτοις τὸν τῆς φιλοχρηματίας ὁλκὸν ἐπισύρεται, ᾧ κατ' ἀνάγκην ἕπεται τὸ ἀκόλαστον, τὸ ἔσχατόν τε καὶ οὐραῖον μέρος τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἡδονὴν θηριώσεως. ἀλλ' ὥσπερ οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ οὐραίου τὸν ὄφιν ἀνελκυσθῆναι, τῆς τραχείας φυσικῶς φολίδος πρὸς τὸ 5.350 ἔμπαλιν τοῖς ἐφελκομένοις ἀντιβαινούσης, οὕτως οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τῶν τελευταίων ἄρξασθαι τῆς ψυχῆς ἐξοικίζειν τὴν τῆς ἡδονῆς ἑρπηδόνα, εἰ μή τις τῷ κακῷ τὴν πρώτην εἴσοδον ἀποκλείσειε. διὸ καὶ τὴν κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ ἐπιτηρεῖν ὁ τῆς ἀρετῆς ὑφηγητὴς ἐγκελεύεται, κεφαλὴν ὀνομάζων τὴν ἀρχὴν τῆς κακίας, ἧς μὴ παραδεχθείσης ἄπρακτόν ἐστι τὸ λειπόμενον. ὁ γὰρ καθόλου πρὸς τὴν ἡδονὴν πολεμίως διατεθεὶς οὐκ ἂν ταῖς μερικαῖς προσβολαῖς τοῦ πάθους ὑπενεχθείη, ὁ δὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν τοῦ πάθους ὑποδεξάμενος ἅπαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ τὸ θηρίον συμπαρεδέξατο. διὰ τοῦτο πάντα διεξελ θὼν ὁ τὰ τοιαῦτα δημοσιεύων πάθη ἐπὶ κεφαλαίῳ ἀναλαμβάνει τὸν λόγον. εἰπὼν γὰρ ἐξ ἀρχῆς ὅτι Ἐμεγάλυνα ποίημά μου καὶ νῦν ἐπάγει μετὰ τὴν ἐπὶ μέρους ἔκθεσιν τῶν γεγονότων, ὅτι Ἐμεγαλύνθην δεικνὺς ὅτι οὐ διὰ μικρῶν τινων γέγονεν αὐτῷ τῶν ἐναντίων ἡ γνῶσις, ἀλλ' ὡς εἰς τὸ ἀκρότατον μέγεθος προελθεῖν τὴν πεῖραν, ὡς μηδεμίαν τῶν ὁμοίων μνήμην ἐν τοῖς πρὸ αὐτοῦ γεγενημένοις τὸ ἴσον ἔχειν. φησὶ γὰρ ὅτι Ἐμεγαλύνθην καὶ προσέθηκα παρὰ πάντας τοὺς γενομένους ἔμπροσθέν μου ἐν Ἱερουσαλήμ, καὶ ὅτου χάριν προπαιδευθεὶς πάσῃ σοφίᾳ πρὸς τὴν τῶν τοιούτων κατῆλθε πεῖραν νῦν τὸν σκοπὸν ἐξεκάλυψε. Σοφία γάρ μου, φησίν, ἐστάθη μοι. σημαίνει δὲ διὰ τῶν εἰρημένων, ὅτι διὰ τῆς σοφίας ἀνηρευνησάμην πᾶσαν ἀπολαυστικὴν ἐπίνοιαν, καὶ ἔστη μοι ἡ διάνοια ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀκροτάτου τῶν ἐν τούτοις 5.351 εὑρισκομένων. ἥ τε γὰρ ὄψις τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ συνήργησε καὶ ἡ προαίρεσις διὰ τῆς τῶν ὄψεων ἡδονῆς τῶν καταθυμίων ἐνεφορήθη· ὡς μηδὲν ὑπολειφθῆναι τῶν εἰς ἀπόλαυσιν ἐπινοουμένων, ἀλλά μοι γενέσθαι μερίδα κτήσεως τὴν τῶν καθ' ἡδονὴν μετουσίαν. ὅπερ οὐδὲν ἄλλο σημαίνειν μοι φαίνεται ἢ ὅτι περιέσχον ἐν ἐμαυτῷ πᾶσαν ἀπολαυστικὴν ἐπίνοιαν, οἷον ἀπό τινος κτήματος τὴν εὐφροσύνην ἀπὸ τῶν γινομένων καρπούμενος. Οὐκ ἀπεκώλυσα γάρ, φησί, τὴν καρδίαν μου ἀπὸ πάσης εὐφροσύνης, καὶ ἡ καρδία μου εὐφράνθη ἐν παντὶ μόχθῳ μου, καὶ τοῦτο ἐγένετο μερίς μου ἀπὸ παντὸς μόχθου μου, μερίδα τὴν κτῆσιν λέγων. ἐπεὶ οὖν διεξῆλθε τὴν ἐπὶ μέρους τρυφήν, ἀπ' ἀρχῆς εἰς τέλος ἐπιδρα μὼν καὶ πάντα τῷ λόγῳ διεξελθών, δι' ὧν τοῖς ἀπολαύουσιν αἱ ἡδοναὶ συναγείρονται, τὰ τῶν οἰκοδομημάτων κάλλη, τοὺς ἀμπελῶνας, τοὺς κήπους, τὰς κολυμβήθρας, τοὺς παραδείσους, τὴν κατὰ τῶν ὁμοφύλων ἀρχήν, τὴν τῶν χρημάτων περιουσίαν, τὴν ἐν τοῖς συμποσίοις πρὸς τὰς θυμηδίας παρασκευήν, πάντα, καθὼς αὐτὸς ὀνομάζει, τὰ ἐντρυφήματα, ἐν οἷς ἀπησχολήθη αὐτοῦ ἡ σοφία τὰ τοιαῦτα διερευνωμένη καὶ εἰς