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having shaped the whole man in His own will according to the divine image, He did not wait to see the number of souls being perfected to its own fullness by the gradual additions of successive generations; but at once, with its full complement, perceiving the whole of human nature through His foreknowing power, and having honored it with a high and angel-like destiny, since He foresaw by His visionary power that its choice would not proceed straight toward the good, and for this reason would fall away from the angelic life; so that the multitude of human souls might not be cut short, having fallen from that mode by which the angels were increased to their full number; for this reason He prepares in nature a plan of increase suitable for those who had slipped into sin, implanting in humanity, instead of the angelic greatness, the beastly and irrational mode of succession from one another. From this, it seems to me, the great David, pitying the misery of man, lamented our nature with such words: that “Man, being in honor, did not understand;” meaning by honor, the equality of honor with the angels. For this reason, he says, he was compared to the mindless beasts, and was made like them. For truly he became beastly who accepted into his nature this flowing 192 generation, because of his inclination toward the material.

CHAPTER XVIII.

That the irrational passions in us from our kinship with the irrational nature their

origins have. For I think that from this beginning the individual passions also, as if given forth from some spring, overflow in human life. And a proof of these words is the kinship of the affections, which is manifested equally in us and in the irrational creatures. For it is not right to attribute the first principles of the passionate disposition to human nature, which was formed according to the divine image. But since the life of irrational creatures came into this world beforehand, and since man, for the reason stated, had something from that nature—I mean in respect to generation—he partook through this also of the other things observed in that nature. For man’s likeness to the Divine is not in anger, nor is the transcendent nature characterized by pleasure; and cowardice and boldness, and the desire for more, and the hatred of being diminished, and all such things, are far from the character that befits God. These things, therefore, human nature drew to itself from the irrational part. For those things by which irrational life was secured for its own preservation, these, when transferred to human life, became passions. For the carnivorous are preserved by anger; love of pleasure saves the prolific animals; cowardice saves the weak, and fear the one vulnerable to the stronger, and gluttony the one with much flesh. And to miss out on anything of pleasure is a cause of grief among the irrational creatures. All these and such things entered into the constitution of man through the beastly mode of generation.

And let it be permitted me to sketch in words the human image, as by a kind of sculptor's marvel. For just as it is possible to see in sculptures those double-carved forms, which artists of such things devise to astonish those who encounter them, carving two forms of faces under one head; so it seems to me that man bears a double likeness to opposite things; on the one hand, being formed to the divine beauty by the godlike quality of his mind, but on the other, bearing a kinship to the beastly through the impulses that arise according to passion. And often reason itself is brutalized through its inclination and disposition toward the irrational, covering the better with the worse. For whenever someone draws down the intellectual energy to these things, and forces reason to become a servant of the passions, counter-

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ὅλον ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ θελή ματι τὸν ἄνθρωπον πρὸς τὴν θείαν εἰκόνα διαμορφώ σας, οὐ ταῖς κατ' ὀλίγον προσθήκαις τῶν ἐπιγινομέ νων ἀνέμεινεν ἰδεῖν ἐπὶ τὸ ἴδιον πλήρωμα τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν ψυχῶν τελειούμενον· ἀλλ' ἀθρόως αὐτῷ πληρώ ματι πᾶσαν τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην φύσιν διὰ τῆς προγνω στικῆς ἐνεργείας κατανοήσας, καὶ τῇ ὑψηλῇ τε καὶ ἰσαγγέλῳ λήξει τιμήσας, ἐπειδὴ προεῖδε τῇ ὁρατικῇ δυνάμει μὴ εὐθυποροῦσαν πρὸς τὸ καλὸν τὴν προαί ρεσιν, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῆς ἀγγελικῆς ζωῆς ἀποπίπτου σαν· ὡς ἂν μὴ κολοβωθείη τὸ τῶν ψυχῶν τῶν ἀνθρω πίνων πλῆθος, ἐκπεσὸν ἐκείνου τοῦ τρόπου, καθ' ὃν οἱ ἄγγελοι πρὸς τὸ πλῆθος ηὐξήθησαν· διὰ τοῦτο τὴν κατάλληλον τοῖς εἰς ἁμαρτίαν κατολισθήσασι τῆς αὐξήσεως ἐπίνοιαν ἐγκατασκευάζει τῇ φύσει, ἀντὶ τῆς ἀγγελικῆς μεγαλοφυῖας τὸν κτηνώδη τε καὶ ἄλο γον τῆς ἐξ ἀλλήλων διαδοχῆς τρόπον ἐμφυτεύσας τῇ ἀνθρωπότητι. Ἐντεῦθέν μοι δοκεῖ καὶ ὁ μέγας ∆α βὶδ κατοικτιζόμενος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου τὴν ἀθλιότητα, τοιούτοις λόγοις καταθρηνῆσαι τὴν φύσιν· ὅτι «Ἄνθρω πος ἐν τιμῇ ὢν οὐ συνῆκε·» τιμὴν λέγων, τὴν πρὸς τοὺς ἀγγέλους ὁμοτιμίαν. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο, φησὶ, παρασυν εβλήθη τοῖς κτήνεσι τοῖς ἀνοήτοις, καὶ ὡμοιώθη αὐτοῖς. Ὄντως γὰρ κτηνώδης ἐγένετο ὁ τὴν ῥοώδη 192 ταύτην γένεσιν τῇ φύσει παραδεξάμενος, διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸ ὑλῶδες ῥοπήν.

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ ΙΗʹ.

Ὅτι τὰ ἄλογα ἐν ἡμῖν πάθη ἐκ τῆς πρὸς τὴν ἄλογον φύσιν συγγενείας τὰς

ἀφορμὰς ἔχει. Οἶμαι γὰρ ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς ταύτης καὶ τὰ καθ' ἕκα στον πάθη, οἷον ἐκ τινος πηγῆς συνδοθέντα πλημμυ ρεῖν ἐν τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ ζωῇ. Τεκμήριον δὲ τῶν λόγων, ἡ τῶν παθημάτων συγγένεια, κατὰ τὸ ἶσον ἡμῖν τε καὶ τοῖς ἀλόγοις ἐμφαινομένη. Οὐ γὰρ δὴ θέμις τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει, τῇ κατὰ τὸ θεῖον εἶδος μεμορφω μένῃ, τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς διαθέσεως προσμαρτυρεῖν τὰς πρώτας ἀρχάς. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ προεισῆλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον ἡ τῶν ἀλόγων ζωὴ, ἔσχε δέ τι διὰ τὴν εἰρημένην αἰτίαν τῆς ἐκεῖθεν φύσεως καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τὸ κατὰ τὴν γένεσιν λέγω, συμμετέσχε διὰ τούτου καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν τῶν ἐν ἐκείνῃ θεωρουμένων τῇ φύσει. Οὐ γὰρ κατὰ τὸν θυμόν ἐστι τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἡ πρὸς τὸ Θεῖον ὁμοίωσις, οὔτε διὰ τῆς ἡδονῆς ἡ ὑπερέχουσα χαρακτηρίζεται φύσις, δειλία τε καὶ θράσος, καὶ ἡ τοῦ πλείονος ἔφεσις, καὶ τὸ πρὸς τὸ ἐλαττοῦσθαι μῖ σος, καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα πόῤῥω τοῦ θεοπρεποῦς χαρακτῆρός ἐστι. Ταῦτα τοίνυν ἐκ τοῦ ἀλόγου μέρους ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἐφειλκύσατο. Οἷς γὰρ ἡ ἄλογος ζωὴ πρὸς συντήρησιν ἑαυτῆς ἠσφαλίσθη, ταῦτα πρὸς τὸν ἀνθρώπινον μετενεχθέντα βίον, πάθη ἐγένετο. Θυμῷ μὲν γὰρ συντηρεῖται τὰ ὠμοβόρα· φιληδονία δὲ τὰ πολυγονοῦντα τῶν ζώων σώζει· τὸν ἄναλκιν ἡ δειλία, καὶ τὸν εὐάλωτον τοῖς ἰσχυροτέροις ὁ φόβος, τὸν δὲ πολύσαρκον ἡ λαιμαργία. Καὶ τὸ διαμαρτεῖν οὑτινοσοῦν τῶν καθ' ἡδονὴν, λύπης ὑπό θεσις ἐν τοῖς ἀλόγοις ἐστί. Ταῦτα πάντα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα διὰ τῆς κτηνώδους γενέσεως συνεισῆλθε τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατασκευῇ.

Καί μοι συγκεχωρήσθω κατά τινα πλαστικὴν θαυματοποιΐαν διαγράψαι τῷ λόγῳ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην εἰκόνα. Καθάπερ γὰρ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν ἐν τοῖς πλάσμασι τὰς διγλύφους μορφὰς, ἃς μηχανῶνται πρὸς ἔκπληξιν τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα φιλοτεχνοῦντες, μιᾷ κεφαλῇ δύο μορφὰς προσώπων ὑποχαράσσοντες· οὕτω μοι δοκεῖ διπλῆν φέρειν ὁ ἄνθρωπος πρὸς τὰ ἐναντία τὴν ὁμοιότητα· τῷ μὲν θεοειδεῖ τῆς διανοίας πρὸς τὸ θεῖον κάλλος μεμορφωμένος, ταῖς δὲ κατὰ πάθος ἐγγινομέναις ὁρμαῖς πρὸς τὸ κτηνῶδες φέρων τὴν οἰκειότητα. Πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ὁ λόγος ἀποκτηνοῦται διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὸ ἄλογον ῥοπῆς τε καὶ διαθέσεως, συγκαλύπτων τὸ κρεῖττον τῷ χείρονι. Ἐπειδὰν γάρ τις πρὸς ταῦτα τὴν διανοητικὴν ἐνέργειαν καθελκύσῃ, καὶ ὑπηρέτην γενέσθαι τῶν παθῶν τὸν λογισμὸν ἐκβιάσηται, παρα