Chapter XXXIII.

Now if a particular soul, for certain mysterious reasons, is not deserving of being placed in the body of a wholly irrational being, nor yet in that of one purely rational, but is clothed with a monstrous body, so that reason cannot discharge its functions in one so fashioned, which has the head disproportioned to the other parts, and altogether too short; and another receives such a body that the soul is a little more rational than the other; and another still more so, the nature of the body counteracting to a greater or less degree the reception of the reasoning principle; why should there not be also some soul which receives an altogether miraculous body, possessing some qualities common to those of other men, so that it may be able to pass through life with them, but possessing also some quality of superiority, so that the soul may be able to remain untainted by sin?  And if there be any truth in the doctrine of the physiognomists, whether Zopyrus, or Loxus, or Polemon, or any other who wrote on such a subject, and who profess to know in some wonderful way that all bodies are adapted to the habits of the souls, must there have been for that soul which was to dwell with miraculous power among men, and work mighty deeds, a body produced, as Celsus thinks, by an act of adultery between Panthera and the Virgin?!  Why, from such unhallowed intercourse there must rather have been brought forth some fool to do injury to mankind,—a teacher of licentiousness and wickedness, and other evils; and not of temperance, and righteousness, and the other virtues!

Εἰ γὰρ ἥδε μὲν ἡ ψυχή, κατά τινας ἀπορρήτους λόγους ἀξία γενομένη μὴ πάντῃ μὲν ἐν ἀλόγου γενέσθαι σώματι οὐ μὴν καὶ καθαρῶς ἐν λογικοῦ, ἐνδύεται σῶμα τερατῶδες, ὡς μηδὲ τὸν λόγον συμπληρωθῆναι δύνασθαι τῷ οὑτωσὶ γεγενημένῳ καὶ ἀσύμμετρον ἔχοντι τὴν κεφαλὴν τῷ λοιπῷ σώματι καὶ πάνυ βραχυτέραν, ἑτέρα δὲ τοιόνδε σῶμα ἀναλαμβάνει, ὡς ὀλίγῳ ἐκείνου γενέσθαι λογικωτέρα, καὶ ἄλλη ἔτι μᾶλλον, τῆς φύσεως τοῦ σώματος ἐπὶ πλεῖον ἢ ἐπ' ἔλαττον ἀντιπραττούσης τῇ τοῦ λόγου ἀντιλήψει· διὰ τί οὐχὶ καὶ ψυχή τις ἔσται πάντῃ παράδοξον ἀναλαμβάνουσα σῶμα, ἔχον μέν τι κοινὸν πρὸς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἵνα καὶ συνδιατρῖψαι αὐτοῖς δυνηθῇ, ἔχον δέ τι καὶ ἐξαίρετον, ἵνα τῆς κακίας ἄγευστος ἡ ψυχὴ διαμεῖναι δυνηθῇ; Ἐὰν δὲ καὶ τὰ τῶν φυσιογνωμονούντων κρατῇ, εἴτε Ζωπύρου εἴτε Λόξου εἴτε Πολέμωνος εἴτε οὕτινός ποτ' οὖν τοιαῦτα γράψαντος καὶ ἐπαγγειλαμένου εἰδέναι τι θαυμαστόν, οἰκεῖα τοῖς ἤθεσι τῶν ψυχῶν πάντ' εἶναι τὰ σώματα, τῇ οὖν μελλούσῃ παραδόξως ἐπιδημεῖν τῷ βίῳ καὶ μεγαλοποιεῖν ἔδει γενέσθαι σῶμα οὐχ, ὡς οἴεται Κέλσος, ἀπὸ Πανθήρα μοιχεύσαντος καὶ παρθένου μοιχευθείσης–ἐκ γὰρ τοιούτων ἀνάγνων μίξεων ἔδει μᾶλλον ἀνόητόν τινα καὶ ἐπιβλαβῆ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις διδάσκαλον ἀκολασίας καὶ ἀδικίας καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν κακῶν γενέσθαι οὐχὶ δὲ σωφροσύνης καὶ δικαιοσύνης καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν ἀρετῶν–, ἀλλ' ὡς καὶ προφῆται προεῖπον, ἀπὸ παρθένου, κατ' ἐπαγγελίαν σημείου γεννώσης τὸν ἐπώνυμον πράγματος, δηλοῦντος ὅτι ἐπὶ τῇ γενέσει αὐτοῦ μετ' ἀνθρώπων ἔσται θεός.