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remaining, as in the case of seeds, it happens thus that the drawing of its own is accomplished? So that from all things it is possible to learn that the proclamation of the resurrection contains nothing beyond what is known by experience. And yet we have been silent about the most familiar of our examples, I mean the very first cause of our composition. For who does not know the wonder-working of nature, what the mother's womb receives, what it produces? Or 229 do you not see how simple in a way, and of like parts, is that which is cast into the bowels as the cause of the body's composition? And the variety of the compound being constructed, what account will describe it? And who, not having learned such a thing from common nature, would have thought it possible that what happens, that that small and next-to-nothing thing is the beginning of so great a reality? And I say great, not only looking at the formation according to the body, but what is worthy of wonder before this, I mean the soul itself, and the things contemplated concerning it.

CHAPTER 28.

Against those who say that souls pre-exist bodies, or the opposite

that bodies were formed before souls. In which there is also a refutation of the myth-making concerning transmigrations. For perhaps it is not outside our proposed treatise to examine the debated point in the churches concerning soul and body. For it seems good to some of those before us, for whom the discourse *On First Principles* was written, to say that souls pre-existed like some populace in a special polity. And that there too were set forth the examples of both vice and virtue. And that the soul, while it remained in the good, would remain inexperienced in the entanglement with the body; but if it should fall away from the participation of the good, it would slip down to this life here, and thus come to be in a body. But others, paying attention to the order of man's creation according to Moses, say that the soul is second to the body in time. Since God first took dust from the earth and formed man; then he animated him by breathing into him. And by this argument they show the flesh to be more honored than the soul, the thing pre-formed than the thing introduced afterwards.

For they say that the soul came to be for the sake of the body, so that the formed thing might not be breathless and motionless. But everything that comes to be for the sake of something is in every way of less honor than that for whose sake it comes to be. As the Gospel says, that the soul is more than food, and the body than clothing, because the latter exist for the sake of the former. For the soul is not for the sake of food, nor were bodies constructed for the sake of clothing, but Since, therefore, reason finds fault in both suppositions, both of those who mythologize that souls live beforehand in some private state, and of those who think they are constructed after the bodies; it would be necessary to overlook nothing that is said in the doctrines as unexamined. But to scrutinize accurately the arguments on either side, and to uncover all the absurdities inherent in the suppositions, would require much time and argument; but having examined 232 each of the stated points in brief, as far as is possible, we will again take up our proposed topics. Those who adhere to the former argument, and dogmatize that the life of souls is older than the life in the flesh, do not seem to me to be pure from the Hellenic bites, from the myths they tell about reincarnation. For if one should examine it accurately, he will find their argument necessarily dragged down to this point, which they say one of their wise men said, that he himself was a man, and had clothed himself in the body of a woman, and had flown with birds, and grew as a bush, and had obtained the life in the water. Not far from the truth, in my judgment, was he carried, who concerning himself

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μένων, καθὼς ἐπὶ τῶν σπερμάτων, συμβαίνει οὕτως γίνεσθαι τὴν τοῦ οἰκείου ὁλκήν; Ὥστε ἐξ ἁπάντων δυνατὸν εἶναι μαθεῖν, μηδὲν ἔξω τῶν τῇ πείρᾳ γνωρι ζομένων τὸ κήρυγμα περιέχειν τῆς ἀναστάσεως. Καί τοιγε τὸ γνωριμώτατον τῶν ἡμετέρων ἐσιωπήσαμεν, αὐτὴν λέγω τὴν πρώτην τῆς συστάσεως ἡμῶν ἀφορ μήν. Τίς γὰρ οὐκ οἶδε τὴν θαυματοποιίαν τῆς φύσεως, τί λαβοῦσα ἡ μητρῴα νηδὺς, τί ἀπεργάζεται; Ἢ 229 οὐχ ὁρᾷς ὅπως ἀπλοῦν τρόπον τινὰ, καὶ ὁμοιομερές ἐστι τὸ εἰς ἀφορμὴν τῆς συστάσεως τοῦ σώματος τοῖς σπλάγχνοις καταβαλλόμενον; τὴν δὲ ποικιλίαν τοῦ κατασκευαζομένου συγκρίματος τίς λόγος ἐκδιηγή σεται; Τίς δ' ἂν μὴ τῇ κοινῇ φύσει τὸ τοιοῦτον μα θὼν, δυνατὸν ἡγήσαιτο τὸ γινόμενον, ὅτι τὸ βραχύ τε καὶ ἀντ' οὐδενὸς ἐκεῖνο τοῦ τοσούτου πράγματός ἐστιν ἀρχή; μέγα δέ φημι, οὐ μόνον εἰς τὴν κατὰ τὸ σῶμα βλέπων διάπλασιν, ἀλλ' ὃ πρὸ τούτου θαυμάζειν ἄξιον, αὐτὴν λέγω τὴν ψυχὴν, καὶ τὰ περὶ αὐτὴν θεωρούμενα.

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ ΚΗʹ.

Πρὸς τοὺς λέγοντας προϋφεστάναι τὰς ψυχὰς τῶν σωμάτων, ἢ τὸ ἔμπαλιν

πρὸ τῶν ψυ χῶν διαπεπλᾶσθαι τὰ σώματα. Ἐν ᾧ τις καὶ ἀνατροπὴ τῆς κατὰ τὰς μετεμψυχώσεις μυθο ποιίας. Τάχα γὰρ οὐκ ἔξω τῆς προκειμένης ἡμῖν πραγμα τείας ἐστὶ, τὸ διεξετάσαι τὸ ἀμφιβαλλόμενον ἐν ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις περὶ ψυχῆς τε καὶ σώματος. Τοῖς μὲν γὰρ τῶν πρὸ ἡμῶν δοκεῖ, οἷς ὁ Περὶ τῶν ἀρχῶν ἐπρα γματεύθη λόγος, καθάπερ τινὰ δῆμον ἐν ἰδιαζούσῃ πο λιτείᾳ τὰς ψυχὰς προϋφεστάναι λέγειν. Προκεῖσθαι δὲ κἀκεῖ τά τε τῆς κακίας καὶ τῆς ἀρετῆς ὑποδείγματα. Καὶ παραμένουσαν μὲν ἐν τῷ καλῷ τὴν ψυχὴν, τῆς πρὸς τὸ σῶμα συμπλοκῆς μένειν ἀπείρατον· εἰ δὲ καὶ ἀποῤῥυῇ τῆς τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ μετουσίας, πρὸς τὸν τῇδε βίον κατολισθαίνειν, καὶ οὕτως ἐν σώματι γίνε σθαι. Ἕτεροι δὲ τῇ κατὰ τὸν Μωσέα τάξει τῆς κατα σκευῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου προσέχοντες, δευτέραν εἶναι τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ σώματος κατὰ τὸν χρόνον φασίν. Ἐπειδὴ πρῶτον λαβὼν ὁ Θεὸς χοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς, ἔπλασε τὸν ἄνθρωπον· εἶθ' οὕτως ἐψύχωσε διὰ τοῦ ἐμφυσήματος. Καὶ τούτῳ τῷ λόγῳ προτιμοτέραν ἀποδεικνύουσι τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν σάρκα, τῆς ἐπεισκρινο μένης τὴν προδιαπεπλασμένην.

Λέγουσι γὰρ διὰ τὸ σῶμα τὴν ψυχὴν γενέσθαι, ὡς ἂν μὴ ἄπνουν τε καὶ ἀκίνητον εἴη τὸ πλάσμα. Πᾶν δὲ τὸ διά τι γινόμενον, ἀτιμότερον πάντως ἐστὶ τοῦ δι' ὃ γίνεται. Καθὼς τὸ Εὐαγγέλιον λέγει, ὅτι πλεῖόν ἐστι τῆς τροφῆς ἡ ψυχὴ, καὶ τὸ σῶμα τοῦ ἐνδύματος, διότι τούτων ἕνεκεν ἐκεῖνα. Οὐ γὰρ διὰ τὴν τροφὴν ἡ ψυχὴ, οὐδὲ τοῦ ἐνδύματος χάριν κατεσκευάσθη τὰ σώματα, ἀλλὰ Ἐπεὶ οὖν ἐν ἀμφοτέραις ταῖς ὑπολήψεσιν ὁ λόγος ὑπαίτιος, τῶν τε προβιοτεύειν τὰς ψυχὰς ἐν ἰδίᾳ τινὶ καταστάσει μυθολογούντων, καὶ τῶν ὑστέρας τῶν σωμάτων κατασκευάζεσθαι νομιζόντων· ἀναγκαῖον ἂν εἴη μηδὲν τῶν λεγομένων ἐν τοῖς δόγμασι περιιδεῖν ἀνεξέταστον. Ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν δι' ἀκριβείας τοὺς ἑκατέ ρωθεν γυμνάζειν λόγους, καὶ πάσας ἐκκαλύπτειν τὰς ἐγκειμένας ἀτοπίας ταῖς ὑπολήψεσι, μακροῦ ἂν δέοιτο καὶ χρόνου καὶ λόγου· δι' ὀλίγων δὲ, καθώς ἐστι δυνατὸν, ἑκάτερον τῶν εἰρημένων ἐπισκεψάμε 232 νοι, πάλιν τῶν προκειμένων ἀντιληψόμεθα. Οἱ τῷ προτέρῳ παριστάμενοι λόγῳ, καὶ πρεσβυτέραν τῆς ἐν σαρκὶ ζωῆς τὴν πολιτείαν τῶν ψυχῶν δογματίζον τες, οὔ μοι δοκοῦσι τῶν Ἑλληνικῶν καθαρεύειν δηγμάτων, τῶν περὶ τῆς μετενσωματώσεως αὐτοῖς μεμυθολογημένων. Εἰ γάρ τις ἀκριβῶς ἐξετάσειε, πρὸς τοῦτο κατὰ πᾶσαν ἀνάγκην τὸν λόγον αὐτοῖς εὑρήσει κατασυρόμενον, ὅν φασί τινα τῶν παρ' ἐκείνοις σοφῶν εἰρηκέναι, ὅτι ἀνὴρ γέγονεν ὁ αὐτὸς, καὶ γυναικὸς σῶμα μετημφιάσατο, καὶ μετ' ὀρνέων ἀνέπτη, καὶ θάμνος ἔφυ, καὶ τὸν ἔνυδρον ἔλαχε βίον. Οὐ πόῤῥω τῆς ἀληθείας κατά γε τὴν ἐμὴν κρίσιν φερόμενος, ὁ περὶ αὐτοῦ