42

and time and labor and knowledge and care, this for the God of all is His will; "For all that He willed, the Lord has done in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the abysses", 4.53 as the sacred words say. He willed not all that He could, but as much as He deemed sufficient. For it was easy for Him to create even ten thousand and twenty thousand worlds, if indeed to will is the easiest of all things to be done. For even to us, to will is the easiest of all things, but the power does not accompany our will; but for the God of all, whatever is willed is possible; for the power is united with the will; but nevertheless He did not measure creation by His power, but created as much as He willed. 4.54 And since of the things that have come into being some are perceptible and others intelligible, and some are earthly and others super-celestial, of necessity He also made creatures, some perceptible, others intelligible; and to the intelligible He allotted the aether and the heaven, but to the perceptible 4.55 He has given the earth and the sea as a dwelling. But since some of the intelligible beings turned aside to evil, they were rightly driven out of the heavenly regions, and He allotted to them their sojourn in the air and on the earth, not so that they might accomplish whatever they attempt to plot against men—for the guard of the angels surely restrains them from doing this—, but so that by their change of place they might learn what great evils wickedness causes. 4.56 And since He distinguished the perceptible kinds in two, and made some rational and others irrational, He subjected the nature of the irrational to the rational creature. Nevertheless, some of these act tyrannically and rebel against their rule and try to plot against it; and since their rulers also do this very thing, and being honored with reason, they rage against their maker, for this very reason they too are rebelled against, so that through what they suffer they might learn how wretched and utterly wicked it is to transgress 4.57 the order and fearlessly to overstep the established boundaries. And it is possible to see the inanimate elements keeping these boundaries. For the sea, though fanned by storms and churned up and pushed toward the dry land, is ashamed of the sand and does not endure to pass the fixed boundaries; but, just as a charging horse is checked by a bridle, so it, beholding the unwritten law of God on the shores, goes backward, as if constrained by reins. 4.58 Thus the rivers run as they were ordered from the beginning, and the springs gush forth, and the wells supply men's need, and the seasons of the year succeed one another rhythmically, 4.59 and honoring equality they do not aim at having more. This law both days and nights continually observe, and neither do they boast when they are lengthened nor are they vexed when they are shortened, but borrowing time from one another, they pay back the debt again without dispute, not contending with one another, but without strife both giving and receiving. 4.60 And those things likewise show the wisdom and power of the creator. For neither the earth, in so many thousands of years being plowed and sown and planted and nourishing the fruits and being trodden on and mined and rained on and snowed on and burned, has suffered any diminution or offers lesser fruits to the farmers, nor the sea, from which the clouds are continually drawing up the nature of the waters, and travailing with rain and providing it to the earth, has ever appeared smaller or become hollower or left behind the shores which it formerly covered, nor indeed has it increased 4.61 in turn, though receiving the rivers flowing into it from all sides. And I do not say, whence then the currents of the rivers are borne—for this account is altogether ineffable to me; but how the sun is constituted by nature to consume the moist substance, is very easy for one who wishes to understand. For indeed it dries the marshes and consumes the bodies of water and parches our bodies, and moreover it is possible to see the rivers diminishing, when it leaves the 4.62 southern parts and runs toward the northern parts and produces the summer. For this reason also the Nile

42

καὶ χρόνος καὶ πόνος καὶ ἐπιστήμη καὶ ἐπιμέλεια, τοῦτο τῷ Θεῷ τῶν ὅλων ἡ βούλησις· "Πάντα γάρ, ὅσα ἠθέλησεν, ὁ Κύριος ἐποίησεν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐν τῇ γῇ, ἐν ταῖς θαλάσσαις καὶ ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἀβύσσοις", 4.53 ᾗ φασιν οἱ ἱεροὶ λόγοι. Ἠθέλησε δὲ οὐχ ὅσα ἠδύνατο, ἀλλ' ὅσαπερ ἀρκεῖν ἐδοκίμασεν. Ῥᾴδιον μὲν γὰρ ἦν αὐτῷ καὶ μυρίους καὶ δισμυρίους δημιουργῆσαι κόσμους, εἴπερ δὴ ἄρα τὸ βουλη θῆναι ῥᾷστον ἁπάντων τῶν ποιητέων ἐστίν. Καὶ γὰρ ἡμῖν τὸ βουληθῆναι πάντων ἐστὶν εὐμαρέστατον, ἀλλ' οὐ ξυμπαρομαρτεῖ τῇ γε ἡμετέρᾳ βουλήσει ἡ δύναμις· τῷ δὲ Θεῷ τῶν ὅλων ὅσα βουλητὰ δυνατά· τῇ βουλήσει γὰρ ἡ δύναμις ἥνωται· ἀλλ' ὅμως οὐ τῇ δυνάμει τὴν κτίσιν ἐμέτρησεν, ἀλλ' ὅσαπερ ἠθέλησεν ἐδη 4.54 μιούργησεν. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ τῶν γεγονότων τὰ μέν ἐστιν αἰσθητά, τὰ δὲ νοητά, καὶ τὰ μὲν ἐπίγεια, τὰ δὲ ὑπερουράνια, ἀναγκαίως καὶ ζῷα πεποίηκε τὰ μὲν αἰσθητά, τὰ δὲ νοητά· καὶ τοῖς μὲν νοη τοῖς τὸν αἰθέρα καὶ τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀπεκλήρωσε, τοῖς δὲ αἰσθητοῖς 4.55 τὴν γῆν δέδωκε καὶ τὴν θάλατταν ἐνδιαίτημα. Ἐπειδὴ δὲ τῶν νοητῶν τινες εἰς κακίαν ἀπέκλιναν, ἐξηλάθησαν εἰκότως τῶν οὐρανίων χώρων, καὶ τὴν ἐν τῷ ἀέρι καὶ τῇ γῇ διατριβὴν αὐτοῖς ἀπεκλήρωσεν, οὐχ ἵνα ἐπιτελῶσιν, ὅσαπερ ἂν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἐπιβουλεύειν ἐπιχειρῶσιν-ἐπέχει γὰρ δήπου τοῦτο ποιεῖν ἡ τῶν ἀγγέλων φρουρά-, ἀλλ' ἵνα τῇ μεταστάσει μάθωσιν, ἡλίκων πρόξενος ἡ πονηρία κακῶν. 4.56 Ἐπειδὴ δὲ διχῇ τὰ αἰσθητὰ διέκρινε γένη καὶ τὰ μὲν λογικὰ πεποίηκε, τὰ δὲ ἄλογα, ὑπέταξε τῷ λογικῷ ζῴῳ τῶν ἀλόγων τὴν φύσιν. Τυραννεῖ δὲ ὅμως τινὰ τούτων καὶ στασιάζει πρὸς τὴν ἀρχὴν καὶ ἐπιβουλεύειν πειρᾶται· ἐπειδὴ δὲ καὶ οἱ τούτων ἄρχον τες ταὐτὸ τοῦτο δρῶσι, καὶ λόγῳ τιμηθέντες κατὰ τοῦ πεποιηκότος λυττῶσι, διὰ δὴ τοῦτο καὶ αὐτοὶ στασιάζονται, ὅπως δι' ὧν πάσχουσι μάθωσιν, ὡς σχέτλιον καὶ παμπόνηρον τὸ παραβαίνειν 4.57 τὴν τάξιν καὶ τοὺς κειμένους ὅρους ἀδεῶς ὑπερβαίνειν. Τούτους δὲ τοὺς ὅρους ἔστιν ἰδεῖν τὰ ἄψυχα στοιχεῖα φυλάττοντα. Καὶ γὰρ ἡ θάλαττα ταῖς καταιγίσι ῥιπιζομένη καὶ κυκωμένη καὶ πρὸς τὴν χέρσον ὠθουμένη τὴν ψάμμον αἰσχύνεται καὶ τοὺς πεπηγότας ὅρους παρελθεῖν οὐκ ἀνέχεται· ἀλλά, καθάπερ ἵππος ὁρμῶν ἀνα χαιτίζεται χαλινῷ, οὕτως ἐκείνη, τὸν ἄγραφον τοῦ Θεοῦ νόμον ἐν ταῖς ἀκταῖς θεωμένη, εἰς τοὐπίσω χωρεῖ, οἷόν τισιν ἡνίαις ἀγχο 4.58 μένη. Οὕτως οἱ ποταμοὶ τρέχουσιν ὥσπερ ἐτάχθησαν ἐξ ἀρχῆς, καὶ ἀναβλύζουσιν αἱ πηγαί, καὶ τὰ φρέατα χορηγεῖ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τὴν χρείαν, καὶ αἱ τοῦ ἔτους ὧραι ἀλλήλας εὐρύθμως διαδέχονται, 4.59 καὶ τὴν ἰσότητα τιμῶσαι τοῦ πλείονος οὐκ ἐφίενται. Τοῦτον τὸν νόμον καὶ ἡμέραι καὶ νύκτες διατηροῦσιν ἐνδελεχῶς, καὶ οὔτε μηκυνόμεναι μεγαλαυχοῦσιν οὔτε σμικρυνόμεναι δυσχεραίνουσιν, ἀλλὰ παρ' ἀλλήλων τὸν χρόνον κιχρώμεναι πάλιν ἀναμφισβητή τως τὸ χρέος ἐκτίνουσιν, οὐ ζυγομαχοῦσαι πρὸς ἀλλήλας, ἀλλ' ἔριδος δίχα καὶ παρέχουσαι καὶ λαμβάνουσαι. 4.60 Κἀκεῖνα δὲ ὁμοίως τοῦ δημιουργοῦ τὴν σοφίαν ἐπιδεικνύει καὶ δύναμιν. Οὔτε γὰρ ἡ γῆ ἐν τοσαύταις δὴ χιλιάσιν ἐτῶν ἀρουμένη καὶ σπειρομένη καὶ φυτευομένη καὶ τρέφουσα τοὺς καρποὺς καὶ πατουμένη καὶ μεταλλευομένη καὶ ὑομένη καὶ νιφομένη καὶ φλεγο μένη, μείωσίν τινα πέπονθεν ἢ τοὺς καρποὺς ἐλάττους τοῖς γεωρ γοῦσι προσφέρει, οὔτε ἡ θάλαττα, τῶν νεφῶν διηνεκῶς ἐκεῖθεν ἀνιμωμένων τῶν ὑδάτων τὴν φύσιν, καὶ τὸν ὑετὸν ὠδινόντων καὶ παρεχόντων τῇ γῇ, ἐλάττων ὤφθη πώποτε ἢ κοιλοτέρα ἐγένετο ἢ τὰς ἠϊόνας κατέλιπεν, ἃς πάλαι κατέκρυπτεν, οὔτε μὴν ηὐξήθη 4.61 πάλιν, τοὺς πανταχόθεν εἰσρέοντας ποταμοὺς δεχομένη. Καὶ οὔτι λέγω, πόθεν δὴ ἄρα τῶν ποταμῶν τὰ ῥεύματα φέρεται-ἄρρητος γὰρ δή μοι πάμπαν καὶ οὗτος ὁ λόγος· ὅπως δὲ καὶ ὁ ἥλιος τὴν ὑγρὰν οὐσίαν πέφυκεν ἀναλίσκειν, εὐπετὲς μάλα τῷ βουλομένῳ καταμαθεῖν. Καὶ γὰρ δὴ ξηραίνει τὰ τέλματα καὶ τὰ τῶν ὑδάτων ἀναλίσκει ξυστήματα καὶ τὰ ἡμέτερα σώματα διαυαίνει, καὶ μέντοι τοὺς ποταμοὺς σμικρυνομένους ἔστιν ἰδεῖν, ὅταν οὗτος ἀφεὶς τὰ 4.62 νότια ἐπὶ τὰ βόρεια μέρη τρέχῃ καὶ τὸ θέρος ἐργάζηται. ∆ιά τοι τοῦτο καὶ τὸν Νεϊλόν