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will overpower and, having thrust them aside with his elbow, bind or even slaughter them, will he not be terribly destroyed by them? For if, out of pride and arrogance, he casts away his weapons, reclines and falls asleep, despising them, has he not willingly given himself over to the slavery of those wretched men? Will not two or even one of them, coming upon him and binding him, hold him as his tributary and carry him away as a slave, or even slay him with a sword, making him a laughing-stock to all men? And will not everyone say that the slaughter of that negligent and arrogant, (123) or rather, foolish and senseless man, was just? For he will not be so praiseworthy for his struggle and victory against the stronger ones, as he will be blameworthy and detestable and rejected, so to speak, and a slave or dead, because of the defeat inflicted on him by that one.

Thus, my beloved brothers, it will not profit us at all to have mastered the great passions, if we are overcome by the lesser ones. What am I saying? For I will say the same things again and I will not cease from saying them. If we guard against the defilement of the flesh, if we abstain from envy and great anger and theft, if we master sodomy, pederasty, effeminacy, and all licentiousness, but are enslaved by gluttony or much wine or sleep or sloth or carelessness, by contradiction and disobedience and murmuring, like slaves and rogues, what will be the benefit to us from abstinence from evil deeds alone? And if we secretly take pieces of bread and eat them, or take hold of something else from somewhere, and these without the blessing of our superior, who would say that we are free from sin? And if we willingly absent ourselves from the assemblies, without great illness or some necessary need, and if, while guarding the fruits, we do not practice self-control over them - for what else was it that cast Adam out of paradise and delivered him to death? what will we gain from avoiding the things mentioned? For not even if someone has a wound covering his whole body, and then, having been healed of the wound almost completely by many medicines, can he be called healthy, if he bears a small hole of a wound equal to a needle's, but he who has even made the bruises of the wound disappear, if possible, (124) he will rightly be called healthy by all. Let us not, therefore, consider these things small, but hearing that others were punished and severely condemned for them, let us with all our power flee the harm from them. And let no one, beloved, persist hereafter in any of these things or in any other passion, but abstaining from now on, let him repent, making a beginning, and let him not cease from confessing his own defeat, until the enemy who suggests these things to him, being put to shame, ceases from warring against him. Let not envy master us, nor anger or wrath and clamor, from which foul language and insults are accustomed to be born, lest vainglory and pride and conceit, having taken hold of us, drag us down to the depth of Hades, but banishing all these things far from ourselves, let us acquire the virtues in their place.

Perhaps someone will say: "Since the aforesaid passions are so many and almost innumerable, who is able to investigate all these things and to abstain from all of them, so that one may not be mastered by any of them?". I, by the grace of Christ, will teach you. He who always considers his own sins and continually foresees the judgment to come and repents and weeps fervently, this man overcomes and conquers all things at once, being lifted up by repentance, so that not even one of the aforesaid passions is able to reach and touch his soul that walks on air. But if our mind, winged by repentance and tears and by the spiritual humility born from these, is not raised to the height of dispassion, we will not be able to become free from all the things mentioned, but at one time to be pricked by this passion, at another by another, and to be devoured as by wild beasts

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κρατήσει καί ἐξαγκωνίσας δεσμεύσει ἤ καί κατασφάξει αὐτούς, οὐ δεινῶς ἀναιρεθήσεται ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν; Εἰ γάρ ἐξ ὑπερηφανίας καί ἀλαζονείας ῥίψας τά ὅπλα, ἀνακλιθείς καί ἀναπεσών ὑπνώσει καταφρονήσας αὐτῶν, οὐχί ἑκουσίως ἑαυτόν εἰς δουλείαν τῶν ταλαιπώρων ἐκείνων ἐξέδωκεν; Οὐχί ἐπελθόντες οἱ δύο ἤ καί εἷς ἐξ αὐτῶν δεσμήσας αὐτόν, ὑπόσπονδον ἑαυτοῦ τοῦτον ἕξει καί δοῦλον ἄρας οἰχήσεται ἤ καί ἀνελών αὐτόν μαχαίρᾳ, ποιήσει πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις γενέσθαι τοῦτον εἰς καταγέλωτα; Οὐχί δέ πάντες ἐροῦσι δικαίαν γενέσθαι τοῦ ἀμελοῦς ἐκείνου καί ἀλαζόνος, (123) μᾶλλον δέ ἄφρονος καί ἀναισθήτου σφαγήν; Οὐ γάρ τοσοῦτον πάντως ἐπαινετός ἔσται τῆς πρός τούς ἰσχυροτέρους πάλης καί νίκης ἕνεκα, ὅσον ψεκτός καί βδελυκτός καί ἀπόβλητος, ἵν᾿ εἴπω, καί δοῦλος ἤ νεκρός, διά τήν ἐκ τοῦ ἑνός ἐκείνυ γενομένην ἦτταν αὐτῷ.

Οὕτως οὖν, ἀδελφοί μου ἀγαπητοί, οὐδέν ἡμᾶς οὐ μή ὠφελήσῃ τῶν μεγάλων παθῶν κρατήσαντας, ἐάν ὑπό τῶν ἐλασσόνων κυριευώμεθα. Οἷόν τι λέγω; Τά γάρ αὐτά καί πάλιν ἐρῶ καί λέγων οὐ παύσομαι. Ἐάν τόν τῆς σαρκός μολυσμόν φυλαξώμεθα, ἐάν ἀπό φθόνου καί μεγάλης ὀργῆς καί κλοπῆς ἀποσχώμεθα, ἐάν ἀρσενοκοιτίας, παιδοφθορίας, μαλακίας καί πάσης ἀσελγείας κρατήσωμεν, γαστριμαργίᾳ δέ ἤ πολλῷ οἴνῳ ἤ ὕπνῳ ἤ ὀκνηρίᾳ ἤ ῥᾳθυμίᾳ, ἀντιλογίᾳ τε καί ἀνηκοῒᾳ καί γογγυσμῷ, οἷα δή δοῦλοι καί μαστιγίαι δουλούμεθα, τί ἡμῖν ἔσται τό ὄφελος ἐκ τῆς τῶν πονηρῶν ἔργων καί μόνων ἀποχῆς; Εἰ δέ καί λάθρα ἄρτου τεμάχια αἵρομεν καί ἐσθίομεν ἤ ἄλλο τί ποθεν ἐπιλαβόμενοι καί ταῦτα ἄνευ εὐχῆς τοῦ προεστῶτος ἡμῶν, τίς ἄν εἴπῃ ἐλευθέρους ἡμᾶς ἁμαρτίας; Εἰ δέ καί τῶν συνάξεων, δίχα μεγάλης ἀσθενείας ἤ ἀναγκαίας χρείας τινός, ἑκουσίως ἀπολιμπανόμεθα, εἰ δέ καί τους καρπούς φυλάσσοντες ἐξ αὐτῶν οὐκ ἐγκρατευόμεθα - καί γάρ τί ἄλλο ἦν ὅ τόν Ἀδάμ ἐκ τοῦ παραδείσου ἐξέβαλε καί τῷ θανάτῳ παρέδωκε; τί κερδανοῦμεν ἐκ τῆς τῶν εἰρημένων ἀποφυγῆς; Οὐδέ γάρ εἰ ὁλόσωμόν τις πληγήν ἔχων, εἶτα διά φαρμάκων πολλῶν ἰαθείς παρά μικρόν τήν πληγήν, δύναται ὑγιής λέγεσθαι, εἰ μικράν ὀπήν ἴσην ῥαφίδος ἐπιφέρεται τραύματος, ἀλλ᾿ ὁ καί τούς μώλωπας, εἰ δυνατόν, τοῦ τραύματος ἐξαφανίσας, (124) ἐκεῖνος παρά πάντων εἰκότως λεχθήσεται ὑγιής. Μή οὖν ταῦτα μικρά λογιζώμεθα, ἀλλά διά ταῦτα τιμωρηθέντας ἄλλους ἀκούοντες καί καταδικασθέντας σφοδρῶς, ἡμεῖς τήν ἐξ αὐτῶν βλάβην πάσῃ δυνάμει ἐκφύγωμεν. Καί μηδείς, ἀγαπητοί, ἔν τινι τούτων ἤ πάθει ἑτέρῳ τοῦ λοιποῦ ἐπιμείνῃ, ἀλλ᾿ ἀπό τοῦ νῦν ἀποσχόμενος μετανοησάτω βαλών ἀρχήν, καί μή ἀποστῇ ἐξαγγέλλων τήν ἧτταν ἑαυτοῦ, ἕως ἄν αἰσχυνθείς ὁ ὑποβάλλων αὐτῷ ἐχθρός παύσηται τοῦ αὐτόν πολεμεῖν. Μή φθόνος κυριεύσῃ ἡμῶν, μή ὀργή ἤ θυμός καί κραυγή, ἐξ ὧν αἰσχρολογίαι καί ὕβρεις εἰώθασι τίκτεσθαι, μή κενοδοξία καί ὑπερηφανία καί οἴησις κατασχοῦσαι ἡμᾶς εἰς βυθόν ᾅδου καθέλξωσιν, ἀλλά ταῦτα πάντα πόρρω ἐξορίσαντες ἑαυτῶν, κτησώμεθα τάς ἀρετάς ἀντ᾿ αὐτῶν.

Ἴσως δέ τις ἐρεῖ ὅτι· "Τοσούτων ὄντων καί ἀναριθμήτων παρά μικρόν τῶν εἰρημένων παθῶν, τίς δύναται ταῦτα ἐρευνᾶν πάντα καί ἐκ τούτων πάντων ἀπέχεσθαι, ἵνα μή ὑπ᾿ οὐδενός τούτων κυριευθῇ τις; ". Ἐγώ χάριτι Χριστοῦ διδάξω ὑμᾶς. Ὁ ἀεί ἐννοῶν τάς ἑαυτοῦ ἁμαρτίας καί τήν μέλλουσαν κρίσιν διηνεκῶς προορῶν καί μετανοῶν καί κλαίων θερμῶς, οὗτος ὑπεραίνει πάντα ὁμοῦ καί ὑπερνικᾷ ὑπό τῆς μετανοίας ὑψούμενος, ὡς μή δύνασθαι ἕν καί μόνον τῶν εἰρημένων φθάσαι καί καθάψασθαι αὐτοῦ τῆς ἀεροβατούσης ψυχῆς. Εἰ δέ μή ἡ διάνοια ἡμῶν ὑπό τῆς μετανοίας και τῶν δακρύων καί ὑπό τῆς ἐγγινομένης ἐκ τούτων πνευματικῆς ταπεινώσεως πτερωθεῖσα εἰς ὕψος ἀπαθείας ἀρθῇ, οὐκ ἄν ἐλεύθεροι τῶν εἰρημένων ἁπάντων γενέσθαι ἰσχύσωμεν, ἀλλά ποτέ μέν ὑπό τοῦδε τοῦ πάθους, ποτέ δέ ὑφ᾿ ἑτέρου κεντᾶσθαι καί ὡς ὑπό θηρίων ἀγρίων κατεσθίεσθαι