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does it do? When it sees one basking with pleasure in windless places, and spreading out its folds to the ray of the sun, then indeed secretly inserting a pebble, it prevents the closing, and is found overcoming its lack of strength through ingenuity. This is the wickedness of those who possess neither reason nor speech. But I want you, while emulating the resourcefulness and ingenuity of crabs, to abstain from harming your neighbors. Such is the one who approaches his brother with deceit, and attacks the misfortunes of his neighbors, and revels in the calamities of others. Flee the imitations of the condemned. Be content with what is your own. Poverty with true self-sufficiency is more preferable than any enjoyment for those who are prudent. I would not pass over the crafty and thievish nature of the octopus, which, to whatever rock it may cling at any time, takes on its color. So that many of the fish, swimming unsuspectingly, fall upon the octopus, as if to the rock itself, and become ready prey for the crafty creature. Such in character are those who flatter the ruling powers of the time, and adapt themselves to the needs of each occasion, not standing firm always in the same principle, but easily becoming different people, honoring moderation with the moderate, but being intemperate among the intemperate, changing their opinions to please each person. It is not easy to avoid such people, nor to guard against the harm from them, because their wickedness is deeply contrived and hidden under the pretext of friendship. Such characters the Lord calls ravenous wolves, appearing in sheep's clothing. Flee the versatile and manifold character; but pursue truth, sincerity, simplicity. The serpent is multicolored; for this reason it was also condemned to crawl. The just man is without guile, such as Jacob. For this reason the Lord settles the single-minded in a house. This is the great and wide sea; there are creeping things, which cannot be numbered; small animals with great ones. But yet there is a certain wise and well-ordered arrangement among them. For we not only have things to censure in the fish, but there are also things worthy of imitation. How is it that each species of fish, having distributed to themselves a suitable region, do not encroach upon one another, but live within their own boundaries? No geometer among them has distributed their dwellings; it is not marked off by walls; it is not divided by landmarks; and automatically what is useful has been assigned to each. For this gulf feeds certain species of fish, and that one, others; and those that are plentiful here, are lacking in other places. No mountain rising up with sharp peaks separates them, no river cuts off their passage, but there is a certain law of nature equally and justly allotting to each their habitat according to the need of each. 7.4 But we are not so. Far from it! We who move the ancient landmarks, which our fathers have set. We encroach upon the land, we join house to house and field to field, that we may take something from our neighbor. The sea monsters know the habitat appointed for them by nature, they have taken the sea outside the inhabited regions, the one devoid of islands, where no continent lies opposite on the other side. Therefore it is unnavigable, with neither story nor any need persuading sailors to venture upon it. The sea monsters, having occupied that sea, resembling the greatest of mountains in size, as those who have seen them say, remain within their own boundaries, harming neither the islands nor the coastal cities. Thus, then, each species, as if in certain cities or villages or ancient homelands, makes its abode in the parts of the sea assigned to them. And some of the fish are also migratory, as if being sent abroad from a common council-chamber, they all depart under one signal. For when the appointed time of spawning arrives, migrating from different gulfs, by the common law of nature

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ποιεῖ; Ὅταν ἴδῃ ἐν ἀπηνέμοις χωρίοις μεθ' ἡδονῆς διαθαλπόμενον, καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἀκτῖνα τοῦ ἡλίου τὰς πτύχας ἑαυτοῦ διαπλώσαντα, τότε δὴ λάθρᾳ ψηφῖδα παρεμβαλὼν, διακωλύει τὴν σύμπτυξιν, καὶ εὑρίσκεται τὸ ἐλλεῖπον τῆς δυνάμεως διὰ τῆς ἐπινοίας περιεχόμενος. Αὕτη ἡ κακία τῶν μήτε λόγου μήτε φωνῆς μετεχόντων. Ἐγὼ δέ σε βούλομαι τὸ ποριστικὸν καὶ εὐμήχανον τῶν καρκίνων ζηλοῦντα, τῆς βλάβης τῶν πλησίον ἀπέχεσθαι. Τοιοῦτός ἐστιν ὁ πρὸς τὸν ἀδελφὸν πορευόμενος δόλῳ, καὶ ταῖς τῶν πλησίον ἀκαιρίαις ἐπιτιθέμενος, καὶ ταῖς ἀλλοτρίαις συμφοραῖς ἐντρυφῶν. Φεῦγε τὰς μιμήσεις τῶν κατεγνωσμένων. Τοῖς οἰκείοις ἀρκοῦ. Πενία μετὰ αὐταρκείας ἀληθοῦς, πάσης ἀπολαύσεως τοῖς σωφρονοῦσι προτιμοτέρα. Οὐκ ἂν παρέλθοιμι τὸ τοῦ πολύποδος δολερὸν καὶ ἐπίκλοπον, ὃς ὁποίᾳ ποτ' ἂν ἑκάστοτε πέτρᾳ περιπλακῇ, τὴν ἐκείνης ὑπέρχεται χρόαν. Ὥστε τοὺς πολλοὺς τῶν ἰχθύων ἀπροόπτως νηχομένους τῷ πολύποδι περιπίπτειν, ὡς τῇ πέτρᾳ δῆθεν, καὶ ἕτοιμον γίνεσθαι θήραμα τῷ πανούργῳ. Τοιοῦτοί εἰσι τὸ ἦθος οἱ τὰς ἀεὶ κρατούσας δυναστείας ὑπερχόμενοι, καὶ πρὸς τὰς ἑκάστοτε χρείας μεθαρμοζόμενοι, μὴ ἐπὶ τῆς αὐτῆς ἀεὶ προαιρέσεως βεβηκότες, ἀλλ' ἄλλοι καὶ ἄλλοι ῥᾳδίως γινόμενοι, σωφροσύνην τιμῶντες μετὰ σωφρόνων, ἀκόλαστοι δὲ ἐν ἀκολάστοις, πρὸς τὴν ἑκάστου ἀρέσκειαν τὰς γνώμας μετατιθέμενοι. Οὓς οὐδὲ ῥᾴδιον ἐκκλῖναι, οὐδὲ τὴν ἀπ' αὐτῶν φυλάξασθαι βλάβην, διὰ τὸ ἐν τῷ προσχήματι τῆς φιλίας βαθέως κατεσκευασμένην τὴν πονηρίαν κατακε κρύφθαι. Τὰ τοιαῦτα ἤθη λύκους ἅρπαγας ὀνομάζει ὁ Κύριος, ἐν ἐνδύμασι προβάτων προφαινομένους. Φεῦγε τὸ παντοδαπὸν καὶ πολλαπλοῦν τοῦ τρόπου· δίωκε δὲ ἀλήθειαν, εἰλικρίνειαν, ἁπλότητα. Ὁ ὄφις ποικίλος· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ἕρπειν κατεδικάσθη. Ὁ δίκαιος ἄπλαστος, ὁποῖος ὁ Ἰακώβ. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο Κατοικίζει Κύριος μονοτρόπους ἐν οἴκῳ. Αὕτη ἡ θάλασσα ἡ μεγάλη καὶ εὐρύχωρος· ἐκεῖ ἑρπετὰ, ὧν οὐκ ἔστιν ἀριθμός· ζῷα μικρὰ μετὰ μεγάλων. Ἀλλ' ὅμως σοφή τίς ἐστι παρ' αὐτοῖς καὶ εὔτακτος διακόσμησις. Οὐ γὰρ μόνον κατηγορεῖν ἔχομεν τῶν ἰχθύων, ἀλλ' ἔστιν ἃ καὶ μιμήσασθαι ἄξιον. Πῶς τὰ γένη τῶν ἰχθύων ἕκαστα τὴν ἐπιτηδείαν ἑαυτοῖς διανειμάμενα χώραν, οὐκ ἐπεμβαίνει ἀλ λήλοις, ἀλλὰ τοῖς οἰκείοις ὅροις ἐνδιατρίβει; Οὐδεὶς γεωμέτρης παρ' αὐτοῖς κατένειμε τὰς οἰκήσεις· οὐ τείχεσι περιγέγραπται· οὐχ ὁροθεσίοις διῄρηται· καὶ αὐτομάτως ἑκάστῳ τὸ χρήσιμον ἀποτέτακται. Οὗτος μὲν γὰρ ὁ κόλπος τάδε τινὰ γένη τῶν ἰχθύων βόσκει, κἀκεῖνος ἕτερα· καὶ τὰ ὧδε πληθύνοντα, ἄπορα παρ' ἑτέροις. Οὐδὲν ὄρος ὀξείαις κορυφαῖς ἀνατεταμένον διίστησιν, οὐ ποταμὸς τὴν διάβασιν ἀποτέμνεται, ἀλλὰ νόμος τίς ἐστι φύσεως ἴσως καὶ δικαίως κατὰ τὸ ἑκάστου χρειῶδες τὴν δίαιταν ἑκάστοις ἀποκληρῶν. 7.4 Ἀλλ' οὐχ ἡμεῖς τοιοῦτοι. Πόθεν; Οἵγε μεταίρομεν ὅρια αἰώνια, ἃ ἔθεντο οἱ πατέρες ἡμῶν. Παρατεμνόμεθα γῆν, συνάπτομεν οἰκίαν πρὸς οἰκίαν καὶ ἀγρὸν πρὸς ἀγρὸν, ἵνα τοῦ πλησίον ἀφελώμεθά τι. Οἶδε τὰ κήτη τὴν ἀφωρισ μένην αὐτοῖς παρὰ τῆς φύσεως δίαιταν, τὴν ἔξω τῶν οἰκουμένων χωρίων κατείληφε θάλασσαν, τὴν ἐρήμην νήσων, ᾗ μηδεμία πρὸς τὸ ἀντιπέρας ἀντικαθέστηκεν ἤπειρος. ∆ιόπερ ἄπλους ἐστὶν, οὔτε ἱστορίας, οὔτε τινὸς χρείας κατατολμᾶν αὐτῆς τοὺς πλωτῆρας ἀναπειθούσης. Ἐκείνην καταλαβόντα τὰ κήτη, τοῖς μεγίστοις τῶν ὀρῶν κατὰ τὸ μέγεθος ἐοικότα, ὡς οἱ τεθεαμένοι φασὶ, μένει ἐν τοῖς οἰκείοις ὅροις, μήτε ταῖς νήσοις, μήτε ταῖς παραλίοις πόλεσι λυμαινόμενα. Οὕτω μὲν οὖν ἕκαστον γένος, ὥσπερ πόλεσιν ἢ κώμαις τισὶν ἢ πατρίσιν ἀρχαίαις, τοῖς ἀποτε ταγμένοις αὐτοῖς τῆς θαλάσσης μέρεσιν ἐναυλίζεται. Ἤδη δέ τινες καὶ ἀποδημητικοὶ τῶν ἰχθύων, ὥσπερ ἀπὸ κοινοῦ βουλευτηρίου πρὸς τὴν ὑπερορίαν στελλόμενοι, ὑφ' ἑνὶ συνθήματι πάντες ἀπαίρουσιν. Ἐπειδὰν γὰρ ὁ τεταγμένος καιρὸς τῆς κυήσεως καταλάβῃ, ἄλλοι ἀπ' ἄλλων κόλπων μεταναστάντες, τῷ κοινῷ τῆς φύσεως νόμῳ