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then, when the soul is prostrate. What is the benefit of food and drink? For just as when the body lies dead, a brightly colored garment worn around it is of no help, so also a brightly colored body clothes a dead soul to no benefit. For when its discourse is always about cooks, about table-setters, about bakers, and it utters nothing pious, is it not dead? For what is a human being, let us see. Those from the outside say, a rational, mortal animal, capable of intellect and knowledge; but let us not establish the definition from them, but from where? From the divine Scripture. Where, then, has Scripture set forth a definition of a human being? Hear what it says: There was a man, righteous, true, God-fearing, abstaining from every evil thing. This is a human being. And again another says: A great thing is a human being, and an honorable thing is a merciful man. But those who are not such, even if they possess intellect, even if they are capable of knowledge a myriad of times, Scripture knows not to call them human beings, but dogs, and horses, and vipers, and snakes, and foxes, and wolves, and whatever is more dishonorable than these beasts; if, therefore, this is a human being, the one who lives extravagantly is not a human being. For how can one be, who cares for none of these things? For it is not possible for extravagance and sobriety to come together; these things are destructive of one another. This even those from the outside say, that A fat belly does not give birth to a keen mind. Scripture also knows to call people soulless: My spirit shall not abide in these people, for they are flesh. And yet they had a soul, but since they carried it around dead, he called them flesh. For just as concerning the virtuous, even if they have a body, we still say, He is all soul, He is all spirit, so also concerning those who are not such, the opposite. Thus also Paul said: You are not in the flesh, since they were not accomplishing the things of the flesh. Thus those who live extravagantly are not in the soul, nor in the spirit. But she who lives extravagantly, he says, is dead while she lives. Hear, you women who spend all your time in revelries and drunkenness, who overlook the poor wasting away and dying from hunger, while you yourselves are continually dying from luxury. For you work two deaths, that of the afflicted, and your own, both from lack of moderation. But if you had mixed your own fullness with that lack, you would have worked two lives. Why do you burst your own belly with fullness? Why do you waste away that of the poor man with want? This one you fatten beyond measure; that one you wither beyond measure. Consider what comes from food, where it is transformed, and what it becomes. Are you not disgusted even at the hearing of it? Why then are you eager 62.570 to store up more of those things? The excess of luxury is nothing other than a surplus of dung. For nature has its measures, and what is beyond them no longer becomes nourishment, but damage and more dung. Nourish the body, do not kill it. For this reason it is called nourishment, not that we might destroy it, but that we might nourish it; for this reason I think food is also excreted for this purpose, that we might not be lovers of luxury; as if this were not so, and it did not lead to useless matter, nor did it harm the body, we would not have stopped devouring one another. For if the belly, receiving as much as we wished, processed it all and sent it on to the body, you would have seen countless wars and battles. For if even now, when some things are excreted as dung, and others as useless and corrupt blood and phlegm, we are still given to luxury, and often consume whole fortunes at a single table; if the end of luxury were not such, what would we not have done? We fill ourselves with more foul odor when we live more luxuriously, as if the body were some wineskin, leaking from all sides. One belches such a thing as to even harm the brain of those outside; gloomy vapors are sent forth from all over the body, as if from a furnace, the heat having rotted within. But if those outside are so disgusted, what do you think the brain inside suffers, being struck

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τοίνυν τῆς ψυχῆς κειμένης. τί τὸ ὄφελος τῆς βρώσεως καὶ τῆς πόσεως; Ὥσπερ γὰρ τοῦ σώματος κειμένου νεκροῦ, εὐανθὲς ἱμάτιον περιβεβλημένον οὐδὲν ὀνίνησιν, οὕτω καὶ σῶμα περικείμενον εὐανθὲς νεκρᾷ ψυχῇ οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ. Ὅταν γὰρ ἀεὶ περὶ μαγείρων, περὶ τραπεζοποιῶν, περὶ σιτοποιῶν ὁ λόγος αὐτῇ γίνηται, καὶ μηδὲν εὐσεβὲς φθέγγηται, οὐχὶ τέθνηκε; Τί γάρ ἐστιν ἄνθρωπος, ἴδωμεν. Οἱ ἔξωθέν φασι ζῶον λογικὸν, θνητὸν, νοῦ καὶ ἐπιστήμης δεκτικόν· ἡμεῖς δὲ μὴ ἀπ' ἐκείνων τὸν ὅρον θώμεθα, ἀλλὰ πόθεν; Ἀπὸ τῆς θείας Γραφῆς. Ποῦ τοίνυν ἡ Γραφὴ ὅρον ἐξέθετο ἀνθρώπου; Ἄκουε λεγούσης αὐτῆς· Ἦν ἄνθρωπος δίκαιος, ἀληθινὸς, θεοσεβὴς, ἀπεχόμενος ἀπὸ παντὸς πονηροῦ πράγματος. Τοῦτο ἄνθρωπος. Καὶ πάλιν ἕτερός φησι· Μέγα ἄνθρωπος, καὶ τίμιον ἀνὴρ ἐλεήμων. Τοὺς δὲ μὴ τοιούτους, κἂν νοῦ μετέχωσι, κἂν μυριάκις ἐπιστήμης ὦσι δεκτικοὶ, οὐκ οἶδεν ἡ Γραφὴ λέγειν ἀνθρώπους, ἀλλὰ κύνας, καὶ ἵππους, καὶ ἔχεις, καὶ ὄφεις, καὶ ἀλώπεκας, καὶ λύκους, καὶ εἴ τι τούτων ἀτιμότερον τῶν θηρίων· εἰ τοίνυν τοῦτο ἄνθρωπος, ὁ σπαταλῶν οὐκ ἄνθρωπος. Πῶς γὰρ, ὁ μηδὲν τούτων φροντίζων; οὐ γὰρ ἔνι σπατάλην ὁμοῦ καὶ νῆψιν συνελθεῖν· ταῦτα ἀλλήλων ἐστὶν ἀναιρετικά. Τοῦτο καὶ οἱ ἔξωθέν φασιν, ὅτι Παχεῖα γαστὴρ λεπτὸν οὐ τίκτει νόον. Οἶδε καὶ ἀψύχους ἀνθρώπους ἡ Γραφὴ καλεῖν· Οὐ μὴ μείνῃ τὸ πνεῦμά μου ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τούτοις, διὰ τὸ εἶναι αὐτοὺς σάρκας. Καίτοι γε καὶ ψυχὴν εἶχον, ἀλλὰ ἐπειδὴ νεκρὰν αὐτὴν περιέφερον, σάρκας αὐτοὺς εἶπεν. Ὥσπερ γὰρ περὶ τῶν ἐναρέτων, κἂν ἔχωσι σῶμα, ὅμως φαμὲν, Ὅλος ψυχή ἐστιν, ὅλος πνεῦμά, ἐστιν, οὕτω καὶ περὶ τῶν οὐ τοιούτων τὰ ἐναντία. Οὕτω καὶ Παῦλος ἔλεγεν· Ὑμεῖς οὐκ ἐστὲ ἐν σαρκὶ, ἐπειδὴ μὴ τὰ τῆς σαρκὸς ἐπετέλουν. Οὕτως οἱ σπαταλῶντες οὐκ εἰσὶν ἐν ψυχῇ, οὐδὲ ἐν πνεύματι. Ἡ δὲ σπαταλῶσα, ζῶσα τέθνηκε, φησίν. Ἀκούσατε αἱ πάντα τὸν χρόνον ἐν κώμοις διατρίβουσαι καὶ μέθαις, αἱ τοὺς μὲν πένητας περιορῶσαι ὑπὸ λιμοῦ τηκομένους καὶ ἀποθνήσκοντας, διηνεκῶς δὲ ὑμεῖς ὑπὸ τῆς τρυφῆς ἀποθνήκουσαι. ∆ύο γὰρ θανάτους ἐργάζεσθε, τὸν τῶν θλιβομένων, καὶ τὸν ὑμῶν αὐτῶν, ἀμφοτέρους ἐξ ἀμετρίας. Εἰ δὲ ἐκεράσατε τὴν ὑμετέραν πλησμονὴν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ἐνδείᾳ, δύο ζωὰς ἂν εἰργάζεσθε. Τί διασπᾷς τὴν γαστέρα τὴν σὴν τῇ πλησμονῇ; τί κατατήκεις τὴν τοῦ πένητος ἐν ἐνδείᾳ; Ταύτην πλέον τοῦ μέτρου καταπιαίνεις· ἐκείνην ὑπὲρ τὸ μέτρον ξηραίνεις. Ἐννόησον τίνα ἐστὶ τὰ ἀπὸ τῶν σιτίων, ποῦ μεταβάλλεται, καὶ τί γίνεται. Ἆρα οὐ δυσχεραίνεις καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἀκοήν; τί τοίνυν, ὥστε πλείονα ἐκεῖνα ἀποθέσθαι, σπουδά 62.570 ζεις; Οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶ τὸ πλέον τῆς τρυφῆς. ἢ κόπρου πλεονασμός. Ἔχει γὰρ ἡ φύσις μέτρα, καὶ τὸ πλέον ἐκείνων οὐκέτι γίνεται τροφὴ, ἀλλὰ λύμη καὶ κόπρος πλείων. Θρέψον τὸ σῶμα, μὴ ἀποκτείνῃς. ∆ιὰ τοῦτο τροφὴ κέκληται, οὐχ ἵνα ἀπολλύωμεν αὐτὸ, ἀλλ' ἵνα τρέφωμεν· διὰ τοῦτο οἶμαι καὶ τὴν τροφὴν εἰς τοῦτο ἐκκρίνεσθαι, ἵνα μὴ τῆς τρυφῆς ὦμεν ἐρασταί· ὡς εἰ μὴ τοῦτο ἦν, μηδὲ εἰς ἄχρηστον ἦγε, μηδὲ ἐλυμαίνετο τῷ σώματι, οὐκ ἂν ἐπαυσάμεθα ἀλλήλους καταπίνοντες. Εἰ γὰρ ὅσον ἐβουλόμεθα δεχομένη ἡ γαστὴρ τὸ πᾶν εἰργάζετο, καὶ τῷ σώματι παρέπεμπε, μυρίους ἂν εἶδες πολέμους καὶ μάχας. Εἰ γὰρ καὶ νῦν τῶν μὲν εἰς κόπρον ἐκκρινομένων, τῶν δὲ εἰς αἷμα καὶ φλέγμα ἄχρηστον καὶ νόθον, ὅμως ἐγκείμεθα τῇ τρυφῇ, καὶ πολλάκις οὐσίας ὁλοκλήρους ἐν τραπέζῃ μιᾷ καταναλίσκομεν· εἰ μὴ τοιοῦτον ἦν τὸ τέλος τῆς τρυφῆς, τί οὐκ ἂν ἐπράξαμεν; Πλείονος δυσωδίας πληροῦμεν ἑαυτοὺς, ὅταν μᾶλλον τρυφήσωμεν, καθάπερ ἀσκοῦ τινος, τοῦ σώματος πάντοθεν διαῤῥέοντος. Ἐρεύγεταί τις τοιοῦτον, ὡς καὶ τὸν ἐγκέφαλον λυμήνασθαι τῶν ἔξωθεν· ἀτμοὶ πάντοθεν ἀπὸ τοῦ σώματος ζοφώδεις προΐενται, καθάπερ ἀπὸ καμίνου τῆς θερμότητος σαπείσης ἔνδον. Εἰ δὲ οἱ ἔξωθεν οὕτω δυσχεραίνουσι, τί οἴει παθεῖν τὸν ἐγκέφαλον ἔνδον, πληττόμενον