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destroying the workers of wickedness, again he signifies to us the life to come. But if there is no other life after our departure from hence, then those punished here have been openly wronged, while the others have escaped justice; and very obviously wronged are those who embrace philosophy, but on account of it enjoy no care or honor, while others who have achieved similar things in life have passed their lives in great renown. But to call the fount of justice unjust is beyond all blasphemy, and leaves no excess of madness unsurpassed. But if the Overseer of all is just, as indeed he is just, and sees what happens, and judges justly, and holds the scales of justice level, and even if he should wish to tip them, he adds the vote of loving-kindness, but not of injustice; there is another life, in which both those who have escaped punishment here will pay the penalties they deserve, and those who enjoyed no honor in the present life for the labors of virtue will receive the recompense for their toils. But perhaps you too would agree. For the children of the Greeks, having received no prophet, no apostle, no evangelist as a preacher, guided by nature alone, supposed that these things are so, even if they endured much error, mingling the mythical with true opinions; since both poets and philosophers believed and taught that punishments of wicked men and rewards of just men would exist after 83.729 the departure from hence, and they left behind the memory of their teaching through their writings. It is likely, therefore, that you too, being persuaded by nature, and having been taught those things, and being compelled by what has just been said, should assent and confess that these things are so; but to suspect that either rest or punishment will come to the souls alone, while the body is thus cast away, given over to decay, as completely useless and irrational. And how could it be reasonable for the soul, having struggled and conquered with the body, to be crowned alone, or, being deprived of it, to be given over to punishment alone? For the soul being punished might reasonably say to the judge: "Not alone, O Master, did I transgress your laws, but with the body I ran aground on the reefs of wickedness; or rather, if I must speak the truth, it was that which dragged me into the abyss of sin; enticed by its eyes, I plundered foreign beds, I meddled with beauty belonging to another; I desired possessions and money, with these things compelling me to look upon them; from this I fell into the depth of injustice; for its passions enslaved me, and took away the freedom you gave; for I was compelled to serve it as a fellow creature and a fellow slave, and to minister to its needs. The belly urged me on to gluttony, and gluttony produced voracity, and voracity gave birth to the designs of injustice. Often being distressed I obeyed the necessities of the flesh, and being in anguish and great pain I was compelled to serve its desires. And many times I resisted, and nobly repelled the assaults from it; but the frequency of the war often overcame me, and I, the wretched one, was captured by obeying a sister, and being worn down by this I was grieved. For I in turn received the pain, and by nourishing it I was plotted against; for I in turn received the impulses from it, and I did not know what to do; for both its misery caused me much trouble, and its care made the battle more intense, and fanned the flames of the conflict. Do not, therefore, O Master, give me over to punishment alone, but either free me from these hardships with it, or send it also with me to punishment." And the body also, which had well served the counsels of the soul, might likewise say to the just judge, if it should receive any voice: "As soon as you created me, O Master,

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ἀφανίζων τοὺς τῆς πονη ρίας ἐργάτας, πάλιν ἡμῖν τὸν μέλλοντα προση μαίνει βίον. Εἰ δὲ μηδεὶς ἕτερός ἐστι βίος μετὰ τὴν ἐντεῦθεν ἐκδημίαν, ἠδίκηνται μὲν ἄντικρυς οἱ κολα σθέντες ἐνθάδε, τῶν ἄλλων διαπεφευγότων τὴν δίκην· ἠδίκηνται δὲ προφανῶς λίαν οἱ φιλοσοφίαν μὲν ἀσπαζόμενοι, θεραπείας δὲ διὰ ταύτην ἢ τιμῆς οὐ δεμιᾶς ἀπολαύοντες, τῶν ἄλλων ὅμοια μὲν ἐν βίῳ κατωρθωκότων, ἐν εὐκλείᾳ δὲ πολλῇ τὸν βίον διεξελ θόντων. Ἀλλ' ἄδικον ὀνομάζειν τὴν τῆς δικαιοσύνης πηγὴν, πάσης ἐστὶ βλασφημίας ἐπέκεινα, καὶ οὐδε μίαν μανίας ὑπερβολὴν καταλείπει. Εἰ δὲ δίκαιος, ὥσπερ οὖν καὶ δίκαιος, ὁ τῶν ὅλων Ἔφορος, καὶ ὁρᾷ τὰ γινόμενα, καὶ κρίνει δικαίως, καὶ ἴσως κατέχει τὰ τῆς δίκης ζυγὰ, κἂν κλῖναι θελήσῃ, φιλαν θρωπίας ψῆφον, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀδικίας προστίθησιν· ἔστιν ἕτερος βίος, ἐν ᾧ καὶ οἱ διαφυγόντες τὴν τιμω ρίαν ἐνθάδε, τὰς ἀξίας τίσουσι δίκας, καὶ οἱ τιμῆς οὐδεμιᾶς κατὰ τὸν παρόντα βίον ὑπὲρ τῶν τῆς ἀρε τῆς ἀπολαύσαντες πόνων, κομιοῦνται τῶν ἱδρώτων τὰς ἀντιδόσεις. Ἀλλὰ τυχὸν καὶ ὑμεῖς ἂν συνομολο γήσητε. Καὶ γὰρ Ἑλλήνων παῖδες, οὐ προφήτην, οὐκ ἀπόστολον, οὐκ εὐαγγελιστὴν δεξάμενοι κήρυκα, ὑπὸ τῆς φύσεως μόνης ποδηγηθέντες, ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχειν ὑπέλαβον, εἰ καὶ πολὺν ὑπέμειναν πλάνον, τὸ μυθῶδες ταῖς ἀληθέσιν ἐγκαταλέξαντες δόξαις· ἐπεὶ καὶ ποιηταὶ, καὶ φιλόσοφοι, καὶ πονηρῶν ἀνθρώ πων κολάσεις, καὶ δικαίων ἀνδρῶν θεραπείας μετὰ 83.729 τὴν ἐντεῦθεν ἐκδημίαν ἔσεσθαι, καὶ ἐπίστευσαν καὶ ἐδίδαξαν, καὶ τὴν τῆς διδασκαλίας μνήμην διὰ τῶν συγγραμμάτων κατέλιπον. Εἰκὸς τοίνυν καὶ ὑμᾶς, καὶ τῇ φύσει πειθομένους, κἀκεῖνα δεδιδαγμένους, καὶ ὑπὸ τῶν ἀρτίως εἰρημένων συνωθουμένους, συμφῆσαι, καὶ ταῦτα οὕτως ἔχειν ὁμολογῆσαι· μό νων δὲ τῶν ψυχῶν, ἢ ἄνεσιν, ἢ κόλασιν ὑποπτεῦσαι γενήσεσθαι, τὸ δὲ σῶμα οὕτως ἐῤῥίφθαι, τῇ ση πεδόνι παραδεδομένον, ὡς ἄχρηστον παντελῶς καὶ ἄλογον. Καὶ πῶς ἂν ἔχοι λόγον, μετὰ τοῦ σώμα τος τὴν ψυχὴν ἀγωνισαμένην καὶ νικήσασαν, μόνην στεφανωθῆναι, ἢ τούτου ἐστερημένην, μόνην κολάσει παραδοθῆναι; Εἴποι γὰρ ἂν εἰκότως πρὸς τὸν κριτὴν ἡ κολαζομένη· Οὐ μόνη τοὺς σοὺς, ὦ ∆έσποτα, παρα βέβηκα νόμους, ἀλλὰ μετὰ τοῦ σώματος εἰς τοὺς τῆς κακίας σκοπέλους ἐξώκειλα· μᾶλλον δὲ, εἰ δεῖ τἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν, ἐκεῖνό με εἰς τὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας παρέσυρε βάραθρον· ὑπὸ τῶν ἐκείνου δελεασθεῖσα ὀμμάτων, εὐνὰς ἀλλοτρίας ἐσύλησα, ὥραν περιειρ γασάμην ἑτέρῳ προσήκουσαν· κτημάτων καὶ χρη μάτων ἐπεθύμησα, τούτων με βλέπειν ἀναγκαζόντων· ἐντεῦθεν εἰς τὸν τῆς ἀδικίας ἐξέπεσα βυθόν· τὰ γὰρ τούτου με κατεδούλωσε πάθη, καὶ ἣν ἔδωκας ἐλευθε ρίαν ἀφείλοντο· θεραπεύειν γὰρ ἠναγκαζόμην ὡς ὁμοφυὲς καὶ ὁμόδουλον, καὶ ταῖς τούτου χρείαις ὑπ ηρετεῖν. Ἡ γαστὴρ πρὸς γαστριμαργίαν κατήπειγεν, ἡ δὲ γαστριμαργία τὴν ἀδδηφαγίαν εἰργάζετο, ἡ δὲ ἀδδηφαγία τὰς τῆς ἀδικίας ὤδινεν ἐπινοίας. ∆υ σχεραίνουσα πολλάκις ταῖς τῆς σαρκὸς ἀνάγκαις ὑπήκουσα, καὶ ἀδημονοῦσα καὶ λίαν ἀλγοῦσα τὰς ταύτης ἐπιθυμίας θεραπεύειν ἠναγκαζόμην. Καὶ πολλάκις μὲν ἀντέσχον, καὶ τὰς ἐκεῖθεν προσβο λὰς γενναίως ἀπεκρουσάμην· ἡ δὲ τοῦ πολέμου συχνότης κατηγωνίσατό μου πολλάκις, καὶ ἑάλων ἡ ταλαίπωρος ἀδελφῇ πειθομένη, καὶ τοῦτο κατατρύχουσα ἠνιώμην. Ἐγὼ γὰρ πάλιν τὴν ὀδύνην ὑπεδεχόμην, καὶ τρέφουσα ἐπεβουλευόμην· τὰ γὰρ ἐντεῦθεν σκιρτήματα πάλιν ὑπεδεχόμην, καὶ τὸ πρακτέον ἠγνόουν· ἥ τε γὰρ ταλαιπωρία τούτου πολ λήν μοι τὴν ἀνίαν εἰργάσατο, καὶ ἡ θεραπεία σφο δροτέραν ἀπετέλει τὴν μάχην, καὶ τὴν παράταξιν ἀνεῤῥίπιζε. Μὴ τοίνυν με μόνην, ὦ ∆έσποτα, παρα δῷς τιμωρίᾳ, ἀλλ' ἢ μετ' ἐκείνου τῶν δυσχερῶν ἐλευθέρωσον, ἢ κἀκεῖνο σὺν ἐμοὶ τῇ κολάσει παρά πεμψον. Εἴποι δ' ἂν καὶ τὸ σῶμα, τὸ καλῶς τοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς ὑπηρετῆσαν βουλεύμασιν, ὁμοίως πρὸς τὸν δίκαιον κριτὴν, εἴ τινος μεταλάβοι φωνῆς· Εὐθύς με δημιουργήσας, ὦ ∆έσποτα,