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to separate, and for self-love to have pleasure alone joined to it, completely unacquainted with pain; being ignorant through passion, as it seems, that it is never possible for pleasure to exist without pain. For the toil of pain is blended with pleasure, even if it seems to escape the notice of those who have it because of the dominance of the passion of pleasure; since that which dominates is always by nature more apparent, covering the perception of what is adjacent.
From this, the great and innumerable crowd of passions burst into the life of men. From this our life has become full of groaning, honoring the occasions of its own destruction, and through ignorance both discovering for itself and cherishing the pretexts for corruption. From this the one nature was divided into countless fragments; and we who are of the same nature are, like creeping things and wild beasts, consumed by one another. For by laying claim to pleasure on account of self-love, and again striving to flee pain for the same reason, we devise the untold origins of the destructive passions; as, for example, if we care for self-love through pleasure, we generate gluttony, pride, vainglory, arrogance, avarice, covetousness, tyranny, haughtiness, boastfulness, recklessness, madness, conceit, presumption, contempt, insolence, profanity, buffoonery, profligacy, licentiousness, ostentation, distraction, stupidity, outrageous conduct, scoffing, talkativeness, unseasonable speech, obscene speech, and whatever else is of such a kind; but if rather the mode of self-love is tormented through pain, we generate anger, envy, hatred, enmity, remembrance of wrongs, reviling, slander, false accusation, grief, hopelessness, despair, slander against providence, acedia, negligence, despondency, ill-humor, faintheartedness, unseasonable mourning, weeping, dejection, lamentation, jealousy, envious jealousy, rivalry, and whatever else belongs to a disposition deprived of the occasions for pleasure. And from the mixture of pain according to pleasure [Fr. and pain] that occurs for certain other reasons, that is, depravity; for thus some call the composition from the opposite parts of evil—we generate hypocrisy, irony, deceit, pretense, flattery, people-pleasing, and whatever other devices [Phot. alt. diseases] of mixed cunning there are. For to enumerate them all now, and to speak of them with their own forms, and modes, and causes, and seasons, (257) is not bearable; since the examination of them will be investigated under its own topic, when God grants the power.
Another definition of evil. Evil, therefore, is, as I have said before, the ignorance of the good cause of beings; which
having maimed the human mind, but clearly opened up sensation, has completely alienated it from divine knowledge; but filled it with the impassioned knowledge of sensible things; of which man partakes unrestrainedly for sensation alone, like irrational beasts, and having found through experience that the partaking of sensible things is constitutive of his own visible bodily nature, having already, as it was most fitting, missed the mark of the intelligible beauty of the divine, he understandably mistook the visible creation for God, deifying it on account of its usefulness for the constitution of the body; and his own body, having a natural affinity for the creation which he supposed to be God, he loved, as was likely, with all zeal, through care and attention for the body alone, worshipping creation rather than the Creator. For one cannot otherwise worship creation without caring for the body; just as no one can worship God,
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διαστῆσαι, καί μόνην τήν ἡδονήν συνημμένην τήν φυλαυτίαν ἔχειν, παντελῶς ὀδύνης ἀπείραστον· ἀγνοήσας ὑπό τοῦ πάθους, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὡς οὐκ ἐνδέχεταί ποτε χωρίς ὀδύνης εἶναι τήν ἡδονήν. Ἐγκέκραται γάρ τῇ ἡδονῇ τῆς ὀδύνης ὁ πόνος, κἄν λανθάνειν δοκεῖ τούς ἔχοντας διά τήν κατά τό πάθος τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐπικράτειαν· ἐπειδή τό ἐπικρατοῦν ἀεί διαφαίνεσθαι πέφυκεν, καλύπτον τοῦ παρακειμένου τήν αἴσθησιν.
Ἐντεῦθεν ὁ πολύς ὄχλος, τῶν παθῶν καί ἀναρίθμητος εἰσεφθάρη τῷ βίῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. Ἐντεῦθεν πολυστένακτος γέγονεν ἡμῖν ἡ ζωή, τῆς οἰκείας ἀναιρέσεως τιμῶσα τάς ἀφορμάς, καί τῆς φθορᾶς τάς προφάσεις ἑαυτῇ διά τήν ἄγνοιαν ἐξευρίσκουσά τε καί περιέπουσα. Ἐντεῦθεν ἡ μία φύσις, εἰς μυρία κατεμερίσθη τιμήματα· καί οἱ τῆς αὐτῆς φύσεως, ἀλλήλων ἐσμέν δίκην ἑρπετῶν θηρίων παραναλώματα. Ἡδονῆς γάρ διά τήν φιλαυτίαν ἀντιποιούμενοι, καί ὀδύνην διά τήν αὐτήν αἰτίαν πάλιν φεύγειν σπουδάζοντες, τάς ἀμυθήτους τῶν φθοροποιῶν παθῶν ἐπινοοῦμεν γενέσεις· οἷον, εἰ μέν δι᾿ ἡδονῆς τῆς φιλαυτίας φροντίζομεν, γεννῶμεν τήν γαστριμαργίαν, τήν ὑπερηφανίαν, τήν κενοδοξίαν, τήν φυσίωσιν, τήν φιλαργυρίαν, τήν πλεονεξίαν, τήν τυραννίδα, τόν γαῦρον, τήν ἀλαζονείαν, τήν ἀπόνοιαν, τήν μανίαν, τήν οἴησιν, τόν τῦφον, τήν καταφρόνησιν, τήν ὕβριν, τό βέβηλον, τό εὐτράπελον, τήν ἀσωτείαν, τήν ἀκολασίαν, τήν περπερείαν, τόν μετεωρισμόν, τήν βλακείαν, τόν αἰκισμόν, τόν ἐκμυκτηρισμόν, τήν πολυλογίαν, τήν ἀκαιρολογίαν, τήν αἰσχρολογίαν, καί ὅσα ἄλλα τοιούτου γένους ἐστίν· εἰ δέ μᾶλλον δι᾿ ὀδύνης ὁ τῆς φιλαυτίας αἰκίζεται τρόπος, γεννῶμεν τόν θυμόν, τόν φθόνον, τό μῖσος, τήν ἔχθραν, τήν μνησικακίαν, τήν λοιδορίαν, τήν καταλαλιάν, τήν συκοφαντίαν, τήν λύπην, τήν ἀνελπιστίαν, τήν ἀπόγνωσιν, τήν τῆς προνοίας διαβολήν, τήν ἀκηδίαν, τήν ὀλιγωρίαν, τήν ἀθυμίαν, τήν δυσθυμίαν, τήν ὀλιγοψυχίαν, τό ἄκαιρον πένθος, τόν κλαυθμόν, τήν κατήφειαν, τόν ὀλοφυρμόν, τόν ζῆλον, τήν ζηλοτυπίαν, τήν παραζήλωσιν, καί ὅσα ἄλλα τῆς τῶν καθ᾿ ἡδονήν ἀφορμῶν ἐστερημένης ἐστίν διαθέσεως. Ἐκ δέ τῆς γινομένης δι᾿ ἄλλας τινάς αἰτίας καθ᾿ ἡδονήν [Fr.καί ὀδύνην] ὀδύνης μίξεως ἤγουν μοχθηρίας· οὕτω γάρ καλοῦσι τινές τήν ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων μερῶν τῆς κακίας σύνθεσιν, γεννῶμεν τήν ὑπόκρισιν, τήν εἰρωνείαν, τόν δόλον, τήν προσποίησιν, τήν κολακείαν, τήν ἀνθρωπαρέσκειαν, καί ὅσα ἄλλα τῆς μικτῆς εἰσι πανουργίας ἐπινοήματα [Phot. al. ἐπινοσήματα]. Πάντα γάρ ἀπαριθμεῖσθαι τανῦν, καί λέγειν μετά τῶν οἰκείων σχημάτων τε, καί τρόπων, καί αἰτιῶν, καί καιρῶν, (257) οὐκ ἀνεκτόν· τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς ἐξετάσεως Θεοῦ χαριζομένου δύναμιν, κατ᾿ ἰδίαν ὑπόθεσιν ἐρευνηθησομένης.
Ὅρος ἄλλος κακίας. Τό τοίνυν κακόν ἐστιν, ὡς προέφην, ἡ ἄγνοια τῆς ἀγαθῆς τῶν ὄντων αἰτίας· ἥτις
τόν μέν νοῦν πηρώσασα τόν ἀνθρώπινον, τήν αἴσθησιν δέ τρανῶς διανοίξασα, τῆς μέν θείας γνώσεως παντελῶς αὐτόν ἀπεξένωσεν· τῆς δέ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐμπαθοῦς ἐπλήρωσε γνώσεως· ἧς πρός μόνην τήν αἴσθησιν ἀνέδην μεταλαμβάνων κτηνῶν ἀλόγων δίκην ὁ ἄνθρωπος, καί εὑρών διά τῆς πείρας τῆς φαινομένης αὐτοῦ σωματικῆς φύσεως συστατικήν τῶν αἰσθητῶν τήν μετάληψιν, εἰκότως οἷα τοῦ νοητοῦ κάλλους ἤδη τῆς θείας ὡραιότατος διαμαρτήσας, τήν φαινομένην κτίσιν εἰς Θεόν παρεγνώρισεν, διά τήν αὐτῆς πρός σύστασιν σώματος χρείαν, θεοποιήσας· καί τό σῶμα τό ἴδιον οἰκείως ἔχον κατά φύσιν πρός τήν νομισθεῖσαν εἶναι Θεόν κτίσιν, κατά τό εἰκός ἠγάπησε, κατά πᾶσαν σπουδήν, διά τῆς περί μόνον τό σῶμα φροντίδος τε καί ἐπιμελείας, λατρεύων τῇ κτίσει παρά τόν κτίσαντα. Οὐ γάρ ἄλλως δύναταί τις λατρεύειν τῇ κτίσει, μή τό σῶμα περιποιούμενος· ὥσπερ οὐδέ τῷ Θεῷ τις λατρεύειν,