81.  Everything has reverted to the original state of things253    Gen. i. 2. before the world, with its present fair order and form, came into being.  The general confusion and irregularity cry for some organising hand and power.  Or, if you will, it is like a battle at night by the faint light of the moon, when none can discern the faces of friends or foes; or like a sea fight on the surge, with the driving winds, and boiling foam, and dashing waves, and crashing vessels, with the thrusts of poles, the pipes of boatswains, the groans of the fallen, while we make our voices heard above the din, and not knowing what to do, and having, alas! no opportunity for showing our valour, assail one another, and fall by one another’s hands.

ΠΑʹ. Γέγονε δὲ πάντα ὡς τὸ ἀπαρχῆς, ὅτε οὔπω κόσμος ἦν, οὐδὲ ἡ νῦν εὐταξία καὶ μόρφωσις: ἀλλὰ συγκεχυμένον τὸ πᾶν καὶ ἀνώμαλον ἐδεῖτο τῆς εἰδοποιοῦ χειρὸς καὶ δυνάμεως. Εἰ βούλει δὲ, ὡς ἐν νυκτομαχίᾳ καὶ σελήνης ἀμυδροῖς φέγγεσιν, ἐχθρῶν ἢ φίλων ὄψεις οὐ διαγινώσκοντες: ἢ ὡς ἐν ναυμαχίᾳ καὶ ζάλῃ, καὶ πνευμάτων ἐμβολαῖς, καὶ ῥοθίῳ ζέοντι, καὶ κυμάτων ἐπιδρομαῖς, καὶ νηῶν ἀραγμοῖς, καὶ κοντῶν ὠθισμοῖς, καὶ κελευστῶν φωναῖς, καὶ πιπτόντων οἰμωγαῖς ὑπερηχούμενοί τε καὶ ἀπορούμενοι, καὶ τῆς ἀνδρείας καιρὸν οὐκ ἔχοντες, φεῦ τοῦ πάθους! ἀλλήλοις περιπίπτομεν, καὶ ὑπ' ἀλλήλων ἀναλισκόμεθα.