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where serpents are always biting your heels, where there is wailing, woe, and unceasing mourning, where every constraint, anxiety and sorrow, death and corruption together hold you all, how are you without care, how are you neglectful, tell me? How is it that you do not think about the evil things you have done in the world, and consider repentance alone of great importance and hasten to show it to be true and inquire about it with much exhortation and investigate precisely how you might achieve it, so that through it you might be able, by my love for mankind (167), to receive a great forgiveness for your iniquities? But leaving this aside you seek what is beyond nature, you investigate the things in the heavens, or rather, not even these, but you investigate the nature of me who, as has been said, brought forth heaven and all things as nothing, and you wish to learn the things concerning me, as no one else knows; O the wonder, O the purpose of man! For even if I have blamed you, yet I will praise you again, because you too are my work and creation. How is it that from earth, from clay, from dust you were formed and, being held fast in it and living with it, you consider all things as nothing, but think of them as a shadow, and you pass by everything and seek me alone? You wish to speak about me, to narrate for my sake and to see me, if possible, for all of your life and not to taste sleep, food, drink or to care at all for clothing for the body. But just as trees and wood standing by the road, so you consider all the glories of the world, and you run past them as nothing on the path of life, not turning the eye of your mind nor allowing the eyes of your soul to look at them, but you imagine me and remember me alone and love me as none of those who are with you. For who at my name has his heart gladdened and is immediately roused to love or longing? Who, having heard my name spoken often, has wept from the soul, remembering me alone? And who has sought with haste to learn and to keep my divine words or my commandments? Who has considered me, as you have, God above all

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ὅπου ὄφεις οἱ δάκνοντες ὑμῶν ἀεί τάς πτέρνας, ὅπου τό θρῆνος, τό οὐαί, τό ἄπαυστόν τε πένθος, ὅπου στένωσις ἅπασα, μέριμνά τε καί λύπη, θάνατος ἅμα καί φθορά πάντας ὑμᾶς κατέχει, πῶς ἀμεριμνεῖς, πῶς ἀμελεῖς, εἰπέ μοι; Πῶς οὐ φροντίζεις τῶν κακῶν, ὧν ἔπραξας ἐν κόσμῳ, καί μόνην τήν μετάνοιαν περί πολλοῦ ποιεῖσαι καί σπουδάζεις ἀληθινήν ἐπιδείξασθαι ταύτην καί ἐρωτᾷς περί αὐτῆς ἐν πολλῇ παρακλήσει καί ἀκριβῶς ἀνερευνᾷς, πῶς αὐτήν κατορθώσῃς, ὅπως ἰσχύσῃς δι᾿ αὐτῆς ἐμῇ φιλανθρωπίᾳ (167) λαβεῖν μεγάλην ἄφησιν τῶν σῶν ἀνομημάτων; Ἀλλά ταύτην καταλιπών ζητεῖς τά ὑπέρ φύσιν, ἐρευνᾷς τά ἐν οὐρανοῖς, μᾶλλον δέ οὐδέ ταῦτα, ἀλλά ἐμοῦ τοῦ οὐρανόν, ὡς εἴρηται, καί πάντα παραγαγόντος ὡς οὐδέν, ἐξερευνᾷς τήν φύσιν καί βούλει τά περί ἐμοῦ, ὡς οὐδείς οἶδεν ἄλλος, μανθάνειν˙ ὤ τοῦ θαύματος, ὤ πρόθεσις ἀνθρώπου! Εἰ γάρ καί ἐμεμψάμην σε, ἀλλ᾿ ἐπαινέσω πάλιν, ὅτι καί σύ ἔργον ἐμόν καί ποίημα ὑπάρχεις. Πῶς ἀπό γῆς, ἀπό πηλοῦ, ἀπό χοός ἐπλάσθης καί ἐν αὐτῇ κρατούμενος καί μετ᾿ αὐτῆς διάγων πάντα οὐδέν λογίζῃ, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς σκιάν ἡγεῖσαι, καί παρατρέχεις ἅπαντα καί ἐμέ ζητεῖς μόνον; Περί ἐμοῦ θέλεις λαλεῖν, δι᾿ ἐμέ διηγεῖσθαι καί βλέπειν με, εἰ δυνατόν, διά παντός τοῦ βίου καί μήτε ὕπνου γεύεσθαι, βρώσεως, πόσεώς τε ἤ ἐνδύματος σώματος τό καθόλου φροντίζειν. Ἀλλ᾿ ὥσπερ δένδρα καθ᾿ ὁδόν ἱστάμενα καί ξύλα οὕτως λογίζῃ ἅπαντα τά ἔνδοξα τοῦ κόσμου, καί παρατρέχεις ὡς οὐδέν ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ τοῦ βίου, μηδέ περιστρεφόμενος ὄμματι διανοίας μηδέ ψυχῆς τούς ὀφθαλμούς ἐῶν πρός ταῦτα βλέψαι, ἀλλ᾿ ἐμέ φαντάζεσαι καί μέμνησαί μου μόνου καί ἀγαπᾷς με ὡς οὐδείς τῶν μετά σοῦ συνόντων. Τίς γάρ μου τῷ ὀνόματι γάννυται τήν καρδίαν καί διεγείρεται εὐθύς πρός ἀγάπην ἤ πόθον; Τίς ἀκούσας τήν μνείαν μου πολλάκις λαλουμένην ἐδάκρυσεν ἀπό ψυχῆς ἐνθυμηθείς με μόνον; Τίς δέ τούς θείους λόγους μου ἤ τίς τάς ἐντολάς μου μετά σπουδῆς ἐζήτησε μαθεῖν τε καί φυλάξαι; Τίς ἐλογίσθη με ὡς σύ Θεόν ἐπάνω πάντων