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being, nor the seeds, but the receiving earth; not contrary to nature, but contrary to disposition. And here also is much loving-kindness. Because he does not require one measure of virtue, but accepts also the first, and does not cast out the second, and gives a place to the third. And these things he says, so that those who follow him may not think, that hearing is sufficient for salvation. And for what reason, he says, did he not also set down the other wickednesses, such as, the desire of bodies, vainglory? By mentioning the care of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, he has set down all things. For even vainglory, and all the other things, are of this age, and of the deceitfulness of riches; such as, pleasure, and gluttony, and envy, and vainglory, and as many such things. And he added also the way and the rock, showing that it is not enough to be freed from money only, but it is necessary also to practice the other virtues. For what if you are free from money, but unmanly and soft? and what if you are not unmanly, but careless and negligent about hearing? For not even one part is sufficient for our salvation, but there is need first of accurate hearing and of continual remembrance, then of manliness, then of contempt of money and of release from all worldly things. For on this account he puts this before that, since there is need of this first (For how shall they believe, if they do not hear? just as we also, if we do not pay attention to what is said, will not be able to learn what we ought to do); then manliness, and contempt of present things. Hearing these things, then, let us fortify ourselves on all sides, paying attention to what is said, and sending down the roots deep, and cleansing ourselves 57.470 from all worldly things. But if we do some things, and neglect others, we shall gain nothing; for if not in this way, we are destroyed in that way. For what does it matter, if not through riches, but through carelessness; if not through carelessness, but through unmanliness we are destroyed? Since also the farmer, if he loses the seed in this way or in that way, mourns alike. Let us not then have comfort because we are not destroyed in all ways, but let us grieve for whichever way we are destroyed. And let us burn up the thorns; for it chokes the word. And the rich know this, they who are not useful for these things only, but not even for others. For having become slaves and captives of pleasures, they are useless also for political matters; and if for those, much more for the things of heaven. For from this the damage to the thoughts becomes twofold, both from luxury, and from care. For each of these is even by itself sufficient to sink the vessel; but when both run together, consider how great the surge becomes. 5. And do not be amazed, if he called luxury thorns. For you are ignorant, being drunk with the passion; but those who are healthy know that it pricks more than a thorn, and luxury consumes the soul more than care, and provides more grievous pains both to the body and to the soul. For one is not so smitten by care, as by satiety. For when sleeplessness, and throbbing of the temples, and heaviness of the head, and pains of the bowels surround such a one, consider how much worse these are than many thorns. And just as thorns, wherever they are held, make bloody the hands holding them; so indeed also luxury harms the feet, and hands, and head, and eyes, and simply all the members; and it is dry and fruitless, like the thorn, and it grieves much more than that, and in vital parts. For it brings on untimely old age, and dulls the senses, and darkens the reasoning, and maims the keen-sighted mind, and makes the body flabby, working a more abundant storehouse of dung, and gathering a great heap of evils, and makes the load greater, and the cargo excessive; whence also are many and continual falls, and frequent shipwrecks. For why do you fatten the body, tell me? Are we to sacrifice you? Are we to set you before a table? You fatten fowls well; or rather not even them well; for when they are fattened, they are useless for

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ὄντα, οὐδὲ τὰ σπέρματα, ἀλλὰ τὴν δεχομένην γῆν· οὐ παρὰ τὴν φύσιν, ἀλλὰ παρὰ τὴν γνώμην. Καὶ ἐνταῦθα δὲ πολλὴ ἡ φιλανθρωπία. ὅτι οὐχ ἓν ἀπαιτεῖ μέτρον ἀρετῆς, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς πρώτους ἀποδέχεται, καὶ τοὺς δευτέρους οὐκ ἐκβάλλει, καὶ τοῖς τρίτοις δίδωσι χώραν. Ταῦτα δὲ λέγει, ἵνα μὴ νομίσωσιν οἱ ἀκολουθοῦντες αὐτῷ, ὅτι ἀρκεῖ ἡ ἀκρόασις εἰς σωτηρίαν. Καὶ τίνος ἕνεκεν, φησὶν, οὐχὶ καὶ τὰς ἄλλας ἔθηκε πονηρίας, οἷον, ἐπιθυμίαν σωμάτων, κενοδοξίαν; Εἰπὼν τὴν μέριμναν τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, καὶ τὴν ἀπάτην τοῦ πλούτου, ἅπαντα τέθεικε. Καὶ γὰρ καὶ κενοδοξία, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα ἅπαντα, τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, καὶ τῆς τοῦ πλούτου ἀπάτης ἐστίν· οἷον, ἡδονὴ, καὶ γαστριμαργία, καὶ βασκανία, καὶ κενοδοξία, καὶ ὅσα τοιαῦτα. Προσέθηκε δὲ καὶ τὴν ὁδὸν καὶ τὴν πέτραν, δεικνὺς ὅτι οὐκ ἀρκεῖ χρημάτων ἀπηλλάχθαι μόνον, ἀλλὰ δεῖ καὶ τὴν ἄλλην ἀρετὴν ἀσκεῖν. Τί γὰρ, ἂν χρημάτων μὲν ἐλεύθερος ᾖς, ἄνανδρος δὲ καὶ μαλακός; τί δὲ, ἂν ἄνανδρος μὲν μὴ ᾖς, ῥᾴθυμος δὲ καὶ ὀλίγωρος περὶ τὴν ἀκρόασιν; Οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀρκεῖ μέρος ἓν πρὸς σωτηρίαν ἡμῖν, ἀλλὰ δεῖ πρῶτον μὲν ἀκροάσεως ἀκριβοῦς καὶ μνήμης διηνεκοῦς, ἔπειτα ἀνδρείας, εἶτα χρημάτων ὑπεροψίας καὶ τῆς τῶν βιωτικῶν ἁπάντων ἀπαλλαγῆς. ∆ιὰ γάρ τοι τοῦτο πρῶτον τίθησιν ἐκείνου τοῦτο, ἐπειδὴ τούτου πρώτου χρεία (Πῶς γὰρ πιστεύσουσιν, ἐὰν μὴ ἀκούσωσι; καθάπερ οὖν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐὰν μὴ προσέχωμεν τοῖς λεγομένοις, οὐδὲ μαθεῖν δυνησόμεθα ἃ χρὴ ποιεῖν)· ἔπειτα τὴν ἀνδρείαν, καὶ τὴν τῶν παρόντων ὑπεροψίαν. Ταῦτ' οὖν ἀκούοντες, πάντοθεν ἑαυτοὺς τειχίζωμεν, προσέχοντες τοῖς λεγομένοις, καὶ κατὰ βάθους ἀφιέντες τὰς ῥίζας, καὶ πάντων ἑαυ 57.470 τοὺς ἐκκαθαίροντες τῶν βιωτικῶν. Ἂν δὲ τὰ μὲν ποιῶμεν, τῶν δὲ ἀμελῶμεν, οὐδὲν ἡμῖν ἔσται πλέον· κἂν γὰρ μὴ οὕτως, ἀλλ' ἐκείνως ἀπολλύμεθα. Τί γὰρ διαφέρει, ἂν μὴ διὰ πλούτου, ἀλλὰ διὰ ῥᾳθυμίας· ἂν μὴ διὰ ῥᾳθυμίας, ἀλλὰ δι' ἀνανδρίας διαφθαρῶμεν; Ἐπεὶ καὶ ὁ γεωργὸς, ἄν τε οὕτως, ἄν τε ἐκείνως ἀπολέσῃ τὸν σπόρον, ὁμοίως πενθεῖ. Μὴ τοίνυν ἐπειδὴ μὴ πᾶσιν ἀπολλύμεθα τοῖς τρόποις, παραμυθίαν ἔχωμεν, ἀλλὰ ἀλγῶμεν οἵῳ ἂν ἀπολώμεθα τρόπῳ. Καὶ κατακαίωμεν τὰς ἀκάνθας· καὶ γὰρ ἀποπνίγει τὸν λόγον. Καὶ ἴσασι τοῦτο οἱ πλουτοῦντες, οἱ μὴ πρὸς ταῦτα μόνον, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ πρὸς ἕτερα ὄντες χρήσιμοι. ∆οῦλοι γὰρ καὶ αἰχμάλωτοι γενόμενοι τῶν ἡδονῶν, καὶ πρὸς τὰ πολιτικά εἰσιν ἄχρηστοι πράγματα· εἰ δὲ πρὸς ἐκεῖνα, πολλῷ μᾶλλον πρὸς τὰ τῶν οὐρανῶν. Καὶ γὰρ διπλῆ τοῖς λογισμοῖς ἐντεῦθεν ἡ λύμη γίνεται, ἀπό τε τῆς τρυφῆς, ἀπό τε τῆς φροντίδος. Τούτων γὰρ καὶ καθ' ἑαυτὸ μὲν ἕκαστον ἱκανὸν καταποντίσαι τὸ σκάφος· ὅταν δὲ καὶ ἀμφότερα συνδράμῃ, ἐννόησον ἡλίκον τὸ κλυδώνιον γίνεται. εʹ. Καὶ μὴ θαυμάσῃς, εἰ τὴν τρυφὴν ἀκάνθας ἐκάλεσε. Σὺ μὲν γὰρ ἀγνοεῖς, μεθύων τῷ πάθει· οἱ δὲ ὑγιαίνοντες ἴσασιν ὅτι ἀκάνθης μᾶλλον κεντεῖ, καὶ τρυφὴ πλέον ἢ μέριμνα δαπανᾷ τὴν ψυχὴν, καὶ χαλεπωτέρας παρέχει τὰς ὀδύνας καὶ τῷ σώματι καὶ τῇ ψυχῇ. Οὐδὲ γὰρ οὕτως ὑπὸ φροντίδος τις πλήττεται, ὡς ὑπὸ πλησμονῆς. Ὅταν γὰρ ἀγρυπνίαι, καὶ κροτάφων διατάσεις, καὶ καρηβαρίαι, καὶ σπλάγχνων ὀδύναι περιέχωσι τὸν τοιοῦτον, ἐννόησον πόσων ἀκανθῶν ταῦτα χαλεπώτερα. Καὶ καθάπερ αἱ ἄκανθαι, ὅθεν ἂν κατασχεθῶσιν, αἱμάττουσι τὰς κατεχούσας αὐτὰς χεῖρας· οὕτω δὴ καὶ ἡ τρυφὴ καὶ πόδας, καὶ χεῖρας, καὶ κεφαλὴν, καὶ ὀφθαλμοὺς, καὶ πάντα ἁπλῶς λυμαίνεται τὰ μέλη· καὶ ξηρὰ δὲ καὶ ἄκαρπός ἐστιν, ὥσπερ ἡ ἄκανθα, καὶ πολλῷ μειζόνως ἐκείνης λυπεῖ, καὶ ἐν τοῖς καιρίοις. Καὶ γὰρ γῆρας ἄκαιρον ἐπεισάγει, καὶ ἀμβλύνει τὰς αἰσθήσεις, καὶ σκοτοῖ τὸν λογισμὸν, καὶ πηροῖ τὸν νοῦν ὀξὺ βλέποντα, καὶ πλαδαρὸν τὸ σῶμα ποιεῖ, δαψιλεστέραν τῆς κόπρου τὴν ἀποθήκην ἐργαζομένη, καὶ πολλὴν τὴν σωρείαν τῶν κακῶν συνάγουσα, καὶ μεῖζον τὸ φορτίον, καὶ ὑπέρογκον ποιεῖται τὸν γόμον· ὅθεν καὶ πολλὰ καὶ συνεχῆ τὰ πτώματα, καὶ πυκνὰ τὰ ναυάγια. Τί γὰρ λιπαίνεις, εἰπέ μοι, τὸ σῶμα; Μὴ γὰρ καταθῦσαί σε ἔχομεν; μὴ γὰρ παραθεῖναι τραπέζῃ; Τὰς ὄρνεις καλῶς πιαίνεις· μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ ἐκείνας καλῶς· ὅταν γὰρ πιανθῶσιν, ἄχρηστοι πρὸς