Chapter XXI.

The disciples of Pythagoras, too, and of Plato, although they appear to hold the incorruptibility of the world, yet fall into similar errors.  For as the planets, after certain definite cycles, assume the same positions, and hold the same relations to one another, all things on earth will, they assert, be like what they were at the time when the same state of planetary relations existed in the world.  From this view it necessarily follows, that when, after the lapse of a lengthened cycle, the planets come to occupy towards each other the same relations which they occupied in the time of Socrates, Socrates will again be born of the same parents, and suffer the same treatment, being accused by Anytus and Melitus, and condemned by the Council of Areopagus!  The learned among the Egyptians, moreover, hold similar views, and yet they are treated with respect, and do not incur the ridicule of Celsus and such as he; while we, who maintain that all things are administered by God in proportion to the relation of the free-will of each individual, and are ever being brought into a better condition, so far as they admit of being so,1083    κατὰ τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον. and who know that the nature of our free-will admits of the occurrence of contingent events1084    καὶ τὴν τοῦ ἐφ᾽ ἡμῖν φύσιν γιγνώσκοντες ἐνδεχομένου ἃ ἐνδέχεται. (for it is incapable of receiving the wholly unchangeable character of God), yet do not appear to say anything worthy of a testing examination.

Καὶ οἱ ἀπὸ τοῦ Πυθαγόρου δὲ καὶ Πλάτωνος εἰ καὶ δοκοῦσιν ἄφθαρτον τηρεῖν τὸν κόσμον, ἀλλὰ τοῖς παραπλη σίοις γε περιπίπτουσι. Τῶν γὰρ ἀστέρων κατά τινας περιόδους τεταγμένας τοὺς αὐτοὺς σχηματισμοὺς καὶ σχέσεις πρὸς ἀλλήλους λαμβανόντων, πάντα τὰ ἐπὶ γῆς ὁμοίως ἔχειν φασὶ τοῖς ὅτε τὸ αὐτὸ σχῆμα τῆς σχέσεως τῶν ἀστέρων περιεῖχεν ὁ κόσμος. Ἀνάγκη τοίνυν κατὰ τοῦτον τὸν λόγον τῶν ἀστέρων ἐκ μακρᾶς περιόδου ἐλθόντων ἐπὶ τὴν αὐτὴν σχέσιν πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ὁποίαν εἶχον ἐπὶ Σωκράτους, πάλιν Σωκράτη γενέσθαι ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν καὶ τὰ αὐτὰ παθεῖν, κατηγορούμενον ὑπὸ Ἀνύτου καὶ Μελήτου καὶ καταδικα ζόμενον ὑπὸ τῆς ἐξ Ἀρείου πάγου βουλῆς. Καὶ Αἰγυπτίων δὲ οἱ λόγιοι τοιαῦτα παραδιδόντες σεμνοί εἰσι καὶ οὐ γελῶνται ὑπὸ Κέλσου καὶ τῶν παραπλησίων, ἡμεῖς δὲ κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τῆς σχέσεως τῶν ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἑκάστου οἰκονομεῖσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ λέγοντες τὸ πᾶν καὶ ἀεὶ ἄγεσθαι κατὰ τὸ ἐνδεχόμενον ἐπὶ τὸ βέλτιον καὶ τὴν τοῦ ἐφ' ἡμῖν φύσιν γινώσκοντες ἐνδεχομένου ἃ ἐνδέχεται–οὐ γὰρ δύναται χωρῆσαι τὸ πάντῃ ἄτρεπτον τοῦ θεοῦ–οὐ δοκοῦμεν ἄξια λέγειν βασάνου καὶ ἐξετάσεως;