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will return from the wedding feast, so that when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him. Nor do we wish to consider carefully what light burdens for such a race can be transferred with us who have gathered them, and make our life there full of joy, becoming the possessions of those who acquired them; and what burdens are heavy and troublesome and nailed to the earth, and are not by nature able to be possessed by men at all, nor are permitted to follow those who have them through that narrow gate.

But what things we ought to have gathered, we have left behind; and what things it is fitting to despise, these we gather; and what things can be united to us, and become a true adornment, congenital to both soul and body, to these we pay no attention; but what things remain alien forever, impressing on us only shame, these we attempt to collect, toiling in vain, and laboring a labor, as if someone, deceiving himself, should wish to draw water into a perforated jar. For this, I think, is surely known even to all infants, that none of the pleasant things in life, for which most men are mad, is truly ours, or is by nature able to become so; but they appear equally alien to all, both to those who seem to enjoy them, and to those who do not even approach them. For not even if some should gather immense gold in life, does it remain their own forever; but it either escapes them while they are still living and grasping it from all sides, flowing away to the more powerful, or it abandons them when they are already at the point of death, and is not willing to depart with those who acquired it. But they, being dragged to the necessary road by him who forcibly separates souls from this wretched flesh, frequently turning back toward their possessions, weep for the sweats they expended on them from their youth; but the wealth looks to the hands of others, having rubbed off on them only the toil of its collection and the charge of avarice.

Nor if someone should acquire ten thousand acres of land, and magnificent houses, and herds of all kinds of animals, and should surround himself with all the power among men, does he enjoy 31.548 them forever; but for a short time from these things he is named, and again he will yield his prosperity to others, himself entering a small piece of earth, and often even before the tomb, and before his departure from here, he will see his good fortune passing to others, and perhaps to enemies. Or do we not know how many fields, and how many houses, and how many nations and cities, while their possessors were still living, have taken on the names of other masters? and how those who formerly served have ascended to the throne of rule, while those called lords and masters have been content to stand with the ruled, and have submitted to their own slaves, as if in the turnings of dice, their affairs being suddenly transferred? Moreover, the things devised for our food and drink, and all that wealth, acting insolently, has contrived beyond what is needful for the service of the ungrateful and incontinent belly, when could they become ours, even if they are supplied continuously? Things which, depositing only some small pleasure in the taste as they pass through, we immediately resent as troublesome and superfluous, and with haste we cast them out somewhere, since if they lingered in our bowels, we would be in the greatest danger of our lives. To many, at any rate, satiety has brought death, and has become the cause of enjoying nothing any more. And licentious beds, and profane unions, and all the works of a raging and frantic soul, are they not in every way a manifest loss to nature, and an evident injury, and rather a genuine alienation and diminution of what is one's own, the body being diminished in the unions, and being plundered of its most genuine and cohesive nourishment? Therefore, for each of those who have wallowed in licentious beds, immediately after the act, when the frenzy of the flesh has withered, and the mind has come to the loathsome end of what it attempted, as if from drunkenness or some storm, to consider where it is,

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ἀναλύσει ἐκ τῶν γάμων, ἵνα, ἐλθόντος καὶ κρούσαντος, εὐθέως ἀνοίξωσιν αὐτῷ. Οὐδὲ ἐθέλομεν σκοπεῖν ἀκριβῶς, ποῖα μὲν κοῦφα φορτία πρὸς τὸν τοιοῦτον δρόμον ἡμῖν καὶ συμμεθί στασθαι δύναται τοῖς συλλέξασι, καὶ τὸν ἐκεῖ πε ριχαρῆ ποιεῖ βίον ἡμῖν, ἴδια τῶν κτησαμένων γινό μενα· ποῖα δὲ βαρέα καὶ δυσχερῆ καὶ προσηλωμένα τῇ γῇ, καὶ οὐ πεφυκότα τοῖς ἀνθρώποις οἰκειοῦσθαι καθάπαξ, οὐδὲ συγχωρούμενα διὰ τῆς στενῆς ἐκεί νης πύλης ἀκολουθῆσαι τοῖς ἔχουσιν.

Ἀλλ' ὅσα μὲν συλλέγειν ἐχρῆν, κατελίπομεν· ὧν δὲ ὑπερορᾷν προσ ήκει, ταῦτα συλλέγομεν· καὶ ἃ μὲν ἡμῖν ἑνωθῆναι, καὶ κόσμος ὄντως γενέσθαι δύναται συμφυὴς ψυχῇ τε καὶ σώματι, τούτοις οὐδὲ προσέχομεν· ἃ δὲ ἀλλότρια μένει διηνεκῶς, μόνην ἡμῖν ἐναποματτόμενα τὴν αἰσχύνην, ταῦτα ἀθροίζειν ἐπιχειροῦμεν, μοχθοῦντες διακενῆς, καὶ πονοῦντες πόνον, οἱονεί τις ἑαυτὸν ἀπατῶν, εἰς τετρημένον πίθον ἀντλεῖν ἐθελήσειε. Τοῦτο γὰρ δήπου γνώριμον οἶμαι καὶ νηπίοις πᾶσιν, ὡς οὐδὲν τῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ τερπνῶν, ἐφ' οἷς οἱ πλείους μεμήνασιν, ἡμέτερον ὄντως ἐστὶν, ἢ γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν· ἀλλ' ὁμοίως ἁπάντων ἀλλότρια φαίνεται, τῶν τε ἀπολαύειν δοκούντων, τῶν τε οὔτε προσπελαζόν των αὐτοῖς. Οὐδὲ γὰρ εἰ χρυσόν τινες ἐν τῷ βίῳ συναγάγοιεν ἄπλετον, ἴδιος αὐτῶν μένει διηνεκῶς· ἀλλ' ἢ ζῶντας ἔτι πανταχόθεν αὐτὸν περισφίγγοντας ἀποδιδράσκει, πρὸς τοὺς δυνατωτέρους μεταῤῥυεὶς, ἢ πρὸς τῷ θανάτῳ γεγενημένους ἤδη καταλιμπάνει, καὶ οὐκ ἐθέλει τοῖς κτησαμένοις συνεκδημεῖν. Ἀλλ' οἱ μὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ πρὸς βίαν χωρίζοντος τὰς ψυχὰς τῆς ταλαιπώρου ταύτης σαρκὸς ἑλκόμενοι πρὸς τὴν ἀναγκαῖαν ὁδὸν, πυκνὰ μεταστρεφόμενοι πρὸς τὰ χρήματα, τοὺς ἐκ νεότητος ἐπ' αὐτοῖς ἱδρῶτας ἀπο δακρύουσιν· ὁ πλοῦτος δὲ εἰς ἑτέρων χεῖρας ὁρᾷ, μό νον ἐκείνοις τὸν ἐπὶ τῇ συλλογῇ μόχθον καὶ τὸ τῆς πλεονεξίας ἔγκλημα προστριψάμενος.

Οὔτε εἰ ἐπὶ γῆς πλέθρα κτήσαιτό τις μυρία, καὶ μεγαλοπρεπεῖς οἰκίας, καὶ ζώων ἀγέλας παντοδαπῶν, καὶ τὴν ἐν ἀν θρώποις ἅπασαν περιβάλοιτο δυναστείαν, ἀπολαύει 31.548 δι' αἰῶνος αὐτῶν· ἐπ' ὀλίγον δὲ ἀπὸ τούτων· ὀνομα σθεὶς, ἄλλοις πάλιν τῆς εὐπορίας ἐκστήσεται, βρα χεῖαν γῆν αὐτὸς ὑποδὺς, πολλάκις δὲ καὶ πρὸ τοῦ τά φου, καὶ πρὸ τῆς ἐντεῦθεν ἀπαναστάσεως, εἰς ἑτέ ρους, καὶ πολεμίους τυχὸν, τὴν εὐπραγίαν ὄψεται μεταβαίνουσαν. Ἢ οὐκ ἴσμεν ὁπόσοι μὲν ἀγροὶ, πό σαι δὲ οἰκίαι, πόσα δὲ ἔθνη καὶ πόλεις, καὶ ζώντων ἔτι τῶν κτησαμένων, ἑτέρων ὀνόματα μετημφιάσαντο δεσποτῶν; καὶ ὡς οἱ μὲν πάλαι δουλεύοντες ἐπὶ τὸν τῆς ἀρχῆς θρόνον ἀνέβησαν, οἱ δὲ κύριοι καὶ δεσπό ται καλούμενοι στῆναι μετὰ τῶν ἀρχομένων ἠγάπη σαν, καὶ τοῖς ἑαυτῶν δούλοις ὑπέκυψαν, ὥσπερ ἐν κύβων περιτροπαῖς, μεταχθέντων ἄφνω τῶν πραγμάτων αὐτοῖς; Τά γε μὴν εἰς βρῶσιν ἡμῖν ἐπινενοημένα καὶ πόσιν, καὶ πάντα, ὅσα πέρα τῆς χρείας ὁ πλοῦτος ὑβρίζων ἐμηχανήσατο πρὸς θεραπείαν τῆς ἀχαρί στου καὶ μηδὲν στεγούσης γαστρὸς, πότ' ἂν ἡμέτερα γένοιτο, κἂν ἐπαντλῆται διηνεκῶς; Ἅ γε μικράν τινα τῇ γεύσει μόνον ἐναποθέμενα κατὰ τὴν πάροδον ἡδο νὴν, εὐθὺς ὡς ὀχληρὰ καὶ περιττὰ δυσχεραίνομεν, καὶ μετὰ σπουδῆς ἔξω ποι βάλλομεν, ὡς εἰ τοῖς σπλάγχνοις ἐγχρονίσοι, τὰ μέγιστα περὶ τοῦ ζῇν κιν δυνεύσοντες. Πολλοῖς γοῦν ὁ κόρος ἤγαγε θάνα τον, καὶ τοῦ μηδενὸς ἀπολαύειν ἔτι γεγένηται πρό ξενος. Κοῖται δὲ ἀσελγεῖς, καὶ βέβηλοι συμπλοκαὶ, καὶ πάντα ὅσα λυττώσης ἔργα καὶ παραφόρου ψυχῆς, οὐχὶ πρόδηλος πάντη ζημία τῇ φύσει, καὶ βλάβη περιφανὴς, καὶ τῶν ἰδίων ὄντως ἑκάστου μᾶλ λον ἀλλοτρίωσίς τε καὶ μείωσις, ἐλαττουμένου τοῦ σώματος ἐν ταῖς μίξεσι, καὶ τῆς γνησιωτάτης καὶ συνεκτικωτάτης τῶν μελῶν ἀποσυλωμένου τροφῆς; Τοιγαροῦν ἑκάστου τῶν ταῖς ἀσελγέσιν ἐγκαλινδη θέντων εὐναῖς, μετὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν εὐθὺς, ὅταν ὁ μὲν τῆς σαρκὸς οἶστρος ἀπομαρανθῇ, πρὸς τὸ βδελυρὸν δὲ ὧν ἐνεχείρησε πέρας ἐλθὼν ὁ νοῦς, ὥσπερ ἐκ μέθης ἢ χειμῶνός τινος, τοῦ λογίσασθαι, ποῖ ποτέ ἐστι,