khazarzar-clement-of-alexandria-paedagogus

Vegetables with love, or veal with deceit: this well recalls the aforementioned saying, that it is not the vegetables that are love, but that dinners are to be taken with love. The middle state is good in all things, and not least in the preparation concerning the feast; for extremes are dangerous, and the middle states are good. Everything that is without need of necessities is the middle; for natural appetites are limited by sufficiency. To the Jews, through the law, frugality is most economically proclaimed; for the pedagogue, through Moses, removed from them the use of countless things, attaching causes—the spiritual ones hidden, the fleshly ones manifest, which they have also believed—some because they are not cloven-hoofed, others because they do not ruminate their food, and others because they do not have scales among aquatic creatures, so that very few things are left suitable for them for food. And of those which he permitted them to touch, he again forbade those that are carrion, those that are offered to idols, and those that are strangled; for it is not lawful to touch even these. Since it is impossible for one who uses pleasant things to abstain from accepting them, he set the opposite training against it, until he dissolves the incursion from habit into pleasure. For men, pleasure has generated mostly harm and pain, while overeating produces distress, forgetfulness, and folly in the soul. And they say that the bodies of children become well-growing, increasing in length from deficient nourishment; for the breath that runs up into growth is not hindered when much food blocks the free course of its path.

Hence, Plato, the philosopher who pursued truth, kindling the spark of Hebrew philosophy, censures the life of luxury: "When I came," he says, "to that life which is here called happy, full of Italian and Syracusan tables, it pleased me not at all—to live gorging twice a day and never sleeping alone at night, and all the practices that accompany this life. For from these, no one under heaven could ever become prudent from youth by practicing such things, nor would such a wonderful nature be blended." For Plato was not ignorant of David, who, when establishing the holy ark in his own city in the midst of the tent, making the whole subject people rejoice before the Lord, distributed to every man and woman of all the host of Israel a cake of bread, a griddle-cake, and a pancake from the pan. This food is sufficient and Israelite; the gentile is excessive. No one who uses it would ever become temperate, having buried his mind in his belly, most like the fish called the ass, which Aristotle says alone among other animals has its heart in its stomach. The comic poet Epicharmus calls this one "belly-turned." Such are those men who have trusted in their belly, whose god is the belly and whose glory is in their shame, who think of earthly things. For these the apostle foretold no good things, saying their end is destruction.

How one should approach drinking. Use wine sparingly, as the apostle says to Timothy, who drinks water, on account of your stomach, offering a suitable astringent remedy to a body that is being nursed excellently and is flabby, and admitting this in small quantity, lest the remedy, through excess, require other treatment. The natural and sober drink necessary for the thirsty is water. This, flowing down from the sheer rock, the Lord supplied to the ancient Hebrews as a solitary drink of temperance, and those still wandering needed especially to be sober. Then the holy vine sprouted the prophetic grape. This is a sign to those educated into rest from wandering: the great grape, the Word pressed for us, the blood of the grape, since the Word wished to be mixed with water, just as his blood is mixed for salvation. The blood of the Lord is twofold: one is his fleshly blood, by which we have been redeemed from corruption, and the other is spiritual, that is, that by which we have been anointed. And this is to drink the blood of Jesus, to partake of the Lord's incorruption; the power of the Word is spirit, as blood is of flesh. Proportionally, then, wine is mixed with water, and spirit with the human being; and the mixture feasts one for faith, and the spirit leads to incorruption; and the mixture of both drink and Word is called eucharist, a praised and beautiful grace, partakers of which by faith are sanctified in both body and soul, as the divine mixture mystically blends the human being with the spirit and Word of the Father's will.

For truly the spirit is united with the soul it bears, and the flesh with the word, for whose sake the word became flesh. I therefore commend those who have adopted a strict life and who yearn for the remedy of temperance, water, fleeing as far as possible from wine as from the threat of fire. It is fitting, then, that boys and girls should for the most part abstain from this drug; for it is not suitable to pour the hottest of liquids, wine, into a boiling age, as if channeling fire into fire, from which wild impulses, inflamed desires, and a fiery character are kindled, and the young, heated from within, become rash in their appetites, so that their harm is manifestly proven through the body, as the organs of desire ripen faster than is proper. They grow more shamelessly lustful as the wine seethes, and breasts and genitals swell, already proclaiming an image of fornication, and the wound of the soul forces the body to inflame, and shameless throbbings pursue a morbid curiosity, summoning the orderly man to lawlessness. At this age, the new wine oversteps the boundaries of modesty. One must, as much as possible, try to quench the impulses of the young,

removing the fuel, the Bacchic frenzy of the threat, and pouring in the antidote to the boiling, which will check the soul already smoldering, will restrain the swelling parts, and will lull the irritation of desire already agitated. Those in their prime, having partaken of lunch during the day—for whom lunch is suitable—having tasted only bread, should abstain entirely from drink, so that their excess moisture may be drawn off, being absorbed by dry food. For constant spitting, blowing the nose, and hastening to evacuations are signs of intemperance from the immoderate intake of fluids overflowing in the body. If thirst should arise, let them quench the condition with water, but not much; for it is not fitting to drink water freely, lest the food be washed away, but rather be softened for digestion, the food being broken down into bulk, and only a very small amount passing into the excretions. Moreover, it is fitting for divine concerns not to be weighed down with wine; for unmixed wine, according to the comic poet, compels one to think little, and not even to be temperate. Toward evening, at the time of dinner, wine should be used, when we are no longer occupied with more sober readings. At that time the surrounding air is colder than during the day, so that it is necessary to supplement the failing innate warmth with external heat, and here too with a little wine; for one should not proceed to the cups of insolence.

For those already past their prime, one may permit a more cheerful partaking of drink, rekindling without harm the cooling of their age, which is, as it were, withering from time, with the remedy of the vine. For the desires of the older men are no longer so greatly storm-tossed concerning the shipwrecks of drunkenness; they are, as it were, moored by the anchors of reason and time, and bear more easily the squall of desires that rages from drunkenness, and it is perhaps even permissible for them to jest a little at feasts. But even for these, let there be a limit to drinking, up to the point where they keep their reasoning unshaken, their memory active, and their body unmoved and unshaken by wine; those skilled in these matters call this state "tipsy." It is good, then, to stop beforehand because of the slippery slope. And a certain Artorius, in his work On Longevity—for I recall—thinks that one should only apply wine to moisten the food, so that we may obtain a longer life. It is fitting, therefore, that wine be taken by some as a part of treatment for health alone, and by others for relaxation and cheerfulness. For wine first makes the drinker more gracious to himself than before, more gentle to his fellow drinkers, milder to his servants, and more agreeable to his friends; but when abused, it changes to insolence. For being warm and having pleasant flavors, when blended harmoniously it dissolves the sticky residues with its heat, and tempers the sharp and base humors with its fragrances. Well indeed has that saying been uttered: "Wine is a delight of soul and heart, created from the beginning to be drunk in sufficiency.

It is best to mix wine with as much water as possible, and not to seek it as if it were water and be dulled toward drunkenness, nor to pour it in as if it were water because of love of wine. For both are creations of God, and in this way the mixture of both, water and wine, contributes to health, since life consists of the necessary and the useful. To the necessary, water, one must add as much as possible of the useful. With immoderate wine, the tongue is hindered, the lips become slack, the eyes are distorted, as if the vision were swimming from the abundance of moisture, and forced to be deceived, they think everything revolves in a circle, and they cannot count distant things as they are alone. "And indeed I seem to see two suns," said the Theban elder when drunk. For the vision, moved by the heat of the wine, more frequently imagines the substance as multiple of the one. It makes no difference whether the vision moves or the object seen; for the same thing has happened to the vision from both, being unable to attain an accurate grasp of the underlying object due to the disturbance. And the feet are carried away as by a current, and hiccups, vomiting, and delirium burst in. For every man intoxicated, according to the tragedy, is inferior to anger, empty of mind, and loves to pour out much tongue in vain, hearing unwillingly what he willingly spoke badly. And even before the tragedy, wisdom has cried out: "Much wine drunk in irritation multiplies every fall." Therefore most say that one should relax during drinking bouts and postpone serious matters until dawn.

I, for my part, hold that it is then especially that the Word should be brought in to share the feast, to educate the wine-bibbing, lest the festivity slip unnoticed into drunkenness. For just as no one in his right mind would think it right to close his eyes before going to sleep, so no one would rightly wish the Word to be absent from the symposium, nor would he properly contrive to put it to sleep before the actions are done. But the Word will never be able to depart from its own concerns, not even when we sleep; for it must be summoned even to sleep. For perfect wisdom, being knowledge of divine and human things, embracing the whole, according to that by which it oversees the human flock, becomes an art concerning life, and with this it is present throughout our entire life, always performing its own work, namely, good living. But the wretches who drive away temperance from feasting consider a blessed life to be the disorder of symposia, whose life is nothing but revelry, debauchery, baths, unmixed wine, chamber pots, idleness, and drinking. Indeed, one can see some of them half-drunk, staggering, wearing garlands around their necks like wine jars, pouring unmixed wine to one another under the name of friendship, while others, full of debauchery, squalid, pale, their faces livid, and still on yesterday's drunkenness, again draw up another drunkenness from morning on. It is good, friends, good, having learned this ridiculous and at the same time pitiable image from as far off as possible, to shape ourselves toward the better, dreading lest we too become a similar spectacle and laughingstock to others. So it has been wittily said:

As a furnace tests the temper of steel in the dipping, so wine tests the heart of the proud in drunkenness. Drunkenness, then, is the excessive use of unmixed wine; wine-bibbing is the disorder arising from such use; and a hangover is the discomfort and disgust following drunkenness, named from the shaking of the head. This life—if life it must be called—being idle, stirred up about pleasures, and frantic over wine-guzzling, divine wisdom, viewing it with suspicion, commands her own children: "Do not be a wine-drinker, nor stretch yourself out at banquets, at purchases of meats; for every drunkard and fornicator will become poor and will wear torn garments; every sleepyhead." For every sleepyhead is one not awake to wisdom, but baptized into sleep by drunkenness. And "torn garments," it says, the wine-bibber will wear; he will be ashamed of his drunkenness because of those who observe him. For the torn places of the fleshly fabric, perforated by pleasures of the senses, are the openings of the sinner, through which shame from within the soul is observed—the sin, on account of which the fabric, torn away on all sides, rotting away into many desires, separated from salvation, will not easily be saved. To this it most admonishingly adds: "For whom woe? For whom tumult? For whom judgment? For whom unpleasant talk? For whom vain ruins?" See the whole wine-lover torn, who overlooks the Word itself, and has surrendered himself to drunkenness; how many things Scripture has threatened him with! And again it adds to the threat: "Whose eyes are livid?" Are they not those of those who linger in

wines. Does he not track down where drinking parties occur? Here he declares the lover of wine already dead in reason, through the livid eyes, which is a sign that appears on the dead, announcing to him death in the Lord; for forgetfulness of things that contribute to true life inclines toward corruption. Naturally, then, the Pedagogue most firmly forbids it, caring for our salvation: Do not drink wine to intoxication. Why, you will ask? Because, he says, your mouth will then speak crookedly, and you will lie as if in the heart of the sea and like a helmsman in a great storm. Hence even poetry, drawing benefit, says: Wine, which has might equal to fire, when it enters men, swells like the Libyan sea under the north or south wind, and reveals all hidden things, causing false speech; wine is a slip for the drunken, wine is a deceiver of the soul, and so on. Do you see the danger of shipwreck? The heart is washed over by heavy drinking, and the multitude of wine-bibbing he likened to the threat of a sea, in which the body, sunk like a ship, has gone down into the depth of disorder, buried by the triple waves of wine, while the helmsman, the human mind, is tossed by the surge, drunkenness prevailing, and, seafaring, grows dizzy in the darkness of the squall, having missed the harbor of truth, until, falling upon hidden rocks, it runs itself aground on pleasures and destroys itself. Naturally, then, the apostle also commands: Do not get drunk on wine, in which there is much profligacy, hinting through profligacy at the unsavable nature of drunkenness.

For even if water has been made into wine at weddings, it did not permit drunkenness, but it revived the watery element of understanding, the worker of the law from Adam, filling the whole world with the blood of the vine, a drink of truth, the mixture of the old law and the new word, provided for the fulfillment of the time foretold for piety. Therefore, Scripture mystically named wine the symbol of holy blood, and, exposing the intemperate stale-drinking from wine, it says wine is licentious and drunkenness insolent. So then, right reason approves drinking in winter because of the cold, up to the point of not shivering, for those who are prone to shiver, and at other times for the sake of treating the internal organs. For just as with food one should use it to the point of not being hungry, so also with drink one should use it to the point of not being thirsty, carefully guarding against the slip; for the insinuation of wine is treacherous. In this way our soul would be pure, dry, and luminous, for a dry soul is wisest and best. And this soul is also contemplative, and it is not moistened by the exhalations from wine, being corporealized like a cloud. Therefore, one should not be overly curious about Chian wine, if it is absent, nor about Ariusian wine, when it is not at hand. For thirst is an affection of some deficiency and seeks the appropriate remedy for replenishment, not a puffed-up drink. But the overseas wine-hunts are due to a flabby appetite from intemperance, the soul being deranged even before drunkenness concerning its desires.

Thasian wine, fragrant and sweet-smelling, Lesbian wine, a certain sweet Cretan wine, pleasant Syracusan wine, a certain Mendesian Egyptian wine, the island wine of Naxos, and some other aromatic wine from the land of the Italians—these are many names. For a temperate drinker, wine is one, the product of one God's vineyard. For why is the local wine not sufficient to satisfy desire? Unless they will also bring water, like the foolish kings who bring the river Choaspes, so called, of India, whose water is best for drinking, the Choaspian water, just as they bring their friends, so also they bring the water. The Holy Spirit, through Amos, here also laments the rich in their luxury, declaring: "Those who drink filtered wine and recline on ivory couches," he says, and he adds whatever follows in the part of reproaches. But one must take special care for decorum—and the myth says that Athena, whoever she was, threw away the pleasure of the pipes because of the unseemliness of the appearance—so as to drink with an undistorted face, not gulping down greedily nor before drinking forcing the eyes to behave unseemly, drawing it without pause due to intemperance, nor spilling it over the chin or wetting the garment, as the drink is poured in all at once, all but washing their own face, rinsed off in the cups. For the gurgling sound of the drink carried swiftly with much breath drawn in, as if poured into a clay vessel, the throat resounding from the gulping flow, is shameful, and the spectacle of intemperance is unseemly, and moreover the practice of love of drinking is harmful to the participant. Do not hasten to harm, O you.

Your drink is not snatched away; it is given to you and awaits you. Do not hasten to burst yourself by gulping it down; your thirst is quenched even if you drink more slowly, since decorum is added, the drink being divided in an orderly way; for time does not take away what intemperance snatches prematurely. In wine, it is said, do not act like a man, for wine has disabled many. Drunkenness is especially practiced by the Scythians, Celts, Iberians, and Thracians—all warlike races—and they consider it a fine and happy pursuit to practice it; but we, the peaceful race, for enjoyment, not for outrage, drink sober toasts of friendship, so that friendships may truly be shown to be worthy of their name. How do you think the Lord drank when he became man for our sake? As shamelessly as we do? Not with refinement? Not with decorum? Not with deliberation? For you know well, he too partook of wine; for he too was human; and he indeed blessed the wine, saying: Take, drink; this is my blood—allegorizing the blood of the vine, the word poured out concerning many for the remission of sins, a holy stream of gladness. And that the drinker must be temperate, he clearly showed by his teaching at feasts; for he did not teach while drunk. And that it was wine that was blessed, he again demonstrated to the disciples, saying: I will not drink of the fruit of this vine until I drink it with you in my father's kingdom. But that it was wine that was drunk by the Lord, he again says of himself, reproaching the hard-heartedness of the Jews: For the Son of Man came, and they say—

Behold a man gluttonous and a wine-bibber, a friend of tax-collectors. Let this be set down by us also against those called Encratites. And women, taking up decorum, as it were, so that by not using broad cups they may not have their lips chapped by the mouth being widened, drinking unseemly from narrow alabastra, almost at the mouth, they bend back their heads and bare their necks, not decorously, it seems to me, and stretching the throat for swallowing they gulp down, as if exposing to the fellow-drinkers what they can, and drawing up manly, rather slavish, belches, they indulge themselves in luxury; for no noise is proper for a rational man, and still more for a woman, to whom even to be conscious of herself, what she is, brings only shame. Anger, it is said, is a great thing, a drunken woman, like the wrath of God, a woman wine-fogged. Why? Because she does not conceal her unseemliness. For a woman is quickly drawn into disorder, if she only gives her inclination to pleasures. And we have not forbidden drinking from alabastra; but we cut off the practice of drinking only from these as ostentatious, advising the use of whatever is at hand without attachment, checking their desires from slipping far from above. And the drawing up of air for belching is to be quietly dismissed. In no way must women be permitted to appear baring any part of the body, lest they fall.

both, the men being provoked to spy, and the women drawing the eyes of the men upon themselves. We must always conduct ourselves decorously as if the Lord were present, lest the apostle should be angry with us as with the Corinthians and say: When you come together, it is not to eat the Lord's supper. It seems to me that the one called headless by the mathematicians, counted before the star of the wandering one, with the head sunk into the chest, hints at the gluttons and pleasure-lovers and those ready for drunkenness. For indeed in these the rational part is not situated in the head, but in the intestines, enslaved to passions, desire, and anger. So that just as Elpenor broke his ankle-bones falling down from drunkenness, so the brain of these, reeling from above from drunkenness, falls down to the liver and the heart, that is, to love of pleasure and anger, a fall greater than the poets' children say Hephaestus was thrown from heaven to earth by Zeus. Labor of sleeplessness, it says, and cholera and colic accompany an insatiable man. For this reason indeed the drunkenness of Noah has been recorded, so that we may guard against drunkenness as much as possible, having the image of the transgression visible and written, through which those who covered the shame of drunkenness are blessed by the Lord. Most concisely, therefore, the scripture has embraced everything in one saying: Wine is sufficient for an educated man, and he will rest on his bed. That one should not be eager about the extravagance of vessels.

The use of drinking cups made of silver and gold, and of others set with stones, is improper; it is merely a deception of the eye. For if one pours hot mixture into them, the vessels become heated and painful to hold; if, on the other hand, one pours cold mixture, the material imparts its quality, spoiling the blend, and the wealthy drink becomes harmful. Away, then, with Therikleian cups, Antigonidean kantharoi, labronii, lepastae, and the countless types of drinking vessels, together with coolers and wine-jugs. For gold and silver, both privately and publicly, are an enviable possession, exceeding need, rare to acquire, difficult to keep, and unsuitable for use. Moreover, the vain ostentation of engravers on glass, which teaches one both to fear and to drink, since it is more readily broken through art, must be excluded from our good order. Silver couches, basins, saucers, small plates, and bowls, and in addition to these, vessels of silver and gold, some for the service of food, others for certain other needs which I am ashamed even to mention, as well as tripods fashioned from easily split cedar, citron wood, ebony, and ivory, couches with silver feet and inlaid with ivory, embroidered with gold, and adorned with the shell of the tortoise, bed-curtains, coverlets of purple and of other difficultly obtained colors—all these are proofs of tasteless luxury, acquisitions partaking of envy and indolence, and are to be dismissed entirely, as they contain nothing worthy of serious attention. For the time is compressed, as the apostle says.

This remains, that one should not be formed in a ridiculous manner, just as in processions some are seen outwardly anointed in a way that is striking for solemnity, while within they are wretched. To clarify this more precisely, he added: "It remains that even those who have wives should be as if they do not have them, and those who buy should be as if they do not possess them." If these things apply to marriage, concerning which God says "be fruitful," how do you suppose that vulgar ostentation is to be banished by the authority of the Lord? Therefore also: "Sell your possessions," says the Lord, "and give to the poor, and come follow me." Follow God naked of pretension, naked of perishable pomp, possessing only your own, the good that cannot be taken away: faith in God, confession of the one who suffered, beneficence toward men—the most precious possession. I also accept Plato, who plainly legislates that one should neither practice having wealth in silver nor in gold, nor even a useless vessel which, without necessary use, is not moderate, so that the same thing might be suitable for many purposes, and the accumulation of possessions be abolished. Excellently, then, the divine Scripture somewhere says, addressing the self-loving and pretentious: "Where are the rulers of the nations and those who lord over the beasts on the earth, those who mock the birds of the air, those who hoard silver and gold, in which men trusted, and there is no end to their acquisition, those who work and worry over their silver and gold? There is no discovery of their works; they have vanished and gone down to Hades." This is the reward of vulgar ostentation.

If indeed, when we are farming, we need a mattock and a plow, but no one would forge a silver hoe or a golden shovel, and we use the material that is serviceable, not the costly one, for agriculture, what prevents us from having the same mindset regarding household utensils, those who are contemplative of the same principle? Let their measure be need, not extravagance. For tell me: does the table knife, if it is not studded with silver or made with an ivory handle, not cut? Or must we forge Indian steel for the portion of meat, as if summoning some ally? What then? If the hand-washing basin were made of clay, would it not receive the water from the hands? Or the foot-basin the water from the feet? Will the ivory table, fitted with feet, be indignant at bearing a penny loaf? Nor will the lamp serve the light because it is the work of a potter, not a goldsmith? I say that even a camp bed provides a resting place no worse than an ivory couch, and that a coarse rug is quite sufficient to spread beneath, so that there is no need for purple or scarlet coverlets, yet cheapness is condemned due to the folly of ruinous luxury. What is this great error, this vain display, do you see? The Lord ate from a cheap bowl and made his disciples recline on the grass on the ground and washed their feet, girded with a linen cloth—the unpretentious God and Lord of all, not carrying a silver foot-basin from heaven. And he asked the Samaritan woman for a drink from a clay vessel drawing from the well, not seeking royal gold, teaching us to quench thirst easily.

He set utility as the aim, not extravagance. He ate and drank at feasts, not digging up metals from the earth, nor using vessels that reek of silver and gold—that is, of rust—as one inhales the rust of arrogant material. In general, all foods, garments, vessels, and everything else in the household, I say collectively, must be consistent with the Christian's way of life, adapted appropriately to the person, age, occupation, and occasion. For being servants of one God, we must show that our possessions and the furnishings upon them are symbols of one good life, and that each individual, with undivided faith, in this single way of life, makes the subsequent things consistent and harmonious with the one disposition. What we acquire without difficulty, use with ease, praise, guard readily, and share willingly, is better. Better indeed are useful things, and better, of course, are the more modest than the wealthy ones. In sum, wealth not rightly governed is a citadel of vice, around which many, with eyes inflamed, would never enter the kingdom of heaven, being sick over worldly things and living arrogantly due to luxuries. It is necessary

Those who hasten toward salvation must first grasp that all our possessions are for use, and use is for sufficiency, which one could procure even from few things. For vain are those who, through insatiability, take delight in their treasures. "He who gathers wages," it says, "gathered into a perforated bag." This is the one who gathers and hoards the seed and diminishes it, giving to no one. It is mockery and broad laughter for men to carry about silver chamber pots and glass urinals, as they bring along their own counselors, and for these wealthy women, unreasonably, to make the receptacles of their excrements of gold, as if it were not possible for the rich to wipe themselves without being puffed up. I would have prayed that for them, throughout their whole life, gold be judged worthy of being considered rubbish. But now the acropolis of evil, love of money, has been discovered, which the apostle says is the root of all evils, for which some, grasping after it, have strayed from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains. The best wealth is poverty of desires and true magnanimity, not being magnanimous on account of wealth, but despising it. To boast over vessels is utterly shameful; for it is no longer right to be zealous about those things which anyone who wishes can buy from the market. Wisdom, however, is not purchasable with earthly coin nor in the marketplace, but is sold in heaven and is sold for a just coin: the incorruptible Word, the royal gold.

How one ought to relax at feasts. Let revelry be far from our rational feasting, and also the vain all-night vigils that swell with drunkenness. For revelry is a drunken, frantic flute, an improviser of erotic distress; and love and drunkenness, the irrational passions, are banished far from our chorus. All-night carousing over drink is a kind of drunken revelry, summoning intoxication and provoking intercourse, a shameless boldness. Those who occupy themselves with flutes, psalteries, choruses, dances, Egyptian rattles, and such idle, disorderly, unseemly, and utterly uneducated disturbances would be resounding with cymbals and drums and surrounded by the instruments of deception. For such a symposium becomes, in my opinion, a veritable theater of drunkenness. The apostle bids us to put away the works of darkness and don the armor of light, walking decorously as in the day, not devoting ourselves to revels and drunkenness, nor to beds and licentiousness. Let the shepherd's pipe be assigned to shepherds, and the flute to superstitious men hastening to idolatry. For truly these instruments are to be dismissed from a sober symposium, being more suitable for beasts than for men, and for the more irrational of men. For we have learned that deer are charmed by pipes and are led into traps by hunters through the melody, and to mares being mated a kind of wedding hymn is played on the flute—musicians call this the "horse-maddening" tune.

Every single illiberal sight and sound, and, in a word, every shameful perception of intemperance—that is, true insensibility—must be utterly cut off, as we guard against the pleasure that tickles and effeminates in the eyes and ears. For the broken melodies and plaintive rhythms of the Carian Muse, with their manifold sorceries, corrupt character, dragging it into passion through licentious and base art of music. Distinguishing this revelry from divine service, the Spirit chants: "Praise him with the sound of the trumpet," for indeed with the sound of the trumpet he will raise the dead; "praise him with the psaltery," because the tongue is the psaltery of the Lord; "and praise him with the cithara"—let the mouth be understood as the cithara, struck as by a plectrum with the Spirit; "praise him with the timbrel and the dance"—it means the church that has practiced the resurrection of the flesh in the resounding skin; "praise him with strings and instrument"—it calls our body the instrument and its sinews the strings, through which it has received harmonious tension, and when struck by the Spirit it gives forth human notes; "praise him with cymbals of acclamation"—it calls the tongue the cymbal of the mouth, which resounds to the striking lips. Therefore it proclaimed to humanity: "Let every breath praise the Lord," because he has visited every breath that he made. For man is truly a peaceful instrument; but if one meddles with the others, he will find them instruments of war, either inflaming desires, or kindling passions, or enraging tempers.

The Tyrrhenians, for instance, use the trumpet in their wars, the Arcadians the pipe, the Sicilians the pectis, the Cretans the lyre, the Lacedaemonians the flute, the Thracians the horn, the Egyptians the drum, and the Arabs the cymbal. But we use only one instrument, the peaceful word, with which we honor God, no longer the ancient psaltery, the trumpet, the drum, and the flute, which it was customary for those trained in war and contemptuous of divine fear to employ in their assemblies, using strings as well, so that their laxity of mind might be roused by such rhythms. Let our convivial goodwill be twofold according to the law: for if you will love the Lord your God, and then your neighbor, let the first goodwill be toward God through thanksgiving and psalmody, and the second toward the neighbor through seemly conversation. "For the word of the Lord dwells richly in you," says the apostle. And this word adapts and conforms itself to occasions, persons, and places; now it is sympotic. For the apostle adds again: "Teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in grace, singing in your heart to God; and whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and his Father." This is our grateful revel, and if you wish to sing and play to the cithara or lyre, there is no blame; you will imitate the righteous Hebrew king who was grateful to God.

Rejoice, you righteous, in the Lord; praise befits the upright, says the prophecy; confess to the Lord with the kithara; on the ten-stringed psalterion play to him; sing to him a new song. And does not the ten-stringed psalterion signify the Word, Jesus, manifested by the element of the decad? And just as it is fitting before we partake of food to bless the creator of all things, so also at a drinking party it is proper to sing to him while partaking of his creations; for the psalm is a melodious and temperate blessing; the apostle called the psalm a spiritual song. And above all, before we fall asleep, it is holy to give thanks to God, having enjoyed his grace and philanthropy, so that we may go to sleep in a godly manner. And confess to him with songs of the lips, it says, because by his command all good pleasure comes, and there is no diminution of his salvation. But also among the ancient Greeks, at their festive banquets and with the cups that sprinkle, a song called the skolion was sung, in the image of Hebrew psalms, with all together singing a paean in one voice, and sometimes passing the turns of the song around in part; and the more musical among them also sang to the lyre. But let the erotic songs be far away; let the songs be hymns of God. Let them praise his name, it says, in a chorus, with the tympanon and the psalterion.

Let them play the psalterion for him. And what is the singing chorus, the spirit will explain to you. His praise is in the assembly of the holy; let them rejoice in their king. And again it adds: that the Lord is well pleased with his people. For we must admit those harmonies that are temperate, driving as far as possible from our disciplined mind those truly liquid harmonies which, by artifice in the bends of the notes, corrupt into softness and buffoonery; the austere and temperate melodies are assigned to the insolence of drunkenness. Therefore we must leave aside the chromatic harmonies for the colorless revelries and for the flower-bearing and courtesan music. Concerning laughter. We must expel from our polity imitators of ridiculous men, or rather of laughable passions. For since all words flow from thought and character, it is impossible to utter ridiculous words without being borne from a ridiculous character. For the saying "a good tree does not produce rotten fruit, nor a rotten tree good fruit" would apply here as well: the word is the fruit of thought. If, then, we must banish jesters from our polity, much more must we not permit ourselves to play the jester. For it is absurd to be found imitating those things which one is forbidden to hear; and it is even more absurd to be eager to become ridiculous oneself, that is, insulting and laughable. For if we would not endure being shaped ridiculously, as some are seen in processions, how could we reasonably tolerate the inner man being shaped into something more ridiculous?

And if we would never willingly distort our face into something more ridiculous, how could we, according to reason, practice being and appearing ridiculous, mocking the most valuable of all possessions among humans, reason? To practice these things is mockery, since even the speech of the ridiculous is not worthy of hearing, accustoming through the words themselves to shameful deeds. One must be witty, not a buffoon. But even laughter itself must be curbed. For indeed, when it is conducted in the proper manner, it shows decorum, but when it proceeds otherwise, it indicates licentiousness. Simply put, whatever is natural to humans must not be abolished from them, but rather appropriate measure and occasion must be imposed upon them. For just because man is a laughing animal, he should not laugh at everything, just as a horse, being a neighing animal, does not neigh at everything. Rather, as rational animals, we must attune ourselves temperately, relaxing the severity of our earnestness and the excessive tension harmoniously, not dissolving it discordantly. For the orderly relaxation of the face, as of an instrument, in accordance with harmony is called a smile—a diffusion thus reflected in the face—and is the laughter of the temperate. But the discordant relaxation of the face, if it occurs in women, is called a giggle, which is a lewd laughter; if in men, a guffaw, which is a suitor-like and insolent laughter. "A fool raises his voice in laughter," says Scripture, "but a wise man will barely smile quietly." Here it calls the wise man "panourgos," the one disposed oppositely to the fool.

But neither should one be sullen, but rather thoughtful; for I very much approve of that one who smiled upon faces that were grim, appearing smiling to the grim; for his laughter would be less ridiculous. And laughter itself must be disciplined: if it is at shameful things, one should appear blushing rather than laughing, lest we seem to join in through sympathy; if at painful things, it is fitting to look more downcast than to seem to rejoice; for the former is a sign of human reason, the latter indicates a suspicion of cruelty. For one must not always laugh—that is immoderate—nor in the presence of elders or others worthy of respect, unless they themselves say something to cheer us; nor should one laugh at just anyone, nor in every place, nor at everything, nor on every occasion. For laughter is especially a slippery slope to slander for youths and women. And appearing awe-inspiring is, from afar, a deterrent to those who make advances; for dignity can repel assaults of licentiousness even by mere appearance. And wine, so to speak, compels all the foolish to laugh softly and to dance, turning the effeminate character into softness. And one must observe how from this, frankness increases disorder into foul speech; and a certain word is uttered, which it is better to leave unspoken.

Most certainly, then, in wine the characters of those who are deceitful are observed, their pretense being stripped away by the illiberal frankness of drunkenness, through which reason is lulled to sleep in the soul itself, weighed down by intoxication, while the perverse passions are roused, dominating the weakness of reason. Concerning foul language. We must entirely abstain from foul language ourselves and silence those who use it, both by a sharper look and by turning away the face and by the so-called sneer, and often also by a harsher word. For what goes out of the mouth, it is said, makes a person common, and shows him to be vulgar, heathenish, uneducated, and licentious, not proper, orderly, and temperate. With regard to hearing shameful things and seeing things similarly disposed, the divine pedagogue, in the same way as with children who wrestle, so that their ears might not be broken, places temperate words around them like ear-guards, so that the blow of fornication cannot reach to break the soul; and he directs the eyes toward the contemplation of beautiful things, saying it is better to slip with the feet than with the eyes. Repelling this foul language, the apostle says, "Let no rotten word go out of your mouth, but only a good one." And again: "As is fitting for saints, let no foulness, foolish talk, or ribaldry be named among you, which is not proper, but rather thanksgiving." And if one who calls his brother a fool is liable to judgment, what shall we pronounce concerning one who talks foolishly? And concerning this it is written:

Whoever speaks a vain word will render an account to the Lord on the day of judgment. And again, it says, "You will be justified by your word, and condemned by your word." What, then, are the saving antidotes? And what are the correctives for slippery eyes? The associations with the righteous, which anticipate and block the ears of those who wish to lead away from the truth. "Evil communications corrupt good manners," says the poet. But the apostle says more nobly, "Become, abhorring evil, cleaving to the good; for he who associates with the saints will be sanctified." Therefore, one must entirely abstain from shameful hearings, words, and sights, and much more must one be pure from shameful deeds—this both in exhibitions and in the uncovering of certain parts of the body which ought not to be uncovered, and in the contemplation of the more secret parts. For even a chaste son could not bear to look upon the shameful nakedness of a righteous man, but modesty covered what drunkenness had uncovered, the conspicuous fault of ignorance. And one must be no less pure in the utterances of voices, to which the ears of those who have believed in Christ must be inaccessible. For this reason, it seems to me, the Pedagogue does not permit us to utter anything of indecency, from afar

accusing it of leading to licentiousness. For he is always powerful in cutting out the roots of sins, the "you shall not commit adultery" through the "you shall not desire"; for adultery is the fruit of desire, the root being evil. Similarly, then, in this case the tutor has denounced the fearless use of names, cutting out the fearless mingling with licentiousness. For disorder in names produces practice in disorder even in deeds, while being temperate in speech is training to endure lust. We have determined by a deeper argument that neither in names nor even in the parts of speech concerning intercourse and in the conjugal union, for which the names not common in ordinary usage are established, is the appellation of what is truly shameful assigned; for neither the knee nor the shin are these parts, nor indeed are the names for them and the activity through them shameful; but the genitals are also parts of a human being, deemed worthy of modesty, not of shame; shameful is their unlawful activity, worthy of disgrace and reproach and therefore of punishment; for only what is truly shameful is vice and the deeds performed according to it. Analogous to these, foul speech would reasonably be called the discourse about the works of vice; for example, speaking about adultery or pederasty and the like. Indeed, one must also silence idle chatter. For from much speaking, it says, you will not escape sin; therefore, talkativeness will pay the penalty; for one can be found wise by being silent, and one can be hated from much talking. Already the chatterer himself is wearisome to himself; for by excessive speech he abhors his own soul.

What must be guarded against by those who live together decently. Away, then, away from us also jesting, which is the beginning of insolence, from which strifes and quarrels and enmities swell up. Insolence we have said is the servant of drunkenness. Man is judged not only by his deeds, but also by his words. In a banquet, it is said, do not reprove your neighbor, and do not speak a word of reproach to him. For even though it is most strictly commanded to associate with holy men, to mock a holy man is a sin; for from the mouth of fools, says Scripture, comes a staff of insolence, calling the staff a ladder of insolence, on which insolence leans and rests. Hence I admire the apostle also here exhorting us not to utter even witty or unbecoming words. For if the gatherings for feasts are for the sake of love, and the end of the banquet is goodwill towards those present, and eating and drinking are accompaniments of love, how should we not conduct ourselves rationally? Nor should we be at a loss because of love. For if we come together to increase mutual good will, how do we stir up enmity by jesting? It is better to be silent than to contradict those who offer sin through ignorance. Truly blessed is the man who has not slipped in his speech and has not been stung by the pain of sin, either repenting of what he has said in sin or having spoken without causing anyone pain. In general, then, young men and young women should as a rule abstain from such feasts, lest they go astray in matters that are not fitting.

For even unaccustomed sounds and unseemly sights, while their faith is still wavering, fan the mind, and the instability of their age cooperates with the proneness of desire; and sometimes they become accessory causes of others' stumblings, displaying the dangerous quality of their bloom. For wisdom appears to give good instruction: Do not sit at all with a married woman, and do not recline on your elbow with her. That is, do not dine with her frequently, nor eat with her. Hence it adds: Nor make common meals with her over wine, lest your heart ever incline toward her, and with your blood you slip into ruin; for drunken freedom is dangerous, being able to lead astray. And it named her "married," since the danger is greater for one attempting to loose the bond of cohabitation. But if some necessity should occur commanding one to pass by, let them be covered on the outside with a garment, and on the inside with modesty; and as for those who are not married, it is the utmost reproach for them to be present at a men's symposium, and that of men drinking. And the young men, fixing their eyes on the couch, resting immovable on their elbows, should attend only with their ears; and if they should sit, let them not have their feet crossed, nor let them place one thigh over the other, nor support their hand on their chin; for it is ignoble not to bear oneself properly, and this is an accusation against the youth. And constantly shifting and changing posture is a sign of levity.

It is the part of a temperate man to choose at once in drinking and in eating the less and the more leisurely, not the more hasty, both in beginning and in the intervals, and also to leave off first and to be without passion. Eat, he says, as a man the things set before you, stop first for the sake of discipline, and if you have sat down in the midst of many, do not stretch out your hand before them. One must not, therefore, leap forward, ever persuaded by gluttony, nor must one, clinging to it, extend the meal to a great length, confessing intemperance by the delay; nor in the meantime should one appear to be fixed upon the food like wild beasts upon their fodder, nor should one help oneself to a larger portion of relish; for man is by nature not a relish-eater but a bread-eater. To rise before the many and to withdraw from the symposium becomingly is the mark of a temperate man: For, he says, at the time of rising, do not bring up the rear and run off to your house. And the twelve, having called together the multitude of the disciples, said: It is not pleasing for us to leave the word of God and serve tables. If they guarded against this, much more did they flee gluttony. And these same apostles, writing to the brethren in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, said: It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to impose no further burden upon you beyond the necessary things: to abstain from idolothytes, from blood, from things strangled, and from fornication, from which, keeping yourselves, you will do well. One must guard against drunkenness just as against hemlock; for both drag down to death. And one must also refrain from excessive laughter and immoderate tears.

Often those who are drunk, after laughing excessively, are then somehow led, as if persuaded by some drunkenness, into tears. For both becoming effeminate and behaving insolently are discordant with reason. Elders, looking to the young as to children, might very rarely, perhaps, even jest with them, mocking them in a way that will discipline their decorum. For instance, it is possible to jest with the bashful and silent one in this manner: "My son—I mean the one who is silent—never stops talking." For such a jest intensifies the young man's modesty, gracefully indicating the good qualities that belong to him through the accusation of faults that do not belong to him. For this too is a didactic device, confirming what is present through what is absent. For instance, something similar is implied by one who says that the water-drinker and temperate man is drunk and intoxicated. But if there are some who are fond of jesting, we must be silent and dismiss superfluous words, just as we dismiss full cups. For such play is dangerous; the mouth of a rash man is near to ruin. You will not admit vain talk, nor will you consent to become an unjust witness together with an unjust man, neither for slanders nor for blasphemies, nor even for malicious acts. And I think I would impose a measure of speech even on the temperate, to whom it is permitted to speak, namely the one who argues in reply. For silence is the virtue of women, but a safe honor for the young.

Speech is a good thing in a person of mature age. Speak, elder, at a symposium, for it is fitting for you; but speak without hindrance and with the precision of knowledge. Young man, wisdom also permits you to speak, if there is need of you, and when asked twice with difficulty, summarize your speech in few words. Both of those who converse should measure their utterance with moderation; for a loud voice is most mad, and speaking inaudibly to those nearby is senseless, for they will not hear. The former is a sign of ignobility, the latter of arrogance. Let contentiousness for the sake of empty victory in words be absent, since our goal is tranquility, and this indeed is "peace to you." Do not answer a word before you have heard. But the affected voice is effeminate, while a measured voice is temperate, restraining one's utterance in magnitude, length, speed, and quantity. For one should never speak at length, nor use many words, nor babble, nor speak hastily and in a rush. For even the voice itself, so to speak, must be given a share of justice, and those who shout out of season and those who cry out must be silenced. For with this the temperate Odysseus punished Thersites with blows, because he alone was immoderate in speech, who knew in his mind disorderly and many words, in vain and not in order. A talkative man is a terror in his city. For of chatterers, as of old shoes, the rest is worn away by vice, and only the tongue remains for harm.

Wisdom, in the most beneficial way for life, advises not to chatter in a gathering of elders; and, cutting off our babbling from above, beginning from God, it legislates moderation somewhat as follows: Do not repeat a word in your prayer. Whistling, hissing, and the provocative sounds made with the fingers by servants, being irrational signals, are to be avoided by rational people. One must also refrain from continuous spitting and from clearing the throat too violently. Nor should one blow one's nose during a drink; for one must somehow take thought for one's fellow banqueters, lest they be repelled by nausea at such disorderliness, which is an accuser of intemperance; for the manger and the dung-heap are not the same for cattle and asses; and indeed many blow their noses and spit and dine at the same time. If a sneeze occurs to someone, as also a belch, one should not blast the neighbors with the noise, thereby testifying to one's own lack of education; but the belch should be dismissed, quietly, with the exhaled air shaped decorously by the mouth, not drawn out and gaping like tragic masks. The disturbing element of a sneeze should be removed by gently checking the breaths; for in this way one may most becomingly quench the sudden threat of the breath, managing its exit so as to try to escape notice, even if the air, being forced, should expel some residue. To wish to add to the sounds, rather than subtract from them, is a sign of arrogance and disorder. Those who pick their teeth, making their gums bleed, are unpleasant to themselves and hateful to their neighbors.

Indeed, tickling of the ears and provoking sneezes are swinish itches, practicing for licentious fornication. And indecencies under the eyes must be declined, as well as their foul language. The gaze should be steady, and the turning of the neck and movement should be stable, as well as the bearing of the hands during conversations. For the Christian is altogether a man of calm, quiet, tranquility, and peace. 1 Whether one should use perfumes and crowns. The use of crowns and perfumes is not necessary for us. For it slides into pleasures and indolence, especially as night approaches. I know that a woman brought an alabaster jar of perfume to the holy supper and anointed the feet of the Lord and wiped them. I also know that the ancient kings of the Hebrews bound themselves with gold and precious stone. But the woman, not yet having partaken of the Word—for she was still a sinner—honored the Master with what she considered the finest thing she had, the perfume; and indeed, she wiped the excess of the perfume from her own hair, sprinkling tears of repentance upon the Lord. For this reason her sins were forgiven. This can also be a symbol of the Lord's teaching and his passion; for the feet anointed with fragrant perfume hint at divine teaching traveling to the ends of the earth with glory; for their sound has gone out to the ends of the earth. And if I do not seem offensive, the anointed feet of the Lord are the apostles, who have partaken of the fragrance of the holy anointing of the Spirit.

The apostles who traveled throughout the inhabited world and proclaimed the gospel are allegorically called the feet of the Lord, concerning whom the Spirit also foretells through the psalmist: Let us worship at the place where his feet stood, that is, where his feet, the apostles, arrived, through whom he was proclaimed and reached the ends of the earth. Tears are repentance, and loosened hair proclaimed the abandonment of love of adornment and the affliction in endurance for the Lord along with the proclamation, the old vanity being dissolved because of the new faith. But also, for those who understand this mystically, it signifies the Lord's passion: the oil is the Lord himself, from whom comes the mercy upon us; the ointment, which is adulterated oil, is Judas the traitor, with whom the Lord's feet were anointed as he departed from his worldly life—for the dead are anointed with ointment. Tears are we, the repentant sinners who have believed in him, to whom he forgave sins, and the loosened hair is grieving Jerusalem, abandoned, for whom the prophetic laments are made. The Lord himself will teach us that Judas is adulterated: whoever dips with me, he says, into the bowl, this one will betray me. Do you see the treacherous drinking companion? And this same Judas betrayed the teacher with a kiss; he became the same hypocrite, having an adulterated kiss, imitating another ancient hypocrite and exposing that people. This people kiss me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.

It is not unlikely, therefore, that he indicates oil as a disciple anointed, and treacherous oil as a traitor poisoned. This then was what the anointed feet foretold, the betrayal of Judas as the Lord proceeded to his passion. And the Savior himself, washing the feet of the disciples, sending them forth to good deeds, intimated their journey to the benefactions of the nations, having prepared it as seemly and pure by his own power. The ointment also gave forth its fragrance to them, and the work of the fragrance reaching to all has been proclaimed; for the passion of the Lord has filled us with fragrance, and the Hebrews with sin. The apostle demonstrated this most clearly, saying: Thanks be to God, who always triumphs over us in Christ and reveals the scent of his knowledge through us in every place; for we are the fragrance of the Lord to God among the saved and among the perishing; for some have a scent from death to death, and others a scent from life to life. And the kings of the Jews, using a crown of gold and precious stones, composite and variegated, the anointed ones, bearing Christ symbolically on their head, have been unaware that they adorned their head with the Lord. For a precious stone, whether a pearl or an emerald, signifies the Word himself, and gold itself

Again, the incorruptible Word, which does not admit the venom of corruption. The Magi brought him gold, a symbol of kingship, at his birth. This crown remains immortal in the image of the Lord; for it does not wither like a flower. I also know the sayings of Aristippus of Cyrene. Aristippus was a man of luxurious living; he sophistically poses a question of this sort: a horse anointed with myrrh is not harmed in its excellence as a horse, nor a dog perfumed in its excellence as a dog; nor, therefore, is a man, he added and concluded. But for a horse and a dog, myrrh has no significance; for those whose sense perception is more rational, the enjoyment is more blameworthy when they bear girlish scents. Of these perfumes there are countless varieties: Brenthean, Metallic, Royal, Plangonian, and Egyptian Psagdas. Simonides in his iambics is not ashamed to say: "And I anointed myself with myrrh and incense and baccaris," for some merchant was present. They also prepare the perfume from lilies and from henna, and nard is esteemed among them, and the ointment from roses, and the others which women still use, both liquid and dry, and the sprinkled and fumigated perfumes; for they daily devise new ones to satisfy the insatiable desire for fragrance; hence they exude much vulgarity. And they fumigate and sprinkle their garments, their beds, and their houses, and luxury almost compels even the chamber pots to smell of myrrh.

I think they are right to be indignant at the zeal for this, so much so that some, by their use of perfumes, effeminate the men’s quarters, and they even drive the perfumers themselves, the craftsmen, out of well-governed cities, and also drive out the dyers of flowery wools; for it is not lawful for deceitful garments and ointments to enter the city of truth. Our men must smell not of perfumes but of virtue, and a woman should breathe Christ, the royal ointment, not of powders and perfumes, and she should always be anointed with the ambrosial ointment of temperance, delighting in the holy perfume of the Spirit. This Christ prepares for his acquaintances, an ointment of fragrance, compounding the perfume from heavenly aromatics. With this perfume the Lord himself is anointed, as is revealed through David: Therefore God, your God, anointed you with oil of gladness beyond your companions; myrrh, stacte, and cassia from your garments. But let us not, like vultures, abhor perfumes, or like beetles—for they say that these, when anointed with rose perfume, die—and among these we must admit a few perfumes for women, such as do not stupefy the husband; for excessive anointings with perfumes smell of funeral, not of conjugal life. Yet oil itself is hostile to bees and insects, but among men it has benefited some, while it has provoked others to battle, and those previously friends, when anointed with it in the stadiums, it turns into the all-out struggle of contest.

Soft oil, which is perfume, do you not think it can effeminate manly characters? Most certainly. Just as we have excluded luxury from taste, so too we banish the pleasure of sight and smell, lest we unwittingly admit the licentiousness we have expelled, giving it a way back into the soul through the senses, as through unguarded doors. If, then, they say that the great high priest, the Lord, offers the incense of fragrance to God, let them not understand this as a sacrifice and fragrance of incense, but rather that the Lord offers the acceptable offering of love, the spiritual fragrance, to the altar. Oil itself is sufficient to anoint the surface and relax the sinews and suppress a heavier bodily odor, if indeed we need it for this; but the pursuit of fragrance is a bait for indolence, drawing from afar toward a greedy desire. For the licentious man is led from every side—from food, from bedding, from companionship, from the eyes, from the ears, from the jaws, and even from the nostrils. Just as oxen are led by rings and ropes, so the licentious man is drawn by incenses, perfumes, and the fragrances of garlands. Since we assign no place to pleasure that is not intertwined with some useful purpose for life, come, let us here also make a distinction, choosing what is necessary.

There are some fragrances that are neither stupefying nor erotic, that do not reek of intercourse and licentious companionship, but are healthful with temperance, nourishing the brain when it is ailing and strengthening the stomach. One must therefore cool it much with flowers whenever the sinewy part wishes to be warmed; for the use of these is not to be rejected entirely, but one should employ perfume as a drug and remedy to rouse failing strength, and for catarrhs, chills, and discomfort, just as the comic poet says somewhere: he anoints his nostrils with perfumes; the greatest part of health is to produce beneficial odors for the brain. And the rubbing of the feet with warming or cooling perfumes is practiced for the sake of benefit, since from the head a kind of drawing and withdrawal to the non-essential parts occurs in those who are filled. But pleasure to which utility is not attached is a slander of a courtesan’s character and a drug of excitements. There is a complete difference between drenching oneself with perfume and anointing oneself with perfume: the former is effeminate, while anointing with perfume is sometimes beneficial. At any rate, the philosopher Aristippus, having anointed himself with perfume, said that those who had perished miserably should have perished miserably—the catamites who had slandered the benefit of perfume into reproach. Honor a physician for his usefulness, says Scripture; for the Most High created him, and healing is from the Lord. Then it adds: and a perfumer will make a mixture, since perfumes are given for benefit, clearly, not for self-indulgence.

For we must not at all be zealous about the provocative aspect of perfumes, but must choose the beneficial, since indeed God granted the origin of oil to men for the relief of labors. But foolish women, dyeing their gray hair and perfuming their locks, become grayer more quickly because the aromatics are drying. Hence those who use perfumes also appear more withered; and dryness makes hair grayer—for whether gray hair is a drying of the hair or a deficiency of heat, dryness drains the hair's proper moist nourishment and produces gray hair. How could we reasonably still love perfumes, through which gray hairs come, when we flee from gray hairs? And just as dogs, tracking by scent, hunt down beasts from the odor, so from the elaborate fragrance of perfumes the self-controlled hunt down the licentious. Such also is the use of garlands, revelling and drunken: "Away! Do not place a garland on my head." For it is good to dwell in dewy and soft meadows, variegated with blooming flowers, in springtime, nourished by a natural and pure fragrance, like bees; but to fashion a woven garland from an undefiled meadow and carry it about at home is not for the temperate; for it is not fitting to cover a revelling head with rosebuds or violets or lilies or other such flowers, decking out the hair. For the garland, when placed, otherwise animates the hair, both through its moisture and through its coolness. And for this reason physicians, who hold that the brain is cold by nature, deem it proper to anoint the chest and the tips of the nostrils with perfume, so that the fiery exhalation may be gently

passing through vigorously revives its coldness. Therefore, one must cool it greatly with flowers, whenever the sinewy part wishes to be warmed. Indeed, those who are crowned also destroy the pleasure of the blooming. For neither do those who bind the garland above their eyes enjoy the sight, nor do those who drive the flowers away above their breath enjoy the fragrance; for the fragrance, rising upward and being exhaled naturally above the head, leaves the breath bereft of enjoyment, the fragrance being snatched away. Just as beauty, so also the flower delights when seen, and it is necessary, while enjoying beautiful things through sight, to glorify the creator. But their use is harmful, and it passes quickly, punished by repentance. Indeed, their ephemeral nature is immediately exposed; for both wither, both the flower and beauty. But also, for those who touch them, one cools, the other burns. In a word, enjoyment of them beyond sight is an outrage, not luxury; for it befits us to live luxuriously, as in a paradise, truly following the scripture with moderation. One must consider the husband as the woman's crown, marriage as the man's crown, and the children of both as the flowers of marriage, which the divine husbandman plucks from the fleshly meadows. The crown of the elderly is children's children, and glory for children is their fathers, it says; for us, glory is the father of all, and the crown of the whole church is Christ. Just as roots and plants, so also flowers have their own qualities, some beneficial, some harmful, and some even dangerous.

Ivy, then, is cooling, while the walnut tree emits a stupefying vapor, as its name, when etymologized, also indicates. The narcissus is a heavy-scented flower, and its name itself convicts it, producing numbness in the sinews. The exhalations of roses and violets, being gentle and cool, contract and relieve headaches; but for us, it is not permitted to get drunk in any way, nor even to become intoxicated with wine. Indeed, crocus and the flower of henna induce a painless sleep. Many of these, being naturally cold, warm the brain by their exhalations, thinning the superfluities of the head. Hence the rose is so named, they say, because it emits a very great stream of fragrance; for this reason it also withers quickly. But among the ancient Greeks, the use of garlands was not yet present. For neither the Suitors nor the luxurious Phaeacians employed them. In the contests, first came the awarding of prizes, second the collection, third the scattering of leaves, and last the garland, Greece having taken to luxury after the Persian Wars. Therefore, those educated by the Word are excluded from garlands, not because they seem to bind the Word established in the brain, nor because the garland is a symbol of reveling arrogance, but because it is dedicated to idols. Indeed, Sophocles called the narcissus the ancient garland of the great gods, meaning the chthonic ones; Sappho crowns the Muses with the rose—for not from the beginning of the roses from Pieria—and they say Hera delights in the lily, and Artemis in myrtle.

For even if flowers came into being chiefly for the sake of man, yet foolish people, taking them, have misused them not for their own grateful use but for the ungrateful service of demons, and therefore one must abstain from them because of conscience. The crown is a symbol of undisturbed freedom from care; with this they also crown the dead, and for the same reason the images, thereby testifying in fact that they are dead. For the Bacchants do not celebrate their rites without crowns; but when they are wreathed with flowers, they are inflamed for the mystery. Therefore we must not share in any way with demons, nor must we crown the living image of God like dead idols. For the beautiful crown of amaranth is reserved for him who has lived well; this flower the earth has not been able to bear; only heaven knows how to produce it. Moreover, it is irrational that we, who have heard that the Lord was crowned with thorns, should ourselves revel in the solemn passion of the Lord by wreathing ourselves with flowers. For the Lord's crown signified prophetically us, who were once unfruitful, those who are placed around him through the church, of which he is the head; but it is also a type of faith, of life because of the substance of the wood, of joy because of the name of the crown, and of danger because of the thorn; for it is not possible to approach the Word without bloodshed. But this woven crown withers, and the plait of crookedness is undone, and the flower dries up; for the glory of those who have not believed in the Lord withers. And they crowned Jesus when he was raised up, testifying to their own ignorance.

For this very reason the hard-hearted do not understand that it is a prophecy, though it is a sophisticated one, which they themselves call an insult to the Lord. The erring people did not know the Lord, they have not circumcised their reason, they have not been enlightened from their darkness, they have not seen God, they have denied the Lord, they have lost the being of Israel, they have persecuted God, they hoped to insult the Word, and the one they crucified as a malefactor they have crowned as a king. Therefore, indeed, the man in whom they did not believe they will recognize as the Lord, the philanthropic God and just; because they themselves embittered the Lord to show himself, they have borne witness to this for him as he is exalted, having fastened the diadem of justice to him who is raised above every name through the ever-blooming thorn. This diadem, hostile to those who plot against him, has prevented them; friendly to those who assemble with him, it has fenced them in; this crown is the flower of those who have believed in the glorified one, but it bloodies and punishes those who have disbelieved. Indeed, it is also a symbol of the Lord's achievement, as he bore on his head and the governing part of his body all our evils, by which we are pricked; for he himself, by his own passion, having rescued us from scandals and sins and such thorns, and having rendered the devil inoperative, fittingly said in prayer: "Where, Death, is your sting?" And we, on the one hand, gather grapes from thorns and figs from brambles; but those on whom he stretched out his hands against a disobedient and fruitless people are torn into wounds. I could tell you another mystical thing here.

Since the all-powerful Lord of the universe, when he began to legislate through the Word, wished his power to become manifest to Moses, a godlike vision of light formed upon a burning bush was shown to him. The bush is a thorny plant. And when the Word ceased from legislation and from his sojourn among men, the Lord mystically returns again to a thorn, departing hence to that place whence he came, recapitulating the beginning of the old descent, so that the Word, who first appeared through a bush, later taken up through a thorn, might show all things to be the work of one power, being one, of the one Father, beginning and end of the age. But I have digressed from the pedagogical type, introducing the didactic form. I return again, then, to the subject at hand. We have shown that, as in the manner of a remedy for the sake of healing, and sometimes also for temperate relaxation, the pleasure from flowers and the benefit from ointments and incense are not to be rejected. But if some should say, what then is the grace of flowers for those who do not use them, let them know that ointments are also prepared from them and are very beneficial: susinum from lilies and irises, and it is warming, opening, drawing, moistening, cleansing, and fine-grained.

bile-provoking, softening; narcissus oil, from the narcissus, benefits equally with the lily oil; myrtle oil, from myrtle and myrrh, is astringent, retaining the exhalations from the body; rose oil is cooling. For in general, these too have been created for our use. "Hear me," he says, "and as a rose planted by streams of waters, blossom; as frankincense, give forth a fragrant scent, and bless the Lord for his works." And the discussion about these matters would be lengthy, if we were to say that flowers and aromatics have come into being for necessary benefits, not for the insolence of luxury. But if indeed some concession must be made, it is enough to enjoy the scent of the flowers themselves; let them not be used for garlands, for the Father honors man and provides his own art to him alone. At any rate, Scripture says: "Water and fire and iron and milk, fine wheat flour and honey, grape juice and oil and a garment—all these are goods for the pious." How to approach sleep. But how we should go from here to sleep, mindful of the precepts of temperance, must now be stated. For after the feast, having blessed God for the distribution of enjoyments and the passing of the day, we must summon reason to sleep, dismissing the extravagance of bedclothes—the gold-embroidered tapestries and gold-woven fine carpets, purple robes, costly gauze cloaks, poetic purple coverlets, and curly mantles above, and beds softer than sleep.

For besides being blameworthy on account of its voluptuousness, sleeping in soft feathers is harmful, since bodies sink into a void because of the softness of the bedding. For it does not hold those who turn over in their sleep, due to the uneven rising of the bed on either side of the body; nor does it allow food to be digested, but rather causes it to burn up, which indeed corrupts the nourishment. Rolling over on smooth beds, which is a natural exercise of sleep, contributes to the proper distribution of food; and those who are able to roll over on smooth beds, having this as a natural exercise of sleep, more easily distribute their food and prepare themselves more fitly for circumstances. Moreover, silver-footed couches are accusers of great ostentation, and ivory in little beds, belonging to a body that has left the soul, is not a holy contrivance of rest for holy men, but a lazy artifice. Therefore one should not be zealous about them. For the use of them is not forbidden to those who possess them, but the pursuit of them is prohibited; for happiness does not lie in these things. Again, it is a mark of Cynic vainglory to sleep like Diomedes, with a wild ox-hide spread beneath, unless perhaps necessity compels. And Odysseus straightened the uneven leg of his marriage bed with a stone. Such simplicity and self-help were practiced not only among private individuals but also among the leaders of the ancient Greeks. And what need have I of these examples? Jacob slept on the ground, and a stone was his pillow; then he was deemed worthy to see the vision that surpasses human nature.

We must use a bed that is simple and plain, in accordance with the Word, having a moderate measure of comfort—covering in summer, warming in winter. Let the couch be unpretentious and have smooth legs; for elaborate turnings sometimes become paths for creeping creatures, as they coil around the artful incisions and do not slip off. Above all, the softness of the bed must be tempered with manly restraint. For sleep ought not to be a complete relaxation of the body, but a rest. Therefore I say it should be taken not for idleness, but for a respite from activities. So one must sleep in a wakeful manner. For let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, it is said; and you are like men awaiting their master, when he will return from the wedding, so that when he comes and knocks, you may open to him at once. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he arrives. For a sleeping man is of no more use than a dead one. Therefore one should often rise from bed even in the night and bless God; for blessed are those who are awake for him, likening themselves to angels, whom we call watchers. A sleeping man is worth nothing, no more than one who is not living; but he who has the light is awake, and darkness does not overtake him, nor sleep, since there is no darkness. Therefore the enlightened one is awake toward God, and such a one lives; for what has come to be in him was life.

Blessed is the man, says Wisdom, who will listen to me, and the man who keeps my ways, watching daily at my doors, guarding the thresholds of my entrances. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us be wakeful, says Scripture, and sober. For those who sleep sleep by night, and those who are drunk are drunk by night, that is, in the darkness of ignorance, but we, being of the day, let us be sober. For all of you are sons of light and sons of day; we are not of night nor of darkness. But he who is for us the chief guardian of true life and genuine thought is awake as long as possible, preserving here only what is useful for his health; and this is not much, passing well into habit. Practice of training generates eternal wakefulness from labors. Therefore let not our foods weigh us down, but rather lighten us, so that we may be harmed as little as possible by sleep, just as those who swim are weighed down by attached burdens, but on the contrary, as if from an abyss below, sobriety lifts us up to the surfaces of wakefulness. For the descent of sleep resembles death, being carried down into insensibility through folly, cutting off the light by the closing of the eyelids. Therefore let us, the sons of the true light, not shut this light out of doors, but turning it inward into ourselves, illuminating the eyes of the hidden man, and contemplating truth itself and partaking of its streams, let us clearly and wisely reveal the true dreams.

Belches of those heavy with wine and those stuffed with food, the cracks and snoring wrapped in bedclothes, and the gurglings of constricted bellies, have blocked the discerning eye of the soul, the mind being filled with countless phantasms. The cause is excessive food, dragging the rational part into insensibility. For much sleep brings benefit neither to our bodies nor to our souls, nor is it suited to all actions concerning truth, even if it is according to nature. But Lot the righteous—for I now pass over the explanation of the economy of regeneration—would not have been led to that lawless intercourse had he not been made drunk by his daughters and stupefied by sleep. Therefore, if we cut off the causes of excessive inclination to sleep, we will sleep more soberly; for it is not necessary to sleep all night for those who have the wakeful Word as a dweller within. One must be wakeful by night, especially when the days are waning; and one must occupy oneself with study, another with the work of one's own craft, and women with spinning, and all of us, so to speak, must gently fight against sleep, accustoming ourselves by degrees, so as to partake of a longer portion of life through wakefulness—for sleep, like a tax collector, divides half of our life with us.

... time, it is necessary to allow much sleep during the day to those who also cut off most of the night for wakefulness. Yawns and drowsiness and stretchings and gapings are signs of an unsettled soul's discontent. And this too must be known above all, that it is not the soul which needs sleep—for it is ever in motion—but the body, borne up by rests, is relaxed, the soul no longer acting bodily, but thinking by itself; and the true dreams of one who reasons correctly while sober are the thoughts of a wakeful soul, which at that time is undistracted by the body's sympathies and counsels itself on the best course. The soul's destruction is to become motionless; therefore, by always thinking of God through continuous converse, it instills wakefulness into the body and, by angelic grace, makes man equal to an angel, gaining the eternity of life from the practice of being awake. What must be understood concerning procreation. The time for intercourse is left to be considered only by the married, and for the married the aim is procreation, and the end is good offspring, just as for the farmer the cause of sowing seeds is the provision of food, and the end of his farming is the harvest of crops. Far better is the farmer who sows in a living field; for one farms in pursuit of timely food, the other in care for the continuance of the whole; and one plants for himself, the other for God. For it has been said, "Increase," and one must obey; and in this man becomes an image of God, in that man cooperates in the generation of man.

Not every land is suitable for receiving seeds; and even if all were, it is not for the same farmer. Nor should one sow on rocks, nor insult the seed, which is the originating substance of generation, containing within it the rational principles of its nature. To dishonor the natural rational principles by casting them irrationally into unnatural passages is utterly impious. Observe, then, how the all-wise Moses symbolically rejects barren sowing, saying, "You shall not eat the hare nor the hyena." He does not wish man to partake of their quality, nor even to taste of their equal licentiousness; for these animals are excessively frantic about mating. And they say that the hare each year exceeds in defecation, having as many holes as the years it has lived; thus the prohibition of eating the hare indicates a deterrence from pederasty. And the hyena alternates the male into the female each year, and it is hinted that one who abstains from the hyena should not rush into adultery. But that the all-wise Moses manifestly hints through the present prohibition that one should not be assimilated to these animals, I too agree; I do not, however, assent to this interpretation of the things said symbolically. For nature would never be forced into change; what has once been formed in it is not lawful to be counter-formed by passion; for passion is not nature—it is accustomed to counterfeit, not to transform, the formation. For even if many birds are said to change both color and voice according to the seasons—such as the blackbird becoming yellow from black, and from songful becoming clattering—

Similarly, the nightingale changes both its color and its song with the seasons—but they do not change their nature itself, so as to become female from male by transformation. Rather, the new growth of feathers blooms like a fresh garment with a certain dye of feathers, and a little later fades under the winter's threat, like a flower whose color withers; and the voice itself, in the same way, afflicted by the cold, withers. For when the surface is condensed by the surrounding air, the arteries around the neck, being compressed and thickened, force the breath upward, and this, being excessively constricted, chokes and produces a stifled sound. Then, becoming assimilated to the surrounding air and relaxing with the spring, the breath is freed from constriction, moving through the now open and spacious arteries; the withered melody no longer chirps, but now blooms clear and flows more broadly in their utterance, and the song of the birds becomes the spring. Therefore, one should never believe that the hyena changes its nature; for the same animal does not have both male and female genitalia at once, as some have supposed, monstrously inventing hermaphrodites and innovating this third, androgynous nature between female and male. They are greatly deceived, not understanding the artistry of the all-mother and generative nature; for since this animal, the hyena, is most lustful, under its tail, before the passage for excrement, there grows a certain fleshy projection similar in shape to the female genital organ.

This form of the flesh has no passage terminating in anything useful—neither a womb nor a rectum, I mean—but only a large cavity, which receives the empty lust when the passages, occupied with parturition, are turned away from birth. This same thing is attached to both male and female hyena because of excessive lechery; for the male also mates with the male, which is why it is extremely rare to find a female hyena; for pregnancies in this animal are not continuous, since unnatural seed abounds in them without restraint. For this reason, I think, Plato in the *Phaedrus* called pederasty a beast, because those who are given over to pleasures and are lecherous, having bitten the bit, mount like quadrupeds and attempt to beget children. But the godless, as the apostle says, he delivered to passions of dishonor; for their females changed natural use into unnatural, and likewise their males, abandoning natural use, were inflamed in their desire for one another, males working shame upon males and receiving in themselves the recompense they owed for their error. Yet nature has not permitted even the most lecherous of animals to pollute the passage of excretion; for urine is separated into the bladder, liquefied food into the stomach, tears into the eye, blood into the veins, filth into the ears, mucus is carried to the nostrils; and the anus is continuous with the end of the rectum, through which excrements are discharged.

Only among hyenas, then, has varied nature devised this superfluous part for superfluous copulations. Hence it is hollow to a certain extent to serve the lustful parts, but the cavity is blocked off from there; for it was not created for generation. From this it is clearly evident to us that we must by common consent reject male couplings, fruitless seedings, rearward beds, and unnatural unions of men with women, following nature itself, which forbids this through the construction of the parts, having formed the male not for the reception of seed but for its emission. And Jeremiah, whenever he says—that is, through him the Spirit—"My house has become a hyena's den," denouncing the feeding on dead bodies by a wise allegory, has castigated idolatry; for truly the house of the living God must be pure of idols. Again, Moses forbids eating the hare; the hare copulates at every hour, and mounts the female from behind as she sits, for it is retrocopulative; it conceives monthly and superfetates; it is mounted and gives birth, and after giving birth

It immediately mates with whatever hare it chances upon; for it is not content with a single union. And it conceives again while still suckling; for it has a double womb. And not only the emptiness of the womb serves it as a launching pad for intercourse; for every void desires to be filled. And it happens that, when they are pregnant, the other part of the womb is seized by desire and is in heat. For this reason, superfetations occur among them. Therefore, the prohibition of this riddle urged abstinence from violent passions, from successive sexual acts, from intercourse with pregnant women, from mutual abuse, from pederasty, from adultery, and from lechery. To this same end, openly, no longer through riddles, Moses himself forbade with uncovered head, saying, "You shall not commit fornication, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not commit pederasty." This ordinance of the Word must be preserved with all strength, and nothing whatsoever must be transgressed, nor must the commandments be invalidated; for evil desire is called outrage, and Plato called the horse of desire the insolent horse, having read, "You have become for me horses mad for females." The punishment for outrage will be made known to you by the angels who visited Sodom. These burned with fire those who wished to assault them, together with that very city, a clear example, depicting fire as the fruit of lechery; for the calamities of the ancients, as we said before, are recorded for our admonition, so that we may not be entangled in the same things, but take care not to fall into similar ones.

One must regard one's sons as children, and look upon other men's wives as one's own daughters, and master pleasures of the belly and what is beneath the belly, which is most sovereign. For if reason does not permit the wise man even to move his finger at random, as the Stoics agree, how much more must those who pursue wisdom master the reproductive part? It seems to me that this part is called the "aidoion" (genitals) precisely because one must use this part of the body with more modesty than any other; for nature, just as with food, so also with lawful marriages, has permitted us what is fitting, useful, and seemly, and has permitted us to desire procreation. Those who pursue excess go astray from what is natural, harming themselves through unlawful unions. For one must above all never have sexual intercourse with young men as with females. Hence also the philosopher from Moses says not to sow on rocks and stones, because the seed will never take root and become fruitful. Indeed, the Word through Moses gave very clear instruction: "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman, for it is an abomination." And further, the noble Plato, gathering from the divine scriptures, advised abstaining from every female field except one's own, taking the law from there: "You shall not give your seed to the wife of your neighbor to be defiled with her." The seeds of concubines are unholy and bastard. Do not sow where you would not wish what is sown to grow.

to touch anyone at all except one's own wedded wife, from whom alone it is just to reap the pleasures of the flesh for legitimate succession. For these alone are lawful according to reason. Indeed, having partaken of the divine and creative portion, seed must not be cast out, nor insulted, nor sown in a manner that is destructive. This same Moses forbids even approaching one's own wives if they happen to be caught in the monthly purifications. For it is not reasonable to defile the most generative part of the seed, which is soon to be a human being, with the body's discharge, nor to wash it away with the foul stream and refuse of matter, depriving the seed of a well-born generation from the furrows of the womb. Nor did he introduce any of the ancient Hebrews consorting with his own wife while she was pregnant; for mere pleasure, even if taken in marriage, is unlawful, unjust, and irrational. On the contrary, Moses leads husbands away from pregnant wives until they give birth; for in truth the womb, lying below the bladder and above the intestine called the rectum, extends its neck between the shoulders in the bladder, and the mouth of the neck, by which it receives the seed, is closed when full, and then is emptied, being cleansed for conception, and after depositing the fruit, it then admits the seed. It is not shameful for us, for the benefit of our hearers, to name the generative organs, whose creation God was not ashamed of. Thus the womb, thirsting for childbearing, admits the seed, and denies the reproach of intercourse, after the sowing completely closing its mouth to shut out licentiousness.

But its appetites, which were formerly agitated around affectionate embraces, having turned away, now busy themselves within with childbearing and cooperate with the creator. It is not right, then, to disturb nature when it is already at work, by going to excess in wantonness. Wantonness, which is many-named and many-formed, when it is diverted into this part of disorder concerning Aphrodite, is called lechery—the vulgar, common, and impure thing, the inclination toward copulation, as the name indicates. From these, when they are increased, a great multitude of diseases supervene: love of dainties, love of wine, love of women, and indeed also profligacy and every love of pleasure, over which desire tyrannizes. Countless kindred passions are augmented by these, from which the licentious character is brought to a head. And Scripture says: "Scourges and punishments are prepared for the licentious, for the shoulders of the foolish," calling the strength of licentiousness and its vigorous endurance "the shoulders of the foolish." Therefore, keep away from your servants empty hopes, and, it says, "turn away from me unseemly desires, and let not appetite of the belly and sexual intercourse overtake me." So it is necessary to keep far off the manifold malice of the treacherous. For not only into the wallet of Crates, but also into our city, there sails no foolish parasite, no lecherous fornicator exulting in his backside, no deceitful prostitute, nor any other such beast of pleasure. Therefore, let a great deal of right conduct be sown throughout our whole life. Now, whether one should marry or abstain from marriage altogether—for this too is a matter of inquiry—has been shown by us in the treatise On Continence.

If this very matter—whether one should marry—required consideration, how could it be permitted to use intercourse without restraint, just like food, as a necessity on every occasion? It is possible to see from the act itself how the nerves, like warp threads, are strained and torn during the intensity of the encounter; moreover, it scatters a mist over the sense organs and weakens the sinews. This is clear both in irrational animals and in bodies under training, where those who abstain prevail over their opponents in contests, while those who are drawn away from mating are dragged along, as it were, completely emptied of all strength and vigor. The sophist from Abdera called intercourse a minor epilepsy, considering it an incurable disease. For do not relaxations accompany the magnitude of the absence, being attributed to it? For a human is both generated and torn away from a human. Observe the magnitude of the harm: a whole human is torn away in the absence of intercourse; for it is said: "This now is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh." So much is the human emptied by the seed as the human is seen in the body; for what is separated is the beginning of generation. But the agitation of matter also disturbs and clashes with the harmony of the body. Very witty, then, was that man who, when asked how he stood regarding sexual matters, said, "Speak well, man; I have most gladly avoided them.

like a raging and wild master. But let marriage be approved and included; for the Lord wishes humanity to multiply, but he says, "Do not behave licentiously," nor did he wish them to give themselves over to pleasures as if born for mating. Let the Pedagogue shame us, crying through Ezekiel, "Circumcise your fornication." Even irrational animals have a suitable time for sowing. To have intercourse not for the procreation of children is to insult nature, which we must take as our teacher, observing the wise times of its pedagogy—I mean old age and childhood, which it introduces; for it does not permit some yet, and no longer wishes others to marry—but not to marry at all times. Marriage is the desire for childbearing, not the disorderly, unlawful, and irrational emission of seed. Our whole life would proceed according to nature if we control our desires from above, not killing the human race, which grows by divine providence, through evil devices; for these, under the pretext of fornication, use abortifacient drugs that bring about complete destruction, aborting both the embryo and philanthropy. But for those to whom marriage is permitted, a pedagogue is needed, so that the mysteries of nature are not performed by day, nor, coming from church or marketplace, does one mate like a rooster at dawn, when the time is for prayer, reading, and the beneficent works of the day; but in the evening it is fitting to rest after the meal and after giving thanks for the enjoyments. Nature does not always grant the opportunity to complete the intercourse of marriage.

For indeed, a more prolonged union is more desirable. Nor should one behave licentiously even in the darkness of night, but the sense of modesty, like a light of reason, must be confined within the soul; for we will differ in no way from Penelope at her loom, who by day weaves the doctrines of temperance, but by night unravels them when we go to bed. For if modesty is to be practiced, as indeed it is, much more must modesty be shown to one's own wife, refraining from shameful unions, and the trustworthy faith of purity toward neighbors must come from home. For it is not possible, it is not possible to be considered modest by her for whom modesty is not attested in those very moments of sharp pleasures. Goodwill that slips into intercourse, confessing it, blooms briefly and ages with the body, and sometimes even ages before it, when desire withers, whenever marital temperance is insulted by harlot-like pleasures; for the hearts of lovers are winged and their love charms are extinguished by repentance, and often loving turns into hating, when satiety becomes aware of the condemnation. But of licentious words and shameful postures and harlot-like kisses, names of a pornographic nature and suchlike lewdnesses, one must not even make mention, obeying the blessed apostle who says explicitly: "Let fornication and every impurity or greed not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints." Indeed, someone seems to have spoken well: "Intercourse has benefited no one, and it is acceptable if it has not harmed." For lawful intercourse is precarious, except insofar as it is for procreation, and concerning unlawful intercourse, Scripture says:

A hired woman will be considered equal to a sow, and a married woman a tower of death to those who use her. He compared the passion of harlotry to a boar or a pig, and called adultery sought after death, committed with a kept prostitute. And the house and city in which they revel—indeed, even your own poetry reproachfully writes: "Adulteries are with you, and unlawful mixing of men, female-born and unjust, evil city, utterly unclean." On the other hand, it loves the temperate: those who have no shameful desire for another's bed, nor set out upon the hateful and abominable outrage against a male, because it is against nature. The many consider these things luxuries, their own sins, while those more moderate among them recognize them as sins but are overcome by pleasures. And darkness is their cover for passions; for the man who prostitutes himself commits adultery against his own marriage, and does not hear the pedagogue crying out: "The man who climbs onto his own bed, who says in his soul: 'Who sees me? Darkness is around me, and the walls are my shelter, and no one sees my sins; why should I be cautious?' Will not the Most High remember?" Wretched is this man, who fears only the eyes of men, but thinks to escape the notice of God. For he does not know, says Scripture, that the eyes of the Most High Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, which look upon all the ways of men and perceive into hidden places. And again the pedagogue threatens them through Isaiah, saying: "Woe to those who take counsel in secret, and will say: 'Who sees us?'" For perhaps one may hide from perceptible light, but from intelligible light it is impossible, or as Heraclitus says:

How could one ever escape the notice of that which never sets? Therefore let us never cover ourselves with darkness, for the light dwells within us; and darkness, it is said, does not overtake it, but the night is illuminated by the prudent reason—the reasonings of good men, which Scripture has called sleepless lamps. Indeed, to attempt to be hidden in one's actions is to confess that one is sinning, and everyone who sins also does injustice immediately, not so much to his neighbor, if he commits adultery, as to himself, because he has committed adultery; but he certainly renders himself worse and more dishonored. For the one who sins, insofar as he sins, is worse and more dishonored than himself; and in any case, incontinence is already present in some way in the one overcome by shameful pleasure; therefore the fornicator is certainly dead to God, and has been abandoned by the Word, as by the Spirit, a corpse. For the holy abhors being defiled, as is fitting. And it is always lawful for the pure to touch the pure; let us not, then, strip off shame along with the garment that is removed, since it is never lawful for the righteous to strip off temperance. For behold, this perishable thing will be clothed with incorruption, when the insatiability of desire, flowing into licentiousness, is disciplined by continence, and having become loveless toward corruption, yields the human being to eternal temperance. For in this age they marry and are given in marriage, but when the works of the flesh are abolished, having clothed the flesh itself, pure, with incorruption, we pursue the measure of the angels.

Thus also Plato, in the Philebus, the disciple of barbarian philosophy, mystically called atheists those who corrupt the god dwelling within them, the Word, and defile it as far as they themselves are concerned by the appropriation of the passions. Therefore one must never live in a mortal way while being sanctified to God, nor, as Paul says, must one make the members of Christ members of a harlot, nor must one make the temple of God a temple of shameful passions. For remember the twenty-four thousand who were cast out because of fornication, and the sufferings of those who fornicated, as I have already said, are types that educate our desires. Our pedagogue exhorts us most clearly: Do not go after your desires, and refrain from your appetites; for wine and women will lead even the wise astray, and he who consorts with harlots will become more reckless, and decay and worms will inherit him, and he will be raised up as a greater example, and again he does not tire of benefiting; but he who looks pleasure in the eye crowns his life. Therefore it is not right to be overcome by sexual pleasures, nor to gape after desires, nor to be agitated by irrational appetites, nor to desire to be defiled. Sowing is permitted only to the married man as to a farmer at that time when the season receives the seed. As for the rest

For incontinence, the best remedy is reason, but the lack of satiety also helps, through which inflamed desires leap about pleasures. Therefore, one should not strive for costly clothing any more than for varied food. The Lord himself, dividing his instructions into soul, body, and thirdly external things, advises that external things be procured for the body, that the body be governed by the soul, and that the soul be educated, saying, "Do not be anxious for your soul what you will eat, nor for your body what you will wear; for the soul is greater than food, and the body than clothing." And he adds a clear example of the teaching: "Consider the ravens, that they neither sow nor reap, that they have no storehouse or granary, and God feeds them. Are you not superior to the birds?" These things concerning food; and similarly concerning clothing, which belongs to the third category, external things, he enjoins, saying, "Consider the lilies, how they neither spin nor weave, and I tell you that Solomon did not clothe himself like one of them." Solomon the king was exceedingly proud of his wealth. What is more beautiful and blooming than flowers? What is more delightful than lilies or myrrh or roses? If God so clothes the grass that is in the field today and thrown into the oven tomorrow, how much more you, of little faith? "And do not seek what you will eat or what you will drink." Here the particle "what" has rejected the variety of food, for this is signified by the scripture: do not be anxious about what kinds of food you will eat or what kinds you will drink; for greed and luxury are anxious about these things.

Eating considered merely in itself is a sign of necessity, the filling of a lack, as we have said; but the "what" beyond necessity, and the superfluous, Scripture has revealed as coming from the devil. The following phrase clarifies the meaning. For after saying, "Do not seek what you will eat or what you will drink," he added, "and do not be carried away." Vanity and luxury make people carried away from the truth, and pleasure that distracts with superfluities leads away from the truth. Therefore he says very well: "All these things the nations of the world seek." The disorderly and foolish are the nations. And what does he mean by "these things"? Luxury, pleasure, spiced dishes, dainty eating, gluttony. These are the "what." But concerning mere food, both dry and liquid, as being necessary, he says, "Your father knows that you have need." If we have become seekers at all, let us not waste our seeking on luxury, but rekindle it for the discovery of the truth. For he says, "Seek the kingdom of God, and the things of food will be added to you." If, then, he removes concern for clothing and food and all superfluities as not necessary, what must we think he would say about love of adornment, dyeing of wool, variety of colors, elaboration of stones, working of gold, and also artificially contrived tresses and twisted curls, and further, painting of eyes, plucking, depilation, whitening, dyeing of hair, and the evil arts connected with these deceptions?

We must consider whether that which was said a little earlier concerning grass might not also be said concerning these disorderly lovers of ornament. For the world is a field, and we are the grass bedewed by the grace of God, and when cut we spring up again, as will be shown more fully in the treatise On Resurrection; but grass is allegorically the common crowd, suited to ephemeral pleasure, blooming for a short time, lovers of ornament and glory and everything rather than truth, fit for nothing but fuel for fire. There was a man, the Lord says in the narrative, very rich, who clothed himself in purple and fine linen, rejoicing splendidly each day; this man was the grass. And a certain poor man named Lazarus lay at the gate of the rich man, covered with sores, desiring to be filled from the crumbs falling from the rich man's table; this man is the grass. But the rich man was punished in Hades, partaking of fire, while the other flourished in the bosom of the Father. I approve of the ancient city of the Lacedaemonians; it permitted only courtesans to wear flowered garments and gold ornaments, removing the love of ornament from respectable women by allowing only prostitutes to adorn themselves. Conversely, the rulers of the Athenians who had embraced the civic constitution, forgetting the men's quarters, wore gold-embroidered full-length tunics and clothed themselves in full-length garments.

and the krobylos, which is a type of braid, they would tie up, adorning themselves with the insertion of golden cicadas, displaying their earth-born nature in their truly tasteless effeminacy. And the emulation of these rulers extended also to the other Ionians, whom Homer, feminizing them, calls "trailing-robed." Therefore, since they pursue an image of the beautiful, namely love of ornament, and not the beautiful itself, and again idolize through a fair name, they must be banished far from the truth, dreaming of the nature of the beautiful by opinion, not by knowledge. And for them, this life is a deep sleep of ignorance, from which we must awaken and hasten to the truly beautiful and orderly, and strive to cling to this alone, leaving behind the adornments of this world to delight in the world itself before we fall completely asleep. I say, therefore, that man has need of fabrics for no other reason than the covering of the body, for protection against the excess of cold and the intensity of heat, lest the immoderation of the environment cause us any distress. If, then, this is the purpose of clothing, see whether not one garment is to be assigned to men and another to women; for covering is common to both, just as eating and drinking are. Since the need is common, we approve of a similar construction. For just as the need for coverings is common to both, so the coverings themselves ought to be similar; if so, this covering must be adopted, according to which it is necessary to hide the eyes of women.

For if the female is at a disadvantage due to weakness, the custom of evil upbringing is to blame, on account of which men, often nurtured in base habits, have become more effeminate than women. It is certainly not necessary to relax the tension. But if one must accommodate, one should yield a little to them only in using softer fabrics, removing the condemned fineries and the elaborate weaves in the textures, letting go of gold thread, Indian silks, and the elaborate silkworms. First a worm is born, then from it a thick caterpillar appears, after which it is transformed a third time into a cocoon—some call it a necydallus—from which a long thread is produced, just as the spider's thread from the spider. These superfluous and transparent things are evidence of a mind not strengthened, prostituting the shame of the body with a thin curtain. For such a garment is no longer a covering, being unable to hide the form of nakedness; for such a garment, falling upon the body, molds itself to it more fluidly and is reshaped carnally, clinging to the figure, and imprints the woman's form, so that even without seeing the whole body, the disposition is evident. One must also reject dyes in clothing; for these are far from both utility and truth, besides blooming forth a slander of character.

For neither is its use beneficial—for it is not suited against the cold—nor does it have any advantage over other clothing for covering, but only reproach, and the pleasantness of its color provokes the licentious into foolish eye-lust, while the white and not spurious should use garments that are white and unpretentious, as is most fitting for those within. 2.108.2 Clearly and purely, Daniel the prophet says, thrones were set and he sat upon them like an aged one, and his garment 2.108.3 was white as snow. He sees the Lord in a vision wearing such a robe. And the Apocalypse says: I saw the souls of the martyrs beneath the altar, and to each was given 2.108.4 a white robe. But if some other color must be sought, the natural dye of truth suffices; garments resembling flowers are to be left to Bacchic and initiatory follies, and also purple and silver ornaments, as the comic poet says, are useful for tragedians and not for life, and our life 2.108.5 must be everything rather than a procession. So Sardian dye and another unripe-grape dye and green, another rose-mixed and scarlet-dyed, and countless other dyes devised with zeal for pernicious pleasures. 2.109.1 This clothing is for sight, not for covering. And garments embellished with gold, sea-purple dyed, and figured—a kind of wind-blown luxury this—and that myrrh-dyed saffron robe, and the costly and variegated garments of fine-spun linen, having little figures 2.109.2 in the purple, must be dismissed with a farewell to art itself.

What prudent or noble thing could women accomplish, who sit, as comedy says, decked out, wearing saffron robes and adorned? The pedagogue explicitly advises: Do not boast in the wearing of a garment, nor be elated in any glory that is fleeting. Mocking those who are clad in soft garments, he says in the Gospel: Behold, those who go about in splendid clothing and in luxury are in the palaces, he means the earthly palaces, the perishable ones, where vainglory and ambition and flattery and deceit dwell; but those who serve the heavenly court around the king of all are sanctified in the pure garment of the soul, the flesh, and are clothed upon with incorruption. Just as the unmarried woman devotes herself solely to God and her care is not divided, while the married woman, if she is prudent, divides her life between God and her husband, but the one who behaves otherwise becomes wholly of marriage, that is, of passion, so, I think, in the same way the prudent woman, while devoting herself to her husband, worships God without pretense, but by loving adornment she falls away both from God and from prudent marriage, exchanging her husband for adornment, just like the Argive courtesan, I mean Eriphyle, who accepted precious gold from a friend of her husband. For this reason I also approve of the Cean sophist, who depicts fitting and corresponding images of virtue and vice.

He made one woman stand simply, dressed in white and pure, Virtue, adorned only with modesty—such must Faith be, virtuous with modesty—and the other he introduces contrariwise, Vice, clad in extravagant garments and polished with alien color; and her movement and posture, studied for pleasure, are a painted model for lewd women. 2.110.2 The follower of the Word will never appropriate any shameful pleasure; therefore the useful garment is to be preferred. Even if the Word through David sings this concerning the Lord: "The daughters of kings delighted you in your honor; the queen stood at your right hand, clothed in gold-woven raiment and fringed with gold," it has not indicated luxurious clothing, but has revealed the incorruptible, woven from faith, adornment of the elect of the Church, in which guileless Jesus shines like gold, and the fringes, the elect, the golden ones. 2.111.1 But if the tone must be lowered for the sake of women, the garment should be woven smooth and pleasant to the touch, not, like paintings, tinted for the pleasure of the eye; for the color is fugitive

The dye becomes fixed with time, but the washings and the shrinkings, by dissolving the wool of the garments with the poisonous juices of the dye, render the weavings weak and unfit even for household use. It is the height of tastelessness to be so frantic about robes and tunics and mantles, cloaks and chitons, which cover the parts of shame, as Homer says. For I am truly ashamed when I see so much wealth poured out for the covering of the genitals. The ancient man in paradise measured the covering of his shame with branches and leaves, but now, since sheep have been created for us, let us not be senseless like the sheep, but, being educated by the Word, let us refute the extravagance of clothing, adding, "You are the hair of sheep, even if Miletus boasts, even if Italy is glorified, even if the hairs are preserved under skins, about which the many rave, but for us at least they are not to be pursued." The blessed John, disregarding even the hair of sheep that stank of luxury, chose the hair of camels and clothed himself in them, modeling the cheap and guileless life. For he ate honey and locusts, sweet and spiritual food, preparing the ways of the Lord, which are without pride and temperate. For would he have put on a purple robe, he who turned away from political arrogance, and in the desert *** of the desert's calm, having lived for God apart from all vain pursuit, all folly, all pettiness? Elijah used a sheepskin as a garment and a belt made of hair to fasten the sheepskin.

Isaiah, another prophet of this kind, was naked and barefoot, and often wore a sackcloth garment of humility. And if you call Jeremiah, he had only a linen loincloth. Just as well-nourished bodies when bared show their bloom more clearly, so the beauty of character, not wrapped in tasteless frivolities, displays its magnificence. Dragging garments so that the feet are let down to the very ends is utterly ostentatious, hindering the act of walking, like a broom sweeping up the surface chaff of the earth, and not even like those broken dancers who pursue silent obscenity on stages, letting their garment trail to such an excess of insolence, for whom the careful adornments, the hanging tassels, and the elaborate rhythms of postures reveal a dragging of petty indolence. And if one wears the Lord's full-length robe, that many-flowered tunic displays the flowers of wisdom, the varied and unfading writings, the Lord's oracles flashing with the rays of truth. The Spirit clothed the Lord in such another garment through David, singing somewhat thus: "You have put on confession and comeliness, wrapping light around you like a cloak." Just as in the making of garments one must be pure of all absurdity, so also one must guard against excess in their use. For it is not good to be dressed above the knee, as they say the Lacedaemonian maidens are.

For it is not seemly for any part of a woman's body to be bared at all. Yet it is possible to utter that noble saying very decorously to the one who said, "The arm is beautiful," but "Not for the public," and "The legs are beautiful," but "Only for my husband," and "The face is comely," but "Only for the one who has married me." But I do not even wish to give the cause of such praises to the chaste women to those who hunt for blame through praises, and it is not only that baring the ankle is forbidden, but it is also commanded that the head be covered and the face be shaded. For it is not holy for the beauty of the body to be a snare for men; nor is it reasonable for a woman who uses a purple curtain to wish to be conspicuous. Would that it were possible to remove the purple from the garment, so that it would not turn the eyes of spectators to the face of those who wear it; but they, weaving only a small part of the garment, have made the whole thing purple, inflaming indolence, and indeed they themselves, wandering about these accursed and delicate purples, according to that poetic saying, have been seized by a purple death. For this purple, then, Tyre and Sidon and the neighbor of the sea in Laconia are most desirable; and their dyers and purple-fishers and the shellfish themselves are highly esteemed because the purple blooms from their blood.

But also the crafty women and the effeminate men, mixing in the deceptive dyes with luxurious fabrics, go mad over excess, no longer using linens from Egypt, but procuring others from the land of the Hebrews and from Cilicia. I pass over the amorgina and the byssus; luxury has outdone even the naming. The covering, I think, ought to make the thing covered appear better, as the statue does the temple, and the soul the body, and the body the garment. But now it is entirely the opposite: if their body were sold, it would never fetch a thousand Attic drachmas, but by buying a single garment for ten thousand talents they prove themselves more worthless and dishonorable than the fabrics. Why then do you pursue the rare and costly before the common and cheap? Because you are ignorant of what is truly beautiful and truly good; and instead of real things, what seems so to the foolish is eagerly sought, who, like madmen, imagine white things as black.

On the matter of footwear. Women who are pretentious are similarly extravagant in their footwear, displaying great folly here as well. Those sandals with golden ornaments are truly shameful, and they also insist on driving spiral-shaped nails into the soles. Many even engrave amorous kisses on them, as if by their step they might rhythmically impress the ground, sealing the courtesan-like character of their mind in their gait. Therefore, one must dismiss the gilded and jewel-encrusted vanities of sandals, Attic boots, Sicyonian shoes, buskins, Persian and Tyrrhenian footwear, and, following the custom of our truth, choose the right aim, selecting what is natural. For the use of footwear is partly for the protection of the feet, partly for guarding against stumbling and the roughness of mountain paths, preserving the sole of the foot. For women, white footwear may be permitted, unless they are traveling, in which case they should use oiled footwear. Those who travel need nailed soles. For the most part, however, women should use footwear; it is not fitting to display the foot bare, and besides, a woman is prone to slipping into harm. For a man, going barefoot is very suitable, unless he is on military service. For being shod is somehow close to being bound. Indeed, it is most ascetic to use the feet bare, and it is conducive to health and convenience, where no necessity prevents it. But if we are not traveling and cannot bear going barefoot, we should use slippers or sandals; the Athenians called them "konipodes," because they seem to me to bring the feet close to the dust.

John is a sufficient witness for simple footwear, confessing himself unworthy to untie the strap of the Lord's sandals. For the one who set forth the pattern of true philosophy for the Hebrews did not wear anything ostentatious. And if this hints at something, it will be made clear elsewhere. That one should not be frantic about stones and golden adornment. To marvel at pebbles, whether gray or green, and the castings of the distant sea and the scrapings of the earth is childish. For to be excited about transparent little stones and peculiar colors and variegated glass is nothing but the mark of foolish people, drawn by a striking appearance. In this way, children are drawn to fire by its brightness, not perceiving the danger of touching it due to their folly. Such are the stones for foolish women, bound in necklaces and encased in collars: amethysts, thunderstones, jaspers, topaz, and the most costly merchandise, the Milesian emerald. The highly prized pearl has extravagantly entered the women's quarters; it is produced in a certain shellfish similar to the pinna, and its size is that of a large fish's eye. And these wretched women are not ashamed to have made all their effort about this little shellfish, instead of adorning themselves with the holy stone, the word of God, which Scripture has somewhere called a pearl, the transparent and pure Jesus, the eye that sees in the flesh, the transparent word, through which the flesh is regenerated by water.

For that shellfish, which is produced in water, encloses the flesh, and from this the pearl is conceived. We have received that the upper Jerusalem is walled with precious stones, and we understand that the twelve gates of the heavenly city, likened to precious stones, hint at the conspicuous grace of the apostolic voice. For the colors are arranged upon the costly stones, and these are precious, while the rest is left as earthy matter. Symbolically, the city of the saints is fittingly walled with these, being built spiritually. They have conceived of the inimitable bloom of the stones as the pure and holy bloom of the spirit in substance; but these women, not understanding the symbolic nature of the scriptures, are wholly agape over stones, putting forward that wonderful argument: "What God has revealed, why should we not use it? And it is available to me, why should I not indulge? And for whom then have these things been made, if not for us?" Such utterances are from those who are completely ignorant of the will of God. For first, he supplies the necessities, like water and air, manifestly to all, but he has hidden in earth and water all that is not necessary. For this reason, ants mine gold, griffins guard gold, and the sea has hidden the pearl stone; but you are meddlesome in things you should not be. Behold, the whole heaven is spread open, and you do not seek God; but the hidden gold and stones are mined among us by those condemned to death. Moreover, you sing against scripture, which cries out explicitly: "Seek first the kingdom of heaven, and all these things will be added to you.

But even if all things are given to you, and even if all things are permitted to you, and even if all things are allowed to us, says the apostle, yet not all things are beneficial. God Himself brought our race into communion, first sharing of His own and making His own word common to all men, having done everything for the sake of all. Therefore all things are common, and the rich are not to be covetous. So then, "It is present to me and I have an abundance, why should I not live luxuriously?" is not humane nor communal, but rather that is loving: "It is present to me, why should I not share with those in need?" For such a one is perfect, who has fulfilled "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." For this is true luxury, the treasured magnificence, while expenditure on vain desires holds the character of destruction, not of spending. For God, I know, has given us authority over use, but only up to necessity, and He has willed that use be common. It is absurd for one to live luxuriously while many are in need. For how much more glorious is it to benefit many than to live sumptuously? How much wiser to spend on people than on stones and gold? How much more beneficial to possess decorous friends than inanimate ornaments? How much would fields benefit as much as giving? It remains for us to resolve also that which is brought forward: "To whom then the more costly things, if all choose the cheaper?" To people, I would say, if we use them without partiality and distinction.

If it is impossible for all to be temperate, yet because of the need for necessities, one must pursue what is easily procured, bidding a long farewell to these superfluous things. In general, then, ornaments like little girls' trinkets must be utterly rejected, even by those who renounce the world itself. For one must be orderly within and show the inner woman as beautiful; for beauty and ugliness are manifested only in the soul. Hence only the serious man is truly beautiful and good, and only the beautiful is held to be good, while virtue alone is manifested even through the beauty of the body and blooms upon the flesh, showing the loveliness of temperance as worthy of love, when character shines like a light upon the form. For the beauty of each plant and animal consists in its own virtue. But the virtue of a human being is justice, temperance, courage, and piety. Therefore the beautiful person is the just and temperate one, and, in sum, the good person, not the rich one. Already even soldiers wish to be adorned with gold, not having read that poetic line: "He who went to war even with gold was like a foolish girl." But love of ornament, which least cares for virtue but clings to the body, having perverted the love of beauty into vainglory, must be utterly cast out. For by attaching to the body things not proper to it as if they were proper, it engendered a practice of falsehood and a habit of deceit, showing not the dignified, unfeigned, and truly innocent, but the haughty, affected, and luxurious.

Those which obscure true beauty, overshadowing it with gold, do not know what the offense is, putting upon themselves countless rich bonds, just as among the barbarians they say criminals are bound with gold. These women seem to me to have emulated those wealthy prisoners. For is not a golden necklace a collar, and are not twisted chains? And the so-called pendants, which have the form of chains, are called chains by the Attic writers themselves by that very name. Philēmōn in his Synephebus called anklets "fetters around the ankles," the disorder of women's feet, transparent garments and a certain golden fetter. Why then is adornment still enviable, or do you wish, O women, to appear yourselves as if fettered? For if the material mitigates the reproach, the passion is indifferent. At any rate, it seems to me that they voluntarily fall into bonds and boast of wealthy misfortunes. Perhaps also the poetic myth says that such bonds were placed around Aphrodite when she was committing adultery, hinting at nothing else than that ornaments are a symbol of adultery; for Homer called those bonds golden too. And now they are not ashamed to wear the most obvious symbols of evil. For just as the serpent deceived Eve, so also golden adornment, using the serpent's form as a bait, has driven other women mad into wantonness, fashioning certain muraenas and serpents for elegance. At any rate, the comic poet Nicostratus says: chains, pendants, rings, bubalia, serpents, leg-bands, hellebore. Indeed, all this is very blameworthy.

Aristophanes in the Thesmophoriazusae enumerates women's adornment. I will set down the comic poet's words, which precisely expose the vulgarity of your lack of goodness: "A. – Headbands, hair-nets, soda, pumice, breast-band, back-band, veil, rouge, necklaces, under-paintings, delicate Calasiris, hellebore, hair-net, girdle, mantle, trinket, borders, robe, tunic, pit, circular cloak, little tunic. The greatest of these I have not mentioned. B. – Then what? A. – Earrings, jeweled ornaments, bracelets, mallow, grape-cluster, ear-pendants, brooches, armlets, necklaces, fetters, signet-rings, chains, rings, plasters, bubbles, bandages, dildoes, sardian stones, neck-chains, spiral ornaments. I am weary and burdened in speaking of the multitude of adornments, and I am moved to wonder at them, that they are not worn out bearing such a load. O the empty meddlesomeness, O the vain love of glory! They pour out their wealth like courtesans to their own shame, and they counterfeit the gifts of God with lack of taste, emulating the art of the evil one. And clearly the Lord in the Gospel has called the rich man who hoards in his storehouses and says to himself, 'You have many goods stored up for many years; eat, drink, be merry,' a fool, for on this night they take your soul; what you have prepared, whose will it become? Apelles the painter, seeing one of his pupils painting a Helen with much gold, said, 'O boy, not being able to paint her beautiful, you have made her rich.'

Such, then, are the Helens of today—women not genuinely beautiful, but richly fabricated. The Spirit prophesies through Sophonias: "Their silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the Lord's wrath." But for women educated by Christ, it is fitting to be adorned not with gold, but with the Word, through which alone gold is revealed. The ancient Hebrews would have been blessed if, after stripping the adornment from their women, they had merely thrown it away or melted it down; but as it is, having fashioned it into a golden calf and worshipped it as an idol, they gained nothing from either their craft or their enterprise, yet they taught our women, in the most typical manner, to abstain from ornaments. Indeed, the desire that has prostituted itself for gold becomes an idol tortured by fire, by which alone it is preserved as a luxury, like an idol, not a truth. Hence the Word, through the prophet, reproaches the Hebrews: "They made silver and gold," it says, "for Baal"—clearly ornaments—and most plainly threatening, it says, "And I will avenge upon her the days of the Baalim, on which she sacrificed to it, and put on her earrings and her necklaces," and it added the reason for the adornment, saying, "And she went after her lovers, but forgot me," says the Lord. Therefore, laying aside these trinkets for that wicked sophist of harlotry, let them not partake of this beautification nor worship idols through a seemly veil.

The blessed Peter says very admirably: "Women likewise, not with plaits or gold or pearls or costly clothing, but with what is fitting for women professing piety, adorning themselves through good works." And he naturally commands them to keep away from adornment; for if they are beautiful, nature suffices; let art not vie with nature, that is, let deception not contend with truth; but if they are ugly by nature, they convict themselves by what they attach of what they do not possess. Therefore it is fitting for women who serve Christ to embrace simplicity. For indeed simplicity promotes holiness, equalizing excesses and through ordinary things providing the need derived from superfluities. For the simple, as the name itself indicates, does not protrude nor is it swollen or puffed up in any respect, but is entirely even, smooth, equal, and without excess, and in this way it is sufficient. Sufficiency is a state that reaches its proper limit without deficiency and without excess; their mother is justice, their nurse is self-sufficiency. This, then, is a state content with what is necessary and by itself providing what contributes to the blessed life. Let there be, then, on the fruits of your hands a holy adornment: generous sharing and works of housekeeping. For he who gives to the poor lends to God, and the hands of the brave enrich. He has called "brave" those who despise money and are generous in giving. On the feet, let readiness for well-doing and the journey toward justice be manifest. And pendants and necklaces are modesty and temperance. Such necklaces God fashions.

Blessed is the man who has found wisdom, and mortal is he who has seen prudence, says the spirit through Solomon, for it is better to trade in her than in treasures of gold and silver, and she is more precious than costly stones. For this is true adornment. Let their ears not be pierced contrary to nature for the attachment of earrings and pendants; for it is not right to force nature against its will, nor would there be any better ornament for the ears than the natural passages of hearing descending for true instruction. Eyes anointed with reason and ears pierced for perception prepare one to be a hearer of divine things and a spectator of holy things, as reason truly shows the true beauty, which the eye has not seen nor the ear heard before. Concerning true beauty. Therefore, as it seems, the greatest of all lessons is to know oneself; for if one knows oneself, he will know God, and knowing God he will be made like God, not by wearing gold or long robes, but by doing good and needing as little as possible. Only God is without need, and he rejoices most of all when he sees us pure in the adornment of the mind, and then also in that of the body, clothed in a chaste garment, temperance. Since the soul is of three parts, the intellectual part, which is called the rational, is the inner man, the ruler of this visible man, and that man is led by another, God; the spirited part, being beastly, dwells near madness.

The desiring part, the third, is multiform, more varied than Proteus, the sea-daimon, changing from one shape to another, accommodating itself to adulteries, lecheries, and corruptions. First it becomes a lion with a fine beard—I still bear the adornment; the hair of the beard shows the man—then a serpent, or a leopard, or a great boar; love of ornament has slipped into licentiousness. I can no longer endure it; the man appears a beast. Then it becomes liquid water and a tree with high foliage. The passions pour out, the pleasures gush forth, beauty withers, and falls more quickly from the leaf to the ground when the erotic gales of insolence blow upon it, and before autumn comes it withers with corruption. For desire becomes and is shaped into everything and wishes to deceive, in order to conceal the man. But that man in whom the Word dwells is not variegated, not shaped; he has the form of the Word, is made like God, is beautiful, not adorned; beauty is the true thing, for it is God; and that man becomes God, because God wills it. Rightly then Heraclitus said: "Men

Gods, men are gods. For the Logos is the same: a manifest mystery; God in man, and man God, and the mediator accomplishes the will of the Father; for the mediator is the Logos, common to both, son of God, savior of men, and servant of the one, our paedagogus. But since the flesh is a slave, as Paul also testifies, how could one reasonably adorn the handmaid like a procuress? For that the fleshly form is that of a slave, the apostle says concerning the Lord: That he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, calling the outer man a slave before the Lord served and bore flesh. But the compassionate God himself freed the flesh from corruption, and releasing it from death-dealing and bitter slavery, he clothed it with incorruption, placing upon the flesh this holy ornament of eternity, immortality. There is also another beauty of men: love. And love, according to the apostle, is patient, kind, not jealous, not boastful, not puffed up. For boastfulness is adornment that implies excess and worthlessness. Hence he adds: It does not behave unseemly. For the unseemly is the alien and unnatural form; the artificial is alien, which he clearly explains, saying it does not seek what is not its own; for truth calls its own what is proper, while love of ornament seeks what is alien, being outside both God and the Logos and love. And the Spirit testifies through Isaiah that the Lord himself became ugly in appearance: And we saw him, and he had no form nor beauty, but his form was dishonored, inferior to men. And who is better than the Lord?

But it was not the beauty of the flesh, which is imaginary, that he displayed, but the true beauty of both soul and body: of the soul, its beneficence; of the flesh, its immortality. That one ought not to beautify oneself. Therefore it is not the external appearance of a person, but the soul that should be adorned with the ornament of nobility; and one might also say that the flesh should be adorned with the ornament of self-control. But those women who beautify their surface and lay waste their depths have deceived themselves, adorning themselves like the temples of the Egyptians. Among them, the forecourts and outer precincts are elaborately furnished, with groves and gardens, and the courts are crowned with many columns; the walls gleam with foreign stones and with skillful painting, lacking nothing; the temples glitter with gold, silver, and electrum, and are variegated with precious stones from India and Ethiopia, while the inner sanctuaries are overshadowed by gold-embroidered curtains. But if you enter into the depth of the enclosure, hastening to see the superior being, and seek the statue that dwells in the temple, a pastophorus or some other temple official, looking solemn, chanting a paean in the Egyptian tongue, draws back the curtain a little, as if to show you the god, and gives us broad laughter at the object of veneration. For the god we sought within, to whom we hastened, will not be found there, but a cat, or a crocodile, or a native snake, or some such beast, unworthy of the temple, but worthy of a hole, a den, or a bog; the god of the Egyptians appears on a purple couch, a beast wallowing.

This, I think, is what women who wear gold are doing: training the curls of their hair, practicing unguents for their cheeks, eye-liner, and dyes for their hair, and contriving the rest of their foolishness, adorning the fleshly enclosure, truly acting like Egyptians, to draw in superstitious lovers. But if one were to draw back the curtain of the temple—I mean the hairnet, the dye, the garment, the gold, the rouge, the cosmetics, that is, the fabric composed of these things, the curtain—so as to find within the true beauty, he will be disgusted, I well know. For he will not find the image of God dwelling within, that worthy thing, but a whore and an adulteress has seized the inner sanctuary of the soul, and the true beast will be exposed: a monkey smeared with white lead, and that wily serpent devouring the rational part of the woman through love of glory has its lair in the soul; having filled everything with deadly poisons and belched forth his own venom of deception, this pimping dragon has transformed women into prostitutes—for love of adornment belongs not to a woman but to a courtesan—; they care little for staying at home with their husbands, but having loosed their husband's purse, they divert the supplies to their desires, so that they may have many witnesses to their beauty, and spending the whole day at their toilette, they devote themselves to bought slaves.

Just as they season the flesh with a base sauce, so they devote the day to beautification, sequestering themselves so that their dyeing may not be detected, and at evening, as if from a lair, this counterfeit beauty creeps toward the lamp; for drunkenness and the dimness of the light assist their artifice. The comic poet Menander excludes the woman who dyes her hair from the house: "Now go from this house; for a modest woman ought not to make her hair yellow, nor to rouge her cheeks, nor to paint her eyes." These wretched women are unaware that they are destroying their own beauty by the introduction of a foreign one; at any rate, with the day they are torn, rubbed, and plastered with various compounds, they wear down their skin, break down their flesh with drugs, and by the fussiness of their washes they wither their own natural bloom. For this reason they appear pale from their plasters, and become easily susceptible to diseases, having their flesh already rotten, painted with drugs, dishonoring the creator of men, as if he had not bestowed beauty according to merit. Naturally they become idle for household duties, as if painted, sitting for show, not born for housekeeping. For this reason the reasoning woman in the comic poet says: "What wise or brilliant thing could we women do, who sit decked out, corrupting the character of free women, bringing about the overthrow of houses, the perversion of marriages, and the substitution of children?

This very thing, then, the comic poet Antiphanes in his *Malthake* mocks the courtesan class of women, saying the common phrases devised for their ruin: "She comes, she goes again, she approaches again, she goes again, she arrives, she is present, she washes, she approaches, she rubs, she combs, she has stepped in, she rubs, she bathes, she looks at herself, she prepares, she perfumes herself, she adorns herself, she anoints herself; † if she has something, she is strangled." For thrice, not once, are they justly ruined, using crocodile dung and smearing themselves with the foam of decay, and smearing soot on their eyebrows and rubbing their cheeks with white lead. Those who are even offensive to the pagan poets because of their manner, how would they not be rejected by the truth? Another comic poet, Alexis, at any rate, exposes them; and I will set down his diction as well, which shames the intransigence of their shamelessness by the elaborateness of its expression; for he was not so elaborate; but I am ashamed that the women's quarters are so ridiculed, which, having become a helper, then also destroys the man. First, for the sake of profit and plundering their neighbors, all other works become secondary to them. If a woman is short, cork is fitted into her sandals. If a woman is tall, she wears a thin-soled shoe and goes out with her head dropped onto her shoulder; this takes away from her height. If a woman has no hips, she puts on stitched padding,

so that those who see them cry out at their well-rounded buttocks. "She has a large belly; they have breasts like those of comic actresses; standing them upright, they have drawn such things forward from the belly as if with poles. One has red eyebrows; they paint them with soot. It happens that she is dark; she smears herself with white lead. Another is very fair-skinned; she rubs on rouge. She has some beautiful part of her body; she displays it naked. She has fine teeth; she must laugh by necessity, so that those present may see how elegant a mouth she wears. If she does not enjoy laughing, she spends the whole day holding a thin straight sprig of myrtle between her lips, so that in time she is forced to smile whether she wishes or not." I set these things before you from worldly wisdom for the aversion of the evil artifice of love of ornament, since the Word has wished to save us completely, and shortly I will also reinforce them with the divine scriptures. Somehow, what is not hidden tends to abandon sins through shame at the reproofs. Just as a smeared hand and a painted eye indicate from the appearance a suspicion of the one who is sick, so cosmetics and dyes hint at a soul that is sick deep within. But the divine pedagogue urges us to pass by a foreign river, allegorizing the foreign woman, the wanton one, as a foreign river flowing over everyone, pouring out for all through licentious prostitution into luxury.

Abstain from another's water, it says, and do not drink from another's fountain, urging us to guard against the stream of self-indulgence, so that we may live a long time, and years of life be added to us, whether by not hunting after another's pleasure or by avoiding heresies. Now gluttony and love of wine, even if they are great passions, are not so great in magnitude as is love of adornment. A full table and cups in succession are sufficient to fill gluttony; but for those who love gold, purple, and stones, neither the gold above and below the earth is sufficient, nor the Tyrian sea, nor the cargo from India and Ethiopia, nor even the Pactolus flowing with wealth. Not even if one of them becomes a Midas is he filled, but he is still poor, longing for other wealth, and these are ready to die with their gold. But if wealth is blind, as indeed it is, how are those who are frantic about it and sympathize with it not blind? Having no limit to desire, they run aground into shamelessness; for they need both a theater and a procession and a crowd of spectators and wandering in temples and loitering in the streets, so that they become visible to all. For they adorn themselves to please others, boasting in their face, not in their heart; for as the brand marks the runaway slave, so the rouge reveals the adulteress. Even if you put on scarlet and adorn yourself with gold jewelry, and even if you paint your eyes with stibium, your beautification is in vain, says the word through Jeremiah.

Then is it not absurd that horses and birds and the other animals rise from the grass and meadows and take flight, rejoicing in their own adornment—the horse's mane, the natural color, the varied plumage—while woman, as if more deficient than the nature of beasts, thinks herself so lacking in beauty that she needs an alien beauty, one that is bought and painted? For hairnets and the differences of hairnets and elaborate braidings, and the countless arrangements of hair, and the costly constructions of mirrors, with which they shape themselves, hunting for those who, like foolish children, are smitten with forms—these belong entirely to women who have lost all shame, whom one would not err in calling courtesans, making masks of their faces. But our discourse urges us not to look at visible things, but at invisible things; for visible things are temporary, but invisible things are eternal. And what has gone even beyond absurdity is that they have devised mirrors for their own artificial appearance, as if it were some exploit or correction, on which deception a veil ought especially to be placed; for not even, as the Greek myth has it, did it turn out well for Narcissus the beautiful to become a spectator of his own image. And if Moses commands that no image be made by men as a rival to God, how could these women reasonably make images of themselves, imitating them by reflection for the falsification of the face?