43 Rom. 14.21.

43 Rom. 14.21.

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mand:

'He who eats,' he says, 'eats for the Lord and he gives thanks to God. And he who does not eat, abstains for the Lord and gives thanks to God.'** We conclude, then, that the true food is thanksgiving.*® At any rate, he who always offers up thanks will not indulge excessively in pleasure.

But, if we would draw any of our fellow banqueters to virtue, we should refrain from these delicacies of the palate all the more, and make ourselves unmistakable examples of virtue, as Christ has done for us. 'For if any of these foods scandalize my brother, I will eat it no more for ever, lest I scandalize my brother,' that is, gaining the man by a little self-control. 'Have we not the right to eat and to drink?

'We know the truth that there is no such thing as an idol in the world, and that there is no God but one, from whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ.' But he adds:

'through thy knowledge, the weak one will perish, the brother for whom Christ died. Now when you wound the conscience of your weak brother, you sin against Christ.'*t Therefore, the Apostle takes great pains to reach this decision with regard to these dinners of ours:

'Not to associate with one who is called a brother if he is immoral, or an adulterer, or an idolator; with such a one not even to take food," neither the food of words nor that of meat, foreseeing the defilement of such contact, as with 'the table of devils.'

(11) 'It is good, he says, 'not to eat meat and not to drink wine, ** just as the Pythagoreans say. Eating and drinking is the occupation of animals, and the fumes rising

39 Rom. 14.6.

40 eucharistia, Probably a veiled reference to the Sacrament. This term was already in use for the Body and Blood of Christ, as can be seen in Ignatius, dd Smyrn. 7.1; Ad Phil. 4.1.

41 1 Cor. 8.13,4,6,11,12.

421. Cor, 5.11; 43 Rom. 14.21.

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from them, heavy and earth-laden, cast a shadow over the soul. But, if anyone does partake of them, he does not sin; only let him partake temperately, without being attached to them or dependent upon them, or greedy for any delicacy. A voice will whisper to him: 'Do not for the sake of food, destroy the work of God.'** Only a fool will hold his breath and gape at what is set before him at a public banquet, expressing his delight in words. But it is only a greater fool who will let his eyes become enslaved to these exotic delicacies, and allow selfcontrol to be swept away, as it were, with the various dishes.

Is it not utterly inane to keep leaning forward from one's couch, all but falling on one's nose into the dishes, as though, according to the common saying, one were leaning out from the nest of the couch to catch the escaping vapors with the nostrils? Is it not completely contrary to reason to keep dipping one's hands into these pastries or to be forever stretching them out for some dish, gorging oneself intemperately and boorishly, not like a person tasting a food, but like one taking it by storm? It is easy to consider such men swine or dogs rather than men, because of their voraciousness. They are in such a hurry to stuff themselves that both cheeks are puffed out at the same time, all the hollows of their face are filled out, and sweat even rolls down as they exert themselves to satisfy their insatiable appetite, wheezing from their intemperance, and cramming food into their stomachs with incredible energy, as though they were gathering a crop for storage rather than nourishment.

Lack of moderation, an evil wherever it is found, is particularly blameworthy in the matter of food. (12) Gourmandising, at least, is nothing more than immoderate use of de44 Rom. 14.20.

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licacies; gluttony is a mania for glutting the appetite, and belly-madness, as the name itself suggests, is lack of selfcontrol with regard to food. The Apostle, in speaking of those who offend at a banquet, exclaims: 'For at the meal, each one takes first his own supper, and one is hungry, and another drinks overmuch. Have you not houses for your eating and drinking? Or do you despise the church of God and put to shame the needy?'*® If a person is wealthy, yet eats without restraint and shows himself insatiable, he disgraces himself in a special way and does wrong on two scores: first, he adds to the burden of those who do not have, and lays bare, before those who do have, his own lack of temperance.

Little wonder, then, that the Apostle, after having taken to task those who were shamelessly lavish with their meals, and those who were voracious, never getting their fill, cried out a second time with an angry voice: 'Wherefore, my brethren, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, lest you come together unto judgment.'*® (13) Therefore, we must keep ourselves free of any suspicion of boorishness or of intemperance, by partaking of what is set before us politely, keeping our hands, as well as our chin and our couch, clean, and by preserving proper decorum of conduct, without twisting about or acting unmannerly while we are swallowing our food. Rather, we should put our hand out only in turn, from time to time; keep from speaking while eating, for speech is inarticulate and_ ill-mannered when the mouth is full, and the tongue, impeded by the food, cannot function properly but utters only indistinct sounds.

It is not polite to eat and drink at the same time, either, be45 1 Cor. 11.21.

46 1 Cor. 11.23.

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cause 'it indicates extreme intemperance to try to do two things together that need to be done separately.

'Whether you eat or drink,' the Apostle tells us, 'do all for the glory of God,'*' cultivating the frugality of truth.

It seems to me that the Lord was teaching frugality when He blessed the loaves and fishes with which He fed the disciples, ** excellently illustrating indifference about food. (14) Then, that other fish which Peter caught at the Lord's bidding*® is a good example of food easily gained, given by God, yet within the limits of self-restraint. In reality, Peter was commanded to rid those who rise to the bait of justice, from out the water, of all extravagance and love of money, just as he took the coin from the fish, in order to free them of vain ostentation; though he gave the stater to the tax-collector, rendering to Caesar what was Caesar's, he was commanded to keep for God what belonged to God. The stater could be explained in other ways, too, which would all be reasonable enough, but this is not the proper place to treat such explanations. It is enough to mention them in passing as we go on to ideas in keeping with our theme, ever keeping before ourselves the subject under discussion. This we have already done many times, drawing from the ever-useful fountain to irrigate the plants sown by our discussion for the main point at issue.

If it is true that 'it is lawful for me to partake of all things,' still, 'not all things are expedient." For, they who take advantage of everything that is lawful rapidly deteriorate

47 1 Cor. 10.31.

48 Cf. John 21.9.

49 Cf. Matt. 17.27.

50 1 Cor. 10.23.

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into doing what is not lawful. Just as justice is not acquired through covetousness, or temperance through licentiousness, so, too, the Christian way of life is not achieved by self-indulgence. Far from 'lust-exciting delicacies' is the table of truth. Even though all things have been created particularly for man, it is not well to make use of all things, nor to use them at all times. Surely, the occasion and the time, the manner and the motive, make some difference to one who is being educated [by Christ] to what is profitable. It is this goal that provides the strength we need to restrain ourselves from living lives centered about the table. Wealth chooses that sort of life, for its vision is blunted; it is an abundance that blinds in the matter of gluttony.

No one is destitute when it comes to the necessities of life, nor does any man need to look far for these.*" For, He who provides for the birds and the fish, and, in a word, for unreasoning beasts, is one God.°** They lack nothing, yet they are not anxious about their food. But we are better than they, because we are their masters, and are more akin to God, to the degree that we practise self-control. We have been created, not to eat and drink, but to come to the knowledge of God. 'The just man,' Scripture says, 'eateth and filleth his soul; but the belly of the wicked is ever in want,'** ever hungry with a greed that cannot be quenched.

Lavishness is not capable of being enjoyed alone; it must be bestowed upon others.

(15) That is why we should shy away from foods that arouse the appetite and lead us to eat when we are not hungry. Even in moderate frugality, is there

51 Cf. Adesp. 887, CAF III 562.

52 Cf. Seneca, Ep. 17.9.

53 Cf. Matt. 6.26; Job 38.41.

54 Prov. 13.25.

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not a rich and wholesome variety? Roots,°° olives, all sorts of green vegetables, milk, cheese, fruits, and cooked vegetables of all sorts, but without the sauces. And should there be need for meat, boiled or dressed, let it be given. 'Have you anything here to eat?' the Lord asked His Apostles after His resurrection. 'And they offered Him a piece of broiled fish,' because He had taught them to practise frugality. 'And when

He had finished eating, He said to them,'** and Luke goes on to record all that He said. We should not overlook the fact, either, that they who dine according to reason, or, rather, according to the Word,' are not required to leave sweetmeats and honey out of their fare. Surely, of all the foods available, the most convenient are those which can be used immediately without being cooked. Inexpensive foods come next in order, since these are so accessible, as we have already said.

As long as those other fellows stay hunched over their groaning tables, catering to their lusts, the devil of gluttony leads them by the nose. I, for one, would not hesitate to call that devil the devil of the belly, the most wicked and deadly of them all. He is very much like the so-called engastrimythos,°* because he speaks, as it were, through his belly. It is far better to possess happiness than to have any daemon as a companion;°* happiness is the practise of the virtues.

(16) Matthew the Apostle used to make his meal on 55 The Scholion says here: 'Father, what a word escapes the fence of thy teeth!

(/liad 4.350) For what food is harder to cook and more difficult to prepare than roots?'

56 Luke 24.41-44.

57 Idgos, here used to suggest both 'reason' and the 'Word.'

58 A woman who delivered an oracle, usually by ventriloquism, throwing her voice to her stomach. Literally, the word means 'speaking through the stomach.'

Cf. Aristotle, Nic. Et. 3.1118B.

59 Aristotle, op. cit. 1.1097B-1098A. A play on the word for 'happiness'

(eu-daimon) .

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seeds and nuts and herbs, without flesh meat; John, maintaining extreme self-restraint, 'ate locusts and wild-honey';°° and Peter abstained from pork. But, 'he fell into an ecstasy,' it is written in the Acts of the Apostles, 'and saw heaven standing open and a certain vessel let down by the four corners to the earth; and in it were all the four-footed beasts and creeping things of the earth and birds of the air. And there came a voice to him: Arise and kill and eat. But Peter said: Far be it from me, Lord, for never did I eat anything common or unclean. And there came a voice a second time to him: What

God has cleansed, do not thou call common.'*' The use of these foods is a matter of indifference for us, too, 'for not that which goes into the mouth defiles a man,' but the barren pursuit of wantonness. When God formed man, He said: 'All these things will be food for you.'**

'Herbs with love rather than a fatted calf with deceit.'** This is reminiscent of what we said before, that herbs are not the Agape, but that meals should be taken with charity.

A middle course is good in all things, and no less so in serving a banquet. Extremes, in fact, are dangerous, but the mean is good,®° and all that avoids dire need is a mean. Natural desires have a limit set to them by self-sufficiency.

(17) Among the Jews, frugality was made a matter of precept by a very wise dispensation of the Law. The Educator forbade them the use of innumerable things, and He explained the reasons, the spiritual ones hidden, the material ones obvious, but all of which they trusted. Some animals

[were forbidden] because they were cloven-footed; others, 60 Matt, 3.4.

61 Acts. 10.10-15.

62 Matt. 5.11.

63 Cf. Gen. 1.29.

64 Prov. 15.17.

65 Cf. Seneca, Ep. 5, passim.

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because they did not ruminate their food; a third class, because they, alone among all the fish of the seas, had no scales;** until, finally, there were only a few things left fit for food. And, even of those He permitted them to touch,

He placed a prohibition on the ones found dead or offered to idols or strangled.*' They could not even touch them. He imposed upon them a contrary course of action until the inclination engendered by habits of easy living be broken, because it is difficult for one who indulges in pleasures to keep himself from returning to them.

Among men, pleasure generally gives rise to some sense of loss and of regret; overeating begets in the soul only pain and lethargy and shallow-mindedness. It is said, too, the bodies of the young in the period of their physical maturing are able to grow because they are somewhat lacking in nourishment; the life-principle which fosters growth is not encumbered— on the contrary, an excess of food would block the freedom of its course.

(18) So it is that he who of all philosophers so praised truth, Plato, gave new life to the dying ember of Hebrew philosophy by condemning a life spent in revelry: 'When

I arrived,' he said, 'what is here called a life of pleasure, filled with Italian and Syracusan meals, was very repulsive to me. It is a life in which one gorges oneself twice a day, sleeps not only during the night, and engages in all the pastimes that go with this sort of life. No one upon earth could ever become wise in this way, if from his youth he had followed such pursuits as these, nor would he ever attain in that way any reputation for an excellent physique."** Surely, Plato was not unacquainted with David, who, when he was settling b | 66 Cf. Lev. 11; Deut. 14.

67 Cf. Deut. 14.3-21; Acts 21.25.

68 Plato, Ep. 7.326BC.

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the holy ark in the middle of the tabernacle of his city, made a feast for all his obedient subjects and 'before the face of the Lord, distributed to all the multitude of Israel, both men and women, to everyone, a cake of bread and baked bread and pan-cakes from the frying-pan.'*® This food sufficed, this food of Israel; that of the Gentiles is extravagance.

'You will never be able to become wise' if you indulge in such extravagance, burying your mind deep in your belly; you will resemble the so-called ass-fish which Aristotle claims is the only living thing which has its heart in its stomach," and which the comic poet Epicharmis entitles 'the hugebellied.'" Such are the men who trust in their belly, 'whose god is their belly, whose glory is their shame, who mind the things of earth.'"* For such men the Apostle makes a prediction foreboding nothing good, for he concludes: 'whose end is ruin.'

Chapter 2 (19) 'Use a little wine,' the Apostle cautions the waterdrinking Timothy, 'use a little wine for thy stomach's sake."*

Shrewdly, he recommends a stimulating remedy for a body become ill-disposed and requiring medical attention, but he adds 'a little,' lest the remedy, taken too freely, itself come to need a cure.

Now, the natural and pure drink demanded by ordinary thirst is water. This it was that the Lord supplied for the 69 2 Kings 6.19. (Septuagint) .

70 Aristotle, Frag. 326, in V. Rose, Aristotelis Fragmenta (Leipzig 1886) .

71 Epicharmis, Frag. 67, in G. Kaibel Fragmenta poetarum graecorum

VI 1 (1899).

72 Phil. 3.19.

1 1 Tim. 5.23.

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Hebrews, causing it to gush from the split rock," as their only drink, a drink of sobriety; it was particularly necessary that they who were still wandering should keep far from wine.

Later on, a sacred vine put forth a cluster of grapes that was prophetic;* to those who had been led by the Educator to a place of rest after their wanderings it was a sign, for the great cluster of grapes is the Word crushed on our account.'

The Word desired that the 'blood of the grape'® be mixed with water as a symbol that His own blood is an integral element in salvation.

Now, the blood of the Lord is twofold: one is corporeal, redeeming us from corruption;® the other is spiritual, and it is with that we are anointed. To drink the blood of Jesus is to participate in His incorruption.' Yet, the Spirit is the strength of the Word in the same way that blood is of the body. (20)

Similarly, wine is mixed with water and the Spirit is joined to man; the first, the mixture, provides feasting that faith may be increased; the other, the Spirit, leads us on to incorruption.

The union of both, that is, of the potion and the Word, is called the Eucharist,* a gift worthy of praise and surpassingly fair; those who partake of it are sanctified in body and soul, for it is the will of the Father that man, a composite made by God, be united to the Spirit and to the Word." In 2 Cf. Exod. 17.6; Num. 20.11.

3 Cf. Num. 13.24.

4 Cf Isa. 53.5;10.

5 Cf. Gen. 49.11; Eccli. 50.16.

Ot Pet 1.8.

7 Cf. John 6.55.

8 Cf. above, p. 122 n. 40. De la Barre sees in this passage a clear reference to the Eucharistic Sacrament ('Clément de'Alexandrie, DTC _ III, cols. 196-197) .

9 pnetima and Idgos: these two words seem to refer in this context to the Third and Second Persons of th¢ Trinity.

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fact, the Spirit is closely joined to the soul depending upon Him, and the flesh to the Word, because it was for it that 'the Word was made flesh.'*® I have, then, only admiration for those who profess an austere life, limiting their desires to water, nourishment of sobriety, and avoiding wine as completely as they can, as they would the least threat of fire.

It is conceded that boys and girls should, as a general rule, be kept from this sort of drink. It is not well for flaming youth to be filled with the most inflamable of all liquids, wine, for that would be like pouring fire upon fire. When they are under its influence, wild impulses, festering lusts, and hot-bloodedness are aroused ; youths already on fire within are so much on the verge of satisfying their passions that the injury inflicted on them becomes evident by anticipation in their bodies, that is, the organs of lust mature before they should. I mean that, as the wine takes effect, the youths begin to grow heated from passion, without inhibition, and the breasts and sexual organs swell as a harbinger and an image of the act of fornication.

The wound in their soul compels the body to manifest all the signs of passion, and the unrestrained throbbings aroused by temptation drive on into sin the curiosity of him who before had been sinless. (21) At that point, the freshness of youth has exceeded the bounds of modesty. Therefore, it is imperative to attempt to extinguish the beginnings of passion in the young, as far as posible: first, by excluding them from all that will inflame them—Bacchus and his threat—and second, by pouring on the antidote"? that will restrain the smouldering soul, contain the aroused sexual movements, and calm the agitation of the storm-tossed desires.

10 John 1.4.

11 The Scholion says this refers to water.

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As for adults, when they take their midday lunch, if that is their practise, let them take only a little bread and no liquids at all, so that the excessive moisture in their bodies may be assimilated and absorbed by the dry food. It is an indication, in fact, of disorder in the body caused by an excessive accumulation of liquids flowing through it, if we need to blow our noses constantly and experience a persistent urge to urinate. If they should become thirsty, let them relieve their thirst with water, but not too much of it. It is not good to drink water too freely, lest the food be simply washed away; the meal should be masticated to prepare it for digestion, only a little of it finally passing off as waste.

(22) Minds that bear something of the divine should not be overcome with wine for another reason, too. 'Strong wine,' in the words of the comic poet, 'keeps a man from thinking many thoughts''*—or, in fact, from being wise at all. But toward evening, near the time for supper, we may use wine, since we are no longer engaged in the public lectures which demand the absence of wine. At that time of day, the temperature has turned cooler than it was at midday, so that we need to stimulate the failing natural heat of the body with a little artificial warmth. But, even then, we must use only a little wine; certainly, we should not go so far as to demand

_whole bowls of it, because that would be sheer extravagance.

Again, those who have already passed the prime of life may be permitted more readily to enjoy their cup. They are but harmlessly making use of the medicine of wine to stimulate new warmth for the growing chill of old age as its heat dies down with the years. The passions of the aged are, for the most part, no longer storm-tossed with the threat of shipwreck from intemperance. Securely moored by the anchors of rea12 Menander, Frag. 779, CAF Ul 216.

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son and of maturity, they easily bear the violent storm of passion aroused by drink, and they can even indulge in the merriment of feasts with composure. But, even for them, there is a limit: the point where they can still keep their minds clear, their memories active, and their bodies steady and under control, despite the wine. Those who know about these things call this the last drop before too much. (23) It is well to stop short before this point, for fear of disaster.

A certain Artorius, I recall, in a book on longevity, is of the opinion that we should drink only so much as is needed to moisten our food, if we would live a long life. It is certainly a good idea to use wine, as some do, only for the sake of health, as a tonic, or for relaxation and enjoyment, as others do. Wine makes the man who drinks more mellow toward himself, better disposed toward his servants, and more genial with his friends.'* But, when he is overcome by wine, then he returns every offense of a drunken neighbor.

Wine is warm and gives out a sweet smell; therefore, in the proper mixture it thaws out the constipation of the intestines and with its sweetness dilutes every pungent or offensive odor. A quotation from Scripture will express it aptly: 'Wine drunken with moderation was created from the beginning as the joy of the soul and of the heart.'** But it is wise to dilute the wine with as much water as possible (and to avoid depending upon it as we do water), as well as to restrain our appetite for drinking bouts and to keep from drinking wine like water simply from intemperance. Both are creatures of God, and so the mixture of both, water and wine, contributes to our health. Life is made up of what is necessary, together with what is merely useful. (24) The merely useful should

13 Cf. Plato, Laws 649A, 14 Eccli. 31.36.

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iS be combined with a very large part of what is necessary, that is, with water.

When wine is indulged in too freely, the tongue becomes thick, the jaw sags, the eyes begin to roll, for all the world as if they were swimming in pools of moisture, and the vision, forced to deceive, conceives everything as going round in a circle, and is not sure whether things are single or double.

'Indeed, I think I see two suns,' the old Theban in his cups complained.'® Truly, the sense of sight is deranged by the heat of wine and imagines it sees many times over what is only one. But there is no difference between deranging the sense of sight and distorting the object that is seen: in either case, the vision is affected the same way in its derangement and cannot accurately perceive the object. Similarly, the gait takes on the appearance of being swept along in a stream, and then there arises, as maids-in-waiting, hiccoughing, retching, and silliness. For, 'every man overcome by wine,' says the tragedian, 'becomes subject to his passions and empty of mind, pours out idle chatter and is forced to hear against his will things he had said so willingly.'* Even before these words were written, Wisdom had warned:

'Wine drunken with excess raiseth quarrels and many ruins.'"?

(25) That is why there is a common saying that we _should relax over our cups and postpone serious business until dawn. But it seems to me that it is especially at that time that we should invite reason to be our companion at a feast and the controlling guide of our drinking, lest our feasting turn gradually into rioting. For, just as no one in his right mind would think of going about with his eyes shut until he

15 Euripides, Bacch. 918. The Scholion, however, says he means Pindar.

16 Sophocles, Frag. 843.

17 Eccli. 31.38.

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was trying to sleep, so, too, no one has the right deliberately to dismiss reason from his table, or lull it to sleep on set purpose before some action. On her part, reason will never be able to separate herself from those who belong to her, even when they sleep; in fact, reason must be summoned to our beds. Wisdom, in its perfection, is the understanding of things human and divine, and includes all things; therefore, it is the art of living in that it presides over the human race. In that way, it is everywhere present wherever we live, ever accomplishing its work, which is living well.

But those pitiable people who exile temperance from their gatherings deem life the happiest when it turns into a wild drinking bout. Their life is nothing but carousing, drunken headaches, baths, undiluted wine, chamber-pots, idleness, and drinking. (26) You can see some of them, indeed, halfdrunk, stumbling over themselves, with wreathes around their necks as though they were bottles,'* spitting wine on one another in the name of good-fellowship; and others, too, suffering from the after-effects, unwashed, pallid, with flushed faces, yet, despite yesterday's spree, still gulping down one drink after the other. It is worth while, my friends, worth while indeed, to study this ridiculous yet pitiful picture, but at as great a distance as we can manage, and mend ourselves for the better, lest we ourselves some time may make a similar spectacle of ourselves, as ridiculous as they. It has been well said:

'As the kiln trieth the hard iron dipped in it, wine makes the heart arrogant' (in drunkenness) ."®

The excessive use of undiluted wine is intemperance; the 18 According to the Scholion, Clement is thinking here of the cords and strings attached to amphorae.

19 Cf. Eccli. 31.31; but in the Septuagint, from which this text is taken, 34.26.

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Lr disorderliness resulting from it is drunkenness; and the discomfort and indisposition felt after indulgence is called the after-effect. The Greek name for this is a word that etymologically means 'to lose control of the head.'*" (27) This sort of life—if it can be called living— is sluggish, intent only on enjoying pleasure, yet feverish in its passion for wine. Divine

Wisdom, in its distrust for such a life, commands her children:

'Be not a wine-bibber, and do not reach out with your money for purchases of meat, for every drunkard and fornicator shall come to beggary, and every sleeper shall put on rags.'*! Everyone who does not bestir himself to gain wisdom is a sleeper; he prefers to sleep deluged in drink. The drunkard, it says, will put on rags; he will become ashamed of his drunkenness because of those who see him. The rags of earthly garments are the torn [vesture] of the sinner, rent by his selfindulgences through which the shame of his soul within is exposed to view, that is, his sin because of which the garment that is so hopelessly tattered, so rotted away into countless lusts, so alien to salvation, will not easily be saved.

So it is that it adds as a stern warning: 'Who hath woe?

Who hath contentions? Who falls into judgment? Who hath wounds without cause?' There you see the drunkard all in rags, neglecting reason and surrendering entirely to drink, despite all that Scripture has threatened him with. It adds

"more to the threat: 'Who hath redness of eyes? Are they not those that pass their time in wine? And those that seek where drink is??? By the mention of redness of eyes—a sign of death—it is made clear that the wine-bibber is already dead

-to the Word and to reason: it declares his death to the Lord.

20 kraipdlé, which Clement wrongly derives from kdra pdllein.

21 Prov. 23.20.21

(Septuagint) .

22 Prov. 23.29,30.

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If one forgets the motives that prompt him to seek the true life, he is dragged down to corruption. (28) With good reason, then, the Educator, in His concern for our salvation, sternly forbids us: 'Do not drink wine to drunkenness.' And do you ask why? 'Because,' He answers, "Thy mouth will utter wicked things, and you will lie as though in the middle of the sea, and as the pilot in the great billowing.'"*

Poetry comes to our aid, too, and warns: 'Whenever wine enters into a man with strength like fire, it tosses him on waves, as the north or south wind does the Libyan Sea,'** and 'Making them talk wildly, wine reveals all that has been hid; it is the ruin of those who drink; soul-deceiving wine,'"* and so on through the rest of the passage. Do you not see the danger of shipwreck? The heart is battered by the flood of drink, and the quantity of wine drunk is like a threatening sea in which a man is swallowed like a ship in distress at sea; he sinks to the depths of disorderliness, drowned by huge waves of wine. The pilot, that is, the human mind, is tossed about by the billows of the overabundant wine, and in the middle of the whirlpool of a hurricane with its darkness fails to discover the harbor of truth, until, dashed against the hidden reefs, it is hurled upon the rocks of pleasure and destroyed.

(29) The Apostle commands, therefore, with good reason:

'Do not be drunk with wine, for in that is much debauchery,*' by debauchery meaning the hopeless state of the drunkard. Christ turned water into wine at the marriage feast,"' but He did not encourage them to become drunk. He

23 Prov. 23.31,33,34 (Septuagint) .

24 Eratosthenes, Frag. 34 (Hiller) .

25 From an unknown poet.

26 Eph. 5.18

27 John 2.7,8.

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was infusing life into the water of a [lukewarm] heart, pouring the blood of the vine into the whole world that was expected to fulfill the law born of Adam;'* that is, He was supplying piety with a drink of truth, a mixture of the Old Law and the New Word, until the fulfillment of the time already decided upon. Scripture, then, always uses wine in a mystical sense, as a symbol of the holy Blood, and always repudiates any intemperate use made of it: 'Wine is licentious, and drunkenness is wanton.'?®

It is in conformity with right reason that those who are very susceptible to cold use wine during the winter to keep from shivering and at other seasons of the year to take proper care of their stomach. Just as food is permitted to relieve hunger, so drink is to ease thirst, provided the greatest caution is taken against any abuse, for tasting wine is fraught with danger. If such a policy is followed, our souls should become clean and dry and lightsome:

'a soul that is dry is a light very wise and very noble.'*® So, too, it will be initiated into the mysteries; its substance will not become oversaturated with water, from the mists rising like a cloud from wine.

(30) There should never be any wild search for Chian wine when it is not available, nor for Ariousian when that - 28 This is a difficult passage, with the syntax almost unintelligible.

Another possible translation, that of E. Molland, The Conception of the Gospel in the Alexandrian Theology (Oslo 1938) 25-26: 'He gave life to the watery element of the meaning of the Law, filling with the blood of the Vine, the true drink, him who was the doer of the Law ever since Adam, i.e., the whole world, holding out to the [sic] piety the mixture of the Old Law and the New Word as a fulfillment of the time which had been foreordained in the preaching [of the Old Testament].'

29 Prov. 20.1.

30 Heraclitus, Frag. 74, in H. Diels, Dig Fragmente der Vorsakratiker, griechisch und deutsch (Berlin 1903) .

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fails. Thirst is simply the awareness of a need and requires only a relief corresponding to the need, one that will satisfy it, not deluge the mind. Importing wines from across the seas indicates cupidity grown soft from self-indulgence and a soul deranged by passion before it took to drink. There is the Thasian wine, which is sweet-smelling; Lesbian wine, which is fragrant; the Crean sweet wine; Syracusan pleasant-tasting wine; Mendesian wine from Egypt; insular Nazian wine; and Italian wine that is redolent of flowers. There exist all these various brands of wine, but for the temperate drinker it is only wine cultivated by the one only God. Why in the world is native wine insufficient to satisfy the taste? They even import water, as those foolish kings imported Choaspian water (from the so-called Choaspis river where the purest drinking water is found), cherishing this water as they would their dearest friends.* The Holy Spirit declares the rich wretched in their self-indulgence, exclaiming through the mouth of Amos:

"Those who drink purified wine, and sleep upon beds of ivory,** and He adds other remarks to manifest His displeasure.

(31) We ought also to give special thought here to proper decorum. (Legend has it that even Athena, whoever she is, prudently renounced the pleasure of her flute because it made her look undignified.) We should drink without turning our head about, without swallowing all we can hold, without feeling compelled to roll our eyes around in the presence of the drink, and without draining the cup in one gulp with utter lack of self-control; thus we will not wet our chin or our clothes as we tip the cup all at once, practically washing or bathing our face in it. It is certainly a disgusting and 31 Modern Karhkeh in Iran and Iraq.

32 Cf. Amos 6.6,4.

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undignified spectacle of self-indulgence to see a person greedily swallowing a drink with noisy intake of air, with a noise like a liquid being poured into an earthen jar, and making sounds with his throat from the forced swallowing.

Besides, hasty drinking is a harmful practise to one who does it. If you are such a one, do not by excessive haste hurt yourself; your drink will not be snatched away; it was but just now given you, it will wait. Do not hurry to burst with such hasty drinking. Your thirst will be relieved just as well if you drink slowly, maintaining proper dignity and sipping the drink bit by bit in becoming manner. Time will not rob self-indulgence of that which it is in such hurry to grasp. 'Do not be foolhardy in wine, Scripture says,

'for wine has destroyed very many.'** (32) "The Scythians and the Celts and the Iberians and the Thracians engage in drunkenness freely, for all of them are warrior nations, and they think they are following a noble and pleasant occupation.'** Let us who are a peaceful people give our feasts and drink our cup of friendship without wine, just to enjoy ourselves, not to commit sin; then, indeed, in keeping with its name, that cup will be recognized as proving friendship. How do you think the Lord drank when He had become man for our sake? As shamelessly as we do? Was it not rather with good manners, with dignity, and leisurely? You

are aware, of course, that He, too, took wine; He, too, was man. In fact, He blessed wine, saying: "Take, drink, this is

My blood.'** He used the 'blood of the vine'*® as a figure of the Word who 'was shed for us unto the remission of sins,'*' a 33 Cf. Eccli. 31.30; in the Septuagint, from which this reading is taken,

$4.24.

34 Plato, Laws I 637DE.

35 Cf. Mark 14.25.

36 Cf. Gen. 49.11; Eccli. 50.16.

37 Matt. 26.28.

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stream of gladness. From the things He taught about banquets, He plainly insisted that one who drinks must keep self-control.

He set the example by not drinking freely Himself. Yet, He proved that what He blessed was really wine when He said to His disciples: 'I will not drink of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I shall drink it with you in the kingdom of My Father.'*® And that it was really wine which He drank,

He said on another occasion when He reproached the Jews with their hardness of heart: "The Son of Man came, and they say: Behold a glutton and a wine-drinker, a friend of publicans.'*® (33) This is a quotation we can use to make the Encratites*® look ridiculous.

As for women, who are especially trained in good manners, if only they would not keep their lips wide open as they drink from big cups, with their mouths distorted out of shape! And if only they would not lean their heads back when they drain vessels narrow of neck, thereby exposing their throats with—or so it seems to me—such immodesty! They hold their chins high as they pour the drink down, as if they were trying to reveal as much of themselves as they can to their companions at table; then they belch like men, or, rather, like slaves, and at their carousals begin to play the coquet. There is no fault that can be excused in a man of reason, and much less so in a woman to whom notoriety, whoever she is, brings only disgrace. 'A drunken woman,' in the words of Scripture,

'is a great wrath,' as if to say that a woman become dissolute from wine is the wrath of God. Why? Because 'her shameless conduct shall not be hid. A woman is quickly 38 Matt. 26.29.

39 Matt. 11.19.

40 An heretical sect which practised austere asceticism in a Gnostic distrust of matter.

41 Eccli. 26.11.

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1Z3 drawn into immorality even by only giving consent to pleasure.

Now, we have not proscribed drinking from precious alabaster cups, but we do condemn as overostentatious the practise of drinking from them alone. We recommend indifference in using whatever is at hand, and a desire to restrain desires, for desires always and repeatedly betray a person into sin. The emission of the breath in a belch should be made noiselessly. Women are not at all to be allowed to expose or lay bare any part of their bodies, lest both men and women fall: the one by being aroused to steal glances, the other by attracting the eyes of men to themselves. We must always behave with good manners, realizing that the Lord is present, so that He may never say to us reproachfully what the Apostle said to the Corinthians: 'When you meet together, it is no longer to eat the Lord's Supper.' *?

(34) It strikes me that the constellation called by astronomers 'the Headless', enumerated just before the Wandering

Star, its head sunk upon its breast, is a figure of those who are so indulgent in their foods, so given over to pleasure, and of those who are so fond of wine. Certainly, the reasoning power of such men is not located in their head, but in their stomach, for it is the slave of passion and lust and gluttony. Truly, just as Elpenor fell down in a drunken stupor and broke his neck,'* their mind, become dizzy from excessive drink, falls

- down to the liver and the heart, that is, to love of pleasure and to passion. This is a greater fall than that which the tribe of poets tell us Hephaestus took when cast down by Zeus from heaven to earth.** 'The pain of sleeplessness and cholera and cramp are with 42 1 Cor. 11.20.

43 Odysseus 10.560.

44 Cf, Iliad 1.590-593.

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the intemperate man,'*" it is written. That is why the drunkenness of Noe also has been described,** so that we may guard against drunkenness as much as possible, with the picture of such a fall clearly described before our eyes in Scripture. That is why, too, the Lord blessed those who covered the shame of his drunkenness.

Scripture, summing everything up in one succint verse, has said: 'Wine that is sufficient for a man well taught, and upon his bed, he shall rest.'*7 Chapter 3 (35) The use of drinking cups made of gold or silver, and of those set with precious stones, is without any purpose at all, a fraudulent display merely for the eyes. Either someone pours a hot drink into such a cup, and it becomes too hot to be handled with comfort; or something cold, and then the drink is spoiled, no matter how costly it was, because it changes its nature and even becomes poisonous. Away, then, with all Thericleian and Antigonidan chalices, with scaraband greedand limpet-cups and the thousand and one other varieties, and along with them, wine-coolers and wine-pourers as well!?

'Gold and silver, in general, are a possession that corrupts both the individual and the community,' for they exceed the 45 Kechi. 31.23.

46 Cf. Gen. 9.21.

47 Eccli. 31.22.

1 According to the Scholion, these cups were of all different shapes, adapted to the convenience of the drinkers. The first two were named from their inventors; the next three, from their shapes.

2 Cf. Plato, Laws XII 955E.

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demands of real need, are possessed too rarely, are difficult to retain, and are not suited for ordinary use.

Surely, the elaborate ostentatiousness of glass-workers should find no place in a well-regulated way of life, because the overdelicate artistry of the glass makes it more easily broken, and us everfearful as we drink. Besides that, couches made of silver, dishes and saucers, the smaller dishes and bowls of silver, and other gold and silver utensils, some for serving food, others for needs I blush to name, 'three-legged stools worked of soft cedar, of thyme, ebony and ivory,'* couches with silver legs and inlaid with ivory, folding-doors speckled with gold and embellished with tortoise-shell, blankets dyed in purple and other fast dyes, all these things are manifestations of vulgar self-indulgence, of the treacherous and selfish devices of envy and sloth and must be absolutely forbidden, for they do not serve one single worth-while purpose. 'For the time is short,' the Apostle says.* This is to say that we should not make ourselves ridiculous, like the women who can be seen in processions, painted up outlandishly exteriorly, but interiorly wretched.

(36) To leave no doubt, [the Apostle] adds in greater detail:

'It remains that those who have wives be as if they had none, and those who buy as though not possessing.'" Now, if that is

_-said of wedlock, of which God commands:

'Increase and multiply, can you doubt that such vulgar display is to be banished, on the authority of the Lord Himself? Indeed, the Lord also said: 'Sell what thou hast, and give to the poor and come follow Me.' Follow God, rid of false pretenses, rid of 3 Odysseus 5.60.

4 1 Cor. 7.29. The text is defective here.

5 1 Cor. 7.29,30.

6 Gen. 1.28.

7 Matt. 19.21. y

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pomp that perishes, possessing only what is really yours, the good that cannot be taken from you: faith in God, belief in Him who suffered, good works toward men, your most valuable possessions.

As for me, I heartily approve of Plato's forthright legislation: 'one ought not to labor to possess wealth of gold or silver, ® or superfluous utensils, either, because they exceed the limits of moderation if they do not serve some practical purpose. A utensil should be adaptable to many varied services, so that we can eliminate excessive possessions. Divine Scripture says aptly somewhere:

'Where are the princes of the nations, and they that rule over the beasts that are upon the earth? That take their diversion with the birds of the air?

That hoard up silver and gold wherein men trust, and there is no end of their getting? Who work in silver and gold and are solicitous? And their works are unsearchable. They are cut off and gone down to hell.'? (37) That is the reward for their cheap ostentatiousness. Certainly, if we need a hoe or a plough for farm work, we would never fashion a onepronged silver pickaxe to serve as a two-pronged hoe, or a golden harrow for our plough. We would look not for a precious metal, but for one suitable for tilling the soil. When it comes to household utensils, what prevents those who have a similar useful purpose in mind from manifesting the same sense of values? Expensiveness should not be the goal in objects whose purpose is usefulness. Why? Tell me, does a table knife refuse to cut if it be not studded with silver or have a handle of ivory? Must it be made of Indian steel to cut a piece of meat, like a man in search of an ally? What difference does it make if the wash basin be only of clay?

8 Plato, Laws VII 801B.

9 Bar. 3.16-19.

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Will it not hold water anyway to wash the hands? And the foot basin, water to wash the feet? Will a table with legs carved of ivory take it ill that it supports only bread worth one obol, or will a lamp refuse to shed light because it came from the hands not of a goldsmith, but of the potter? A lowly cot affords no worse repose than an ivory bed, and the goathair cloak can so easily be thrown over one as covering that there is no need of special purple and crimson-dyed blankets.'°

Yet, for my part, I still say that I am accused of frugality because of the stupidity engendered by self-indulgence, the mother of all evil.

(38) See how great an error this is, and what a false sense of beauty. The Lord ate His meal from an inexpensive bowl;"? made His disciples recline on the ground, upon grass;'" washed their feet, girding Himself with a linen towel;

He, the humble God, Lord of the universe, carried a foot basin made, be it noted, of no precious silver brought from heaven.'* He asked the Samaritan woman, who had drawn water from the well with a bucket made only of clay, to give

Him to drink;'* He did not seek the gold of kings, but taught us to rest content with what will quench thirst. Beyond question, He confined Himself to the useful, not the ostentatious, good. When He ate and drank at banquets, He did not _ require metals dug out of the earth, or dishes that tasted of gold or silver, that is, poison, as if exuding from steaming matter.

I maintain, then, that food and clothing and dishes, and, in a word, all the items of the household, ought to be, as a gene10 Cf. Musonius, in Stobaeus, Florilegium 85.20.

11 Cf. Matt. 26.23.

12 Cf. Matt. 14.19.

13 John 13.4,5.

14 John 4.7.

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ral rule, in keeping with a Christian way of life and in conformity with what is fitting, adapted to person, age, occupation, and occasion. For we are servants of the one God, and so ought to insure that our belongings and the equipment needed for them manifest the one noble way of life. Every individual, in unquestioning faith and in his own individual way of life, should openly perform the duties that naturally follow from, and are consonant with, this one mentality. We easily praise what we acquire by using them with contentment of mind, by preserving them readily, and by sharing them readily.

Certainly, things that have a practical utility are better; therefore, inexpensive things are obviously better than costly.

Generally speaking, riches that are not under complete control are the citadel of evil. If the ordinary people look on them covetously, they will never enter the kingdom of heaven,'® because they are letting themselves become contaminated by the things of this world and are living above themselves in self-indulgence. (39) Those concerned for their salvation should take this as their first principle, that, although the whole of creation is ours to use, the universe is made for the sake of self-sufficiency, which anyone can acquire by a few things. They who rejoice in the holdings in their storehouses are foolish in their greed. 'He that hath earned wages,'

Scripture reminds us, 'put them into a bag with holes.'?* Such is the man who gathers and stores up his harvest," for by not sharing his wealth with anyone he becomes worse off.

It is farcical and downright ridiculous for men to bring out urinals of silver and chamber-pots of transparent alabaster, as if grandly ushering in their advisers, and for rich women in 15 Cf. Matt. 19.23.

16 Ag. 1.6.

17 Cf. Luke 12.16-21.

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their silliness to have privies made of gold. It is as if the wealthy were not able even to relieve nature except in a grandiose style. Yet I would wish that for the rest of their lives they considered gold worthy only of dung."® But, as it is, love of money is proved to be the citadel of evil, and, as the Apostle says, 'the root of all evil.' 'Some in their eagerness to get rich have strayed from the faith, and have involved themselves in many troubles.''® Poverty of heart is the true wealth," and the true nobility is not that founded on riches, but that which comes from a contempt for it." It is disgraceful to boast about one's possessions; not to be concerned about them any longer very clearly proves the just man. Anyone who wishes can buy such things from the market; but wisdom is bought, not with any earthly coin, nor in any market, but is acquired in heaven, at a good price: the incorruptible Word, the gold of kings.

Chapter 4 (40) In the feasts of reason that we have, let the wild celebrations of the holiday season have no part, or the senseless night-long parties that delight in wine-drinking. The wild

__celebration ends up as a drunken stupor, with everyone freely confiding the troubles of his love affairs. But love affairs and drunkenness are both contrary to reason, and therefore do not belong to our sort of celebrations. And as for all-night drinking parties, they go hand-in-hand with the holiday celebration

18 Cf. Phil. 3.8.

19 Cf. 1 Tim. 6.10.

20 Cf. Matt. 5.3.

21 A play on words: 'true nobility' he Calls megalo-phronein, ('to think great things'), identifying it with kata-phronein ('to think down upon').

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and, in their wine-drinking, promote drunkenness and promiscuity. They are brazen celebrations that work deeds of shame. The exciting rhythm of flutes and harps, choruses and dances, Egyptian castanets and other entertaiments get out of control and become indecent and burlesque, especially when they are re-enforced by cymbals and drums and accompanied by the noise of all these instruments of deception.

It seems to me that a banquet easily turns into a mere exhibition of drunkenness. The Apostle warned: 'Laying aside the works of darkness, put on the armor of light. Let us walk becomingly as in the day, not occupying ourselves in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness."*

(41) Leave the pipe to the shepherd, the flute to the men who are in fear of gods and are intent on their idol-worshiping. Such musical instruments must be excluded from our wineless feasts, for they are more suited for beasts and for the class of men that is least capable of reason than for men. We are told that deer are called by horns and hunted by huntsmen to traps, there to be captured by the playing of some melody; that, when mares are being foaled, a tune is played on a flute as a sort of hymeneal which musicians call a hippothorus." In general, we must completely eliminate every such base sight or sound—in a word, everything immodest that strikes the senses (for this is an abuse of the senses )—if we would avoid pleasures that merely fascinate the eye or ear, and emasculate. Truly, the devious spells of syncopated tunes and of the plaintive rhythm of Carian music* corrupt morals by their sensual and affected style, and insidiously inflame the passions.

1 Rom. 13.12.

2 Literally, 'horse's mating-song.'

3 Carian melodies were a sort of funeral dirge.

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igi The Spirit, to purify the divine liturgy from any such unrestrained revelry, chants: 'Praise Him with sound of trumpet," for, in fact, at the sound of the trumpet the dead will rise again; 'praise Him with harp,' for the tongue is a harp of the Lord; 'and with the lute, praise Him,' understanding the mouth as a lute moved by the Spirit as the lute is by the plectrum; 'praise Him with timbal and choir, that is, the Church awaiting the resurrection of the body in the flesh which is its echo; 'praise Him with strings and organ,' calling our bodies an organ and its sinews strings, for from them the body derives its co-ordinated movement, and when touched by the Spirit, gives forth human sounds; 'praise Him on high-sounding' cymbals,' which mean the tongue of the mouth, which, with the movement of the lips, produces words. (42) Then, to all mankind He calls out: 'Let every spirit praise the Lord, because He rules over every spirit

He has made. In reality, man is an instrument made for peace, but these other things, if anyone concerns himself overmuch with them, become instruments of conflict, for they either enkindle desires or inflame the passions. The Etruscans, for example, use the trumpet for war; the Arcadians, the horn; the Sicels, the flute; the Cretans, the lyre; the Lacedemonians, the pipe; the Thracians, the bugle; the Egyptians, the drum; and the Arabs, the cymbal. But as for us, we make use of one instrument alone: only the Word of peace, by whom we pay homage to God, no longer with ancient harp or trumpet or drum or flute which those trained for war employ. They give little thought to fear of God in their festive

4 Cf. Ps, 150.3-6.

5 The Scholion says: 'This word (alalagmot) means a shout of victory.

To those who have conquered sensual uncleanness, a shout of victory is very appropriately assigned.'

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dances, but seek to arouse their failing courage by such rhythmic measures.

(43) But make sure that the sociability arising from our drinking is twofold, in keeping with the direction of the Law. For, if 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,' and after that, 'thy neighbor, then intimacy with God must come first, and be expressed in thanksgiving and chanting of psalms. Only then are we free to show sociability toward our neighbor in a respectful comradeship. 'Let the word of the Lord dwell in you abundantly,' the Apostle says. But this

Word adapts Himself and adjusts Himself to the occasion, person, and place; in our present discussion, He is the congenial companion of our drinking. The Apostle adds further:

'In all wisdom teach and admonish one another by psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing in your hearts to God by His grace. Whatever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God His Father."

This Eucharistic feast of ours is completely innocent, even if we desire to sing at it, or to chant psalms to the lyre or lute. Imitate the holy Hebrew king in his thanksgiving to God: 'Rejoice in the Lord, O ye just; praise becometh the upright,' as the inspired psalm says: 'Give praise to the Lord on the harp, sing to Him with the lyre-—an instrument with ten strings—'Sing to Him a new canticle.'* There can be little doubt that the lyre with its ten strings is a figure of Jesus the Word, for that is the significance of the number ten.®

(44) It is fitting to bless the Maker of all things before we partake of food; so, too, at a feast, when we enjoy His created gifts, it is only right that we sing psalms to Him. In 6 Cf. Matt. 22.37-39.

CACOMNS LOLs.

8 Ps. 52.1-3.

9 The Greek 'I'

(iota) of Jesotis represents the numeral ten.

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fact, a psalm sung in unison is a blessing, and it is an act of self-restraint. The Apostle calls the psalm 'a spiritual song.'!°

Again, it is a holy duty to give thanks to God for the favors and the love we have received from Him, before we fall asleep. 'Give praise to Him with canticles of your lips,'

Scripture says, 'because at His command, every favor is shown, and there is no diminishing of His salvation.''? Even among the ancient Greeks, there was a song called the skolion which they used to sing after the manner of the Hebrew psalm at drinking parties'* and over their after-dinner cups.

All sang together with one voice, and sometimes they passed these toasts of song along in turn; those more musical than the rest sang to the accompaniment of the lyre.

Yet, let no passionate love songs be permitted there; let our songs be hymns to God. 'Let them praise His name in choir, we read, 'let them sing to Him with the drum and the harp. And the Holy Spirit explains what this choir is which sings: "Let His praise be in the church of the saints: let them be joyful to their king." And He adds: 'For the Lord is wellpleased with His people.''* We may indeed retain chaste harmonies, but not so those tearful songs which are too florid in the overdelicate modulation of the voice they require. 'These last must be proscribed and repudiated by those who would retain virility of mind, for their sentimentality and ribaldry

' degenerate the soul. There is nothing in common between restrained, chaste tunes and the licentiousness of intemperance. Therefore, overcolorful melodies are to be left to shameless! carousals, and to the honeyed and garish music of the courtesan.

10 Cf. Col. 3.16; Eph. 5.19.

11 Eccli. 39.20-23.

12 Sympdsia, as described by Plato or Xehophon.

Uh TH, TER ei gee 14 Literally, 'colorless'; thus a play on words.

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Chapter 5 (45) Men who imitate laughable or ridiculous behavior are to be excluded from our city.? All exterior words have their source in the temperament and in the character; therefore, no foolish words can be spoken without betraying a foolish temperament. The old saying holds good here, that 'there is no good tree that bears bad fruit, neither again is there a bad tree that bears good fruit.'* The fruit of the temperament is words.

But, if we feel that clowns are to be excluded from our city, we should be the first to give over playing the clown. It is inconsistent for us to be found performing the very role to which we have forbidden ourselves to listen. It is even more inconsistent for us to make ourselves a laughing-stock deliberately, that is, the butt of insults and of jokes. If we cannot bear cutting a ridiculous figure such as some are seen to do in the processions, how can we possibly tolerate a man in his right senses cutting an even more ridiculous figure? And if we would not deliberately turn to watch some absurd clowning, how can we make a practise of being and appearing clownish in our conversation, turning the most respectable possession man has, his speech, into a joke? It is a sorry sight to see anyone make an habitual practise of such a thing, because a conversation consisting of nothing but jests is certainly not worth listening to; by the repetition of unbecoming words we lose all fear of unbecoming deeds. We should be pleasantly witty, but not clowns.

(46) As for laughter itself, it, too, should be kept under restraint. Of course, when it rings out as it should, it proves

1 Cf. Plato, Republic X 606C.

2 Luke 6.4,3.

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the presence of discipline, but if it gets out of hand, it is a sure index of lack of self-control. We need not take away from man any of the things that are natural to him, but only set a limit and due proportion to them. It is true that man is an animal who can laugh;* but it is not true that he therefore should laugh at everything. The horse is an animal that neighs, yet it does not neigh at everything. As rational animals, we must ever maintain proper balance, gently relaxing the rigor of seriousness and intensity without dissipating it out of all bounds.

Now, the proper relaxation of the features within due limits—as though the face were a musical instrument— is called a smile (that is the way joy is reflected on the face); it is the good humor of the self-contained. But the sudden loss of control over one's composure, in the case of women, is called a giggle, the laugh of harlots, and in the case of men, a guffaw, the laughter of idle suitors,* offensive to the ear. 'A fool lifteth up his voice in laughter, Scripture says, 'but a cunning man will scarce laugh low to himself.'®

The one called cunning here is really the prudent man, just the opposite of a fool. (47) On the other hand, we should not become gloomy, either; only serious-minded. I certainly welcome the smiling fellow who showed up 'with a smile on his grim face,'® for 'then his laughter would be less disdainful."'

It is well that even the smile be kept under the influence of the Educator. If it is a question of indecencies, we should make it plain that we are blushing in shame, rather than smiling, lest we be thought to give consent and agreement.

If it is some misfortune, we should not manifest a light3 Cf. Aristotle, De partibus animalium III 10.673A.

4 That is, Penelope's suitors. Cf. Odysseus 23.100.

5) Eccli. 21.23.

6 Iliad 7.212.

7 Plato, Republic VII 518B.

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hearted appearance, but look sorrowfully sober. That indicates human tact; the other would be cruelty. But, we should not be always laughing—that would be lack of judgment—nor should we laugh in the presence of older persons or of those who deserve respect, unless, perhaps, they themselves make some witticism to put us at our ease. Nor should we give way to laughter with every chance companion, nor in every place, nor at everything, nor with everyone.

Laughter can easily give rise to misunderstandings, particularly among boys and women.

(48) Then, too, it takes nothing more than a serious expression to keep at arm's length those who would tempt us.

There is some quality in seriousness to strike fear into those who approach with immoral intent, and at that, simply by its bearing. But wine causes those who have become, so to speak, without sense 'to laugh gently and to dance,'* transforming an already weak character into a completely unmanly one. We should never lose sight of the fact, too, that excessive garrulousness quickly leads indelicacy into downright indecency: 'And he spoke a word which it were bet-— ter left unsaid.'? At any rate, it is especially under the influence of drink that the characters of those who are interiorly festering become exposed to view stripped of all hypocrisy, for drunkenness gives free rein to loquaciousness.

It lulls reason to sleep, for it lays heavy hands upon the soul itself, arouses passions, and oppresses the weakness of the mind.

8 Odysseus 7.212; 5.463.

9 Ibid. 5.465.

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ite tf Chapter 6 (49) We ourselves must steer completely clear of all indecent talk, and those who resort to it we must silence by a sharp look, or by turning our face away, or by what is called a grunt of disgust, or by some pointed remark. 'For the things that come out of the mouth,' Scripture says, 'defile a man," and reveal him as uncouth, barbaric, undisciplined, and unrestrained, and as completely without self-possession, decorum, or modesty.

As for listening to or gazing upon indecent things, the divine Educator, in an effort to keep our hearing from being offended against, has proposed words on self-restraint for those of His children engaged in the fight with such things, as mufflers for the ears. Thus, talk about indecent things will not be able to penetrate into the soul and injure it.

The eyes, too, He directs to the vision of good things, saying that it is better to stumble with the feet than with the eyes.'

(50) Then, the Apostle, lashing out at this indecent talk, cautions us: 'Let no ill speech proceed from your mouth, but whatever is good,'* and another time: 'As becomes saints, let obscenity or foolish talk or scurrility not even be named among you; which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving."*

If he who merely calls his brother a fool is liable to judgment," what sentence should be passed upon obscene conversation?

'Whoever speaks an idle word shall give an account to the Lord on the day of judgment,' and again: 'By thy words

1 Matt. 15.18.

2 Cf. Matt. 18.9.

3 Eph. 4.29.

4 Eph. 5.3.

5 .C£. Matt. 5.22.

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thou wilt be justified, and by thy words thou wilt be condemned.'® Now, what are these protecting mufflers for the ears? And what the directions He gives for eyes so prone to stumble? The precaution of cultivating the friendship of good people, and of turning deaf ear to those who would lead us away from the truth.

'Evil associations corrupt good manners, the poet says.' But a quotation from the Apostle is more to the point: 'Hate what is evil, hold to what is good.'* He who associates with the holy will become holy.

(51) It is imperative, then, that we neither listen to nor look at nor talk about obscene things. And it is even more imperative that we keep free of every immodest action, exposing or laying bare any parts of our body improperly, or looking at its private parts. The chaste son could not endure looking upon the immodest nakedness of a good man; chastity covered over what drunkenness had exposed in a transgression committed in ignorance but manifest to all.°

It is no less urgent that we keep ourselves pure in our choice of words, avoiding those which should be alien to the ears of one who believes in Christ. That is why, I believe, the Educator has forbidden us to utter the least thing that is unbecoming, to keep us far from immorality. He is ever skillful in cutting to the very roots of sin, commanding: "Thou shalt not lust,'*' to safeguard the other command: "Thou shalt not commit adultery.'* Adultery is only the fruit of lust, and lust is its evil root.

6 Matt. 12.36.

7 Menander, Thais Frag. 218 CAF III 62.

8 Rom. 12.9.

9 Cf. Gen. 9.21-23.

10 Cf. Matt. 5.27,28.

11 Ibid.; Exod. 20.14; Deut. 5.18.

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(52) For the same reason, our Educator has proscribed the too free use of certain terms, meaning to eliminate too free contact with immorality. Lack of restraint in the words we use gives rise to habitual disorderliness in actions, while to take pains to be discreet in our language is to control licentiousness. In a more profound discussion,!" we have shown that it is not the terms, or the sexual organs, or the marriage act, to which names not in common use describing intercourse are affixed, that we should consider obscene.

It is not the knee, or the thigh, or the names given to them, or even the use made of them, that is obscene. (In fact, even the private parts of a man's body deserve to be treated not with prudery but with privacy.) It is only the unlawful use of these organs that is improper and that is to be considered shameful, and therefore deserving of punishment. Evil alone is truly shameful, and deeds marked with evil.

In the same way, writings that treat of evil deeds must be considered indecent talk, such as the description of adultery or pederasty or similar things. Nonsensical chatter, too, should be silenced. 'In the multitude of words,' it is written,

'there shall not want sin.'* Talkativeness will draw down upon itself some kind of penalty. "There is one that holds his peace, that is found wise.' But the chatterer has already made himself a bore to himself: 'He that useth many words shall abominate his own soul.'** 12 It is uncertain whether this is a special work, not extant, or Stromateis

II 23 and III. Cf. J. Patrick, op. cit. 301-308.

13 Prov. 10.19.

14 Eccli. 20.5,8.

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Chapter 7 (53) Let us keep far, very far, from raillery, the startingpoint of insults; from it, great quarrels and feuds and enmities develop. We are of the opinion that insolence is the attendant of drunkenness. It is not only by his deeds, but also by his words, that a man is judged.' 'Rebuke not thy neighbor,'

Scripture says, 'in a banquet of wine; and speak not to him a word of reproach."* Certainly, if we have been strongly advised to associate with the holy,? then to make fun of a holy man is a sin. 'In the mouth of a fool,' it is said, 'is the rod of pride, * meaning by 'rod' that which supports insolent pride, that on which it leans and rests. So, I admire the wisdom of the Apostle when he advises us for this reason not to use words that are coarse or out of place."

If we meet at banquets for charity's sake, and if the purpose of such feasts is the goodfellowship created among the guests, with the food and drink merely accessories of charity, then should we not maintain a behavior that bespeaks the control of reason?

(Incidentally, we need not impoverish ourselves to practise charity.) And if we gather with the intention of showing good-will toward one another, then why do we stir up ill-will by railing at others? It is better to keep silent than to engage in bickering, adding the fault of deed to that of boorishness. Surely, 'blessed is the man that hath not slipped by a word out of his mouth, and is not pricked with the remorse of sin,'® or at least has repented of the sins committed in speech, or has conversed without inflicting pain on anyone.

1 Cf. Matt. 12.37.

2 Eccli, 31.41,42.

3 Cf. Eccli. 37.15.

4 Prov. 14.3. b Ci Ephno.

6 Eccli. 14.1.

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(54) Let young men and women be kept from banquets of this sort, as a general rule, so that they may not fall into any improper misconduct. There can be no doubt that the indecent things heard, and the unbecoming things seen, unsettle their faith, set their imagination afire, and add fuel to the natural fickleness of their youth to make them ready victims of their passions. At times, too, they are to blame for the fall of others, proving how dangerous an occasion such a banquet can be. It is a good command that Wisdom gives: 'Sit not at all with another man's wife, nor repose upon a couch with her,' that is, do not dine or eat with her too often. Then it adds: 'Do not have a meal with her in wine, lest perhaps thy heart decline toward her, and by thy blood, thou fall into destruction." Drinking unrestrainedly is dangerous because it can so easily degenerate into licentiousness.

Scripture speaks of 'another man's wife,' because there is a greater danger in such a case of destroying the wedding bond.

But, if there arise any need for women to be present, let them be amply clothed: exteriorly with a cloak, interiorly with modesty. The worst accusation that can be brought against any woman not subject to a husband is that she was present at a party for men, and, at that, for men in their cups. And as for young men, let them keep their eyes fixed on their own couch, lean on their elbow without too much fidgeting, and be present only with their ears. If they should be sitting down, let them not put their feet one on top of the other, nor cross their legs, nor rest their chin on their hands. It is lack of good breeding to fail to support oneself, yet a fault common in the young. (55) To be forever restlessly shifting one's position argues for levity of character.

It is the mark of a temperate,man to take only a small Geeccli. 9.12:

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amount while eating or drinking, yet a good amount of time in doing it; not rushing as fast as he can in the way he begins to eat, and pausing now and then; to be the first to finish and to cultivate an attitude of indifference. 'Eat,' Scripture says, 'as a man, what is set before thee, leave off first, for discipline's sake, and if thou sittest among many, reach not thy hand out first of all.'* Needless to say, we should not lean forward to get our helping first, under the impulse of gluttony, nor should we eagerly reach out too far, confessing lack of self-control by our fault. Neither should we, in the meantime, stand guard over our food like animals over their meat, nor indulge in too many dainties. (56) It is a mark of a temperate man, too, to rise before the rest and modestly withdraw from the table. 'And at the time of rising,' it is said, 'be not slack: and run home to thy house.'® Again:

'The Twelve called together the multitude of the disciples and said: It is not desirable that we should forsake the word of God and serve at Tables.''® Certainly, if they avoided such service, they avoided serving their own belly much more.

The same Apostles, writing 'to the brothers in Antioch, and Syria and Cilicia,' said: "The Holy Spirit and we have decided to lay no further burden upon you but this indispensable one, that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from immorality: keep yourselves from these things and you will get on well.'*t We are to shun drinking parties, then, as we would the poison of the hemlock, for both drag us down to death.

'We must also restrain ourselves from undue laughter and 8 Eccli. 31.19.

9 Eccli. 32.15.

10 Acts 6.2.

11 Acts 15.23-28.

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tears," beyond due measure. In fact, those who just now were guffawing over almost everything under the influence of wine often become overcome, I know not how, by some drunken stupor and give way to depression to the point of tears. Both womanish and insolent conduct are discordant with reason. (57) Old men who look on young men as children may, perhaps, although only infrequently, jest with them, teasing them in a way that will teach them good manners.

With a shy and taciturn youth, for example, they may make this pleasantry: 'My son,'—indicating the youth who is so quiet—'never stops talking.' Such teasing encourages the young man in his modesty, for, by accusing him of a fault he does not have, it jestingly calls attention to his good qualities.

This is, indeed, a sort of instruction, securing what one has by reference to what one does not have. He who says that a man who confines himself to water and is self-controlled is always attending parties and getting drunk accomplishes the same sort of thing. If there should be present any of those who take delight in ridiculing others, we must still hold our tongue and dismiss their flow of words as a cup filled to overflowing. Such sport is dangerous. "The mouth of the fool-hardy comes near to a fall.'** "Thou shalt not welcome a foolish report, nor consent with an unjust man to be an unjust witness,'** whether to accuse someone or to speak ill of him or to show ill-will toward him.

(58) It is my opinion that a limit should be imposed upon the speech, if a person would practise self-control; that limit should be merely to reply to questions, even when we can speak. Silence is a virtue in a woman, an ornament free of 12 Plato, Laws V 732C.

13 Prov. 10.14. y 14 Cf. Exod. 23.1.

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danger in the young; only for old age held in honor is speech good. 'Speak, thou that art elder, at a banquet, for it becometh thee. Speak without embarrassment and in carefulness of knowledge. Young man,'—it is Wisdom giving this advice—'scarcely speak if there is need of you; if you be asked twice, let your answer be short, in few words.'?® Both should keep their voices moderately subdued while they speak. Loud talking is annoying, yet speaking inaudibly to one close by suggests ineptitude, inability to make oneself heard. The one is a sign of timidity, the other of brashness.

Do not let quarrelsomeness with its love of empty victory creep into our midst, for our aim is the elimination of all discord. Surely, this is the meaning of the expression: 'Peace be to you.'!® 'Before thou hear, answer not a word." (59)

A muffled voice is the voice of an effeminate man; however, the speech of a temperate man is moderate in tone, not too loud nor too long, not too quick nor too verbose. We should not be long-winded in our conversations, nor wordy, nor engage in idle chatter, nor rattle on rapidly without drawing a breath. Surely, even the voice ought to have its share, so to speak, of moderation, and those who talk out of turn and those who shout should be silenced.

The self-restrained Odysseus struck Thersites a blow because he alone 'kept chattering on, of measureless speech, whose mind was full of a great store of disorderly words, idly and in no orderly wise.'* 'A man full of tongue is terrible in his destruction.'!®

The rest of the body of a chatterer is worn away like an old shoe by evil, with only the tongue left to inflict harm.

15 Eccli. 32.4.

16 John 20.19,21; 3 John 1.15.

17 Eccli. 11.8.

18 Iliad, 2.212-214.

19 Eccli. 9.18.

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Therefore, Wisdom advises us well: 'Be not full of idle words in a multitude of ancients.'*' Again, He seeks to eliminate idle chatter even in our relations with God by imposing restraint with this command: 'Repeat not the word in your prayer.'

(60) Then, too, whistling and hissing and snapping the fingers—all sounds made to summon servants—should not be used by men who have the ability to speak, since these are wordless signals. At banquets, we should not be forever spitting or violently coughing or blowing our nose. We must consider the feelings of our companions at table, and avoid disgusting or nauseating them by our crude conduct, testifying to our own lack of self-control. Not even cattle or asses relieve nature at their feeding troughs, yet many people blow their nose and keep spitting while engaged at table.

Again, if a sneeze take us by surprise, or, even more so, a belch, we need not deafen our neighbor with the noise and in so doing exhibit our lack of manners. A belch should be released silently, as we exhale, with our mouths shut, not wide open and gaping like the masks of the tragedy. The irritation that causes a sneeze may be relieved by quietly holding the breath; therefore, we should suppress the accumulated force of the breath politely by controlling our exhaling, so as to try to pass unnoticed if some of the excessive air, under pressure, escapes.

It is a sign of boorishness and of lack of discipline to want to add to the noises, rather than lessen them. And those who scrape their teeth so much that they draw blood from their gums, besides injuring themselves, also annoy their companions. And beyond a doubt, scratching the ear and irritations to prompt sneezing are gestures proper to swine, suggestive of the search for immoral pleasures. Unbecoming

20 Eccli. 7.15.

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glances and indecent conversations about such things must be renounced. Let the gaze be composed, and the movement of the head and the gestures be steady, as well as the motion of the hands in conversation. In general, the Christian is, by nature, a man of gentleness and quiet, of serenity and peace.

Chapter 8 (61) The use of wreathes and of perfumes is not a necessity for us. Rather, it shipwrecks us upon pleasure and frivolity even as night draws near.' I know that a woman brought perfume in an alabaster box and anointed the feet of the Lord with it at that holy supper," and that the Lord was pleased with it. I know too, that the ancient kings of the Jews used to wear precious gold and jewels.* But that woman had not yet entered into communion with the Word

(for she was still a sinner), and so she paid the Master honor with what she considered the most precious thing she had, her perfume, and then, wiping off the remainder of the perfume with the garland of her head, her hair, she poured out upon the Lord her tears of repentance. So her sins were forgiven her.

This may be used as a symbol of the Lord's teachings and of His sufferings. The anointing of His feet with sweet-smelling myrrh suggests the divine teaching whose good odor and fame has spread to the ends of the earth: "Their sound has gone forth to the ends of the earth.'* And those anointed feet of 1 Cf. John 9.4; 1 Thess. 5.2.

2, Ch Luke' 7.37.

3 Cf. 2 Kings 12.30; Eccli. 45.14.

4 Ps. 18.5; Rom. 10.18.

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the Lord—not to be too subtle—are the Apostles, the sweet odor of the myrrh prefiguring their reception of the Holy

Spirit. (62) I mean that the figure of the Lord's feet is to be understood of the Apostles who journeyed about the whole world preaching the Gospel. In another place, in a psalm, the Spirit speaks of those feet: 'We will adore in the place where

His feet stood," that is, where His Apostles, His feet, have already been, through whose preaching He has come to the ends of the earth. The tears are repentance and the unloosed hair means conversion from love of finery and suffering borne patiently for the Lord when they preached, unloosing the old vanity by the new faith.

Considering this deed in another way, mystically, this figure also symbolizes the suffering of the Master. The oil is the Lord Himself, from whom we receive mercy;° the myrrh, which is diluted oil, is the traitor Judas, because, when the Lord was departing from life in this world, He was anointed with myrrh, as the dead are anointed with it. The tears are sinners who have repented, who have come to believe in Him, whose sins have been forgiven. And the unloosed hair is desolate Jerusalem in mourning, over whom the lamentations of the Prophets were sung. The Lord Himself said that Judas would prove false: 'He who dips with Me in the dish, he it is who will betray Me.' Do you not recognize in him the disloyal table companion?* This same

Judas betrayed the Master with a kiss; he became a hypocrite, imitating with his teacherous kiss the hypocrite of old,"

BePsel3l.7:

6 In Greek, 'oil' (élaion) , akin to eleéd ('to have mercy'), is a symbol of mercy.

7 Matt. 26.23.

8 Cf. Eccli. 6.10.

9 Cf. 2 Kings 20.9.

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and becoming an example of the people spoken of: "This people honoreth Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.'!® (63) It is not far-fetched, then, to suppose that He intended the oil to mean the Apostle who received mercy, and the treated, diluted oil the deceitful betrayer.

This it is that the anointing of the feet with perfume prefigured.

) By washing the feet of His disciples with His own hands as He sent them forth to noble deeds, the Saviour manifested in an excellent way their journeying to bestow graces upon the nations, and He purified that journeying in anticipation by His own power. The perfume left its odor after it, and suggests the sweet-smelling accomplishments that reach everyone.

The suffering of the Lord, indeed, has filled us with its fragrance, but the Hebrews with sin. The Apostle states this clearly: "Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, manifesting through us the odor of His knowledge in every place. For we are the fragrance of the Lord for God, alike as regards those who are saved, and those who are lost; to these an odor that leads from death to death, but to those an odor that leads from life to life.'™ And as for the Jewish kings who wore crowns of gold, set with precious jewels and richly ornamented, they were the anointed ones,'" symbolically carrying Christ on their heads without knowing it, in the sense that their heads were adorned with an ornament representing Christ. The precious stone, whether pearl or emerald, beyond a doubt is the Word

Himself; the gold is the incorruptibility of the Word, since gold is impervious to the rust of corrosion. At His birth, the 10 Isa. 29.13.

11 2 Cor, 2.14-16.

12 That is, christot.

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Magi brought Him gold as a sign of His kingship.'* A crown such as that, being an image of the Lord, endures without decaying, and does not fade like one of flowers.

(64) The words of Aristippus the Cyrenian, who loved ease and comfort, come to mind. He devised this sophistical argument: 'A horse, when it is anointed with perfume, does not lose any of its excellence as a horse, nor does a dog, when it is anointed, lose any of its excellence as a dog.' Then he went on to draw the conclusion:

'neither, then, does man.'** But the horse and the dog do not have any understanding of what perfume is; those whose perception is intellectual are more to be blamed for their indulgence when they make use of such effeminate sweet odors.

There is an unlimited variety of these perfumes: Brenthian and Metallian and Royal and Plangonian, and there is an Egyptian ointment. Simonides, in his iambics, is not ashamed even to declare: 'I was anointed with myrrhs and ointments and baccar nard. For there was an importer close at hand.'

Habitually, some people use both the oil of lilies and that of cypress; they prize the oil of roses highly, and so many other kinds which women still use, some liquid, others dry, some in the form of salves, others only for scenting. Day after day they plan ways of procuring them, with an insatiable desire for this sweet fragrance.

There are women who always exude extreme vulgarity; they keep scenting and sprinkling their bed covers and their houses, and, in their daintiness, stop short only of making their chamber-pots fragrant with myrrh.

(65) Some complain so feelingly 13 Cf. Matt. 2.11.

14 Cf. Diogenes Laertes II 76.

; 15 Simonides of Amorgos, Frag. 16, in T, Bergk, Poetae lyrici graeci Il 4 (1882) . a]

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about this extreme and seem to me so dead set against these ointments that undermine virility that they would exclude from a well-regulated city both perfumers and those who manufacture the perfumes, as well as the dyers of gaycolored wools.'® For it is not right that garments and cosmetics that betray artificiality be allowed entry into a city of truth.

Men of our way of life should be redolent, not of perfume, but of perfection, and women should be fragrant with the odor of Christ, the royal chrism, not that of powders and perfumes. Let her be ever anointed with the heavenly oil of chastity, taking her delight in holy myrrh, that is, the Spirit.

Christ provides this oil of good odor for His followers, compounding His myrrh from sweet heavenly herbs. With this myrrh the Lord anoints Himself, as David says: "Therefore,

O God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. Myrrh and stacte and cassia from thy garments."

(66) Yet, let us not develop a fear of perfume, like vultures and scarabs who are said to die if anointed with the oil of roses. Let the women make use of a little of these perfumes, but not so much as to nauseate their husbands, for too much fragrance suggests a funeral, not married life.

In fact, oil itself is harmful to bees and insects, but with men, some it strengthens, others it prepares for battle, for when timid men are rubbed down with oil they become ready for any sort of contest in the stadium.

Do you not realise that myrrth, a soft oil, is able to emasculate noble characters? Certainly it is. Just as we have already forbidden pampering the sense of taste, so, too, we proscribe indulgence of the sense of sight and of smell. Other16 Cf. Plato, Republic, Il 373A.

17 Ps. 44.8.

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wise, we may reopen the doors of the soul without being aware of it, through the senses as through unfortified doors, to the very dissipation we had put to flight. (67) If anyone object that the great High Priest, the Lord, offers up to God incense of sweet odor,'® let this not be understood as the sacrifice and good odor of incense, but as the acceptable gift of love, a spiritual fragrance on the altar, that the Lord offers up.

By its nature, oil is useful for softening the skin and for relaxing the muscles and removing the offensive odors of the body. For such purposes we may need oil, but the constant use of sweet odors bespeaks pampering, and pampering arouses lustful desires. The man without self-control is easily led about by anything: eating, sleeping, social gatherings, as well as by his eyes and ears and stomach, and particularly to the point, by his sense of smell. Just as cattle are led by rings through their noses and by ropes, so, too, the self-indulgent are led by odors and perfumes and sweet scents rising from their wreathes. (68) Since we make no allowance for pleasure not connected with a necessity of life, surely let us also make distinctions here and choose only what is useful.

There are perfumes that are neither soporific nor erotic, suggestive neither of sexual relations nor of immodest harlotry, but wholesome and chaste and refreshing to the mind that is tired and invigorating to the appetite. We must not completely turn away from such things, but take advantage of myrrh as an aid and remedy to stimulate our failing powers, for catarrh and chills and indispositions. The comic poet says somewhere: 'The nostrils are to be anointed with myrrh; the greatest secret of good health is to keep pleasant odors in the head.'!® There is even a practise of rubbing the feet with a 18 Cf. Eph. 5.2.

19 Alexis, Frag. 190, CAF II 368.

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salve made of either warming or of cooling oil, for its effects; when the head is congested, such a salve will draw the congestion off and away to a less important part of the body.

But a luxury without any useful purpose gives grounds for the charge of being sensual in character, and is a drug to excite the passions. There is all the difference in the world between rubbing oil on oneself and scenting oneself with it.

The one makes a man effeminate, whereas the anointing with oil is very beneficial. (69) That is why Aristippus the philosopher used to say, when he was being anointed with oil, that the debauched ought to have an evil end in their wickedness, because they change the benefit that should be derived from oil into a reproach.

'Honor thy physician for the need thou hast of him,'

Scripture says, 'for the most High has created him; for all healing is from God.'*' But it adds: 'And the apothecary shall make sweet confections,' that is, ointments given us for our use, not for our pleasure. We should not desire myrrhs that only stimulate, but choose those which are of real benefit, for God has permitted men to produce oil as a relief from their labors. Silly women dye their gray hair, and by continually anointing it make it even grayer, and gray sooner than it should be, because the sweet perfume absorbs so much moisture. Similarly, men who anoint themselves look more and more dry; dryness makes them gray (whether grayness comes from the drying up of the hair or from lack of warmth), since the dryness absorbs the moisture the hair needs for nourishment and turns it gray.

If they would escape gray hairs, how can they reasonably seek ointments that actually cause them? Just as hounds track down wild animals by following their scent, so, too, temperate men 20 Eccli. 38.1.

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can detect the sensual by their elaborate sweet-smelling myrrhs.

(70) The same thing must be said of wreaths which are proper to revelries and drinking parties. 'Away, do not place a crown upon my head!'*? In springtime, it is indeed pleasant to while away the time in soft grassy meadows, moist with dew, where flowers of every color are in bloom, amid natural and pure odors, like a bee gathering nectar.

But to wear indoors 'a garland gathered from the meadow in full-bloom'** is not done by men of good sense. It is not right to appropriate to oneself the first green shoots of spring, and to encircle the head at banquets with rosebuds or violets or lilies or any other similar flower. A wreathe cools the head, both because of its moisture and because of its coolness.

Physicians, considering the head cool by nature, believe that the chest and the tip of the nostrils should be anointed with oil, so that a warm vapor may fill the head and warm what is cold. But to chill it by the use of flowers is to use the wrong method if one wants to warm the membranes."* Besides, those who wear wreathes lose the pleasure the flower affords. They put it up on their heads, out of sight, and cannot enjoy the pleasure of seeing it or even of smelling it, since they keep the flower out of range of their sense of smell.

The fragrance is emitted over their heads, and rises upward by a natural law, depriving the nostrils of all delight in the scent being wafted away. Like everything that is beautiful, the flower gives pleasure by being seen, and we should give glory to the Creator by looking at and enjoying its beauty.

The other use, however, is harmful, and causes the flower to 21 Cf. Adesp. 1258, CAF III 617.

22 Euripides, Hipp. 73.

23 The Scholion strangely suggests that pollu dei should be translated as 'should particularly be done.'

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wilt and to take revenge in the sense of remorse it leaves behind. Surely, this is the proof of its ephemeral nature in that both the flower and its beauty quickly fades away. (71) The flower has cooled those who used it and its beauty has inflamed them. Simply put, it is a sin to enjoy either in any way other than by looking at them; any other way is not true enjoyment. As was done in Paradise, we should enjoy things in moderation, in true obedience to the Scripture."

The crown of the woman must be considered the husband,"° and the crown of the husband is his marriage; for both, the flower of their union is the child who is indeed the flower that the divine Cultivator culls from the meadow of the flesh. 'The crown of old men is their children's children and the glory of children is their father,'*® it is said. Our glory is the Father of all, and the crown of the whole Church is Christ.

Like herbs and plants, flowers have their own properties, some beneficial, some harmful, and others even dangerous.

For example, ivy cools, the walnut tree relieves drowsiness, as even the etymology of its Greek name shows."' There is the narcissus, a flower with heavy perfume, whose name itself suggests that it acts as a narcotic on the nerves."®

The perfume of roses or of violets, being more on the cooling side, relieves and alleviates headaches, but this does not mean that we may get intoxicated in any degree, either with other people or by ourselves. Then, the crocus and the flower of 24 Cf. Gen. 2.15-17.

25 Cf. Prov. 12.4.

26 Prov. 17.6.

27 Clement is deriving karta ('walnut tree') from kardd ('plunge into a heavy sleep').

28 ndrkissos, according to Plutarch II 647B, is derived from ndrké ('numbness') because of its narcotic properties.

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Los the cypress, which bring freedom from pain by inducing sleep, must be shunned. Yet, many of these flowers do warm the head, cold by nature, by clearing it out with their perfume. That is how the rose gets its name, because, in a general way, it sends forth a flow of odors, and that is also why it quickly fades."° (72) The ancient Greeks never made use of wreathes.

Neither the suitors'? nor the Phaeacians, with all their luxurious living, adopted them. But, with the games, they began to give prizes, then to hold triumphal processions, after that, to deck out [the victor] with leaves, and finally, when

Greece had degenerated into licentiousness after the Medean war, to use the wreathe of flowers. Therefore, those who are educated by the Word will reject wreathes, not only because they lie heavy upon the reason which has its seat in the head, nor only because the garland might serve as a symbol of arrogance at a pagan festival,*' but because it has been dedicated to the service of idols. Sophocles, at any rate, calls the narcissus 'the ancient garland-flower of the great gods,'*" meaning the gods of Hades. And Sappho crowns the Muses with roses, saying:

'For there were no roses for you in Pieria in the beginning.'** The story goes that Hera delights in the lily and Artemis in the myrtle. If flowers have been created for the sake of men, yet foolish men have taken them, not for their own use and benefit, but have turned them

29 Rhédon ('rose') is derived by Clement from rhéo ('flow').

30 Cf. Odysseus 1.144-155.

31 This might possibly be translated 'as a symbol of the noble accomplishments [of an Olynthic victor] in the festival honoring him,' as Pindar uses these words in such a sense.

32 Sophocles, Oed. Col. 683.

: et 33 Frag. 68, in S. Elter, De gnomologiorum graecorum historia atque origine commetatio (Bonner Universitatgprogramme, Bonn 1893-1896)

12.

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into the evil service of idols, then we should reject them 'for conscience' sake.'** (73) The garland is a symbol of calm*' freedom from care; that is why wreathes are placed on the brow of the dead. It is for that reason, too, that they are placed upon idols, giving witness that they, too, are dead. Those who celebrate the festivals of Bacchus never think of performing their orgies without garlands and, once the flowers encircle their brow, they work themselves into a frenzy over the mystic rite. We should have no communication with demons nor should we, the living image of God, crown ourselves like dead idols. A beautiful crown of flowers that never fade awaits those who live well;*® earth has never been capable of bearing such a crown, for only heaven holds the secret of bringing it to blossom.

Besides, it is inconsistent for us who celebrate the holy suffering of the Lord, who know that He was crowned with thorns, to crown ourselves with flowers.

The crown the Lord wore is a figure of ourselves who were once barren, but now encircle Him as a garland through His Church, of which He is the head. That crown is also a type of our faith: it is a type of life, through the substance of wood; of joy, because it is a crown; of trial, because it is a crown of thorns, and no one can approach the Word without shedding blood. But the other crown, the one interwined [with flowers], withers away; a wreathe of wickedness, it falls apart and its flowers fade, just as the beauty of those who do not believe in the Lord withers away.

Jesus [the Jews] crowned and raised aloft, giving clear 34 Cf. 1 Cor. 10.25.

35 adchlétos, a Stoic term suggestive of apatheia, 36 CE Pet4.5;

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proof of their lack of understanding. In their fallacious reasoning they did not see that that very deed was a prophecy; they meant it as dishonor to the Lord. They were people gone astray, who did not know their Lord; they were uncircumcised in mind;** not recognizing God, they rejected their Lord and so lost the promise implied in their name

Israel,** for they persecuted God and tried to bring disgrace to the Word.

Still, Him whom they crucified as an evil-doer they crowned as a king. (74) For that reason, they will recognize the loving God, in whom they did not believe when He was man, as just and as the Lord. They showed that they were provoking Him to manifest Himself as Lord when they raised Him on high, for they placed upon the brow of Him who is exalted above every name*® a diadem of holiness, in the never-fading thorns. Certainly, such a diadem is painful to those who plot against it, and it restrains them, but it is consoling for those who remain in communion with the Church, and is their protection. Such a crown is like a flower for those who believe in Him who has been glorified, but those who do not believe it wounds and punishes.

It is, in fact, a symbol also of the Master's victory, for at that time He was carrying upon His head, the principal part of the body, all our sins by which we are pierced. Saving us from temptations and sins and all such things by His sufferings, rendering the work of the Devil ineffective, well did

He cry out in triumph: 'Death, where is thy victory?'*® We gather grapes even from thorns, and figs from thistles;** but those others, to whom He stretched forth His hands as 37,,Cf.. Ezech. 44.7; Acts 7.51.

88 That is, 'people of God,'; cf. Gen. 35.10.

SoeGieehiles2.9.

40 1 Cor. 15.55.

41 Cf. Matt. 7.16.

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to an unbelieving and barren people,*' are ever lacerated into shreds.

(75) I can speak of another mystery in these things.

When the almighty Lord of the universe began to legislate through the Word and decided to make His power visible to Moses, He sent Moses a divine vision with the appearance of light, in the burning bush. Now, a bramble-bush is full of thorns.** So, too, when the Word was concluding His legislation and His stay among men as their Lord, again He permitted Himself to be crowned with thorns as a mystic symbol; returning to the place from which He had descended, the Word renewed that by which He had first come, appearing first in the bush of thorns, and later being surrounded with thorns that He might show that all was the work of the same one power. He is one and His Father is one, the eternal beginning and end.

(76) But I have departed from the manner of the moralist and encroached upon the field of the teacher. Let me once more return to my own subject. We have already proved that even from a medical point of view we should not entirely renounce the pleasures that flowers afford, and the benefit there is in ointments and vapors, for the sake of our health, as well as, at times, by way of moderate relaxation.

If anyone should ask, in the name of those who turn away from flowers, what good there is in them, let him know that myrrhs are prepared from flowers, and myrrh has many uses.

Lily oil, made from white lilies and other kinds, imparts warmth, stimulates the appetite, draws [infections] to a head, moistens, purges, has the excellent quality of being composed of fine particles, flushes the bile, and softens the skin. The 42 Cf. Isa. 65.2.

43 Cf. Exod. 3.2 This passage is taken from Philo, De vit. Mos. 1.63.

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oil of the narcissus is just as beneficial as that of the lily.

That from the leaf of the myrtle, and from its berry, is an astringent and checks the flow [of blood] from the body. Oil of roses invigorates. In a word, all these myrrhs have been created for our good. 'Hear me,' Scripture says, 'and bud forth as the rose planted by the brooks of water. Give ye a sweet-odor as frankincense, and bless the Lord in His works, '** This discussion could go on indefinitely, dwelling on the fact that these flowers and herbs have been created for our needs, not to be misused as luxuries. We concede room for some little indulgence, but it is sufficient if we enjoy their fragrance; we need not be decked out with them. The Father treats man with great care, putting at our disposal all

His handiwork for this one purpose. Scripture says well:

"Water and fire and iron and milk, bread of flour and honey, the blood of the cluster of grape and oil and clothing. All these things shall be for good to the holy.'**

Chapter 9 (77) Now we must discuss the way we are to sleep, still mindful of the precepts of temperance. After our dinner, once we have given thanks to God for having granted us such pleasures and for the completion of the day, then we should dispose our minds for sleep. We must forbid ourselves the use of expensive bedding, gold-sprinkled rugs and plain carpets embroidered in gold, rich purple bed robes or precious thick cloaks, purple blankets of elaborate art, with 44 Cf. Eccli. 39.17-19.

45 Eccli. 39.31,32.

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fleecy cloaks thrown over them,' and beds 'too soft to be slept in." The habit of sleeping in soft down is injurious, apart from the danger of pampering the body, because those who sleep in it sink deep into the softness of the bed; it is not healthy for the sleeper who cannot move about in it because of the high elevation on either side of his body. Sleep is the time for digesting food, but such a bed causes the food simply to burn up and be destroyed, while those who can toss about on their beds, level as though a natural place of exercise during sleep, digest their food more easily and prepare themselves the better to face any contingencies.

Again, a bed with silver legs stands as an accusation of extreme ostentatiousness, and couches made of 'ivory, the product of a body separated from its living spirit, is not free from defilement,* and is for holy men only a resting place that encourages sloth. (78) We should not be too anxious for such things. Not that they who have them need to leave them unused, but they are forbidden to desire them excessively.

Happiness does not lie in that sort of thing. On the other hand, it is Cynic vanity to make a practise of sleeping like

Diomedes, under whom 'was spread the hide of an ox of the field.'* Odysseus supported the weak part of his marriage couch with a wooden post.' That is the degree of frugality and industry practised, not by a private citizen, but by a leader of the ancient Greeks. But, what further example do I need, when Jacob slept on the ground with a stone for his pillow?' It was then that he was accounted worthy of beholding a vision beyond the power of man.

1 Cf. Odysseus 7.335.

2 Theocritus 5.51; 15.125.

3 Plato, Laws XII 956A.

4 Iliad 10.155.

5 Cf. Odysseus 23.195.

6 Cf. Gen. 28.11.

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Following the dictates of reason, then, we should make use of a bed that is level and unadorned, yet affording some minimum of convenience: of protection, if it be summer; of warmth, if it be winter. Let the couch, too, be unadorned and its posts plain, for ornamented and molded wood readily and frequently becomes an easy path for creeping animals, providing them sure footing in the grooves carved by the craftsmen. But we must specially keep the softness of the bed within limits, for sleep is meant to relax the body, not to debilitate it. For that reason, I say that sleep should be taken not as self-indulgence, but as rest from activity.

(79) We should sleep half-awake.

'Let your loins be girt,' Scripture says, 'and your lamps burning; and you like men awaiting their master when he returns from the wedding; that when he does come and knock, they may open straighway to him. Blessed are those servants whom the Master, when He comes, shall find awake.'7 A man who is asleep is not good for anything, any more than a man who is dead. Therefore, even during the night we should arouse ourselves from sleep often and give praise to God. Blessed are they who have kept watch for Him, for they make themselves like the angels whom we speak of as ever wakeful. 'No man who is asleep is good for anything, any more than if he were dead.'® He who has the light stays awake, and the darkness does not overcome him, and if darkness does not, much less does sleep. Therefore, he who has been enlightened stays awake, and such a one lives. 'For what was in Him, was life.'® 'Blessed is the man,' Wisdom adds, 'who hears me, and the man who watches at my ways, and lies awake daily at my gates, observing the posts of my entrance.""" (80) "There7 Luke 12.35-37.

8 Plato, Laws VII 808D.

9 Cf. John 1.5,4.

10 Prov. 8.34 (Septuagint) .

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fore, let us not sleep as do the rest,' Scripture tells us, "but let us be wakeful and sober. For they who sleep, sleep at night, and they who are drunk, are drunk at night, that is, in the night of ignorance, 'but let us, who are of day, be sober. For you are all children of the light and of the day. We are not of night nor of darkness.'" 'He who has the most respect for life and for reason will stay awake as long as he can, reserving only as much time for sleep as his health demands; much sleep is not required, if the habit of moderation be once rightly formed.'?"

The care of discipline begets a constant alertness in our labors. Therefore, food ought not to make us heavy but enliven us so that sleep will harm us as little as possible.

Incidentally, how capable a wineless meal is of lifting one from the very depths to the peak of wakefulness! Falling asleep, indeed, is like dying, because it renders our minds and our senses inactive, and, when we close our eyes, shuts out the light of day. So, let us who are the sons of the true light not shut out that light, but, turning within into ourselves, casting light upon the vision of the inner man, let us contemplate truth itself, welcome its rays and discover with clarity and insight what is the truth of dreams.

(81) But the belchings of the drunk, the wheezing of those who are stuffed with food, the snoring smothered by bed clothes, the rumblings of cramped stomachs, all these things obscure the clear-sightedness needed by the eye of the soul and fill the mind with a thousand imaginations. The blame must be placed on overindulgence in food, for it reduces reason to silliness. 'Much sleep is not helpful, either for our souls or 11 1 Thess. 5.6,7,8,5.

12 Plato, Laws VII 808BC.

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bodies, nor is it adapted to the actions it performs in its search for the truth, even if it is according to nature.'!

Lot the just (for the present, I am going to pass over an explanation of the way of life demanded by the new birth) would not have been betrayed into unlawful intercourse if his daughters had not first made him drunk and overcome by sleep.* Therefore, if we remove the cause for an excessive tendency to drowsiness, we shall sleep more soundly. Those who cultivate an alert mind ought not 'to sleep all night long."'? We must keep vigil by night, especially when the days are short: one person, that he might study; another, that he might practise his trade; women, to devote themselves to their wool-spining. In general, all of us must struggle against sleep, accustoming ourselves gently and gradually to utilize a greater proportion of our lives and not waste them in sleep.

(Sleep, indeed, like a tax-collector, claims half the portion of our lives.) When we do manage to keep awake the greater part of the night, we should not allow ourselves, for any consideration, to take a nap during the day. Listlessness and drowsiness, stretching and yawning, are all distressing in a soul that is inconstant.

(82) There is another general principle that we should recognize, too, and it is this: it is not the soul that needs sleep

(for it is ever-active); the body becomes relaxed when it takes its rest, and the soul ceases to operate in any bodily way, but continues to operate mentally in keeping with its nature.

Then, if we consider the matter carefully, the truth that lies in dreams is the thinking of the soul, not drugged [by sleep], nor distracted here and there in sympathy for the body, but 13 Ibid.

14 Cf. Gen 19.32-38.

15 Cf. Iliad 24.1159; Plato, Laws VII S08B.

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making its own judgment for itself. To keep itself inactive would be for it to cease to exist. The soul, then, ever keeping its thoughts on God and attributing those thoughts to the body by its constant association with it, makes man equal to the angels in their loveliness. So, from its practise of wakefulness, it obtains eternal life.

Chapter 10 (83) It remains for us now to consider the restriction of sexual intercourse to those who are joined in wedlock. Begetting children is the goal of those who wed, and the fulfillment of that goal is a large family, just as hope of a crop drives the farmer to sow his seed, while the fulfillment of his hope is the actual harvesting of the crop. But he who sows in a living soil is far superior, for the one tills the land to provide food only for a season, the other to secure the preservation of the whole human race; the one tends his crop for himself, the other, for God. We have received the command:

'Be fruitful,* and we must obey. In this role man becomes like God, because he co-coperates, in his human way, in the birth of another man.

Now, not every land is suited to the reception of seed, and, even if it were, not at the hands of the same farmer. Seed should not be sown on rocky ground nor scattered everywhere," for it is the primary substance of generation and contains imbedded in itself the principle of nature.

It is undeniably godless, then, to dishonor principles of nature by wasting them on unnatural resting places. In fact, you recall how Moses, in his wisdom, once denounced seed that 1 Cf. Gen. 1.28.

2 Cf. Matt. 13.3-24; Plato, Laws VIII 838E.

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bears no fruit, saying symbolically: 'Do not eat the hare nor the hyena.'* He does not want man to be contaminated by their traits nor even to taste of their wantonness, for these animals have an insatiable appetite for coition. As regards the hare, legend claims that it needs to void excrement only once a year, and possesses as many anuses as the years it has lived.* Therefore, the prohibition against eating the hare is nothing else than a condemnation of pederasty. And with regard to the hyena, it is said that the male changes every year successively into a female, so that Moses means that he who abstains from the hyena is commanded not to lust after adultery.

(84) While I agree that the all-wise Moses means, by this prohibition just mentioned, that we should not become like these beasts, I do not entirely agree with the explantion given these symbolic prohibitions. A nature can never be made to change; what has been once formed in it cannot be reformed by any sort of change. Change does not involve the nature itself; it necessarily modifies, but does not transform the structure. For instance, although many birds are said to change their color and their voice according to the season

(like the blackbird which changes its black feathers to yellow, and its melodious voice to a harsh one, or the nightingale which changes its plumage and song at the same time), even so, their nature itself is not so affected that a male becomes female. Rather, a new growth of feathers, like a new garment, is bright with one color, but a little later, as winter threatens, it fades away, like a flower when its color goes. In the same way, the voice, affected unfavorably by the cold, loses its vibrancy: the surface of the whole body contracts with the climate, and the bronchial tubes, narrowly constricted

3 Cf. Deut. 14.7; Epistle of Barnabas 10.6.

4 Ibid.

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in the throat, restrict the breath to the point that it is made quite muffled and capable of producing only harsh sounds.

(85) Later on, in the spring, responding to the weather and relaxing, the breath is once again freed of all constraint and is carried through passages that were tightly closed but are now wide open. No longer does the voice croak in dying tones, but bursts forth clear, pouring out in full-throated voice, and now in springtime there arises melodious song from the throats of the birds.° Therefore, we should not believe at all that the hyena changes its sex. Neither does it possess both the male and the female sexual organs at the same time, as some claim, conjuring up some freakish hermaphrodite and creating this female-male, a third new category halfway in between the male and the female.

Erroneously they misconstrue the strategy of nature, mother of all and author of all existence.

Because the hyena is of all animals the most sensual, there is a knob of flesh underneath its tail, in front of the anus, closely resembling the female sex organ in shape. It is not a passage, I mean it serves no useful purpose, opening neither into the womb nor into the intestines. It has only a goodsized opening to permit an ineffective sexual act when the vagina is preparing for childbirth and is impenetrable. (86)

This is characteristic of both male and female hyena, because of hyperactive abnormal sexuality; the male lies with the male so that it rarely approaches the female. For that reason, births are infrequent among hyenas, because they so freely sow their seed contrary to nature.

This is the reason, I believe, that Plato, in excoriating pederasty in Phaedrus, terms it bestiality and says that these libertines who have so surrendered to pleasure, 'taking the 5 Cf. Aristotle, Hist. Animal. 11.49 632B.

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bit in their own mouths, like brutish beasts rush on to enjoy and beget.'® Such godless people 'God has given over,' the Apostle says, 'to shameful lusts.

For the women change their natural use to that which is against nature, and in like manner the men, also, having abandoned the natural use of the women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men doing shameful things, and receiving in themselves the fitting recompense of their perversity." (87) Yet, nature has not allowed even the most sensual of beasts to sexually misuse the passage made for excrement. Urine she gathers into the bladder; undigested food in the intestines; tears in the eyes; blood in the veins; wax in the ear, and mucous in the nose; so, too, there is a passage connected to the end of the intestines by means of which excrement is passed off. In the case of hyenas, nature, in her diversity, has added this additional organ to accomodate their excessive sexual activity. Therefore, it is large enough for the service of the lusting organs, but its opening is obstructed within. In short, it is not made to serve any purpose in generation. The clear conclusion that we must draw, then, is that we must condemn sodomy, all fruitless sowing of seed, any unnatural methods of holding intercourse and the reversal of the sexual role in intercourse. We must rather follow the guidance of nature, which obviously disapproves of such practises from the very way she has fashioned the male organ, adapted not for receiving the seed, but for implanting it. When Jeremias, or, rather, the Spirit through him, said: "The cave of the hyena is my home,'* He was resorting to an expressive figure to 6 Cf. Plato, Phaed. 254, 250E.

7 Rom. 1.26,27.

8 Cf. Jer.

12.9

(Septuagint).

The word for 'cave'

(spélaion) also means 'privy.'

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excoriate idolatry and to manifest His scorn for the nourishment provided for dead bodies. The house of the living God surely ought to be free of idols.

(88) Again, Moses issued a prohibition against eating the hare. The hare is forever mounting the female, leaping upon her crouching form from behind. In fact, this manner of having intercourse is a characteristic of the hare. The female conceives every month, and, even before the first offspring is born, she become pregnant again. She conceives and begets, and as soon as she gives birth is fertilized again by the first hare she meets. Not satisfied with one mate, she conceives again, although she is still nursing. The explanation is that the female hare has a double womb, and therefore her desire for intercourse is stimulated not only by the emptiness of the womb, in that every empty space seeks to be filled, but also, when she is with young, her other womb begins to feel lustful desires. That is why hares have one birth after the other. So the mysterious prohibition [of Moses] in reality is but counsel to restrain violent sexual impulses, and intercourse in too frequent succession, relations with a pregnant woman, pederasty, adultery, and lewdness.

(89) Moses forbade, too, in clear language and with his head uncovered, no longer under a figure: 'Thou shalt not fornicate, nor commit adultery, nor corrupt children.'® This is the command of the Word; it must be obeyed with all our strength and not transgressed in any way; His commandments may not be set aside. Evil lust bears the name wantonness;

Plato, for example, calls the horse representing lust 'wanton' when he writes: 'You have become in my eyes horses mad for the female.'!? The angels who visited Sodom reveal the 9 Cf. Exod. 20.14; Ep. of Barn. 19.4, 10 Cf. Plato, Phaed. 238A.

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punishment reserved for wantonness. They struck down with fire those who attempted to dishonor them, and their city along with them."? Such a deed demonstrates clearly that fire is the reward of wantonness. As we have already said, the calamities that befell the ancients are described for our instruction that we may not imitate their example and merit the same punishment.

(90) We should consider boys as our sons, and the wives of other men as our daughters. We must keep a firm control over the pleasures of the stomach, and an absolutely uncompromising control over the organs beneath the stomach.

If, as the Stoics teach, we should not move even a finger on mere impulse,'" how much more necessary is it that they who seek wisdom control the organ of intercourse? I feel that the reason this organ is also called the private part'® is that we are to treat it with privacy and modesty more than we do any other member. In lawful wedlock, as with eating, nature permits whatever is conformable to nature and helpful and decent; it allows us to desire the act of procreation. However, whoever is guilty of excess sins against nature and, by violating the laws regulating intercourse, harms himself.

First of all, it is decidedly wrong ever to touch youths in any sexual way as though they were girls. The philosopher who learned from Moses taught: 'Do not sow seeds on rocks and stones, on which they will never take root.'** (91) The Word, too, commands emphatically, through Moses: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind, for it is an abomination.'!° Again, further on, noble Plato advises:

11 CE Gen, 19.1-25.

12 Cf. Chrysippus, Frag. moral. 730 (Arnim) .

13 That is, aidoion, derived from aidomai_ ('reverence') .

14 Plato, Laws VIII 828E. x 15 Lev. 18.22.

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'Abstain from every female field of increase,'** because it does not belong to you. (He had read this in the holy Scripture and from it had taken the Law: "Thou shalt not give the coition of thy seed to thy neighbor's wife, to be defiled because of her.'!7) Then he goes on to say: 'Do not sow the unconsecrated and bastard seed with concubines, where you would not want what is sown to grow.''® In fact, he says:

'Do not touch anyone, except your wedded wife,**® because she is the only one with whom it is lawful to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh for the purpose of begetting lawful heirs.

This is to share in God's own work of creation, and in such a work the seed ought not be wasted nor scattered thoughtlessly nor sown in a way it cannot grow."

(92) As an illustration of this last restriction, the same Moses forbade the Jews to approach even their own wives if they happened to be in the period of menstruation."' The reason is that it is wrong to contaminate fertile seed, destined to become a human being, with corrupt matter of the body, or to allow it be diverted from the furrow of the womb and swept away in a fetid flow of matter and excrement.

He discouraged the ancient Jews, also, from having relations with a wife already with child.*' Pleasure sought for its own sake, even within the marriage bonds, is a sin and contrary both to law and to reason. Moses cautioned them, then, to keep away from their pregnant wives until they be

16 Plato, Laws VIII 828E.

17 Lev, 18.20.

18 Plato, Laws VIII 839A 19 Ibid. 841D.

20 Literally, "do not scatter seeds too hard to be cooked.'

21 Cf. Lev. 15.19.

22 In Stromateis II 11.71, Clement explains: 'You can produce no one of the ancients in the Scriptures who had relations with a pregnant woman.'

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delivered. In fact, the womb, situated just below the bladder and above the part of the intestine known as the rectum, extends its neck in between the edges of the bladder, and the outlet of this neck, by which the sperm enters, closes tight when the womb is full, opening again only when delivered of the fetus. It is only when it has become empty of its fruit that it can receive the sperm again. (It is not wrong for us to name the organs of generation, when God is not ashamed of their function.) (93) The womb welcomes the seed when it yearns for procreation, but it refuses the seed when intercourse is contrary to nature; that is, once impregnated, it makes immoral relations impossible by drawing its neck tight together. All its instincts, up to now aroused by loving intercourse, begin to be directed differently, absorbed in the development of the child within, co-operating with the Creator. It is wrong, indeed, to interfere with the workings of nature by indulging in the extravagances of wantonness.

Wantonness has many names and is of many kinds. When it centers about sexual pleasure in a disorientated way, it is called lewdness, something vulgar and common and very impure, and, as its name suggests, preoccupied with coition.

As this vice increases, a great swarm of diseases flows from it: gourmandizing, drunkenness, lust, and particularly dissipation and every sort of craze for pleasure in which lust plays the tyrant. A thousand-and-one like vices join the company and aid in effecting a thoroughly dissolute character.

'Whips are prepared for the unbridled, Scripture says, 'and punishment for the shoulders of the intemperate, ** meaning by 'shoulders of the intemperate' both the strength of the intemperance and the length of its duration. So, Scripture also advises: 'Keep empty hopes, O Lard, from thy servants, and 23 Prov. 19.29.

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avert unbecoming desires from me, and let not the greediness of the belly and lusts of the flesh take hold of me.'** We must hold off at a great distance any excessive evil-doing, for it is not only the wallet of Crates, but also our own city, that 'no parasite, nor elegant bawd given over to unnatural vices nor immoral prostitute may enter," nor, for that matter, any other hedonist of the same sort. Unmistakably good behavior should permeate our whole life.

(94) In my treatise on continence,"® I have discussed in a general way the question whether we should marry or not (and this is the point of our investigation). Now, if we have to consider whether we may marry at all, then how can we possibly permit ourselves to indulge in intercourse each time without restraint, as we would food, as if it were a necessity? Certainly, we can see at a glance that the nerves are strained by it as on a loom and, in the intense feeling aroused by intercourse, are stretched to the breaking point. It spreads a mist over the senses and tires the muscles. This is obvious in irrational animals and in men in training. Of these last, those who practise abstinence while engaging in contests get the best of their opponents; while animals are easily captured if they are caught at and all but torn from coition, because then they are entirely emptied of strength and energy.

The sophist of Abdera called intercouse 'a minor epilepsy,' and considered it an incurable disease. Indeed, does not lassitude succeed intercourse because of the quantity of seed lost? 'For a man is formed and torn out of a man." See

24 Cf. Eccli. 23.5.

25 Crates, Frag. 4, in H. Diels, Poetarum philosophicorum fragmenta 218.

26 Cf. above, p. 139 n. 12, 27 Cf. Democritus, Frag. 86, n.

32, in H. Diels, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker 416.

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rs how much harm is done. A whole man is torn out when the seed is lost in intercourse. "This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh,''* Scripture says. Man is emptied of as much seed as is needed for a body that can be seen. After all, that which is separated from him is the beginning of a new birth. Besides that, the very agitation of matter upsets and disturbs the harmony of his whole body. (95) Wise indeed was he who replied to someone asking him his attitude toward the pleasures of sex:

'O man, quiet! I have been supremely happy in avoiding them as a fierce and wild tyrant.'*®

Yet, marriage in itself merits esteem and the highest approval, for the Lord wished men to 'be fruitful and multiply.'*° He did not tell them, however, to act like libertines, nor did He intend them to surrender themselves to pleasure as though born only to indulge in sexual relations. Let the Educator put us to shame with the word of Ezechiel: 'Put away your fornications.*t Why, even unreasoning beasts know enough not to mate at certain times. To indulge in intercourse without intending children is to outrage nature, whom we should take as our instructor. Her wise directions concerning the periods of life are meant to be obeyed; I mean that she allows us to marry at any time but after the advent of old age and during childhood (for she does not permit the one to marry yet, the other, any more). The attempt to procreate children is marriage, but the promiscuous scattering of seed contrary to law and to reason definitely is not. (96)

If we should but control our lusts at the start and if we would not kill off the human race born and developing ac28 Cf. Gen. 2.23.

29 Sophocles. Cf. Plato, Republic I 329BC 30 Gen. 1.28.

31 Ezech. 43.9.

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cording to the divine plan, then our whole lives would be lived according to nature. But women who resort to some sort of deadly abortion drug kill not only the embryo but, along with it, all human kindness.

Those whom nature has joined in wedlock need the Educator that they might learn not to celebrate the mystic rites of nature during the day, nor like the rooster copulate at dawn, or after they have come from church, or even from the market, when they should be praying or reading or performing the good works that are best done by day. In the evening, after dinner, it is proper to retire after giving thanks for the good things that have been received. (97) Sometimes, nature denies them the opportunity to accomplish the marriage act so that it may be all the more desirable because it is delayed. Yet, they must not forget modesty at night time under the pretext of the cover of darkness; like the light of reason, modesty must ever dwell in their souls. If we weave the ideals of chastity by day and then unravel them in the marriage bed at night, we do not better than Penelope at her loom.** Certainly, if we are required to practise self-control— as we are—we ought to manifest it even more with our wives, in the way we avoid every indecency in intimate embraces.

Let the reliability and trustworthiness of the husband's purity in his dealings with his neighbor be present also in his home.

He cannot possibly enjoy a reputation for self-control with his wife if she can see no signs of self-control in such intense acts of pleasure. Love, which tends toward sexual relations by its very nature, is in full bloom only for a time, then grows old with the body; but sometimes, if immoral pleasure mars the chastity of the marriage bed, desire becomes insipid and love ages before the body does. The hearts of lovers have

32 Cf. Odysseus 2.104; 19.149.

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wings; affection can be quenched by a change of heart, and love can turn into hate if there creep in too many grounds for loss of respect.

(98) We should not even mention the names of impurity: ribald speech, indecent behavior, sensuous love affairs and all such immoralities. Rather, let us'obey the Apostle, who tells us explicitly: 'But all fornication and uncleanness and coyetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints.'** Someone has well said: 'Sexual intercourse does no one any good, except that it harms the beloved.'

Intercourse performed licitly is an occasion of sin, unless done purely to beget children, while Scripture says of that done illicitly: 'A hired wife shall be accounted as a sow, but one already married to a husband shall be a tower of death to those who use her.'*? Impure passion makes a man resemble a boar or pig, and, according to Scripture, fornication with a kept prostitute is seeking death. (99) Even the poetry circulating among you condemns the city and house in which immorality reigns, saying: 'Wicked city, all unclean, adulteries and lawless lying with men and illicit effeminacy dwells in you.'*® On the other hand, it admires the chaste 'who have neither base lust for lying with other's wives, nor passion for the loathesome and abominable sin committed with men,'** because it is contrary to nature. The greater number consider these sins of theirs simply as pleasure, while others, more virtuous, recognize that they are sins, even though they are overcome by the pleasure. For such as these, darkness is a veil to conceal their passion. Yet, he who seeks only sexual plea33 Eph. 5.3.

; 34 Epicurus, Frag. 62, in H. Usener, Epicurea (Leipzig 1887) 118.

35 Gloss on Eccli. 26.22.

36 Orac. Syb. 5.166-168.

Y Sip l0id. 4.33.

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sure turns his marriage into fornication. He forgets the words of the Educator: 'Every man that passeth beyond his own bed, who says in his soul: Who seeth me? Darkness compasseth me about, and the walls cover me, and no man seeth my sins: whom do I fear? The Most High will not remember.'** Such a man is most wretched, for he fears only the eyes of men, and thinks to hide from God. 'He knows not,' Scripture continues,

'that the eyes of the Most High Lord are far brighter than the sun, beholding all the ways of men and looking into the most hidden parts.'*' Another time, the Educator gives warning through Isaias:

'Woe to you who made your counsel in secret and say: Who seeth us?'*"

A light that can be seen by the senses may pass unnoticed, but that which illumines the mind cannot be ignored. Heraclitus remarks: "How can anyone fail to notice that which never sets?'*? Let us not, then, allow ourselves to be swallowed up in any way by darkness, for light dwells in us: 'And the darkness,' Scripture says, 'did not overcome it.'** Night is turned into day by chaste reasoning. Scripture calls the reason of a good man a lamp which cannot be extinguished.**

(100) In fact, the very attempt to cover over what one is doing is a sign that the man is knowingly committing sin.

Anyone who does sin, for example by fornication, wrongs not so much his neighbor as himself by the very act of fornicating; he decidedly becomes more immoral and loses the right to respect. The sinner becomes more immoral and loses the right to respect which he had before, to the extent that 38 Eccli.

23.25-26.

39 Eccli. 23.28.

40 Isa. 29.15 (Septuagint) .

41 Heraclitus, Frag. 16, in H. Diels, op. cit.

42 John 1.5.

43 Cf. Wisd. 7.10.

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he sins; yet, Lord knows, immorality is already present when a man gives in to base pleasure. Therefore, he who sins dies to God entirely, and is abandoned by the Word, as well as by the Spirit, and is without life. What is holy shrinks from being defiled, and rightly so; the pure are always the only ones who may handle what is pure. Let us, therefore, never divest ourselves of our modesty when we take off our clothes,' for a just man should never strip himself of chastity. 'Behold, this corruption shall put on incorruption,'** when the intensity of desire that degenerates into sensuality is educated to selfcontrol and, losing its love for corruption, allows man to practise constant chastity. "The children of this world marry and are given in marriage, *® but if we renounce the deeds of 'the flesh and clothe this pure flesh with incorruption, we are living a life like that of the angels.

Plato, who was so well versed in pagan philosophy, in his Philebus called those men atheists, in a mystical sense, who corrupt reason, the god dwelling with them, and defile it according to their ability by surrendering to their passions.*7

(101) We ought not to live only for this mortal life, for we are consecrated to God, nor should we, as Paul tells us, turn the members of Christ into members of a harlot,** nor make the temple of God into a temple of base passion.*®

Remember the four and twenty thousand who were rejected because of their fornication.°' The punishment of those who fornicated is an example, as I have already said, to restrain our passions. Our Educator clearly warns us: 'Go not after 44 Cf. Herodotus 1.8.

45 1 Cor. 15.53.

46 Cf. Matt, 24.38.

47 Not in Philebus; probably Republic IX 589E.

48 1 Cor. 6.15.

5] 49 Cf. 1 Cor. 3.16,17.

50 Cf. Num. 25.9.

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thy lusts and abstain from thy desires. Wine and women make wise men fall, and he that joins himself to harlots shall become more foolhardy; rottenness and the worm shall inherit him, and he shall be lifted up for a great example.'

And in another place (for He never tires of helping us) :

'He who defies pleasure crowns his life.°? (102) It is unmistakably sinful to give in to sexual pleasure or to become inflamed by our lusts or to be excessively aroused by our unreasonable desires or to desire to dishonor oneself. Sowing seed is permissible only for the husband, as the farmer of the occasion, and even for him only when the season is favorable for sowing. Against every other sort of self-indulgence the best remedy is reason. It will be helpful, too, to avoid satiety, for in satiety desires wax strong and become unruly in their search for pleasures.

We should not seek for expensive clothes, either, any more than for elaborate dishes. In fact, the Lord Himself set Himself to give special counsel for the soul, for the body and for a third class, external things, all separately. He advised that external things were to be provided for the body, the body to be governed by the soul, and then instructed the soul: "Be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat nor for your body, what you shall put on. The life is more than the meat, and the body is more than the raiment.' Then He went on to illustrate His teaching: 'Consider the ravens, for they sow not, neither do they reap, neither have they storehouse or barn, and God feedeth them. Are not you more valuable than birds?' This is what He says about food, and He has much the same thing to say about clothing, which belongs to the third class of external things, too: 'Consider the lilies,'

51 Cf. Eccli. 18.30; 19.2,3.

52 Gloss on Eccli. 19.5.

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He says, 'how they neither spin nor weave, but I say to you that not even Solomon was clothed as one of these.' Solomon took extravagant pride in his wealth; but what is more beautiful or of richer hue than a flower? (103) And what gives greater pleasure than a lily or myrrh or rose? 'Now if God clothe in this manner the grass that is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more you, O ye of little faith! And seek not what you shall eat or what you shall drink.'®* In that last sentence, the pronoun 'what' excludes elaborateness of menu, and the meaning intended by Scripture is this: "Be not solicitous for what sort of things you eat, or what sort of things you drink.''* To be solicitous about such things is gluttony and gourmandizing. In itself, eating should be understood simply as implying a necessity; but repletion suggests only desire, as we have said. But the 'what' indicates superfluity and superfluity comes from the Devil, according to the Scriptures. The phrase he adds explains what he means:

'Seek not what you shall eat or what you shall drink, and do not exalt yourselves.' It is ostentatiousness, a false imitation of the truth and extravagance that exalts us above and away from the truth; concentration on needless comforts also turns us away from the truth. Therefore, He shrewdly adds:

'After all these things, the heathens seek.'

The heathen are they who are without discipline and without understanding. What does He mean by 'these things'? Needless comforts, self-pampering, highly spiced and rich foods, gourmandizing, gluttony. These are the things that correspond to the 'what.' But, when He speaks of plain fare, food and drink, that is a necessity, He says: 'Your Father knoweth that you need these.' If pie have become sincere

53 Luke 12.22-24,27-29.

54 That is, poia ('what sort of things') instead of ti ('what thing').

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