utter" (2 Cor 12:4).
Book II 81 forth;23 so this prudence then goes round the land which has gold and carbuncle and leek-green stone, that is, a discipline of life that glistens brightly as ifrefined from all earthly dross, like the best gold; and truth which no falsehood can over come, like the brilliance of the carbuncle which is not overcome by night; and eternal life, which is signified by the greenness of the leek-green stone, because of its vigor that never withers.
Next, that river which goes round the land of Ethiopia, very hot and steamy, signifies fortitude, stirred by the heat of action and never slackening. The third one, the Tigris, streams over against the Assyrians, and signifies temperance, which stands up to lust, the great adversary ofprudent counsels; so the Assyrians are frequently mentioned in the scriptures as the arch-adversaries. Finally, of the fourth river nothing is said about what it streams over against, or what land it goes round; justice, you see, belongs to all parts of the soul, because it is the very order and balance of the soul, by which these three are bound together in concord—the first, prudence; the second, fortitude; the third, temperance; and in this total bonding and order, justice.
What the man did in Paradise, and his needfor help
1 1, 15. As for the man being put in Paradise precisely to work there and guard it, that much more laudable kind ofwork was not in the least toilsome. Work in Para dise, I mean to say, is one thing, and work on the land, to which he was condemned after sinning, quite another. ln fact what sort of work it was, is indicated by the addition ofand to guard it. In the peaceful tranquillity, you see, of the life of bliss, where there is no death, work consists entirely in guarding what you hold.
He also received a commandment, which we have just dealt with above. Now the conclusion of the commandment clearly shows it was not addressedjust to one person; what he says, you see, is this: but on the day you all 24 take a bitefrom it, you all shall die the death (Gn 2: 17). He is already starting on the explanation of how the woman came to be made, and how she is said to have been made as a help for the man, so that by a spiritual coupling she might bring forth spiritual offspring, that is, the good works of divine praise; while he directs, she complies; he is directed by wisdom, she by the man, for the head of the man is Christ, and the head of the woman the man (1 Cor 1 1 :3). And that is why it says: // is not goodfor the man to be alone (Gn 2: 1 8). There still remained, after all, something for him to become, so that not only should the soul lord it over the body (the body's status being that of a slave), but that the manly reason should also have subject to itself its "animal" part, to be its help in ordering the body about.
23. Because the apostle too heard inexpressible words there "which it is not lawful for man to utter" (2 Cor 12:4). 24. This, 1 understand, is an idiom of the southern United States to indicate the second person plural, a most useful and necessary idiom in a case like this.