About the structure of man

“On the Constitution of Man” (30 chapters, 379) is an important treatise from both an exegetical and dogmatic point of view. It was written by St. Gregory of Nyssa shortly after the death of St. Basil the Great as a kind of “Easter gift” to his brother Peter. The treatise is an anthropological-dogmatic study of Genesis 1:26. In his introductory speech (“Dedication”), St. Gregory notes that since in the “Sex Day” St. Basil the Great “lacks reasoning about man,” he decided to fill this deficiency and present the Orthodox teaching about man in its entirety: about his original, present and future state. In his work, St. Gregory adheres to the same methods of literal interpretation that take place in the work of St. Basil the Great "Conversations on the Six Days". The content of the treatise, consisting of 30 chapters, generally corresponds to this plan and provides a detailed presentation of Christian anthropology, and also touches on the problems of amartology, soteriology and eschatology. In addition, the treatise contains various digressions of a natural philosophical and medical nature. The saint reveals the Wisdom of God, manifested in the creation of the human body, describes the state of primordial man in paradise, the consequences of the Fall, and depicts the state of man after the resurrection. *The title of the work in Greek is Περὶ κατασκευῆς ἀνθρώπου. *The title of the work in Latin is De opificio hominis. Contents Dedication Chapter One. In which lies a certain private natural science of the world and a more attractive image of the pre-existence of man Chapter Two. Why man is the last in creation Chapter Three. That human nature is more honorable than any visible creature Chapter Four. About the fact that the structure of man makes it possible to see his superior power in everything Chapter Five. That man is the likeness of God's royal power Chapter Six. A study on the kinship of the mind with the Divine nature, where the teaching of the Anomeans is casually exposed. Chapter Seven. Why man is deprived by nature of weapons and coverings Chapter Eight. Why does a person have a straight waist, and that hands are given for speech, and together with the teaching of wisdom about the difference of souls Chapter Nine. About the fact that the human tool structure is adapted to the needs of the word Chapter ten. That the mind acts through the senses Chapter Eleven. About the fact that human nature is unintelligible Chapter Twelve. A study of where the sovereignty of the soul should be placed, and the teaching of natural science about tears and laughter, as well as a certain natural reasoning about the communication of matter, nature and mind. Chapter Thirteen. A Study on Sleep, Yawning and Dreaming Chapter Fourteen. About the fact that the mind is not in any part of the body, and about the difference between bodily and mental movements Chapter fifteen. About the fact that the soul in the proper sense is and is called the rational soul, while others are called so by the same name, and that the power of the mind extends to the whole body, touching it in accordance with each member Chapter sixteen. A look at the Divine saying, which says: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26), and is subject to investigation of what is meant by the word image: whether the passionate and temporal are likened to the blessed and impassive, and how in the image the male and female sexes, when they are not in the Prototype Chapter Seventeen. What should we answer to those who are perplexed about the fact that if childbearing is after sin, then how would souls be born if primitive people remained without sin? Chapter Eighteen. That the passions of the dumb are caused in us by an affinity with the dumb nature Chapter nineteen. The answer to those who claim that the enjoyment of hoped-for blessings should again consist in food and drink, according to what is written, that in the beginning this was how man lived in paradise. Chapter Twenty. What is life like in paradise and what is the forbidden tree? Chapter twenty-one. That the resurrection should be expected not so much as a result of the preaching of Scripture, but rather because of the very necessity of things. Chapter twenty-two. Answer to those objecting: if the resurrection is something beautiful and good, then why has it not happened until now, but it is appropriate to hope after several turns of time Chapter Twenty-Three. The fact that whoever recognizes the beginning of the order of the world must also agree about the end Chapter twenty-four. Objection to those who assert that matter is co-eternal with God Chapter twenty-five. How can one from outside be brought to believe in the resurrection, according to the teaching of Scripture? Chapter twenty-six. That the resurrection is not something incredible Chapter twenty-seven. About the fact that even after the decomposition of the human body into the component parts of the Universe, each of the common elements can again find their own intact Chapter twenty-eight. Against those who claim that souls existed before bodies or, conversely, that bodies were created before souls, and at the same time a certain refutation of the fabulous doctrine of the transmigration of souls Chapter twenty-nine. Proof that the same reason for the existence of soul and body Chapter Thirty. A brief, medical overview of the structure of our body Brother, servant of God Peter, Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa If those distinguished by virtue were to be rewarded with valuable property, then the whole world, as Solomon says, would turn out to be small in order to become equal to your virtue, because the gratitude due to your honesty is higher than the price of wealth. But Holy Pascha requires the usual gift of love, which we bring to your lofty soul, man of God, although it is less than the gift that should be given to you according to your dignity, but not less than the gift that is in our power. This gift is a word, like some poor robe, woven not without difficulty by our mind. Although the content of the word may seem bold to many, they will not consider it indecent. For God’s creation was worthily comprehended by Basil alone, who was truly created according to God and formed his soul in the image of the Creator, our common father and teacher, who with his overview made the high structure of the Universe intelligible to many and with this world, which was created by God according to true wisdom, acquainting those brought to contemplation with his wisdom. But we, being unable to be amazed at his worth, at the same time decided to add what was missing in the review of the great, not in order to discredit his work with our forgery (for it is impermissible to insult these great lips by attributing our words to them), but so as not to convey the idea that the glory of the teacher had become impoverished in his students. Since the six-day discourse on man is lacking, if none of his disciples made an effort to fill this deficiency, this would rightly serve as a reason for reproach, despite his great glory, as if he did not want to develop any rational ability in his listeners. Now, when we have dared to present what is missing to the best of our ability, if in our work there is something that seems unworthy of his teaching, then, without a doubt, it will be attributed to the teacher. If our word does not reach the height of his gaze, then the accusation will not fall on him and he will avoid reproach, as if he did not want to tell his students anything practical, and we will rightly find ourselves guilty before those who are looking for pretexts for reproach, as in the narrowness of our hearts we did not accommodate the wisdom of our mentor. The goal before us is not insignificant, it is not inferior to any of the wonders of the world, and, perhaps, it is more important than everything we know, because no other creature is likened to God except this creature - man. Therefore, no matter what we say, our grateful listeners have already prepared an apology for us for everything, even if our word is much below our dignity. For, speaking about a person, I think we should not leave unexamined both what we believe happened to him before, and what we expect will happen later, and what we see in him now. Otherwise, our efforts will turn out to be inconsistent with this promise if, when the subject of observation is a person, something related to this subject is put aside. And what appears to be contradictory in a person due to its dissimilarity with what was in him initially, while now, by some necessary consistency, is considered natural, must, according to the instructions of Scripture and according to considerations derived from inference, be reconciled so that everything stated is in connection and order, everything shows that even what seems contradictory is directed towards the same goal, and God’s power finds hope for the hopeless and an outcome for the impossible. For the sake of ease, I considered it best to offer you the floor, dividing it into chapters, so that you could see the content of the entire essay briefly in the contents of each individual part. Chapter one. In which lies a certain private natural science of the world and a more attractive image of the pre-existence of man “This is the book of the existence of the heavens and the earth,” says the Scripture (Gen. 2:4), when everything visible was completed and each of the creatures took a separate position characteristic of it, when the vault of heaven surrounded the Universe around it, and in the middle of it, heavy and downward bodies found their place - earth and water, mutually supported by each other. By some connection and bond of what was created, divine art and divine power are embedded in the nature of beings, ruling the Universe with this double effectiveness. For by rest and movement they imparted being to the non-existent and the continuation of being to the existing around that which is heavy and immutable in a motionless nature, as if around some motionless axis, bringing into the fastest motion the pole rotating like a wheel, observing the indestructibility of each other, because the rotating essence with the speed of movement compresses the density of the earth into something circular, and the hardness and perseverance of the indispensable immobility continuously maintains the movement of one rotating around it. The effectiveness of these opposites - the motionless nature and the never-resting circulation - produces an equal excess in both, because the earth does not change from its own foundation, and the sky does not diminish or weaken the swiftness of movement. And that this was first of all prepared by the wisdom of the Creator, as a certain beginning of the entire structure of beings, I think, indicating this, the great Moses said: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen. 1:1), i.e. all phenomena in creation generated by movement and rest and brought into existence by God's will. So, since heaven and earth are completely opposite to each other in the oppositeness of their actions, then the creature, occupying the middle between the opposites, borrowing a Part from the adjacent, mediates between the extremes, so that through this medium the mutual contact of the opposites becomes apparent. Although the air, with its lightness of nature and ability to move, is somewhat likened to the ever-moving and lightness of the fiery essence, it is not such that it is alien to its kinship with dense substances, since it is not always motionless and not flowing, not constantly dispersing, but, on the contrary, having common properties with both, it serves as a mutual boundary of the opposition of actions, mixing together and separating in itself what is by nature opposite. According to the same law, the moist essence is associated with each of the opposite natures with dual qualities. For in that it is heavy and tends downward, it is in great kinship with earthly nature, and in that it has some kind of irrigating and penetrating effectiveness, it is not completely alienated from the movable nature, but there is some kind of confluence and confusion of opposites: gravity, transformed into movement, and movement, not connected by gravity, so that the opposite of nature to each other at the most extreme limits is united with one another by a mediator. Better yet, to be more precise, the very nature of things that are opposite in properties is not far from being confused with the nature of other qualities, therefore, I think, everything that appears in the world is inclined to one another, and the creature that turns out to have opposite properties agrees with itself. Since movement is not understood as just a change of place, it is seen in both transformation and change; and again, immutable nature does not allow movement in change, and therefore the wisdom of God, replacing properties of one with others, made the ever-moving immutable, and the immovable - perverted, having arranged this, probably by special providence, so that such properties of nature as immutability and immutability, finding themselves in one of the visible creatures, would not force this creature to recognize God. For it is impossible to assume deities in that which is movable or changeable. That is why the earth, although standing, is not alien to vicissitudes, and the sky, on the contrary, not being perverse, has no immobility, since the divine power, having united vicissitude with the immobile nature, and movability with the perverse, by the exchange of properties, both of these natures have become akin to each other; the thought of divinity made them alien to them, because, as has been said, nothing like that, i.e. both movable and changeable are not recognized as divine nature. So, everything has already reached its end. For, as Moses says, “the heavens and the earth were completed” (Gen. 2:1) and everything between them, and this, taken separately, was adorned with corresponding beauty: the sky with the radiance of the luminaries, the sea and air with floating and flying creatures, the earth with a variety of all kinds of plants and four-legged animals. They produced all this out of themselves at once at the same time by God’s will, having received the strength to do so; and the earth was filled with beauty, growing along with flowers and fruits, the meadows were filled with everything that we see in the meadows, all the cliffs and mountain peaks, every slope and every plain, everything that was in the hollows, crowned with green grass and beautiful trees, as soon as they appeared from the ground and immediately achieved perfect beauty. Probably everyone rejoiced, and the animals created by God’s command, roaming through the forests in herds and families, jumped up; everything that was densely covered and shaded with trees resounded everywhere with the singing of songbirds. But the appearance of the sea, as it should have been, was somewhat different: such that in many bays the sea was in peace and quiet, and, by God’s will, the calm and piers, going deeper into the shores by themselves, accustomed the sea to land and with the quiet movement of the waves argued in beauty with the meadows, while light and harmless breezes on the surface alone produced ripples pleasing to the eye. And all the wealth of the creature was ready both on earth and on the sea, but there was still no one to use it. Chapter two. Why man is the last in creation Thus, man - this great and honorable creature - did not yet inhabit the world of creatures, because it was unnatural for the commander to appear before his subordinates, but after the possession was prepared first, the king had to be shown. Therefore, when the Creator of the Universe arranged for someone to reign as if it were a royal palace, and these were the earth itself, the islands, the sea and the sky built like a roof over them, then all kinds of wealth were collected in these royal palaces; I call all creation wealth, all plants and vegetation, everything that feels, breathes, has a soul. If, however, it is necessary to count among wealth substances that are recognized as precious in human eyes only because of some kind of good color, for example, gold and silver and those of these stones that are dear to people, then the abundance of all this, as if in some royal treasury, hidden in the bowels of the earth, then shows in the world of the future man, the miracles contained in it, partly as a spectator, and partly as a ruler, so that with pleasure he would acquire knowledge of the Giver, and by beauty and the greatness of the visible explored the ineffable and beyond reason power of the Creator. That is why man was brought last into creation - not because, as unworthy, he was rejected to the very end, but because, together with the beginning of being, he had to become the king of the subordinates. Like a good host, before preparing the food, he does not bring the guest into his house, but, having prepared everything decently - having decorated the house, the banquet room, the meal as it should be, having prepared what is already suitable for food - he receives a fellow-feast, likewise the rich and generous Host of our nature, having decorated the home with all kinds of beauties, having prepared this great and well-equipped feast, then introduces a person, charging him with the task of not acquiring what does not yet exist, but enjoying what already exists. Therefore, at the basis of the structure he puts in it a purely principle, mixing the divine with the earthly, so that for the sake of both he can have pleasure, which is akin to and characteristic of both, enjoying both God by divine nature, and earthly goods by a feeling similar to them. Chapter three. That human nature is more honorable than any visible creature It is also worthy of our consideration that when the foundation was laid for such a vast world and its main parts that were included in the whole, creation was accomplished as if hastily, brought into existence by divine power, suddenly collectively spoken command. The dispensation of man is preceded by a council, and the Artist pre-depicts the future creation by the outline of the word, and what it should be, and what prototype it should bear, and what it will be for, and what it will produce after creation, and what it will rule over - all this is provided by the Word, so that man will accept a dignity that is higher than his being, and acquire power over beings before he himself came into being. For it is said: “And God said: Let us make man in our image and likeness: and let him have possession of the fish of the sea, and the beasts of the earth, and the birds of the air, and the livestock, and all the earth” (Gen. 1:26). What a miracle! The sun is created, and no council precedes it, nor does the sky, although there is nothing equal to it in creation, and such a miracle is created with a single speech, not a word is said about the same thing, from what and how, and about anything else similar to this. So everything taken separately - the ether, the stars, the air that fills the middle, the sea, the earth, animals, plants - everything is brought into being by the word. The Creator of the Universe approaches the structure of man alone, as if with deliberation, in order to prepare the substance for his composition, and to liken his image to some primitive beauty, and to designate the purpose for which he will exist, and to create a nature appropriate to him, suitable for his activity, suitable for the proposed goal. Chapter Four. That the structure of man makes it possible to see his superior power in everything Just as in this life artists give the appearance of an instrument according to its functions, so the best Artist created our nature as a kind of vessel suitable for royal activity, both by mental advantages and by its very physical appearance, arranging it as it should be for kingship. For the soul directly shows in itself royalty, and sublimity, and the great distance from gross baseness by the very fact that, without subordination, it freely and sovereignly disposes of its desires. Is this characteristic of anyone else except the king? And moreover, to become the image of the Nature that rules over all means nothing more than, at the very creation, to immediately become a royal nature. For, just as, according to human custom, those who prepare images of sovereigns and facial features remove correctly, and by dressing in purple they show royal dignity, and the image is usually called a king, so human nature, since it was prepared for command over others due to the similarity to the King of the Universe, was exhibited as if by some kind of animate image, then both the dignity and the name were in common with the Prototype, but it was not in purple clothed, not with a scepter and diadem showing her rank (this is not the case with the Prototype), but instead of a scarlet robe she was clothed with virtue, which is more royal than all clothes, instead of a scepter she was confirmed with the bliss of immortality, instead of a royal diadem she was decorated with a crown of truth, so that, exactly like the beauty of the Prototype, she proved her royal rank to everyone. Chapter five. That man is the likeness of God's royal power Divine beauty does not shine in external features, not in a pleasant complexion, and does not shine with any kind of good color, but is seen in the inexpressible bliss of virtue. Therefore, just as painters represent human faces in a picture with paints, erasing for this purpose such colors of paint that closely and accordingly express the likeness, so that the beauty of the original is accurately depicted in the list, so imagine that our Creator, as it were, by superimposing some paints, i.e. virtues, he colored the image to the likeness of His own beauty, in order to show His own leadership in us. These are the colors of the image with which the true image is depicted, multiform and varied: it is not blush, not whiteness, not any mixture of these colors one with another; not black any outline depicting eyebrows and eyes; not some kind of co-dissolution of colors that sets off deepened features, and not anything similar to everything that is artificially produced by the hands of painters, but instead of all this - purity, dispassion, bliss, alienation from everything bad and everything homogeneous with what is depicted in man as the likeness of the Divine. The Creator of His own image painted our nature with such colors. If you look for other features that denote Divine beauty, you will find that their similarity in our image is preserved exactly. Divinity is the mind and the Word, for “in the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1), and the Prophets, according to Paul, “have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), “who speaks in them” (2 Cor. 13:3). Human nature is not far from this. You see in yourself both the word and the mind, the likeness of the true Mind and the Word. God is also love and the source of love; The great John speaks about this: “There are loves from God, and God is loves” (1 John 4:7-8). The Creator has made this a distinctive feature of our nature. For he says: “By this they all understand that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Consequently, where this love is absent, all the features of the image are distorted. The Divine oversees everything, hears everything, experiences everything, and you acquire the concept of beings through sight and hearing and have a mind capable of making inquiries and research about beings, Chapter six. A study on the kinship of the mind with the Divine nature, where the teaching of the Anomeans is casually exposed Let no one think that I am asserting that the Divinity, like the human mode of action, comprehends beings with various powers. For in the simplicity of the Divine it is impossible to imagine the differences and varieties of cognitive activity. And we do not have any many cognitive powers, although we comprehend with our senses in a variety of ways what lives. We have one strength - this is the mind embedded in us, which is revealed in each of the sensations and embraces beings. He sees things through his eyes, understands what is said through his ears, loves what is pleasant and averts what does not give pleasure; acts with his hand as he pleases, takes or pushes away with it, as he recognizes as useful for himself, using the assistance of this instrument for this. Therefore, if a person, although the instruments arranged by nature for feeling are different, but in all of them there is one active one, moving everything and using each instrument in accordance with the proposed goal, and he does not change the nature by the difference in the way of actions, then is it possible to believe in God, with many different forces, a polysemy of essence. For, as the Prophet says, “Having created an eye, and planted an ear” (Ps. 93:9), these activities are, as it were, some distinctive features in a sample of what is in Himself, imprinted in human nature. He says: “Let us make man in our image” (Gen. 1:26). But where is the heresy of the Anomeans? What will they say to such a saying? How, after what has been said, will they save the emptiness of their teaching? Will they say that it is possible for one image to be likened to different persons? If the Son is not like the Father by nature, then how does one form different natures? He who said Let us make man in Our image and designated the Holy Trinity by the plural would not have mentioned the singular image if the Prototypes were not similar to one another, because it is impossible for those who are dissimilar to each other to show themselves in the same likeness. On the contrary, if the natures were different, then, without a doubt, they would have formed different images, creating an image corresponding to the nature. But, since, although there is one image, the Prototype of the image is not one, who would be so unreasonable as not to recognize the Prototypes of one another as similar and certainly similar to each other. That is why, perhaps, the Word, at the very beginning of human life, cutting off this evil thought, says: “Let us create man in our image and likeness.” Chapter seven. Why is man deprived by nature of weapons and coverings? But what does this straightness of the waist mean? Why is the body not innate with forces that serve to preserve life? On the contrary, a person is introduced into the world deprived of natural coverings, somehow unarmed and poor, having a need for everything necessary for life, worthy, apparently, more of pity than satisfaction. It has neither horns for protection, nor sharp claws, nor hooves, nor teeth, nor any sting, which by nature is equipped with a deadly poison, which many animals possess for protection from those who offend, and its body is not covered with hair, although the one placed in command over others should by nature be protected by his own weapons, so that for his own safety he would not need the help of others. And now the lion, boar, tiger, leopard and other similar animals by nature have sufficient strength to save themselves. And the ox has horns, and the hare has speed, and the chamois has a slight jump and vigilance of the eyes, some other animal has the size, others have a trunk, birds have wings, a bee has a sting, and everyone is certainly given, as usual, by nature something for their salvation. Only man is slower than all the fleet-footed ones, the tall ones are shorter, the ones protected by natural weapons are more defenseless. How, another will ask, is such a person given authority over everyone? But I think it is not difficult to prove that the visible insufficiency of our nature serves as a pretext for possession over subordinates. If a person had so much strength that he could outrun a horse with speed, did not wear down his legs, protected by any tools or hooves, had horns, stings, claws, then, firstly, with such differences innate to his body, he would be somehow brutal and unapproachable, and then he would disdain his superiors over others, not at all needing the assistance of his subordinates. Now, for this very reason, the needs of life are divided into each of those subordinate to us, so that the authorities over them make it necessary for us. The slowness and immobility of the body introduced a need and curbed the horse; the nakedness of the flesh has made it necessary to take care of the sheep, which with the annual tribute of wool from them makes up for the lack of our nature. The need to bring supplies for life to us from other countries harnessed pack animals for such services. The inability, like other animals, to eat grass has made the ox an assistant to us in life, which with its labors makes our life easier. Since in order to fight any of the other animals that harm us with their teeth, it was necessary to have teeth and gnaw, the dog, at our need, quickly provided his own mouth, becoming for a person like an animate sword. And what is stronger than the fence of horns, more piercing than the sharpness of claws, was invented by people. This is iron, which is not always with us, like the horns and claws of animals, but, having provided temporary assistance to us in the fight, then remains on its own. And instead of crocodile scales, a person can make a weapon out of it, covering himself with this skin for a while. If it is not there, then iron is also converted into it by art, which, having provided a temporary service in war, leaves the warrior free from the burden in peacetime. The wings of birds also serve us in life in such a way that, by design, we are not inferior in speed to birds. Some of them are made tame and help the fishermen, while others are deliberately recruited for our needs. And art, having made our arrows winged by its own design, for our needs through the bow gives us the speed of birds. And the fact that our feet suffer pain and wear out during the procession has made it necessary to use as an aid what is entrusted to us. For from this we can prepare shoes that are comfortable for feet. Chapter eight. Why does a person have a straight waist, and that hands are given for speech, and together with the teaching of wisdom about the difference of souls The man has a straight waist, his face is turned to the sky, and he looks at the mountain, and this signifies his right to command and royal dignity. For the very fact that of all living beings only man is such, while the bodies of all others are bowed down, clearly proves the difference in the dignity of those who bowed before the dominion of the power that rose above them. In all others, the front members are legs, because what is bent needs support. And in the structure of man, these members became hands. For a straight stand needed only one foundation, since it can be safely supported with two legs while standing. Moreover, the assistance of hands also helps the needs of words. And whoever calls the service of hands a feature of verbal nature will not be entirely in error. Turning our minds not only to this general idea, which appears at first glance, that with the gift of our hands, we signify the word in writing (for the verbal gift is not alien to us, speaking through writing and in some way conversing with the hand, preserving sounds in letter outlines), but having something else in mind, I affirm that the hands contribute to the pronunciation of the word. It is better to say, before we begin our study of this, let us pay attention to what was said above, for we have almost forgotten the order in creation, according to which plants first grow out of the earth, and they are followed by dumb animals, and then, after their creation, man. For we learn from this, not only, perhaps, what appears at first glance, but namely that the Creator seemed to have grass useful for animals, and cattle for humans, therefore, their food was created before herbivorous animals, and before humans, they were created to serve human life. But it seems to me that Moses expounds in this some kind of secret teaching and mysteriously communicates wisdom about the soul, which external learning dreamed of, but did not understand clearly. For the word teaches us that vital and spiritual strength is seen in three differences. There is only a certain plant and nutritional force: what is suitable for the growth of what is fed is called natural and is seen in plants, because even in what grows one can notice a certain vital force, devoid of feeling. But, besides this, there is another type of life, to which the first belongs, and to it is attached the ability to control oneself by feeling. Such is life in the nature of the dumb. They not only feed and grow, but have sensory activity and sensory understanding. Perfect life in the body is seen in verbal nature: I mean human nature, nourished, feeling, having the gift of speech and controlled by reason. Let us accept the following division in the word: some of the beings are something intelligible, and others are corporeal, but the division of what is intelligible into its own parts is put aside, because this is not what we are talking about. And some of the corporeal are completely devoid of life, while others participate in vital activity. Again, some of the living bodies live, having feelings, and others are devoid of feelings. Then the sensitive is again divided into verbal and nonverbal. Therefore, the legislator says that after inanimate matter, as if in a certain foundation of animate beings, this natural life, realized in the vegetation of plants, is first formed, then it introduces into existence creatures governed by feeling. And since, according to this sequence, some of those who have accepted bodily life can be sentient even without a rational nature, and the verbal nature can only exist in the body except in dissolution with the sensory, then for this reason man was created last after plants and animals, so that nature somehow consistently ascended to perfection. For all types of souls are dissolved in this verbal animal - man. According to the natural form of the soul he feeds; With the plant power is connected the sensitive one, which by nature occupies the middle between the intelligible and material essence, to the extent that it is coarser than the former, in which it is purer than the latter. Then, with that which is subtle and luminous in the sentient nature, a certain assimilation and dissolution of the intelligible essence takes place, so that man is made up of these three natures. Thus, we learned something similar from the Apostle when he spoke to the Ephesians, wishing them “that the all-perfect grace of body and soul and spirit may be preserved at the coming of the Lord” (1 Thess. 5:23), calling the nourishing part *body*, the sensory part with the word *soul*, and the intelligible part with the word *spirit*. And also the Lord teaches the scribe in the Gospel to prefer to every commandment the love of God, testified with all the heart, with all the soul and with all the mind (Luke 10:27). For here, it seems to me, the word of Scripture already explains the difference, calling the physical state the heart, the soul the middle nature, and the mind the highest intelligible and creative power. Hence the apostle knows three different wills and calls the one carnal, which is concerned with the belly and its pleasures; spiritual - which is in the middle between virtue and vice, rises above vice, but is not fully involved in virtue; and spiritual - which means the perfection of living according to God. Why does he say to the Corinthians, condemning their devotion to amusements and passions: “You are of the flesh” (1 Cor. 3, 3) – and you cannot accommodate the most perfect teachings. In another place, making a certain comparison of the will of the average with the perfect, he says: “But a spiritual man does not accept what is from the Spirit: for he has foolishness. The spiritual one strives for everything, but he himself strives for nothing” (1 Cor. 2:14-15). Therefore, just as the spiritual is higher than the carnal, so in the same respect the spiritual is higher than the spiritual. So, if Scripture says that man was created last after everything animate, nothing else is meant by this than the fact that the Lawgiver philosophizes about our soul according to a certain necessary sequence in order, seeing the perfect in the final. For in the verbal there is also other things, and in the sensory there is, without a doubt, also the natural, the latter being seen only as material. Therefore, nature naturally, as if by degrees - I mean the distinctive properties of life - makes an ascent from the small to the perfect. And since man is a verbal living being, it was necessary to construct a bodily instrument corresponding to the needs of the word. As we see that musicians with the type of instruments understand music, do not play the lyre and do not use flutes instead of harp, so in the same way, for the word, an appropriate arrangement of instruments was necessary so that, in accordance with the need for speech, the word formed by the vocal parts was pronounced. This is why arms are given to the body. For if it is possible to count thousands of vital needs in which these idle and sufficient tools of the hands are useful for any art and any activity, serving successfully in times of peace and war, then, above all other needs, nature gave them to the body for the sake of speech. If a person were deprived of arms, then, without a doubt, in the likeness of four-legged animals, the parts of his face would be arranged according to the need to feed, and it would be elongated and thinner towards the nostrils. At the mouth, calloused, hard and thick lips would protrude forward, capable of nibbling grass. There would have been a tongue inserted between the teeth, different from the present one - fleshy, elastic and hard, helping the teeth, or moist and soft at the edges, like in dogs and other raw-eating animals, rotating between the sharp rows of teeth. Therefore, if the body did not have hands, how would it form an articulate sound when the structure of the mouth was not adapted to the need for pronunciation? Without a doubt, it would be necessary for a person to either bleat, or moo, or bark, or neigh, or bray like oxen and donkeys, or make some kind of brutal roar. And now that the body has been given a hand, the mouth is free to serve the word. Consequently, hands turn out to be an accessory of verbal nature; The Creator invented them for the convenience of the word. Chapter Nine. About the fact that the human tool structure is adapted to the needs of the word Since the Creator bestowed a certain Divine grace on our creation, putting into the image the likeness of His blessings, He gave other blessings to human nature out of His generosity; about intelligence and wisdom it must be said that in the proper sense he did not so much give them as communicate them, providing the image with the own beauties of His nature. And since the mind is a kind of intelligible and incorporeal property, the gift would be incommunicable and irremovable if its movement were not revealed by some kind of imagination. For this purpose, this instrumental device was required, so that the mind, like a bow touching the vocal members, would interpret the internal movement in any way possible by depicting sounds. And, just as a skilled musician, due to illness, does not have his own voice, but wants to show his knowledge, uses other people’s voices in singing - pipes or a lyre - revealing his art to everyone, so the human mind, the inventor of all kinds of thoughts, due to the impossibility of showing the aspirations of thought to the soul that understands with the help of bodily senses, like a knowledgeable artist, touching these animated instruments, with the sound extracted from them makes hidden thoughts obvious. In the human instrument, some kind of music is mixed - the pipe and the lyre, as if simultaneously emitting a harmonious sound. The breath, through the beating vein from the air-receiving vessels, is forced upward when the speaker’s effort to emit a voice puts the organ in tension, shaken by the battles from within that surround this pipe-like passage all around, produces a sound somewhat similar to the sound of a pipe, unfreely circling along the membranous elevations in the throat. And the palate in the mouth receives the sound coming from below with the cavity that is under it, and in double pipes extending to the nostrils, as if with scaly elevations, the cartilage in the upper part of the nose crushes the sound, making it strongest. The cheeks, the tongue, the organ near the larynx along which the chin descends, which has a depression and ends in a point - all this in various forms and in many ways represents the movement of the bow along the strings, at the right time with great speed according to the need, tuning the tones, and the opening and closing of the lips produces the same thing as the air in the pipe with the fingers holding it, i.e. the same harmony of singing. Chapter ten. That the mind acts through the senses Since the mind, through this weapon, composes a word in us, we have become verbal. But I would not, I think, have the gift of speech if all the heaviness and difficulty of serving the needs of the body by eating food lay on their lips. Now the hands took upon themselves such service, and the lips were left free to serve the word. The action of this instrument is twofold: one - in the production of sound, the other - in the perception of ideas received from the outside. And one action does not mix with another, but remains with what nature intended, without disturbing the neighbor: the ear does not speak and the voice does not hear. For the voice always certainly emits something, and the hearing, constantly receiving into itself, “is not satisfied,” as Solomon says somewhere (Proverbs 27:20), which, in my opinion, especially deserves surprise in us. What is the vastness of this inner container into which everything that flows through hearing flows? Who are the compilers of the memorial records of all the speeches included in it? What are the premises for the concepts implanted by hearing and why, given the multitude and variety of these concepts, applied one to another, there is no confusion and errors in the relative position of everything combined? And equally, others will marvel at the same thing in the activity of vision. For through vision, the mind in a similar way takes possession of what is outside the body, attracting to itself the forms of visible things, writing in itself the outlines of everything that is subject to vision. And how, if some vast city receives strangers with different entrances and not all of them begin to enter one place in the city, but some go to markets, others to houses, others to churches, or settle down on the street, in an alley, in a spectacular house - each at his own discretion, so like this I see the city of the mind inhabited within us, which through the senses fills the different entrances, and the mind, examining and analyzing each one who enters, places knowledge in appropriate places. And in the city taken as an example, it often happens that others, being fellow tribesmen and relatives, do not enter the city through one gate, but, on occasion, some enter by one entrance, others by another entrance, nevertheless, as soon as they arrive inside the walled enclosure, they converge with each other again, having mutual connections. But you can find that the opposite happens: those who are not connected by anything and are unfamiliar with each other often use the same entrance to the city, but communication at the entrance does not connect them with each other, because, having entered the city, they can separate from their fellow tribesmen. I see something similar in the vast area of ​​the mind. Often, from different sense organs, one knowledge is collected in us, since the same object is divided into many parts according to the senses, and the opposite also happens: with one sense we perceive many and varied things, dissimilar to anything by nature. For example (for the concept is best understood by examples): let it be proposed to make an inquiry about the properties of juices - what is sweet to the senses and disgusting to those who taste it. From experience, both the bitterness of bile and the sweetness of quality have been found in honey. Despite the diversity of these things, one and the same object provides knowledge, often infused into thought either by taste, or smell, or hearing, and often by touch and sight. Because whether someone sees honey, hears its name, tastes it, smells it through smell, or experiences it through touch, each sense organ acquires knowledge about the same object. But what we learn with the help of any one sense is also varied and multifaceted, because hearing receives all kinds of sounds and understanding acquired through the eyes acts indifferently when looking at various objects, because it is equally encountered with white, and with black, and with all the opposite colors. And the same should be said about taste, the same about smell, the same about understanding through touch; Each sense, with its characteristic understanding, gives knowledge of objects of all kinds. Chapter Eleven. That human nature is unintelligible Therefore, what is the nature of the mind that devotes itself to sensory forces and acquires knowledge of beings corresponding to each of them? That he is something other than the senses, I think no one in his right mind doubts this. If the mind were one and the same with feeling, then, of course, it would have an affinity with one of the sensory activities, because it is simple and diversity is not seen in the simple. But now, in the complexity of all senses, another something is touch, and another is smell, and also the other senses are separated from each other and do not mix, while the mind is equally inherent in each sense; Therefore, the nature of the mind must necessarily be assumed to be something different from feeling, so that no variety is mixed into what is imagined. “Who understands the mind of the Lord?” - says the apostle (Rom. 11:34). And I will add to this: who has understood his own mind? Let those who claim that they have grasped the nature of God with their understanding say, have they understood themselves? Have you known the nature of your own mind? Is it something multi-part and polysyllabic and therefore intelligible in complexity? Or is there some way for the mind to dissolve heterogeneous things? But the mind is simple and uncomplicated; How does it dissipate in sensory multipartity? Why is there diversity in unity? How is there unity in diversity? But I found a solution to these perplexities by resorting to God’s word. For it is said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). An image, as long as it does not lack anything represented in the prototype, in the proper sense is an image, but as soon as it loses its similarity with the prototype in something, it is no longer an image. Therefore, since one of the properties seen in God’s nature is the incomprehensibility of essence, then, by all necessity, the image in this has a resemblance to the Prototype. If the nature of the image turned out to be comprehensible, and the Prototype was beyond comprehension, then this contrast of perceived properties would expose the error of the image. But just as the nature of our mind, created in the image of the Creator, is not subject to knowledge, it has an exact similarity with the Superessential, distinguishing its incomprehensible nature by its unknowability. Chapter twelve. A study of where the sovereignty of the soul should be placed, and the teaching of natural science about tears and laughter, as well as some natural reasoning about the communication of matter, nature and mind Therefore, let all idle talk driven by guesswork of those who involve mental activity in any bodily members be silenced. Some of them believe that the sovereignty of the soul is in the heart, others say that the mind resides in the brain, and such opinions are supported by some weak probabilities. He who assumes dominion in the heart cites the local position of the heart as proof of his position, since it apparently occupies the middle of the whole body so that voluntary movement from the middle is conveniently given to the whole body and thus comes into activity. And in support of his teaching, he presents the sorrowful and irritated disposition of a person, namely, that such passionate movements, apparently, arouse this organ in the body to compassion. And those who consecrate the brain as a church to reason say that the head is structured by nature as a stronghold of the whole body and in it, like a kind of king, dwells the mind, surrounded by sense organs, as if by some kind of messengers or shield-bearers standing before it. And as proof of this opinion, they present that those whose brain membrane is damaged, their reason does not function correctly, and those whose heads are heavy from intoxication become ignorant of decency. Each of the defenders of these opinions adds other, more natural reasons for his guess about the sovereignty in the soul. For one asserts that the movement of thought has an affinity with the fiery element, because both fire and thought are ever-moving. And since, as is generally accepted, warmth emanates from the heart, therefore, asserting that the movement of the mind is dissolved by the ever-moving nature of warmth, he says that the heart, in which warmth resides, is the container of the intellectual nature. And the other argues that the meninges (for this is the name of the hymen, which encloses the brain) is, as it were, the foundation and root of all sense organs, and by this they are convinced of their position that mental activity has its seat not in another place, but in the part with which the connected ear reflects the sounds entering it; and vision, bound by the base of the receptacle of the eyes due to the images entering the pupils, produces an impression within them; and the qualities of the vapors in this part differ when drawn in through the nostrils; and the sense of taste is assessed by distinguishing the medulla, which, close to itself, sends out several fibrous sensory shoots along the cervical vertebrae to the reticular passage in the muscles located there. I also admit that it is true that the thinking power of the soul is often confused when suffering increases and the mind is weakened in its natural activity by some bodily circumstance, and also that some source of the fiery principle in the body is the heart, set in motion by gusts of irritation. And besides the fact that at the base of the sense organs lies the meninges, which, according to natural scientists, covers the brain and is anointed with the fumes emanating from there. Having heard from those engaged in anatomical research, I do not deny such legends. But I do not accept this as proof that the incorporeal nature is encompassed by any local outlines. For we learned that mental disorder occurs not only from a headache, but also from a painful condition of the hymen that binds the hypochondrium; The mental power also suffers, as those knowledgeable in medical science claim, calling this disease rabies, because the name for these hymens is thoracoabdominal. And this feeling of grief is mistakenly understood to be happening in the heart, because when there is a pounding not in the heart, but in the abdominal orifice, out of inexperience, the suffering is attributed to the heart. A similar thing is seen with precision by those who delve into painful conditions, namely, that from the weakening of fibers that naturally occurs throughout the body during sad situations and blockages, everything that impedes free breathing accumulates in the internal voids themselves. Why, when employees are constrained to catch their breath by what surrounds them, the drawing in of air is often forced, because nature itself expands what is constrained in order to push apart what is compressed. We recognize the same difficult breathing as an attack of grief, calling it a sigh and a groan. But the apparent tightness in the cardiac shirt is a nuisance, felt not in the heart, but in the abdominal opening for the same reason, of course, that when the fiber weakens, the bile-receiving vessel from the tightness pours out this pounding and this caustic phlegm onto the abdominal opening. The proof of this is that those who are distressed also become pale and yellowish in appearance from the excessive accumulation of bile, spreading its moisture through the blood veins. But my thought is even more confirmed by the movement that occurs from the opposite cause, I mean joy and laughter. For from pleasure the bodily fibers are somehow resolved and expanded in those who are delighted by some pleasant hearing. Just as thin and imperceptible vents of the fibers close there from grief and, compressing the internal arrangement of the viscera, moist evaporation is sublimated to the head and the braincase, which, being received in large quantities by the voids of the brain, along the fibers located at its base, is driven to the eyes, from where, by squeezing the eyebrows, drops of moisture are extracted, and this drop is called a tear, so imagine that in the opposite arrangement there is more Usually, the fibers are expanded and some kind of air is drawn into the inside, and from there, by the force of nature, it is expelled again by a passage going to the mouth, and all the insides drive such air together, most of all the liver, as they say, with some kind of impetuous and ebullient movement. Why does nature, making it convenient for air to escape, widens the passage leading to the mouth, pushing the cheeks apart when exhaling in both directions, and what happens when this happens is called laughter. So, it is not appropriate to conclude from this that the sovereignty of the Soul is in the liver, and also, because of the boiling of blood in the chest during irritable moods, to believe that the seat of the mind is in the heart. But, although this should depend on the known organs in the bodies, it should nevertheless be assumed that the mind, according to an inexplicable law of dissolution, without preference, comes into contact with each member. If others oppose us in this with Scripture, which testifies that the sovereignty of the soul is in the heart, then we will accept the word not without examination. For he who mentioned the heart also mentioned the kidneys, saying: “Search the hearts and the bellies, O God” (Ps. 7:10), and by this he showed that either in one or the other, or in neither, mental power is contained. Having learned that mental activities weaken or are completely inactive in a certain position of the body, I do not recognize this as sufficient proof that the power of the mind is limited to any place, so that with the appearance of local tumors the mind no longer has room for itself. For physically there is an opinion that when a vessel is occupied with something put into it, nothing else can find a place for itself in it. The intelligent nature does not like to dwell in the voids of the body, and is not driven out by the abundance of the flesh. But since the body is structured like a musical instrument, just as it often happens that those skilled in music cannot show their art due to the unsuitability of instruments that are not amenable to art (and a pipe, damaged by time, or broken from falling, or made unusable by rust and mold, does not make a sound and does not act, although someone who is recognized as the most skilled player on the pipe blows into it), so the mind, acting on the whole instrument and in accordance with by mental activities, touching, as usual, each member, in those of them that are in a natural position, it produces what is characteristic of it, and in those that refuse to accept its artistic movement, it remains unsuccessful and ineffective. The mind usually consists in some kind of property with what is in a natural position, and is alien to what is derived from this position. And it seems more natural to me, on the one hand, that speculation, with the help of which one can learn one of the best teachings. Since the most beautiful and most excellent of all goods is the Divinity itself, to which everything that desires the beautiful is directed, we therefore affirm that the mind, as created in the image of the Best, while, as much as it can, participates in similarity to the Prototype and itself remains in beauty; if he deviates in any way from this similarity, he is deprived of the beauty in which he was. And since, according to what we have said, the mind is decorated with the likeness of a primitive beauty, like some kind of mirror, which is made to depict the features of what is visible in it, then in accordance with this we conclude that the nature controlled by the mind adheres to it and is itself decorated with the upcoming beauty, becoming, as it were, the mirror of a mirror, and by it the material is protected and supported in the composition whose nature is considered. Therefore, as long as one holds on to the other, the communion of true beauty occurs in all proportionately, and through the highest, the next is embellished immediately after that. And when there is some dissolution of this good unity or, on the contrary, the highest becomes the lowest, then, as soon as the substance itself departs from nature, its ugliness is revealed (because the substance itself is ugly and disordered), and its ugliness spoils the beauty of nature, adorned by the mind. And thus, nature transfers the depravity of matter to the mind itself, so that the image of God is no longer seen in the features of the creature. The mind, composing in itself an image of goodness, like a distorting mirror, leaves the bright features of goodness undepicted, but reflects in itself the ugliness of matter. And thus, the origin of evil occurs, produced by the removal of the beautiful. Everything that is beautiful is that which has a property with the original good, and that which is outside of intercourse and similarity with this is undoubtedly alien to the beautiful. Therefore, if, according to what we have considered, the true good is one and the mind, because it is created in the image of the beautiful, itself has the opportunity to be beautiful and the nature supported by the mind is, as it were, a kind of image of the image, then this proves that the material is formed in us and is brought to its end when nature controls it; it is destroyed again and disintegrates when it is separated from the prevailing and supporting one and its unity with the beautiful is dissolved. And something like this happens only when nature turns to the reverse order, when desire inclines not towards the beautiful, but towards that which itself has a need for beautifying. For with the poverty of a substance in its own image, that which resembles it is necessarily transformed into something ugly and ugly. But this was found by us in some sequence, as being included in the subject of review. For the question was whether mental power is located in one part of our body or whether it extends equally to all parts. And just as those who limit the mind to local parts, in support of this assumption, imagine that thought does not work successfully in those who have the brain membranes in an unnatural state, our word has proven that in every part of the human composition, with which everyone usually acts, the power of the soul equally remains inactive when this part is not in a natural state. And from this the speculation proposed in the word consistently followed, from which we learn that in the human composition the mind is controlled by God, and our material life is controlled by the mind when it is in a natural state. If one deviates from nature, then one becomes alien to the activity of the mind. But let us return again to where we began, namely, that in those who have not left the natural state as a result of any suffering, the mind acts with its inherent strength and is strong in those that are well-structured, and, on the contrary, becomes weak in those that do not provide a place for its activity. It is possible to confirm the probability of this doctrine with other evidence. And if it is not burdensome for the ears of those who are already weary with words, let us briefly discuss this as well. Chapter thirteen. Study on sleep, yawning and dreams The material and rapidly flowing life of bodies, always moving forward, has the power of being in that it never stops moving. Just as any river flowing in its own direction, although the depression through which it flows appears full, yet the same water is not always visible in it in the same place, but one has already flowed, and another is flowing in, so the material in this life, due to some kind of movement and flow, changes from the continuous succession of opposites, so that it can never become without change, but if it is impossible to come to immobility, it continues an incessant movement, like replacing with similar. If, when the movable ceases its movement, then the cessation of existence will certainly occur. For example: fullness was followed by emptiness, and the place of emptiness was again taken by fullness; sleep weakened what was tense in wakefulness, then wakefulness brought tension into what was weakened. And neither of these states continues together with the other incessantly, but both give way to each other when one and the other appear, and thus nature renews itself through these changes, so that, constantly remaining in one state or another, it passes from one to another. For in a living being, the constant tension of activities produces some kind of rupture and dissolution of the strained members, and the incessant rest of the body leads its composition to some kind of decline and relaxation. If, on time and in moderation, one is in both states, then this gives nature the strength to maintain itself; with a constant transition from opposite to opposite, in one of them it finds rest for itself from the other. Thus, this transition, when the body is tense by wakefulness, weakens the tension in it by sleep, temporarily stopping the activity of sensory forces, just as horses are separated from their chariots after a race. Proper rest for the bodily composition is necessary so that food can be distributed unhindered throughout the body along the paths known to it for this purpose, while no tension interferes with this transition. What happens to moistened earth when the sun illuminates it with warm rays: from its depths certain foggy vapors are extracted; a similar thing happens to our earth when food boils within natural heat. The vapors, which by nature tend upward, are airy and pass into what is above them, collect in the head rooms, like some kind of smoke seeking an outlet in the wall grooves. Then, evaporating from here along the fibers of the sense organs, they mix, and from them, of necessity, feeling comes into inaction, giving free passage to these vapors. Vision is blocked by eyelashes, which are lowered onto the eyes as if some kind of lead had been applied - such is their heaviness. The hearing, weakened by these same vapors, as if from some kind of door placed on the auditory members, calms down from natural activity. Such a passive state is sleep, during which the senses in the body are inactive and any natural movement is impossible, so that the transfer of food, passing along with the vapors along each of the internal channels of communication, can be carried out conveniently. Therefore, if a sensory organ is constrained by internal evaporation, and sleep is interfered with by some need, then the fibers, filled with vapors, naturally tense up and, as a result of the tension, the organ, weakened by the vapors, becomes thinner, just as something similar is done by those who squeeze water out of clothes, for which purpose they are tightly twisted. And since the parts of the throat are rounded and replete with fibers, then when it is necessary to expel condensed vapors from them (since the circular part cannot be pulled out in a straight line unless it is stretched in a circle, then for this reason, when a person takes in air during a yawn, when a depression is made in the chin below with the throat tongue and everything inside is stretched in the form of a circle), this smoky density, which threatened these members, is exhaled along with exhaled air. But it is known that this often happens after sleep, when some vapor remains in places from which there is no escape or exhalation. So, the human mind clearly proves by this that it acts in accordance with nature; if, when it is healthy and awake, it itself acts and is in motion, and when immersed in sleep, it itself remains motionless, unless someone mistakes sleepy daydreaming for a movement of the mind that occurs during sleep. But we affirm that only reasonable and sound activity of thought should be attributed to the mind, and we think of dreamy and sleepy dreams, as some kind of ghosts of mental activity, that they are formed by chance by that soul that is unreasonable. For when the soul is detached by sleep from the senses, then, of necessity, it has to be outside of mental activity, because through the senses the mind is dissolved in a person, and therefore, when the feelings are not active, thought is of necessity inactive. The proof is that the dreamer often imagines inappropriate and impossible things in his sleep, which would not happen if the soul were then controlled by reason and reflection. But it seems to me that its most excellent powers rest in the soul - I mean mental and sensory activity - while only its nutritional part acts during sleep. In it, certain similarities of what was in reality and echoes of what was produced by feeling and thought, which are only imprinted in it by the remembering power of the soul, are again, no matter how it is, depicted, if only some reminiscent echo has been preserved in such mental ability. This is the dream of a person who is not brought to an interview with the visible by some inextricable connection, but is seduced by mixed and inconsistent deceptive ideas. But, as in bodily actions, when each member produces something specifically according to the force given to it by nature, there is a certain participation of the resting member with the movable one, similarly in the soul, if one part is at rest and the other is in motion, and the whole participates with the part. For it is impossible for natural unity to be completely dissolved when one of the natural forces predominates in part by its activity. But just as in those who are awake and diligent, the mind predominates, the feeling serves, and the power that rules the body does not lag behind them, because the mind supplies food according to the need, the sense accepts what is delivered, and the nutritional power of the body assimilates what is given, so in a dream the dominion of these forces in us is somehow distorted and with the predominance of the irrational force, the activity of other forces ceases, but is not completely destroyed. And just as then the nutritional force is awakened by sleep to digestion and occupies the whole nature with itself, then the sensory force is not completely freed from it (for it is impossible for something to be divided that has once been united) and its activity, which is stopped by the inaction of the senses during sleep, does not come into force. And since, according to the same law, the mind is in connection with the sensory ability of the soul, it should be said that when this ability is in motion, it comes into motion, and when it is at rest, it rests with it. Something similar to this usually happens with fire, when it is covered everywhere with straw, so that no breath excites the flame, then it does not consume anyone lying close to it and does not go out completely, but instead of the flame, some kind of steam comes out into the air through the straw. And if something blows on it, the smoke turns into flame. In the same way, the mind, during sleep, is closed by the inaction of the senses, and is not able to demonstrate its strength through them, and does not fade away completely, but moves like something smoking, partly acting several times, partly unable to act. And, like another musician, placing a bow on the weakening strings of a lyre, he produces a song out of tune, because an untensioned string cannot make a sound, but although the hand often makes skillful movements, moving the bow in accordance with the local position of the tones, there are still no sounds, and unless when the strings move, some kind of dull and awkward ringing is heard, so when the instrument of the senses is weakened by sleep, or the artist is completely at rest, if the instrument from some kind of overflow or burden, he suffers complete relaxation, or acts weakly and weakly, because the instrument of feeling does not accurately absorb art. Therefore, both confused memory and foresight, dormant under some kind of superimposed covers, present similarities to what was worrying in reality, and often indicate something that is coming true. For, due to the subtlety of its nature, the soul has something more than the corporeal plumpness and can perceive other things that actually exist. However, he cannot explain the predicate with any directness, so that the instruction about what is to come is clear and open, which those who talk about such things call a riddle. So the cupbearer squeezed a bunch into Pharaoh’s cup, so the baker imagined that he was carrying a basket - what everyone was doing in reality, he considered himself to be doing the same thing in a dream. The similarities of his usual activities, imprinted in the providential ability of the soul, provided an opportunity, according to such a prophecy of the mind, to predict what would come true in time. If Daniel and Joseph and others like them, without any confusion of their feelings, were taught by Divine power to know the future, then this does not apply to the present word. For let no one attribute this to the power of a dream, since otherwise, as a result of this, the Manifestations of God that happen in reality will, of course, be considered not a vision, but a self-accidentally produced ordinary act of nature. Therefore, just as of all the people governed by their own minds, there are few who are worthy of a clear conversation with God, so, although everyone generally has natural dream visions of equal dignity, only some, and not all, become partakers of some kind of Divine revelation in their dreams. And to all others, if a certain foreknowledge of something is communicated in dreams, then this happens in the way described above. If the Egyptian and Assyrian rulers were guided by God Himself to know the future, then this was God’s special vision. The hidden wisdom of the saints had to become apparent, so that it could flow through life not without common benefit. How would it have been known that this was Daniel if the charmers and magicians had not been powerless to reveal the dream vision? How would the Egyptian people have been saved if Joseph, imprisoned in prison, had not been brought out into the open by the interpretation of a dream? Therefore, there is something different in this and one should not conclude about it from ordinary dreams. The ordinary vision of dreams itself is common to everyone and consists of ideas of various kinds and types. For either, as has been said, echoes of daily activities remain in the memory of the soul, or often the state of dreams is consistent with known dispositions of the body. Thus, to the thirsty one it seems that he is at the springs; and to one in need of food - that he is at a feast; and a young man in the prime of his life dreams in accordance with his passion and age. But I also learned another reason for what happens in a dream, while caring for one of those close to me who had suffered from insanity. Burdened with food taken in quantities exceeding his strength, he shouted, reproaching those around him for filling his stomach with abomination and placing a heavy burden on him. And, when his body was ready to be covered with sweat, he complained that those present had prepared water to sprinkle it on the person lying down. And he did not stop shouting until the end of the matter explained the reasons for such reproaches. For suddenly strong sweat flowed from the body and the resolving stomach showed the heaviness that was in the insides. Because when sobriety was weakened by illness, nature endured, participating in the suffering of the body, without feeling what was causing her anxiety and, due to painful disorder, no longer having the strength to bring into clarity the grief that caused it, then, as it should have been, if the thinking power of the soul was lulled, not by illness, but by natural sleep, for someone in such a state it could become a dream in which water meant being drenched in sweat, and the heaviness of the insides meant being burdened with food. And many of those who have studied medical science seem to have the same thing, namely that, due to the difference in suffering, the sick also have sleepy visions: others - in those who have an upset stomach; others - in people with damaged meninges; others - in patients with fever; not the same - in those suffering from bile and from phlegm; again different - for the full-blooded and for the exhausted. From this it can be seen that the nourishing and vegetative power of the soul has something infused into it from mental power as a result of dissolution, and this is in some way likened to a certain disposition of the body, being transformed in sleepy dreams in accordance with the prevailing passion. Many people also compose their dreams according to the state of their morals: some dreams for a courageous person, and others for a fearful one; other dreams are for the intemperate, and others for the chaste; A generous person dreams of something else, and an insatiable person dreams of something else. And such dreams are formed in the soul not by thought at all, but by an unreasonable disposition; What the soul is accustomed to thinking about in reality, it creates images of in dreams. Chapter fourteen. About the fact that the mind is not in any part of the body, and about the difference between bodily and mental movements But we have deviated far from what was expected. Our word was intended to show that the mind is not attached to any part of the body, but is equally touched by the whole body, in accordance with nature, producing movement in the organ subject to its action. It sometimes happens that the mind follows natural aspirations, as if becoming a servant. For it is often governed by bodily nature, putting into it both the feeling of sorrow and the lust of pleasure, which is why this nature also supplies the first principles, producing either a desire for food, or in general an impulse for some kind of pleasure, and the mind, accepting such impulses, but through its own imaginations, provides the body with the means to obtain what it wants. But this does not happen to everyone, but only to those who have coarser dispositions - to people who, having enslaved the mind to natural impulses, with the assistance of the mind, looking for something pleasurable for the senses, slavishly flatter them; This is not the case with the more perfect: they are ruled by the mind, choosing what is useful to reason, and not passions, while nature follows in the footsteps of the ruler. And since our word revealed differences in vital force: nutritious force without feeling, nutritious and vegetative force, alien to rational activity, rational and perfect force, commanding every other force, so that one can exist even with those forces and have superiority in mental strength, then no one should therefore assume that in the human composition there are three souls, seen in their special outlines; why one might think that human nature is a certain composition of many souls. On the contrary, the true and perfect soul is one by nature, intelligent and immaterial, united through the senses with material nature. And everything material, subject to vicissitudes and change, if it becomes a participant in the animating force, will begin to move with growth; if it loses vital activity, the movement will end in decay. Therefore there is no feeling without material essence, nor activity of mental power without feeling. Chapter fifteen. About the fact that the soul in its proper sense is and is called the rational soul, while others are called so by similar names, and that the power of the mind extends to the whole body, touching it in accordance with each member If one creature has a nourishing activity, and another is exercised by the power of sentience, and the first does not have feelings, and the latter has an intelligent nature, and therefore someone assumes many souls, then such a person will not explain the differences in souls by their distinctive features. For everything that is conceivable in beings, if it appears to the mind as completely what it is, is properly called by the name given to it. And if something is not in all its features what it is called, then it bears this name in vain. For example, if someone shows real bread, then we will say that such in the proper sense this name gives to the object, and if someone, instead of natural bread, shows one made artificially from stone, which has the same appearance, equal size, and is similar in color, so that in many ways it seems to be the same as the Prototype, but it lacks one thing - the ability to serve as food - then we will say that the stone received the name bread not in the proper sense, but not by the exact usage of words. On the same basis, everything about which something is said that does not in all respects belong to this, has a name not according to the exact usage of words. Thus, since the perfection of the soul is in mental power and the gift of speech, then everything that is not such can be something similar to the soul, however, it is not an actual soul, but a certain vital activity, equated in name to the soul. Therefore, the nature of the dumb, as not far removed from this natural life, He who legitimized everything also gave it to man for use, so that instead of potions it might serve those who eat it. For he says: “Eat all kinds of meat like herbal potions” (Gen. 9:3). So little seems to be the advantage of sensitive activities over nutritional and vegetable activities without sensitive ones! May this teach carnalists not to turn their thoughts too much to what is striking to the senses, but to pay attention to spiritual advantages, since the true soul is seen in them, and the dumb have feelings in equal measure. But the sequence of the word led us to something else. For our review had to prove not only that what is represented by the thought of a person is more important mental activity than the material in the composition, but that our mind does not consist in any parts, but equally in everyone and in everything, neither embracing them from the outside, nor being contained within them, for this in the proper sense is said about vessels or other bodies put into each other. Communication between the mind and the body consists of some kind of inexpressible and inconceivable contact; it does not occur within, because the incorporeal is not held by the body, and does not embrace from the outside, because the incorporeal does not surround anything. On the contrary, in a wonderful and inconceivable way, the mind, approaching nature and coming into contact with it, is noticeable both in it and around it, but not sitting in it and not encompassing it with itself, but in such a way that it is impossible to say or imagine with the mind, except for one thing, namely, that when nature, by its special coherence, is in a good state, then the mind is effective, but if it suffers some kind of loss, as it progresses, the movement becomes erroneous. Chapter sixteen. A look at the Divine saying, which says: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26), and examines what is meant by the word image: whether the passionate and the temporal are likened to the blessed and impassive, and how the male and female genders are in the image, when they are not in the Prototype But let us return again to God’s word: “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26). How low and unworthy of the natural greatness of man some of the pagans imagined about him, magnifying, as they thought, human nature by comparing it with this world! For they said: man is a small world, consisting of the same elements as the Universe. But, with this loud name giving such praise to human nature, they themselves did not notice that they honored man with the properties of a mosquito and a mouse, because in them there is a dissolution of the four elements, why any larger or smaller part of each of them is certainly seen in the animate, and not from them it is unnatural and to be composed of something endowed with feeling. Because what is important in this is to honor man as the image and likeness of the world, when the sky passes away and the earth changes, and everything that is contained in them passes away through the passage of what it contains. But what, according to church teaching, is human greatness? Not in likeness to the created world, but in being in the image of the nature of the Creator. So what does the word “image” mean? Perhaps you will ask: how is the incorporeal body, the eternal temporary body, the unchangeable body, which changes in a circle, the impassive and imperishable body, the passionate and corruptible body, alien to any vice, which always lives and is brought up with it? There is a great distance between what is mentally imagined according to the Prototype and what is created according to the image. An image, if it is similar to the Prototype, is in the proper sense called an image; if the imitation is far from what is expected, then all this is something else, and not an image of what is being imitated. How is it that man - a mortal, passionate, transient being - is an image of an unalloyed, pure, always existing nature? But the true teaching about this can be clearly known only by the Truth in the true sense, and we, as much as we can, following the Truth with some guesses and assumptions, think about the subject of research in this way. And the word of God, which said that man was created in the image of God, does not lie; and the miserable poverty of human nature is not comparable to the bliss of a passionless life. For if anyone compares our nature with God, it is necessary to recognize one of two things; that either the Divine nature is passionate, or the human nature is impassive, so that the concept of similarity can be applied to both. If the Divine is not passionate, and ours is not alien to passion, then some other concept remains, according to which the truth of the Divine saying is affirmed, saying that man was created in the image of God. Therefore, it is appropriate for us to return to the Divine Scripture itself; is there any guidance in what is written for resolving the issue? After what has been said: “Let us create man in the image” - the Scripture also adds the following about why we will create it: “And God created man, in the image of God created him: man and wife did he make them” (Gen. 1:27). Although it was said above that such a word was proclaimed to overthrow heretical wickedness, and we, having learned that the Only Begotten God created man in the image of God, should in no way distinguish between the Divines in the Father and the Son, when the Holy Scripture equally calls One and the other God, Who both created man, and in whose image man was created; but let the conversation about this be left, the question should turn to the study of what is presented: why is the Divine nature blessed and the human nature miserable, and in Scripture the latter is called similar to the former? Therefore, we must examine the sayings with precision, for we will find that something else was created in the image, and something else is now proving to be disastrous. It is said: “God create man, in the image of God create him,” the creation of what was created in the image is brought to an end. Then a repetition is made of what was said about the dispensation and it is said: “Make them husband and wife.” For everyone, I think, it is clear that this should be understood without referring to the Prototype, for in Christ Jesus, as the Apostle says, “there is neither male nor female” (Gal. 3:28). However, the word says that man is divided into these sexes. Therefore, the structure of our nature is something twofold: one likened to the Divine nature and the other divided into different sexes. Scripture implies something similar to this by the wording of what is written, first saying: “God created man, in the image of God create him” - and then adding to what was said: “Make them husband and wife,” which is alien to the mental image of God. For I think that the Divine Scripture in what has been said teaches a certain great and sublime dogma, and it is this: human nature is the average between two certain ones, separated from one another and standing at the very extremes, between the Divine and incorporeal nature and between dumb and bestial life, because in the human composition one can see part of both of the said natures, from the Divine - literature and rationality, which is not allows differences in the male and female sex, and from the wordless - bodily structure and education, divided into male and female. Both of these natures are certainly present in everyone involved in human life. But, as we learn from the one who outlined the origins of man in order, the intelligent takes precedence in him, and communication and affinity with the dumb is innate to man. For Scripture first says: “God create man in the image of God,” showing with these words, as the apostle says, that in such there is neither male nor female; then he adds the distinctive properties of human nature, namely: “Create them husband and wife.” So what do we learn from this? Let no one be angry with me for speaking from afar about a real thought. God, by His nature, is every good that can be grasped by thought, or, better to say, being above every good, both conceivable and extensible, He creates man not for anything else, but only because He is good. Being such, and therefore having begun to create human nature, he did not half demonstrate the power of goodness, giving something of what He had, and being stingy in this communication. On the contrary, the perfect form of goodness in God consists in the fact that it brings a person from non-existence into being and makes him abundant in goods. Since the detailed list of blessings is large and it is inconvenient to designate them by number, God’s word, summing up all the blessings in a short statement, designated them, saying that man was created in the image of God. For this means the same as saying: He made human nature a participant in all good, because if the Divinity is the fullness of good, and man is His image, then it means that the image is similar to the Prototype, that it is filled with all good. Consequently, we have in us the idea of ​​everything beautiful, every virtue and wisdom, everything that is imaginable about the best. One of everything necessary is to be free, not to submit to any natural dominion, but to have autocratic, discretionary determination, because virtue is something beyond one’s control and voluntary, while something forced and involuntary cannot be virtue. So, since the image in everything bears the features of primitive beauty, then, if it had no difference in anything, it would, of course, no longer be a likeness, but would seem to be the same in everything, non-different in everything. Therefore, what difference do we see between the Divinity itself and that which is likened to the Divinity? That the Divinity is not created, but the likeness is produced by the creation. And the difference in this property was again accompanied by a difference in other properties. For everyone certainly recognizes that uncreated nature is certainly and always the same; created nature cannot remain without change, because the very transition from non-existence to being is a certain movement and change into the existing of the non-existent, transformed by Divine will. And just as the Gospel calls the features of Caesar on copper an image, from which we understand that, although in appearance in the image there is a similarity to Caesar, in reality there is a difference, so, in accordance with the real word, meaning instead of features that from what is seen in the Divine and human nature in which there is a similarity, in fact we find the difference that is noticeable in the uncreated and created. So, since the uncreated remains the same, and, moreover, always, and what is brought into being by creation begins to exist by change and is akin to this way of being, then “He who knew all things before their existence” (Dan. 13, 42), as the prophecy says, taking into account this, or, better said, implying by the power of foreknowledge, to which the movement of human arbitrariness by arbitrariness and autocracy is prone (since he knew the future), invents for the image the difference between male and female, which has nothing to do with the Divine Prototype, but, as has been said, is assigned to the dumb nature. The reason for such an idea can only be known by the self-seers of the truth and the “servants of the word” (Luke 1:2), and we, as much as possible, imagining the truth in some fortune-telling and images, do not state what comes to mind in the affirmative, but offer it to grateful listeners in the form of an exercise. So, what did they come up with about this? The Word of God, having said: “God created man,” by the vagueness of expression indicates everything human, for the creature is not now given this name - Adam, as history says later; on the contrary, the name of the created man is given not as any one, but as a general genus. Therefore, by the general name of nature we are led to the assumption that all humanity is embraced by Divine foreknowledge and power in the first dispensation. For one must think that for God there is nothing indefinite in what He has created, but, on the contrary, for each of the creatures there is a certain limit and measure, determined by the wisdom of the Creator. Therefore, just as one person’s body is limited by quantity, and quantity is a measure of his bodily composition, determined by the surface of his body, so, I think, by the power of foreknowledge, as if in one body, God embraces all the fullness of humanity, and this is what the word teaches: “God created man, and in the image of God created him.” For the image is not in a part of nature, and not in any one of those seen by the same grace, but such power equally extends to the whole race, and the sign of this is that everyone is equally given the mind, everyone has the ability to reflect, to think ahead, and everything else by which the Divine nature is depicted in what is created in His image. The man who appeared at the first dispensation of the world and the one who will exist at the end of the Universe have this in the same way; they equally bear the image of God. Therefore, the whole is named by one person, because for God’s power there is nothing: neither the past nor the future, but the expected, along with the present, is contained in the all-containing Activity. Therefore, all nature, stretching from the first people to the last, is a single image of Being. And the difference of gender in relation to the male and female sexes was given to the creature subsequently for the following reason, as I think. Chapter seventeen. What should we answer to those who are perplexed about the fact that if childbearing is after sin, then how would souls be born if primitive people remained without sin? It would be better to say that before examining what has been suggested, perhaps we would act more prudently by finding the solution proposed to us by our opponents. For they say that before sin there is no story about birth, nor about the pain of birth, nor about the desire for childbearing. But when, after sin, people were expelled from paradise and the wife was condemned as punishment to the disease of birth, then Adam approached his wife and knew her in marriage, and then childbearing began. Therefore, if in paradise there was no marriage, no sickness of birth, no birth itself, then as a result, they say, it is necessary to conclude that there would not have been a multitude of human souls if the gift of immortality had not been converted into mortality and marriage had not preserved the nature of those born again, instead of those who departed, introducing those who came from them, so that the sin that entered human life was in some way beneficial. For the human race would have been limited to the first-created couple, if the fear of death had not prompted nature to produce offspring. But here again, the true teaching, if it is accessible to anyone, can be obvious only to those initiated, like Paul, into the secrets of paradise, and our opinion is this: the Sadducees once disputed the doctrine of the resurrection and, in support of their teaching, pointed to a polygamous wife who had seven brothers, then asked: which of them will she be the wife of after the resurrection. The Lord answers this question, not only admonishing the Sadducees, but also revealing to everyone after them the secret of life after the resurrection, and says: “In the resurrection, for they neither marry nor commit violence” (Matthew 22:30), “for they can die: for they are equal to an angel, and sons of God, being sons of the resurrection” (Luke 20:36). The gift of resurrection promises us nothing more than the restoration of those who have fallen to their original state, for this expected grace is a return to original life, introducing the expelled from paradise into it again. Therefore, if the life of those being restored has an affinity with the life of angels, then it is obvious that the life before the crime was some kind of angelic. Why is the return to our original life likened to angels. But, as it has been said, although angels do not have marriage, the angelic army nevertheless consists of countless multitudes. This is what Daniel said in his visions. Consequently, if no transformation and fall from angelic equality had happened to us as a result of sin, then we, in the same way, would not have needed marriage to reproduce. But what method of reproduction does the angelic nature have - this is indescribable and unthinkable according to human fortune-telling; however, what is certain is that he exists. And he could act among people, “less than angels” (Ps. 8:6), multiplying the human race to the extent determined by the advice of the Creator. If anyone finds it difficult to ask about the method of origin of people, whether a person did not need the assistance of marriage for this, then we will ask him about the method of being of angels: why do they constitute countless multitudes, being both one essence and numerous? For we give a decent answer to the objector: how could a person exist without marriage, when we say: just as angels exist without marriage. And that before the crime man was like the angels, this proves his restoration again to the same likeness. After our discussion of this, it is appropriate to return to the previous question: why, after the creation of the image, God invents for the creature a difference in the male and female sex. For this, I argue, the beginning we have previously outlined is useful. He who brings everything into existence and the whole man, by his own free will, made in God's image would not want to see the number of souls reaching its fullness by the gradual increase of those born, but by the power of foreknowledge, instantly imagining in this fullness the whole of human nature and honoring it with a high and equal-angelic lot, since with his discerned power he foresaw that human will will not go the straight path to the beautiful and therefore will fall away from the equal-angelic life, so that the number of human souls does not become small, having lost the way in which the angels grew into multitudes, therefore he himself invents for nature a method of reproduction suitable for those who have slipped into sin, instead of what is befitting angelic greatness, implanting in humanity a bestial and dumb way of mutual succession. That is why, it seems to me, the great David, regretting the poverty of man, mourns human nature with these words: “A man is in honor without understanding,” calling equality with the angels honor; therefore he continues: “Be like the foolish cattle, and become like them” (Ps. 48:21). For this fluid method of reproduction has truly become bestial, having accepted its nature by its inclination towards the material. Chapter Eighteen. That the passions of dumb people are caused in us by an affinity with dumb nature I think that every passion from this beginning, as if arising from some source, floods human life. The proof of what has been said is the affinity of passions, which is equally revealed in us and in the dumb, for it is unfair to attribute the first principles of a passionate disposition to human nature, created in the image of God. But since the life of the dumb came into this world, and man, for the reason stated above and from the nature of the dumb, borrowed something, I mean the way of birth, then through this he borrowed other things noticeable in this nature, for the likeness of God is not in man’s irritable power, and the predominant nature is not distinguished by voluptuousness; timidity, and insolence, and the desire for more, and disgust from poverty, and all the like are far from signs of godliness. Therefore, human nature extracted this from the wordless part of itself, for, by which the wordless life is protected for self-preservation, then, being transferred to human life, it became a passion. Carnivorous animals are protected by irritability; Multiparous animals are saved by voluptuousness; an animal with little strength retains timidity, an animal caught by the strongest retains fear, and an animal that is overabundant with flesh is gluttony. And not satisfying one’s voluptuousness in anything serves as a pretext for sorrow for the dumb. All this and the like, due to bestial birth, entered into the structure of man. And may I be allowed, imitating the art of sculpting, to describe the human image in words. Just as between the sculptures one can see two-faced figures, which art lovers create to the surprise of spectators, presenting two types of faces on one head, so man, it seems to me, bears within himself a double appearance to the point of opposites, in the god-likeness of his mind depicting a likeness to Divine beauty, and in passionate aspirations representing his closeness to bestiality. But often the mind, due to its inclination and disposition towards the dumb, overshadowing the best in itself with the worst, reaches the point of bestiality, for as soon as someone humiliates mental activity and forces the intellect to become a servant of the passions, some kind of transformation of good traits into a dumb image occurs and the whole nature changes its appearance, and the intellect, like a farmer, processes the beginnings of passions and gradually cultivates them in greater quantities, because that, using his assistance of passion, he produced a numerous and abundant generation of absurdities. Thus, voluptuousness began with the likeness of the dumb, but it increased in human actions, giving rise to such a number of different sins of voluptuousness that cannot be found in the dumb. Thus, the desire for irritability is akin to the impetuosity of the dumb, but it increases with the assistance of thoughts, for from here comes vindictiveness, envy, deceit, maliciousness, and hypocrisy. All this is produced by the evil work of the mind. For if this passion is deprived of the assistance of thoughts, then irritability will remain something fleeting and powerless, like a bubble that, as soon as it appears on the water, immediately bursts. So the gluttony of pigs introduced covetousness, and the majesty of horses became the beginning of pride. And everything that came from bestial dumbness and taken separately with the poor use of the mind became a vice; just as, conversely, if reason assumes power over such movements, then each of them will turn into a form of virtue. Thus, irritability produces courage, timidity produces caution, fear produces humility, hatred produces aversion from vice, the power of love produces desire for what is truly beautiful, and majesty of character elevates one above passions and keeps one’s way of thinking not enslaved to evil. The apostle praises this type of exaltation of the spirit, commanding him to constantly philosophize on high (Col. 3:2). Thus one can find that every such movement, elevated by the sublimity of thought, is conformed to the beauty of that which is in the image of God. But since there is some kind of heavy and downward inclination of sin, then more often the situation is different, for the sovereignty of the soul is carried down more by the weight of the dumb nature than by the weight of the earthly nature, which is carried upward by the sublimity of thought. Therefore, our curse often results in us not recognizing the gift of God, because carnal passions are imposed, like a disgusting mask, on the beauty of that which is in the image. Therefore, those who look at such things are somewhat excusable when they do not easily agree that the image of God is in them. On the contrary, looking at those who have succeeded in life, one can see the image of God in people. For if someone, being passionate and carnal, forces you not to believe that a person is adorned with, as it were, Divine beauty, then, undoubtedly, high in virtue and pure from defilements, he will establish you in the best opinion of people. For example (for it is best to explain this idea with examples), even if the beauty of nature was darkened by the filth of wickedness in one of those known for depravity, some Jehoiachin, if someone else is mentioned because of his bad deeds, but in Moses and others like him the appearance of the image was preserved pure. Therefore, in whom beauty has not faded, the truth of what has been said is clearly confirmed, that man was created in the likeness of God. But others, perhaps, are brought to shame by the fact that our life, in the likeness of the dumb, is supported by food, and therefore recognizes man as unworthy of the thought of him that he was created in the image of God; Let us hope that our nature will one day, in accordance with the expected life, be granted liberation from this service. For, as the apostle says, the Kingdom of God is meat and drink (Rom. 14:17). And the Lord predicted: Man will not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4). And the resurrection points us towards a life equal to the angels. Since the angels have no food, this proof is sufficient to confirm that man will be freed from such service and will live in the likeness of the angels. Chapter nineteen. The answer to those who claim that the enjoyment of the hoped-for blessings should again consist in food and drink, according to what is written, that in the beginning man lived in paradise by this But perhaps someone else will say that a person will not come again to the same way of life, if initially we needed to eat food, but after this life we ​​will be freed from this service. And I, listening to the Holy Scripture, not only understand bodily eating and carnal joy, but I also know some other food, which has some similarities with bodily food, the enjoyment of which extends to one soul. “Eat my bread,” wisdom commands those who are hungry (Prov. 9:4), and the Lord pleases those who are hungry for such food (Matthew 5:6) and says: If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink (John 7:37). And the great Isaiah commands those who are able to understand its height: drink joy (Is. 25:6). There is also a certain prophetic threat to those worthy of punishment that they will be punished with hunger and this hunger will not be from any lack of bread and water, but from deprivation of the word, for it is said: Not famine, nor thirst for water, but the famine of hearing the word of the Lord (Am. 8:11). Therefore, one must imagine some fruit worthy of God’s pleasure in Eden (and Eden is interpreted as pleasure), and not doubt that man ate it; and to stay in paradise, do not necessarily imagine this transitory and expiring food. It is said: Bring food from every tree that goes to heaven (Gen. 2:16). To anyone who feels a healthy hunger, who will give this tree, a hedgehog to paradise, which contains every good thing, which has every name - everything, the tasting of which is given to man by the word of God. Since every type of good is inseparable from this generic and higher concept, what does the whole consist of? And who will turn me away from this mixed and mutual eating from the tree? For, of course, it is not obvious to those who are more perceptive that this is something whose fruit is life, and this is again mixed something whose end is death. For He who richly offered man every kind of pleasure, no doubt, by some law and providence, forbids man from eating that which is neither this nor that. And it seems to me that the best teachers in interpreting this concept are to choose the great David and the wise Solomon, because both of them recognize the gift of permitted pleasure as one, that real good, which truly is all good, and David saying: Delight yourself in the Lord (Ps. 36:4), and Solomon calling wisdom itself, which is the Lord, the tree of life (Proverbs 3:18). So, the same thing with the tree of life is every tree, the eating of which is permitted by the Word created by God. Opposed to this tree is another tree, eating from which is the knowledge of good and evil - not in the sense that it separately, in parts, brought into fruit each of the indicated opposites, but in the fact that it produced a certain united and mixed fruit, dissolved from opposite qualities. The Chief of Life forbids the eating of this fruit, but the serpent advises it in order to arrange the entrance of death. And the one who advised this becomes convincing, decorating the fruit with good color and sweetness, so that it appears pleasant to the eye and arouses the desire to taste it. Chapter twenty. What is life like in paradise and what is the forbidden tree? Therefore, what is it, in which the knowledge of good and evil is merged, and what is adorned with pleasures for the senses? Of course, my fortune telling will not be far from the truth if at the beginning of the review I use the concept of what knowledge means. I think that here Scripture does not mean knowledge by knowledge, but I find, according to the usage of Scripture, a certain difference in the words: knowledge and discernment. For the apostle says that to distinguish good from evil with knowledge of the matter belongs to the most perfect ability and trained senses (Heb. 5:14). Therefore, he gives the command to tempt everyone (1 Thess. 5:21) and says that discernment is characteristic of the spiritual (1 Cor. 2:15). But knowledge, in the meaning of speech, does not always mean knowledge and understanding, and sometimes even a disposition towards pleasant things. Thus, the Lord who exists knows Himself (2 Tim. 2:19). And God says to Moses: I have known you more than all others (Deut. 34:11). The Omniscient One speaks of those condemned for depravity: For I knew you no better (Matthew 7:23). So, a tree that bears mixed knowledge as fruit belongs to the forbidden. And this fruit, which had the serpent as its protector, is mixed from opposites for the reason, perhaps, that what is offered is not ordinary evil, as it appears in itself by its own nature, because a vice would have no power if it were not embellished with anything good, attracting the deceived to desire. And now the nature of evil is somewhat confused; inside it has destruction, like a hidden deception, but outwardly it shows a seductive representation of good. To lovers of money, the good color of a substance seems beautiful, but the love of money is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10). Who would crawl into the fetid mire of obscenity if he did not consider pleasure as something beautiful and desirable for himself, carried away by this bait into passion? Likewise, other sins, having hidden destruction in them, seem desirable at first glance, due to some kind of seduction for the unwary, as attractive as a good deed. Since many people recognize as beautiful that which pleases the senses, and both the truly beautiful and the seemingly beautiful are called the same; For this very reason, the existing desire for evil, as well as for good, in Scripture is called knowledge of good and evil, and by knowledge is meant some kind of correlation and admixture, i.e. not detached evil (because it blossomed with beauty), but also not pure good (because it hid evil within itself), but a mixture of both - this fruit of the forbidden tree, the eating of which, according to what was said, leads to the death of those who touch it. And this almost openly expresses the teaching that what is truly good by its nature is simple and one-person, alien to any duality and combination with the opposite, while evil is diverse and hidden, recognized as something else and shown to be something else in experience; and maintaining it, i.e. knowledge through experience becomes the beginning and cause of death and decay. That is why the serpent points out this harmful fruit of sin, without clearly revealing the evil that it contained within itself by nature (a person would not be seduced by obvious evil), but having covered the appearance with some kind of beauty and enchanting with some kind of sensual pleasure when tasting it, it seemed worthy of belief to the wife, as Scripture says. For it is said: And the woman saw it as a good tree for food, and as it was pleasing to the eye to see, and it was red, which you knew: and she took of its fruit, poison (Gen. 3:6); and this food became the mother of death for people. Therefore, this is what this mixed fruit means, according to a clear interpretation of the meaning of Scripture, according to which this tree is called the knowledge of good and evil, because, like the evilness of poison put into honey, since it delights the senses, it seems good, and because it destroys the one who touches it, it becomes the most extreme evil. Therefore, when the harmful poison affected human life, then man - this great deed and name, a reflection of the Divine nature, as the Prophet says - became like vanity (Ps. 143:4). So, the image of God consists in what is seen as the best in us, and everything that is sorrowful and calamitous in our life is far from being like the Divine. Chapter twenty one. That the resurrection should be expected not so much as a result of the preaching of Scripture, but rather because of the very necessity of things But vice is not so powerful that it can overcome good power; and the folly of our nature is not higher or firmer than Divine wisdom. And it is impossible for something perverse and changeable to be stronger and more constant than that which is always the same and established in goodness. The advice of God is always and certainly immutable, and the vicissitudes of our nature are not firm even in evil. And what is certainly always moving, if it is on the path to good, due to the infinity of the work it undergoes, will never stop striving forward and will not find any end to the sought, having reached which it could eventually stop in motion, and if it deviates in the opposite direction, then when it takes the path of vice and reaches the most extreme measure of evil, then the ever-moving aspiration, by its nature not finding any rest, as soon as the field of vice passes, of necessity turns the movement towards good. For, since vice does not extend into infinity, but is limited by necessary limits, then for this reason, beyond the limit of evil, there follows the succession of good; and thus, according to what has been said, the constant mobility of our nature again finally returns to the good path, being disciplined by the memory of previous misfortunes not to again be captivated by such disasters. Therefore, it will again be possible for us to move in the field of goodness, because vice by its nature is limited by necessary limits. Those knowledgeable in celestial phenomena say that the whole world is filled with light, and darkness occurs in a place shaded by the barrier of the earthly body, and this place, due to the sphericity of the earthly body, is limited by a conical surface, which is described by a sunbeam; the sun, many times larger than the earth, enveloping it with rays everywhere, at the apex of the cone conjugates converging rays of light; and therefore, if we assume that someone is able to cross the distance over which the shadow extends, then he will certainly find himself in the light, uninterrupted by darkness. So, I think, it is appropriate to understand about us that, Having reached the limit of vice, when we are on the edge of sinful darkness, we will again begin to live in the light, because the Nature of kindness exceeds the measure of vice innumerably many times over. Therefore, again paradise, again this tree, which is the tree of life; again the gift of the image and the dignity of the authorities, although not above that, it seems to me, that people are now subordinated to God by the needs of everyday life; But before us is the hope of another kingdom, about which the word remains unspoken for us. Chapter twenty two. Answer to those objecting: if the resurrection is something beautiful and good, then why has it not happened until now, but it is appropriate to hope after several revolutions of time But we will remain consistent in our research. Another, perhaps, having inspired his thought with the sweetness of hope, will consider it a burden and a loss for himself if he does not quickly enjoy those blessings that are higher than both feelings and human knowledge, and considers this stretch of time, separating him from what he wants, unbearable. But let him not worry himself, like some child who is upset by a slight delay in giving him pleasure. Since everything is arranged by reason and wisdom, then, by all necessity, it is appropriate to recognize everything that happens as not alien to this reason and the wisdom inherent in it. Therefore, you will say: what kind of law is this, according to which the transition from a mournful life to a desired state is not immediately accomplished, but for a certain period of time, this long, difficult and bodily life awaits the end - the fulfillment of everything, so that then, as if freed from a certain bridle, human life, again independent and free, returns to a blissful and dispassionate life? But whether our word approaches the truth of what is sought, truth itself sees this clearly; and what came to our mind is this: it is precisely the first word to which I return again. God says: Let us create man in our image and likeness; and God created man; create him in the image of God (Gen. 1:26–27). Therefore, the image of God, seen in all human nature, already existed, but Adam had not yet come into existence, because Adam in word production means an earthly creature, as those knowledgeable in the Hebrew language say, which is why the apostle, primarily trained in the native language of the Israelites, calls man from the earth earthy (1 Cor. 15:47), as if translating the name Adam into Greek. So, man was created in the image - this is the whole nature, this god-like creature; and in the image the omnipotent Wisdom created not a part of the whole, but the entirety of the fullness of nature. He who embraces all the borders in a handful knew, as the Scripture says, saying: In His hand are all the ends of the earth (Ps. 94, 4); The Master knew everything even before the existence of things, declaring with knowledge the number of the human race that came from each. But since he foresaw in us an inclination towards the worse and that, having voluntarily lost equality with the angels, man would approach communication with the lower, therefore he mixed something into His own image from a dumb creature. For in the Divine and blessed nature there is no difference between male and female. But by transferring to man the distinctive property of a wordless structure not corresponding to the height of the creature, he gives our species a method of reproduction. Not when he created man in his image and gave him the power to grow and multiply, but when he had already made this distinction, male and female, then he said: Grow and multiply and fill the earth (Gen. 1:28). For such things are characteristic of nature, not of the Divine, but of the dumb, as history makes clear by telling us that this was previously said by God about the dumb. Why, if before the division into male and female sexes was given to nature, God with this word had given man the ability to grow, then we would not have had the need for such a method of birth as the dumb are born. Therefore, having foreseen with His foreknowledge that the fullness of the human race would enter into life through birth, which is more characteristic of animals, God, who rules everything in a certain order and in coherence, since in general for humanity such a method of birth was made necessary by the inclination of our nature towards the humiliated, which was foreseen before its appearance by He Who sees the future equally with the present, according to this He also provided for a time commensurate with the structure of people, so that the appearance of a certain number of souls would correspond to the continuation of time, and then the flowing movement of time has stopped when the spread of the human race in it ceases. And when this method of giving birth to people ends, with its end time will end and, thus, the renewal of the Universe will take place and the change in the whole will be followed by the transition of humanity from the corruptible and earthly to the passionless and eternal. This, it seems to me, is what the divine apostle also means when he predicts in his Epistle to the Corinthians a sudden stop of time and the mover’s return journey, when he says: Behold, I tell you a mystery, for we will not all sleep; For, as I think, when the fullness of human nature reaches its end to the foreseeable extent, because no increase in the number of souls will be required, then, as the words “soon in the twinkling of an eye,” naming this immeasurable and unextensible limit of time, the apostle teaches, in a moment of time a change in beings will take place. Why, whoever has reached this very last and extreme point of time, since nothing remains beyond this edge, it is impossible to receive this temporary change through death, unless the trumpet of resurrection sounds, awakening those who have died and remain in life, like those changed through the resurrection, instantly transforming it into incorruption, so that the burden of the flesh will no longer drag it down and the burden will not hold it underground, but it will go up through the air, for the apostle says: We will be raptured to We were clouded to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17). Therefore, let them wait for the time that is necessary to continue in proportion to the increase of the human race. For Abraham and the other patriarchs had a desire to see good things and did not cease to seek the Heavenly Fatherland, as the Apostle says (Heb. 11:16), however, they still remain only in the hope of grace, according to the word of Paul, God has foreseen the best for us, so that not without us, as Paul says, they will receive perfection (Heb. 11:40). Therefore, if others endure this delay from afar only by faith and hope, as the apostle testifies, having seen and kissed the good things (Heb. 11:13), placing the certainty of the enjoyment of hope in the fact that the promise is recognized by the faithful, what should many of us do, who, judging by life, have, perhaps, no hope for the best? The soul of the prophet was exhausted from lust, and in song he confesses this passionately flaming love, saying that his soul desires and dies to dwell in the courts of the Lord (Ps. 83:3), at least he should have been noticed (Ps. 83:11) there among the last, because it is higher and preferable to be last there than to take precedence in the villages of sinners of this life. However, he endured the delay and, pleasing his stay there, preferring a short-term participation in those blessings to thousands of years, since it is better, he says, one day in Your courts is more than a thousand (11), he was not upset by the necessary consideration of what exists and recognized it as sufficient to please people to have good things in their hope. Why does he say at the end of the Psalm: Lord God of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in Thee (Ps. 83:13). Therefore, we should not grieve over the short-term delay of the hoped-for, but make efforts not to become unworthy of the hoped-for blessings. If someone predicts to any experienced person that during the summer there will be a harvest of fruits, the storehouses will be filled and the table will be full of food during this abundance, then he will be vain if he hastens to desire the arrival of this time, when it is appropriate to sow and prepare fruits for oneself with care. The time, whether anyone wants it or not, will certainly come at a certain time, but they will see it differently, those who have prepared for themselves an abundance of fruits and those who are left for that hour empty-handed and without any reserve. So, I think, since from the Divine sermon it is clear to everyone that the time of change will come, then it is appropriate not to be curious about time (for it is not yours, said Christ, to understand times and years (Acts 1:7)) and not to seek any conclusions with which someone will weaken the hope of resurrection in the soul, but, strengthened by faith in what is expected, to purchase future grace through a good life. Chapter twenty-three. That whoever acknowledges the beginning of the order of the world must also agree about the end If someone, looking at the present flow of the world, which takes place in some coherence, in which a temporary continuation is seen, says that it is impossible for the foreshadowed stop of the movable to occur, then such an one obviously does not believe that in the beginning, heaven and earth were created by God. For whoever gives movement a beginning will certainly not doubt the end, and whoever does not accept the end does not accept the beginning. But just as we understand the fulfillment of the age by the word of God, according to the word of the Apostle, by believing from those things which are not revealed to be visible (Heb. 11:3), so we will be guided by the same faith when we hear the word of God, foretelling the necessary stop of beings. And how it will be, this should be removed from the objects of our curiosity. For even there, putting aside the study of the incomprehensible, we accepted by faith that what is visible from what is not revealed was accomplished, although reason inspired us to be perplexed in many ways, presenting important reasons to doubt what we believed. For even there, lovers of controversy can shake faith with plausible arguments so that the doctrine of the creation of matter, which the Holy Scripture teaches us, is not recognized as true, asserting that all beings have their existence from God. And the defenders of the opposite teaching are trying to prove that matter is co-eternal with God, using the following arguments to support their teaching. If God is simple by nature, not material, not qualitative, not quantitative, not complex and alien to outline in appearance; But every substance is limited in spatial extent, does not escape comprehension through the senses, being cognizable by color, by appearance, by size, by quantity, by hardness, by other properties seen in it, none of which can be imagined in the Divine nature, then what is the possibility of a substance coming from an immaterial thing, from an extended nature that has no extension? For if we believe that this came from God, then it is obvious that what exists in God, according to an ineffable law, thus came into being. And if there was something material in Him, then how is He who had substance in Himself not material? The same can be said about everything else that distinguishes material nature. If there is quantity in God, then how is God not quantitative? If there is something complex in Him, then how is He Himself simple, indivisible and not complex? Therefore, reason compels us either by necessity to admit that God is material, because matter came from Him, or, if someone does not agree to this, it is necessary to assume that for the structure of the Universe, matter came to Him from outside. Therefore, if it was outside of God, then, of course, besides God, there was something else, relative to eternity, conceptualized as unborn along with the Existing One. Why are two beginningless and unborn beings comprehended by the mind one with the other, of which one acts artistically, and the other accepts this skillful action. If someone, out of this necessity, assumes that the Creator was destined for eternal substance, then what kind of defense will this Manichaean find for his teachings, who opposes the material principle to the good nature due to its ungeneracy? But we, hearing what the Scripture said, believed that all things are from God; We do not dare to be curious about how it was in God, as something that exceeds our understanding, believing that everything is possible through God’s power: it is possible to bring the non-existent into being, and to give qualities to what exists at will. As a result of this, just as we recognize the power of God’s will as sufficient to create beings from what did not exist, so by elevating the transformation of created things to the same power, we do not believe anything incredible. But since it may be possible to use some arguments to convince those arguing about a substance, we will not avoid this, lest it seem as if we are keeping silent for lack of words. Chapter twenty-four. Objection to those who claim that matter is co-eternal with God This assumption about matter, which asserts that it comes from the intelligible and immaterial, does not seem to be beyond what the mind consistently reaches. For we will find that every substance consists of some qualities and, if it were deprived of them, could in no way be comprehended by reason. But each type of quality is separated in the concept of reason from the subject. A concept is something mentally represented, and not a physical consideration. For example, if any animal, or a tree, or anything else that has a material composition is to be considered, then much of this object is represented in thought separately, and the concept of the separate is not confused with what is to be considered. For there is a different concept about color, another about heaviness, another about quantity, and another about some tactile property, because softness, length and the other mentioned qualities are not confused by concept with one another, or with the body itself. But each of the properties, as it is in itself, is given a special positive definition, which has nothing in common with any other quality seen in the subject. Therefore, if we mentally imagine color, we also mentally imagine hardness, quantity, and other similar properties. If, with the removal of each of these properties from the subject, every concept of the body is destroyed, then it should be assumed that we find the reason for the destruction of the body in the absence of something, and the total confluence of the same produces material nature. Just as something in which there is no color, external appearance, hardness, extension, heaviness and other properties is not a body, and each of these properties is also not a body, but, on the contrary, taken separately is something different from the body, so and vice versa, where the above properties come together, a corporeal being is produced. But if the representation of these properties belongs to the mind, and the intelligible also belongs to the Divinity by nature, then there is no inconsistency in the fact that these intelligible principles of the existence of bodies are produced by incorporeal nature, because intelligible nature produces intelligible forces, and the mutual union of these latter brings material nature into existence. But let our study only touch on this in passing. And again it is appropriate for us to turn the word to faith, by which we accept that the Universe was created from nothing, and, taught by Scripture, we have no doubt that it will again be transformed into some other state. Chapter twenty-five. How can one from outside be led to believe in the resurrection, according to the teaching of Scripture? But another, perhaps, looking at the destroyed bodies and judging the Divinity to the best of his own ability, will say that the word about the resurrection is something impossible, and at the same time will begin to assert that, just as the one who moves now can come to rest, so the one who is not moving now has no possibility of coming into motion. But let him accept for himself the first and most important proof of the truth of the resurrection as the authenticity of the preaching about it. And the reliability of what is said in Scripture makes the occurrence of other predictions undoubted. Since the Divine Scripture offers many different kinds of legends, then, having considered whether everything else said in it is false or true, one can therefore form an idea about the dogma of the resurrection. For if the words of Scripture are exposed in other ways as being false and sinning against the truth, then, of course, this word is not false. If experience has everything else as a witness to the truth, then, based on this, it will be consistent to consider the prophecy of the resurrection to be true. Therefore, let us bring to mind one or two foreshadowings and compare the event with the predicted one in order to find out from this whether this teaching is close to the truth. Who doesn’t know how the people of Israel flourished in ancient times, opposing all the kingdoms in the Universe?! What royal houses there were in the city of Jerusalem! What walls and towers! What a majestic building - a church! The disciples of the Lord recognized all this as worthy of surprise and, looking with amazement at what is visible, as the Gospel story makes clear, they wish to draw the attention of the Lord, saying to Him: What are the works, and what are the buildings (Mark 13:1). The Lord shows those marveling at the present the future desolation of the place and the destruction of this beauty, saying that soon there will be nothing left that they can see. And even during the suffering, the wives followed the Lord, mourning the unjust sentence against Him, because they did not yet notice the future dispensation. And the Lord advises them to remain silent about what is happening to Him, because it is not worthy of tears; to postpone lamentation and crying until the time that really requires tears, when the city will be surrounded by besiegers and suffering will reach such an extreme that the unborn will be considered the most blessed. And at the same time he foreshadowed this terrible thing - to eat children, saying that in those days they will bless the womb that has not given birth (Luke 23:29). And where are those royal houses now? Where is the church? Where are the walls? Where are the watchtowers? Where is the kingdom of Israel? One here, another there, the Israelis are scattered almost throughout the entire Universe. And with the destruction of all this, the royal houses were also destroyed. And it seems to me that the Lord foretold this and similar things not for the sake of the events themselves (would the prophecy of what would certainly come true have brought so much benefit to the listeners; they would have learned this from experience and without being forewarned of the future), but so that those who heard as a result of this would acquire faith in what was said about the most important things. For the evidence of the works themselves of one serves as proof of the truth of the other. If, when a farmer talks about the power of seeds, it happens that someone inexperienced in agriculture does not believe it, then to prove the truth, it would be enough for the former to show the power of one of the seeds lying in the measure and vouch for the others. For he who sees that one grain of wheat, or barley, or anything else that fills the set measure, having been thrown into the ground, has grown an ear, from this one grain he will cease to disbelieve about the others. So, to testify to the mystery of the resurrection, it seems to me, it is enough that the truth of everything else that is said in Scripture is recognized by everyone; better to say, an experimental knowledge of the resurrection itself, which we acquired not so much from words as from the deeds themselves. Since the miracle of the resurrection is great and exceeds faith, the Lord, starting with the lowest degrees of miracles, gradually accustoms us to faith with great miracles. Like a certain mother, raising a baby in accordance with his age, while his lips are soft and tender, he drinks milk from his nipples, and when teeth appear and the baby grows up, she gives him bread, but not rough and poorly baked, so that hard food does not damage the tender and unusual gums, but by chewing with his teeth, he brings him into a state commensurate and appropriate to the strength of the eater. Then, as strength increases, the baby, accustomed to gentle poverty, is gradually given more and more solid food. So the Lord, human cowardice, like some imperfect baby, feeding and drinking miracles, first shows a semblance of the power of resurrection over a desperate illness. And although the miracle in itself was great, it was not such that anyone would not believe the story about it. For by banning the fire, which had greatly inflamed Simonov’s mother-in-law, he brought about such a revolution in her illness that she who was already expected to die began to be able to serve those present (Luke 4:39). Then the Lord added something a little to this power and the son of the courtier, who lay in danger recognized by everyone (for, according to the story, he was about to die when his father cried: Come down, before the boy will even die (John 4:48-49)), gives again an uprising when they were sure that he would die, having performed this miracle with great power, because he did not even approach the sick man, but from afar by the power of command sent him life. And gradually ascends to higher miracles. On the way to his daughter, the arch-synagogue deliberately slowed down the procession so that a healing from bleeding, unknown to the people, would be discovered, and meanwhile, at that time, death took possession of the patient. Therefore, when the soul was already separated from the body and the troubled ones complained with a lamentable cry about the loss that had befallen them, the Lord, with a commanding word, as if from a dream, raises the girl back to life, with some gradualness and consistency raising human weakness to the most important. Then this too exceeds with a new miracle and a higher power paves the way for people to believe in the resurrection. Scripture tells about a certain city of Nain in Judea. In it, a certain widow had an only-begotten son, not old enough to be considered a youth, but passing from childhood to manhood. Scripture calls him a youth. History tells much in a little, and the story is quite a lament. It is said that the mother of the deceased is a widow (Luke 7:12). Do you see the severity of misfortune and how touchingly the word suffering is depicted in a few words. For what does this mean? The fact that she had no hope of having children, which could heal the disastrous loss, because the woman was not a widow. There was no one for her to look at instead of this dead man, because he was her only begotten, and how much sorrow there is in this is not difficult for anyone who is not alien to nature to understand. He was the only one she knew through the pains of birth, and he was the only one she suckled at her breasts. He alone made a cheerful meal for her. He alone served as a reason for joy in the house: playing, studying, doing business, having fun in walks, in exercises, in meetings of young people. He alone was everything that was sweet and precious in his mother’s eyes. And this branch of the clan, the branch of succession, the support of old age was already approaching the time of marriage. And the very mention of age shows another reason for crying. The Scripture, calling him a young man, expressed that he was the color of faded beauty, that as soon as the fluff showed through, he did not have a thick beard, and his cheeks still shone with beauty. Therefore, how natural it was for his mother to suffer for him! But the word of God did not pass over in silence the fact that it was as if the mother’s insides were being burned by fire, and how she, embracing the lying dead man, bitterly continued to cry over him, how she was in no hurry to bury the deceased, but, suppressed by suffering, tried to continue lamenting over him as long as possible. For it is said: Seeing you, Jesus was merciful. And I touched the bed that was wearing the stash: and I said to the dead man: Young man, I say to you, arise, and give him to his mother alive (Luke 7:13-17). So, when the young man had been dead for a considerable period of time and was almost buried, the Lord performed a much greater miracle on him, although the command was the same. But the working of miracles ascends to a higher level, so that what is revealed comes closer to an incredible miracle—the resurrection. Someone known to the Lord and loved by Him fell ill; The sick man's name was Lazarus. And the Lord slows down by visiting a friend, being away from the sick person, so that death, in the absence of Life, finds the opportunity and strength with the help of illness to do its job. In Galilee, the Lord announces to the disciples about the condition of Lazarus and about His departure to him to raise up the one who was lying down. But they, fearing the cruelty of the Jews, found it difficult and were afraid to go again to Judea among the murderers. Therefore, without haste and delay, although slowly, they returned from Galilee, because the power prevailed and the disciples were led by the Lord to see in Bethany, as it were, the first fruits of the general resurrection. Four days have already passed since the near-death suffering. Everything prescribed by law was done to the deceased. The body was hidden in the grave and, as usual, began to swell, giving in to decay, spreading into earthly pus; the corpse, of necessity, fell into pieces. It was an inaccessible matter, with violence to nature: what turned into a stench, then return again to life. And then, in the clearest miracle, the proof of this incredible thing - the general resurrection - is presented. For it is not that someone is restored from a difficult illness, and not the one who is at his last breath is raised to life, not a maiden who has just died is revived, not a young man, accompanied to the grave, again abandoned from his bed, but a man of advanced years, dead, already stinking, swollen, given over to decay, so that even to his neighbors it seemed intolerable that the Lord should approach the tomb, because of the vileness disintegrating into body parts; revived by a single proclamation, he confirms in the sermon about the resurrection, i.e. about what is expected for everyone in general, which we have partially learned through experience. For, as at the time of general renewal, the apostle says. The Lord Himself, in the voice of the Archangel, will descend with a trumpet (1 Thess. 4:16) to restore the dead to incorruption, so now, according to the voice of the command, consigned to the tomb, having shaken off death, as if some kind of dream, and having laid aside the corruption produced by deadness, he comes out of the tomb whole and undamaged - and this exodus was not hindered by hands and feet wrapped in swaddling clothes. Is this really not enough for faith in the resurrection of the dead? Or you will demand something else in order to firmly establish your opinion about it. But, it seems to me, it was not in vain that it was said about what happened in Capernaum, when the Lord, as if on behalf of the people, says to Himself the following: Whenever you speak this parable to Me, you yourself are healed by the doctor (Luke 4:23). For the doctrine of the resurrection, taught to people in a miracle over the bodies of others, had to be confirmed in the Man received from us. You have already seen powerful preaching in others. I saw those ready to die - a young woman who had just lost her life, a young man being carried to the grave, a dead man who had decayed, and all of them brought back to life by a single command. Or ask about those who suffered death from wounds and shedding of blood, whether any lack of life-giving power that appears to destroy grace on them. Look to Him whose hands are nailed. Look at Him whose side is pierced by a spear. Place your fingers on the remaining nail marks. Put your hand into the wound caused by the spear. Without a doubt, you can determine how far the point should have gone deeper into the body, judging by the width of the ulcer how far it has gone inside. For the ulcer, which gives free movement to the human hand, shows how deeply the iron has penetrated inside. Therefore, if He has risen, then it would be fitting to proclaim the apostolic word: Why do the Nets say that there is no resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15:12)? So, since every prophecy of the Lord turns out to be true according to the testimony of events, and in this reasoning we have not only been taught by the word, but have actually received proof of the promise from those who were brought back to life by the resurrection, what excuse remains for those who do not believe. Leaving behind those who through philosophy and vain flattery (Col. 2:8) reflect from themselves an unartificial faith, let us adhere to a simple confession, having learned about the method of grace from the few words of the Prophet, when he says: Take away their spirit, and they will disappear, and return to their dust: follow Your Spirit, and they will be built up, and you will renew the face of the earth (Ps. 103, 29–30 ). And then, says the Prophet, the Lord will rejoice in His work (Ps. 103:31), because sinners will disappear from the earth (Ps. 103:35). For how could anyone be called a sinner if there were no sin? Chapter twenty-six. That the resurrection is not something incredible But there are also those who, due to the powerlessness of human reason, judging the Divine power by our standards, argue that what is inconceivable for us is impossible for God. For they point to the destruction of the ancient dead, to the remains turned to ashes by fire, and in addition to this they also represent in the word carnivorous animals: fish, which, having taken into its own body the flesh of the shipwrecked, itself also became the food of people and through digestion passed into the composition of the eater. And many things similar to this, which are in themselves unimportant and unworthy of God’s great power and authority, are described to refute the teaching, as if it were impossible for God, again in the same ways through corruption, to restore to man what belongs to him. But in short words we will put an end to the long twists of their red-verbed vanity, recognizing that the decomposition of the body into what it consisted of takes place, and not only the earth, according to God’s word, decomposes into earth, but also the air and humidity turn into what is akin to them, and the transition into the akin of everything that is in us takes place, even if the human body were devoured by carnivorous birds or ferocious beasts and mixed with theirs. flesh, even if it passed under the teeth of fish, even if it was turned into vapor and ashes by fire. Wherever someone in his assumption takes a person with a word, without a doubt, he is still in the world. And that the world is contained in the hand of God - this is taught by the inspired word. Therefore, if you do not know what is in your fist, do you really think that God’s knowledge is weaker than your strength and is not able to accurately find what is contained in God’s hand? Chapter twenty-seven. About the fact that even after the decomposition of the human body into the component parts of the Universe, it is possible for each of the common things to again find his own intact But perhaps, looking at the constituent parts of the Universe, you will think: since the air that is in us has been stolen by an element akin to it, and since warmth, humidity, and green have been mixed with the homogeneous, then it is difficult for the particular to return to its place from the general. Why not conclude from human examples that at least this does not exceed the limits of Divine power. Without a doubt, you have seen somewhere near human habitations a common herd of any kind of animal, made up of common property. But when it is again divided by the owners, then either the animal’s habit of the house, or the signs placed on it, give each their own. By imagining something like this in your mind and about yourself, you will not err in decent truth. Since the soul was naturally disposed by some kind of friendship and love towards its cohabitant - the body, then some kind of friendly connection and acquaintance is secretly kept in the soul as a result of merging with what is inherent, as if from some signs imposed by nature, according to which an unfused sociability remains in it, distinguishing its property. Therefore, when the soul again attracts to itself what is related and actually belongs to it, then tell me what difficulty will prevent the Divine power from bringing about the union of what is related, hastening towards its property according to some inexplicable attraction of nature. And that in the soul, even after detachment from the body, some signs of our union remain, this is shown by the conversation in hell, from which it is clear that, although the bodies were committed to the grave, some physical sign remained in the Souls, and therefore, just as Lazarus was recognized, so the rich man did not turn out to be unknown. Therefore, there is nothing inconsistent with reason to believe that there will again be a separation of resurrected bodies from the common to their own, and especially (if one examines our nature more carefully) because what constitutes us is not entirely something flowing and transforming, and it would be completely incomprehensible if by nature there was nothing permanent in us. On the contrary, according to the most precise research, of what is in us, one is something permanent, and the other is subject to change. The body changes by increasing and decreasing, as if like some clothes, passed on with each age. With every change, the distinctive appearance remains immutable in itself, not once and for all losing the signs placed on it by nature, but with all changes in the body, showing its own signs in itself. It is appropriate to exclude from this law the change produced by passion, which extends to a distinctive appearance, because, like some alien mask, a painful ugliness covers this appearance, after which is removed by reason, as in Naaman the Syrian or among the lepers described in the Gospel, the appearance hidden under passion again appears with its own signs due to recovery. Therefore, in that which is God-like in the soul, there is no changeable-flowing or changeable, but what is natural to this is what is constantly and always the same in our composition. And since certain modifications in dissolution form differences in a distinctive form, and dissolution is nothing other than a mixture of elements - we call the elements the basic principles in the structure of the Universe, from which the human body is composed - then, since the distinctive form, like the impression of a seal, remains in the soul, it necessarily knows what the seal depicted, these features, and during the renewal it again accepts this as consistent with the features of the distinctive type; accordingly, of course, everything that was originally imprinted in a distinctive form. Therefore, there is nothing inconsistent with reason for the particular to return again to its place from the general. They say that mercury, spilled from a vessel on some sloping and dusty place, having divided into small balls, scatters on the ground, without mixing with anything it encounters; If someone collects scattered mercury in many places again into one place, then it itself merges with what is homogeneous, without including anything extraneous in its mixture. Something similar, I think, should be imagined about the human composition, that if only God’s command follows, the corresponding parts themselves join those that are their own, then the one renewing the nature will not have any difficulty in this. And in what grows from the earth we see that, whether we take wheat, or grain from a fig, or any other grain or vegetable seed, nature has no difficulty in turning them into straw, and into husks, and into ears. For without coercion, the corresponding food itself passes from the general into the special property of each of the seeds. Therefore, if from the common moisture present to all plants, each of the plants that feed on it extracts what contributes to its growth, then is there anything unusual in the doctrine of resurrection, according to which each of those resurrected, like what happens with seeds, is attracted to what is peculiar to it? Therefore, from everything we can learn that the sermon on the resurrection does not contain anything that is not known from experience; although we kept silent about what is most famous about us: I mean the very first beginning of our compilation. For who does not know this wonderful action of nature: what does the mother’s womb take into itself and what does it produce from it? Don't you see that everything that is put into the womb, as the beginning of the bodily composition, is in some way simple and consists of similar parts. What word will describe the diversity of the prepared composition? Whoever is not taught this by common nature would recognize what is happening as possible, namely, that this small and insignificant in itself serves as the beginning of such a great thing. I call it great, not only looking at the formation of the body, but also at what is more worthy of surprise, I mean the soul itself and everything seen in it. Chapter twenty-eight. Against those who assert that souls existed before bodies or, conversely, that bodies were created before souls, and at the same time a certain refutation of the fabulous doctrine of the transmigration of souls It is not beyond the scope of the work before us, perhaps, to study what in the churches is the subject of confusion about soul and body. One of those who lived before us, namely, who was engaged in the doctrine of principles [Origen], argued that souls, like some kind of society, exist on their own according to special regulations, and there are for them examples of vice and virtue, and the soul, which is in good, remains not united with the body, but if it deviates from communication with good and has an inclination towards this life, in this case it is united with the body. Others, adhering to the order in the structure of man described by Moses, say that the soul is second in time after the body. Since God first took up dust from the earth (Gen. 2:7), created man, and then animated him by inspiration, then on this basis they prove that flesh is preferable to the soul that entered the previously created flesh. The soul, they say, was created for the body, so that it would not be a lifeless and motionless creature. And everything done for something, of course, is of little value than what it is done for, just as the Gospel says that the soul is more food, and the body is clothing (Matthew 6:25), because for the soul and body - clothing and food, and not for food - the soul and not for clothing, bodies were made, on the contrary, when bodies already existed, clothes were also invented out of necessity. So, since in both assumptions the reasoning is reprehensible, both those who say fabulously that souls previously lived in a special state, and those who believe that they were created after bodies, it is necessary not to leave anything said in these teachings without examination. But to deal with all the accuracy of the reasoning of both and to discover all the inconsistencies contained in these assumptions would require a lot of time and words. Therefore, having briefly examined, if possible, each of the above-mentioned opinions, let us again turn to what was assumed. The defenders of the first teaching, who claim that souls have a different way of life before life in the flesh, in my opinion, still adhere to pagan fabulous teachings about the transmigration of the soul from one body to another. For if anyone examines precisely, he will necessarily find that their teaching tends to what one of their sages is said to have said about himself, namely: “I was a man, then I put on the body of a woman, I flew with the birds, I was a plant, I lived with the water animals.” And, in my judgment, he who claims such things about himself has not strayed far from the truth. For such a doctrine, that one soul entered into so many bodies, is truly worthy of either the cry of some frogs and jackdaws, or the dumbness of fish, or the insensibility of plants. The reason for this absurdity is the idea that souls pre-exist. For the beginning of such a teaching, opening the way for reasoning to what is nearest and immediately beyond that which appears, consistently leads to such nonsense. If the soul is distracted by some vice from the higher way of life, having once tasted, as they say, bodily life, it becomes a man; life in the flesh, in comparison with the eternal and incorporeal, is undoubtedly recognized as more passionate, then the soul in such a life, in which there are more reasons for sin, is absolutely necessary to become more vicious and more disposed to passions than it was before. The passion of the human soul is likeness to the wordless. The soul, having mastered this, passes into bestial nature and, once entering the path of vice, even in a dumb state never stops further entering into evil. For stopping in evil is already the beginning of the striving for virtue, but the dumb have no virtue. Therefore, the soul will always need to change for the worse, constantly moving into a more and more dishonest state and always seeking a worse position than the one in which it finds itself. But just as the sensible is lower than the rational, so the descent from the sensible becomes insensibility. Their reasoning reaches this far, although it revolves outside the truth, but it also deduces absurdity from absurdity with some consistency. But the fabulous doctrine deduced from this is already composed of incoherent concepts. For strict consistency indicates the corruption of the soul. The soul, once crawling into a higher life, will not be able to stop at any degree of vice, but due to its inclination towards passions it will move from a verbal state to a dumb one, and from this it will reach the insensibility of plants; In some way, the inanimate is close to the insensible, and after this comes the non-existent. And thus, according to strict consistency, their soul will become completely non-existent. Therefore, again, of necessity, it will be impossible for her to return to the better. Meanwhile, they produce a soul from a plant into a person, and this shows that plant life is preferable to incorporeal life. For it has been proven that the soul's deterioration will, as is natural, bring it down lower. Below the insensible nature is the inanimate, into which the beginning of their teaching consistently reduces the soul. And how displeasing this is to them, let them either imprison the soul forever in insensibility, or, if they want to raise it from here to human life, let them prove, as it is said, that arboreal life is preferable to the previous state, because in it the descent into vice took place, and in the former a return to virtue takes place. Therefore, somehow having neither beginning nor end, the doctrine turns out to be according to which souls, before life in the flesh, live on their own and are united with bodies due to vices. The absurdity of the doctrine of those who claim that the soul is later than the body is explained later. Therefore, the teachings of both cannot be accepted. Our teaching, as I think, should go to the truth by a middle path between these assumptions, and it consists of the following: it is not appropriate to assume, as the pagans deceive themselves, that the souls revolving with the Universe, burdened with some kind of vice, due to the impossibility of keeping up with the speed of the Moving Pole, fell to the earth; nor to assert that man was first created like an image made of clay and that the soul was created for this image. For in this case, intelligent nature will be worth less than a mortal creature. Chapter twenty-nine. Proof that the same reason for the existence of soul and body Since man, consisting of soul and body, is one, we assume one common beginning of his composition, so that he is neither older nor younger than himself, and not first the physical in him, and then the other. On the contrary, we affirm that by the foreknowing power of God, in accordance with the teaching set forth somewhat above, the entire fullness of human nature was brought into being, as evidenced by the prophecy, which says that God knows everything before their existence (Dan. 13:42). In the creation of each part, we do not present one to the other and the soul to the body, and vice versa, so that a person, separated by differences in time, is not put at odds with himself. Since, according to the apostolic teaching, our nature appears to be twofold, one in the visible man, and the other in the hidden (1 Pet. 3:4), then if one pre-existed and the other happened after, the power of the Creator will turn out to be somehow imperfect, insufficient to produce everything at once, but fragmenting the work and working separately on each half. But, as about a grain of wheat or any other seed, we say that it potentially contains everything related to the ear: greens, stem, knees on the stem, fruit, awns - and we affirm that of all this, according to the law of nature, in the nature of the seed nothing pre-exists or does not happen before, but according to the natural order, the power hidden in the seed is revealed and no alien interferes in the matter nature: according to the same law about human insemination, we assume that with the first beginning of composition, a natural force is infused, which develops and reveals itself with a certain natural sequence, proceeding to complete the whole, without borrowing anything from the outside as a means to this accomplishment, but consistently raising itself to perfection; so it would be unfair to assert that the soul came into existence before the body, or the body without the soul, but one beginning of both, according to the highest law - laid down by the first will of God, and according to another law - consisting in the methods of birth. Just as in what is sown to conceive a body before its formation it is impossible to see articulation, so in this same thing it is impossible to imagine mental properties until they begin to act. And just as no one will doubt that this all-everything forms from itself various members and interiors not by some other incoming force, hidden in the seed and naturally brought into activity, so, in accordance with this, one can also mean about the soul that, although it does not reveal itself in the visible by any activities, it nevertheless exists already in the all-everything, because the distinctive form of man, which will be formed from this, lies in this, if possible, but is hidden due to the impossibility of becoming apparent before the inevitable sequence, the soul is also in the seed, but is inconspicuous, but will reveal itself with its natural force, in accordance with bodily age. Since the power for conception is separated not from the dead, but from the animate and living body, we therefore recognize as sound the idea that what comes from the living to the beginning of life is not something dead and inanimate. For what is inanimate in the flesh is without a doubt dead. Mortality comes from the loss of the soul. No one will say that deprivation is possible before possession, but this is said by the one who asserts that the inanimate, i.e. deadness, older than the soul. But if anyone demands the clearest proof that this part is alive, which serves as the beginning of a nascent living being, then this can be understood by other signs by which the animate differs from the dead. For we consider a certain warmth, activity and movability to be proof of life in a person, and cooling and immobility in bodies is nothing other than deadness. So, since in what we are talking about we see both warmth and activity, we take this as proof that it is not inanimate. And just as from the bodily side we do not call it flesh, or bones, or hair, or anything seen in the human composition, but we say that, although it is possible that it is each of these, it does not yet appear in appearance, so from the side of the soul we say that rational, concupiscible and irritable power and everything else seen in the soul have no place in this, but, in accordance with the structure and improvement of the body, mental activities also increase in man. For, just as a person of advanced age demonstrates spiritual activity in himself in matters of no small importance, so at the beginning of his education he shows in himself the assistance of the soul, consistent and commensurate with the real need, in that it constructs a kindred dwelling for itself from all-natural substances. For we recognize it as impossible for the soul to adapt other people’s dwellings to itself, just as a seal made on wax cannot be applied to other impressions. Just as the body comes from a very small age to full age, so the mental activity, growing in a person in accordance with the body, develops and increases. During the initial constitution of the body, like a certain root hidden in the earth, one vegetative and nutritional force precedes in the soul, because the smallness of the receiving body cannot contain more. Then, when this plant comes into the light and shows its sprout to the sun, the gift of sensitivity blossoms. When it ripens and reaches a commensurate height, then, like some kind of fruit, rational power begins to shine through, however, not all of it is suddenly revealed, but quickly growing along with the improvement of the instrument and always bearing as much fruit as the human strength can accommodate. If you are looking for spiritual activities in the formation of the body, then pay attention to yourself, says Moses (Deut. 4:9), and, as in a book, read the history of the actions of the soul. For nature itself will tell you more clearly than any word the various activities of the soul in the body in the structure of both the whole and the parts. But I consider it unnecessary to describe in words what concerns us ourselves, as if talking about some extraneous miracles. For who, looking at himself, will find the need of someone else's word in order to study his own nature? Anyone who has understood the ways of life and found out how capable the body is of all vital activities can learn what the natural forces of the soul were occupied with during the initial formation of man. Therefore, from this it becomes clear to those who are not entirely inattentive that that which, for the production of an animal being, having been extracted from a living body, is put into the artistic church of nature, is neither dead nor inanimate. We plant both the core of the fruit and the shoots of the roots in the ground, not dead and not having lost the vitality invested in them by nature, but retaining in themselves, although hidden, but certainly living, the properties of the prototype. The earth surrounding them does not impart the same force from the outside, separating it from itself, for in this case the dead parts of the trees would also give off shoots, but, on the contrary, it shows only the power hidden in the planted plant, nourishing it with its own moisture and the formation of roots, bark, core, shoots, branches, bringing the plant to perfection. And this could not have happened if some natural force had not been invested, which, attracting similar and appropriate food from the environment, became a bush, or a tree, or an ear, or some kind of vegetable plant. Chapter Thirty. A brief, medical overview of the structure of our body But, although everyone teaches himself the exact structure of our body, having his own nature as a teacher in what he sees, lives and feels, nevertheless, everything can be learned exactly by one who takes books in which the history of all this is set out, laboriously compiled by the wise in such things as this. Some of them, through dissection of bodies, studied what position each member has in us, while others noted and explained what exactly each part of the body was created for, so that the hardworking would gain from here sufficient knowledge of the human structure. But if anyone demands that the Church be a teacher in all this, so that there is no need for an extraneous voice for anything - for, as the Lord says, this is the law for spiritual sheep: not to listen to an alien voice (John 10:5) - then let us briefly outline the teaching about this too. In the nature of the body, we have noticed three purposes for which each individual member in us is designed. One is designed to live, the other is designed to live well, and the other is adapted to hereditary succession. Therefore, we noticed everything without which human life cannot take place in us in three parts: in the head, heart and liver. And what serves as some addition to these benefits through the generosity of nature, and what gives a person the opportunity to live well, these constitute the senses. Such organs are not essential for life, because often, even with a deficiency of some of them, a person nevertheless preserves life, but without their activity it is impossible for a person to enjoy the pleasures of life. The third goal relates to what follows and to succession. But, besides these organs, some others serve to support all organs in general and constitute a complement corresponding to each member. Such are the stomach and the lung: the lung, with its breath, ignites the fire in the heart, and the stomach contains food in the entrails. Therefore, with such a division of our structure, one can accurately understand that the vital force is not uniformly and not by any one member brought into action in us, but that nature, having allocated to many parts the means for the structure of our composition, makes it necessary for each organ to contribute its tribute to the benefit of the whole. Why are the organs, which by nature are cunningly arranged for the safety and beauty of life, both numerous and of great variety. But I think that we must first briefly, but in more detail, reveal the first principles of what serves to form life. Therefore, let us now remain silent about the general substance of the whole body, which lies at the basis of each of its members, because this general natural science will not in the least serve our goal - private observation. As everyone recognizes that we have a part of everything seen in the world in the form of elements, i.e. heat and cold, as well as another mental pair, moisture and dryness, then it is appropriate for us to consider each element separately. So, we see three governing vital forces, one of which warms everything with warmth, the other infuses what is warmed with moisture, so that the equivalence of the qualities of opposites is maintained in the middle and the moisture is not scorched by an excess of heat and the warmth is not extinguished by the predominance of the cooling. The third force contains in some proximity and harmony the separated joints, connecting them with its ligaments and imparting to everyone a self-propelled voluntary force, with the lack of which this organ becomes separate and deadened, deprived of voluntary breathing. Before this, the artistry of our nature in the very creation of the body is more worthy of note. Since the hard and stubborn does not accept the activity of the senses, as can be seen in our bones and in earthly plants, in which we notice some kind of life in what grows and feeds, the feelings, on the contrary, did not accept their persistence, then for sensory activities it was necessary to make a kind of wax-like shell that could imprint on itself perceptible imprints, and would not drain them due to excess moisture (because what is imprinted does not remain on the wet), and did not resist the imprint due to excessive hardness (because the unyielding does not leave marks of the imprinted on itself), but took a middle ground between softness and hardness, so that a living creature would not be deprived of the most beautiful of natural actions - I mean sensitive movement. Since the soft and pliable, not having any activity characteristic of hard things, would, without a doubt, be motionless, inarticulate, like sea jelly, then nature mixed the hardness of bones into the body and connected them together with an integral proportionality, bringing them together and fastening them with bonds from the veins, then overlaid them with flesh accessible to the senses, less sensitive, and more firmly folded on the surface. On these naturally hard bones, as if on some kind of pillars supporting a building, the whole weight of the body was placed, and more than one indivisible bone was placed in the whole composition. A person would remain motionless and inactive if he had such a device, like some kind of tree, holding in one place, because he could not make forward movements by rearranging his legs, nor use the helpfulness of his hands in life. Now, with this idea, nature skillfully arranged that this instrument is both mobile and active, with voluntary breathing passing through the veins, putting into the body both the desire for movements and the strength for them. Hence the varied, many-sided, helpfulness of hands suitable for any idea. Hence the agility of the neck, bending and all sorts of movements of the head, the activity of the jaw, spreading and, at the same time, bending of the eyebrows; and the movements of other members are produced as if in some kind of machine by compression and stretching of certain veins. The force passing through them has some kind of self-propelled aspiration, in each of them acting with voluntary breathing according to the special vision of nature. And the root and beginning of all movements in the veins is the fibrous hymen that envelops the brain. Therefore, we think: it is not appropriate to be much curious about the vital organs, what they are, when we have learned that the driving force is in the brain. And that the brain contributes very much to life is clearly revealed from opposite cases. For if anyone suffers any blow or rupture of the hymen, death will immediately follow, because nature is not able to withstand this blow even for a moment, just as if you begin to break out the foundation, then the whole building with this part will be shaken. And what, when damaged, is accompanied by the obvious death of an entire living being, is (one cannot help but admit) the main reason for life. Since in those who have ceased to live, with the extinguishing of the warmth invested in nature, the dead becomes cold, therefore we see in warmth the cause of life. For about the loss of which follows death, it is necessary to recognize that by the presence of this life is maintained in a living being. And we notice, as it were, some source and beginning of such power in the heart, from which multi-branched pipes like pipes, one from another, pour out a kind of fiery warm breath throughout the body. And just as it is imperative that nature provides some food for warmth, because fire cannot be sustained by itself without being nourished by something suitable for this, therefore, through the liver, as if from some source, the supplied flows of blood together with warm breath go everywhere in the body so inseparably that, due to the mutual separation of one from the other, the suffering that has occurred would destroy the nature itself. Let this enlighten those who have not observed equality, teaching by nature itself that covetousness is a kind of pernicious disease. But since the Divinity alone has no need for anything, while human wretchedness needs external things to support itself, then to these three forces, by which, as we said, the whole body is organized, nature supplies inflowing substance from the outside, introducing in different ways the corresponding to each force. For the source of blood, i.e. liver, nature has provided the supply through food. What is constantly supplied by food causes streams of blood to pour out of the liver, just as snow on the mountains with its inherent moisture increases the foothill springs, forcing its moisture through the entire height of the mountain to the lower veins. The air in the atrium enters there through a part of the interior located near it, which is called the lung and is a receiver of air and, through the beating vein lying in it, extending to the mouth, draws in external air by inhalation. There is a heart divided in the middle, in imitation of the activity of ever-moving fire, itself constantly moving and similar to what is produced in fur forges, and draws into itself air from the adjacent lung, and, filling the voids resulting from the expansion and inflating what is fiery in itself, exhales into the adjacent beating veins. And it does not stop this action, both by drawing the external air into its own voids by expanding them, and by releasing it from itself into beating veins by compression. This, it seems to me, is what becomes the cause of this self-propelled breathing in us. For often the mind is occupied with something else or is completely at rest, detached from the body in sleep, but the inhalation of air does not stop without any assistance from our will. For, I think, since the heart, being connected to the lung and connected with it by its back part, sets the insides in motion with its expansion and contraction, then the drawing in of air and breathing is carried out by the lung. For the lung, being something rare, a vessel filled with holes and having all the voids in itself opened at the base of the beating vein, when squeezed and compressed, the air remaining in the hollows necessarily ejects with force, and when expanded and open, it draws in the external air into the gap, which has become empty from attraction. And this is the reason for this involuntary breathing - the impossibility of the fiery in us becoming motionless. And since heat is characterized by activity in motion, and we have noticed the beginning of warmth in the heart, then incessant movement in this organ produces a continuous urge to exit and inhale air with the lungs. Why, when the fiery tension is supernaturally intense, the breathing of those scorched by the feverish heat becomes rapid, as if the heart is in a hurry to extinguish the flame hidden in it with new air. But since our nature is something meager and, for its own maintenance, having a need for everything, it is so poor that it does not only have its own air, but also breath that excites warmth, then in order to preserve a living being, something is constantly brought in from the outside. And the food that supports the bodily composition, acquired from him, why fills the needy body with food and drink when it is in short supply, investing in it some kind of attractive, and when in excess, repulsive force. and at the same time, the heart fire provides nature with considerable assistance. Since of the vital organs, for the reason stated above, the most important is the heart, which revives each of the other organs with warm breath, our Creator made it all effective according to the productivity of force, so that not a single part of it remains without action and without benefit in the economy of the whole. Therefore, the heart, descending from the lung and constantly drawing the insides towards itself, expands the passages for drawing in external air, and rising again upward, it promotes the exhalation of the air that is inside. With its anterior parts, being in connection with the vagina of the upper stomach, it warms it and sets it in motion for its own activities, stimulating it not to draw in air, but to accept appropriate food, because the entrances for breathing and for food are close to each other, running along one opposite the other, at the top they are equally close, so that the openings converge with each other, and both of these passages end in the same mouth, of which one enters the food for us, breath for others. But in the depths, the mutual connection of this pair of passages is not preserved everywhere, because the heart, located in the middle between the bases of both, gives strength to one for breathing, and to the other for nutrition. Fire usually seeks substances to burn. The same thing necessarily happens with the food intake. For, to the extent that it is heated by the neighboring warmth, to the same extent it is attracted by the nourishing warmth, and such an impulse is called the urge to eat. If the bodily vessel in which the food is put takes in a sufficient amount of substance, then in this case the activity of the fire does not calm down, but, as in a smelter, produces some kind of alloy of substance and, having decomposed and mixed what was solid, pours it, as it were, from a crucible into the following passages. Then, separating the coarser from the pure, he conveys the thinned ones through the gates of the liver, as if through water pipes. And the thick sediment of food is thrown into the wider gastric passages and, circling through them in different turns for some time, retains the food in the insides, so that what is easily ejected along the straight passage does not immediately arouse the urge for food in a living being and a person, by nature dumb, is forced to never leave such work. Since the liver also most needs the assistance of heat to convert juices into blood, and its position is far from the heart (for, I think, being a certain beginning and root of vital force, it cannot be crowded out by another principle), then, so that the remoteness of the calorific essence does not damage the entire economy in any way, the fibrous passage (among those knowledgeable in this it is called a beating vein), taking into itself the heated breath, transfers from the heart to the liver, where, having closed several of its openings with the entry of moisture and brought the liquid to a boil with heat, it deposits something of a fiery affinity in the moisture, and colors the blood with a fiery color. Then, two certain aqueducts, each of which, like a pipe, contains in itself: one - breath, and the other - blood, so that both conveniently make their way, starting in the liver, liquid, accompanied and facilitated by the movement of heat, disperse in many parts throughout the body, in every part of it dividing into thousands of beginnings and branches of these wires. The two principles of vital forces, merging with each other, imparting to the body: one - warmth, the other - moisture, as if some necessary tribute from their property is brought to the government power of vital economy. And this is a force that opens in the meninges and in the brain; from it every movement of the joints, every contraction of the muscles, every voluntary breathing transmitted to each part separately; and this shows our earthly statue, like some kind of machine, driven and in motion. What is the purest in the warm and the most subtle in the moist, then, being combined by one and the other force into a certain mixture and dissolution, nourishes and supports the brain with evaporations. And what comes out of the brain, being refined by it to the highest degree of purity, strengthens the hymen enclosing the brain, which, like a pipe, extends from top to bottom, carrying itself and the cerebellum lying in it along a series of vertebrae, ending at the base of the dorsal vertebra. The brain, like some kind of horseman, gives impulse and strength to all the connections of the bones and joints and the beginnings of the muscles in every movement and at every stop. That is why, it seems to me, he was awarded more reliable protection, surrounded around and in the head by a double fence of bones and in the vertebrae by prominent spines and various interweavings on the outside, which protects him from any possibility of suffering anything, because he is surrounded by reliable guards. In a similar way, another may conclude about the heart that it, like any house brought to safety by strongholds, is also protected from everywhere, strengthened by bone fences. For the dorsal vertebra passes behind, protected on both sides by the shoulder blades; in each side, the encircling position of the ribs makes the middle in no way susceptible to suffering from the outside. And in front, the chest and a pair of collarbones protrude, so that the heart is safe from everywhere and protected from external attacks. Something similar can be seen in agriculture, when rain from clouds or irrigation from water pipes moistens the soil. Let us imagine a garden in our mind; it grows thousands of different trees and all kinds of plants, each of which has a very different appearance, quality, and color properties. And when so many plants in one place are fed by the same moisture, although the force that waters each of them by nature is one and the same, the property of the nourished plants transforms the moisture into different properties. The same moisture in wormwood turns bitter, in hemlock it becomes a poisonous juice, and in something else - in saffron, in balsam, in poppy it takes on other properties; in one it gets hot, in another it cools down, and in another it shows an average quality in itself; in laurel, spikenard and similar plants - fragrant; in the fig tree and in the pear - sweet; the vine turns into a bunch and into wine. And the acidity of the apple, and the blush of the rose, and the whiteness of the lilies, and the bluishness of the violet, and the purple color of the hyacinth, and everything that can be seen on the earth, vegetating from the same moisture, differs in so many differences in appearance, appearance and qualities. Nature, or, better to say, the Lord of Nature, works miracles in our animated field. Bones, cartilage, blood beating veins, fibers, ligaments of flesh, skin, fat, hair, glands, nails, eyes, nostrils, ears - everything like this, and besides thousands of other joints, differing from each other in different properties, feed on one type of food according to their nature, so that food, approaching each of the members, changes in what it is close to, becoming characteristic and akin to the quality of this organ. If it is in the eye, it will dissolve with this visual organ and, as is typical for the differences in the eye covers, will be distributed to each. If it flows to the auditory joints, it mixes with the nature of hearing; having entered the lip, it becomes a lip; it hardens in the bones, softens in the cerebellum, comes into tension in the veins and stretches with the surfaces, passes into the nails, thins in the corresponding fumes until it produces hair. If it passes along tortuous paths, it produces curly and curly hair, and if the passage of hair-bearing fumes occurs along straight paths, then it produces long and straight hair. But our word deviated far from what was proposed, delving into the affairs of nature and attempting to describe how and from what everything in us was made up that serves both to live and to live well, and to what else, besides this, we noticed from the first division. For we proposed to prove that the seeding cause of our composition is neither an incorporeal soul nor an inanimate body, but that initially a living animate being is born from animate and living bodies. Human nature, having accepted it, like some kind of nurse, itself nourishes it with its own strength; it feeds in both of its parts, and in each part it clearly increases accordingly. For with this artistic and skillful formation of nature, the power of the soul associated with it is immediately revealed, although at first it turns out to be weak, but subsequently shines along with the improvement of the instrument, just as can be seen in sculptors. The artist needs to imagine the appearance of some animal from stone. Having assumed this, he first cleanses the stone of the substance that has grown to it, then, cutting off its unnecessary parts, by imitation of what was assumed, he somewhat approaches it in a rough form, so that even the unskilled guesses the purpose of art from what is visible. Starting to work again, he gets even closer to the desired likeness. Then, having developed a perfect and precise form from the substance, he brings the art to completion. And this stone, which not long before had no image, is made by the artist to be either a lion, or a man, or whatever it may be, not because the substance is changed by this appearance, but because this appearance is artificially given to the substance. By attributing something similar to the soul, we will not sin against the truth. For we affirm that nature, which artistically processes everything from a homogeneous substance, having taken into itself a part taken from a person, creates statues. But, just as the gradual processing of stone was followed by a form, at first weak, but at the end of the work most perfect, so in the sculpture of a tool the form of the soul, corresponding to what was assumed, appears in the imperfect, imperfect, and in the perfect, perfect. But it would have been perfect at the very beginning if the nature had not been damaged by sin. That is why communication with passionate and bestial birth has made it possible that not suddenly the image of God shines in creation, but in some way and consistently, according to the material and more animal properties of the soul, it leads man to perfection. The great apostle expounds a similar teaching in his Epistle to the Corinthians, saying: When the child was like a child, he thought like a child; and when the man was, he rejected the child (1 Cor. 13:11); not because another soul enters into the husband, except for that which is mentally represented in the boy, and the infantile understanding is rejected, and the male one appears, but because the same soul, imperfect in the child, turns out to be perfect in the husband. Just as we say about something that is born and grows that it lives, so about any creature that participates in life and natural movement, no one will say that it is inanimate, although it is impossible to say that such life participates in a perfect soul. For some kind of mental activity that appears in plants does not reach the movements of feeling. Again, even in the dumb, a certain spiritual force that gradually shows itself does not reach perfection, because it does not contain the gift of speech and understanding. Therefore, we say that the human soul is a true and perfect soul, allowing itself to be known through all activities. If anything else is involved in life, we call it animate out of the habit of expressing ourselves imprecisely, not because in it there is a perfect soul, but because certain parts of mental activity are noticeable in it, which, as we know from the mysterious legend of Moses about the existence of man, appeared in him because he became accustomed to the passionate. That is why Paul, advising those who want to listen to achieve perfection, also offers a way to get what they want, saying that it is proper to put off the old man and put on the new man, renewed in the image of the Creator (Col. 2:22). But let us all return to the same God-like grace with which God first created man, saying: Let us create in our image and likeness. To him be glory and power forever and ever! Amen. You might be interested in: