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That Our Irrational Passions Have Their Rise from Kindred with Irrational Nature
Patrologia Graeca 44.192-6 * Greek Fonts
OR I
think that from this beginning all our passions issue as from a
spring, and pour their flood over man's life; and an evidence of my
words is the kinship of passions which appears alike in ourselves and
in the brutes; for it is not allowable to ascribe the first beginnings
of our constitutional liability to passion to that human nature which
was fashioned in the Divine likeness; but as brute life first entered
into the world, and man, for the reason already mentioned, took
something of their nature (I mean the mode of generation), he
accordingly took at the same time a share of the other attributes
contemplated in that nature; for the likeness of man to God is not
found in anger, nor is pleasure a mark of the superior nature;
cowardice also, and boldness, and the desire of gain, and the dislike
of loss, and all the like, are far removed from that stamp which
indicates Divinity. |
Ὅτι τὰ ἄλογα ἐν ἡμῖν πάθη ἐκ τῆς πρὸς τὴν ἄλογον φύσιν συγγενείας τὰς ἀφορμὰς ἔχειΟἶμαι γὰρ ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς ταύτης καὶ τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον πάθη͵ οἷον ἐκ τινος πηγῆς συνδοθέντα πλημμυρεῖν ἐν τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ ζωῇ. Τεκμήριον δὲ τῶν λόγων ἡ τῶν παθημάτων συγγένεια κατὰ τὸ ἶσον ἡμῖν τε καὶ τοῖς ἀλόγοις ἐμφαινομένη. Οὐ γὰρ δὴ θέμις τῇ ἀνθρωπίνῃ φύσει͵ τῇ κατὰ τὸ θεῖον εἶδος μεμορφωμένῃ͵ τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς διαθέσεως προσμαρτυρεῖν τὰς πρώτας ἀρχάς. Ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ προεισῆλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον ἡ τῶν ἀλόγων ζωή͵ ἔσχε δέ τι διὰ τὴν εἰρημένην αἰτίαν τῆς ἐκεῖθεν φύσεως καὶ ὁ ἄνθρωπος͵ τὸ κατὰ τὴν γένεσιν λέγω͵ συμμετέσχε διὰ τούτου καὶ τῶν λοιπῶν τῶν ἐν ἐκείνῃ θεωρουμένων τῇ φύσει. Οὐ γὰρ κατὰ τὸν θυμόν ἐστι τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἡ πρὸς τὸ Θεῖον ὁμοίωσις͵ οὔτε διὰ τῆς ἡδονῆς ἡ ὑπερέχουσα χαρακτηρίζεται φύσις͵ δειλία τε καὶ θράσος καὶ ἡ τοῦ πλείονος ἔφεσις καὶ τὸ πρὸς τὸ ἐλαττοῦσθαι μῖσος καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα πόῤῥω τοῦ θεοπρεποῦς χαρακτῆρός ἐστι.Ταῦτα τοίνυν ἐκ τοῦ ἀλόγου μέρους ἡ ἀνθρωπίνη φύσις πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἐφειλκύσατο. Οἷς γὰρ ἡ ἄλογος ζωὴ πρὸς συντήρησιν ἑαυτῆς ἠσφαλίσθη͵ ταῦτα πρὸς τὸν ἀνθρώπινον μετενεχθέντα βίον͵ πάθη ἐγένετο. Θυμῷ μὲν γὰρ συντηρεῖται τὰ ὠμοβόρα, φιληδονία δὲ τὰ πολυγονοῦντα τῶν ζώων σώζει, τὸν ἄναλκιν ἡ δειλία καὶ τὸν εὐάλωτον τοῖς ἰσχυροτέροις ὁ φόβος͵ τὸν δὲ πολύσαρκον ἡ λαιμαργία. Καὶ τὸ διαμαρτεῖν οὑτινοσοῦν τῶν καθ' ἡδονὴν λύπης ὑπόθεσις ἐν τοῖς ἀλόγοις ἐστί. Ταῦτα πάντα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα διὰ τῆς κτηνώδους γενέσεως συνεισῆλθε τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου κατασκευῇ. |
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