This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
Click on a word to bring up parses, dictionary entries, and frequency statistics
Ἐγὼ γοῦν κἀκεῖνο φήσαιμ̓ ἄν: ἐπειδὴ τὰ μὲν
[p. 300]
ἐντός ἐστι τῆς ψυχῆς, τὰ δὲ ἐκτός, κἂν μὲν ἡ ψυχὴ
χρῆται καλῶς, καλὰ καὶ ταῦτα δοκεῖ, ἐὰν δὲ
πονηρῶς, πονηρά, ὁ κελεύων ἀπαλλοτριοῦν τὰ
ὑπάρχοντα πότερον ταῦτα παραιτεῖται ὧν ἀναιρεθέντων
ἔτι τὰ πάθη μένει, ἢ ἐκεῖνα μᾶλλον ὧν
ἀναιρεθέντων καὶ τὰ κτήματα χρήσιμα γίνεται;
ὁ τοίνυν ἀποβαλὼν τὴν κοσμικὴν περιουσίαν ἔτι
δύναται πλουτεῖν τῶν παθῶν, καὶ τῆς ὕλης μὴ
παρούσης: ἡ γάρ τοι διάθεσις τὸ αὑτῆς ἐνεργεῖ
καὶ τὸν λογισμὸν ἄγχει καὶ πιέζει καὶ φλεγμαίνει
ταῖς συντρόφοις ἐπιθυμίαις: οὐδὲν οὖν προὔργου
γέγονεν αὐτῷ πτωχεύειν χρημάτων πλουτοῦντι τῶν
παθῶν. οὐ γὰρ τὰ ἀπόβλητα ἀπέβαλεν, ἀλλὰ τὰ
ἀδιάφορα, καὶ τῶν μὲν ὑπηρετικῶν ἑαυτὸν περιέκοψεν,
ἐξέκαυσε δὲ τὴν ὕλην τῆς κακίας τὴν
ἔμφυτον τῇ τῶν ἐκτὸς ἀπορίᾳ. ἀποτακτέον οὖν
τοῖς ὑπάρχουσι τοῖς βλαβεροῖς, οὐχὶ τοῖς ἐὰν
ἐπίστηταί τις τὴν ὀρθὴν χρῆσιν καὶ συνωφελεῖν
δυναμένοις: ὠφελεῖ δὲ τὰ μετὰ φρονήσεως καὶ
σωφροσύνης καὶ εὐσεβείας οἰκονομούμενα. ἀπωστέα
δὲ τὰ ἐπιζήμια, τὰ δὲ ἐκτὸς οὐ βλάπτει.
Οὕτως οὖν ὁ κύριος καὶ τὴν τῶν ἐκτὸς χρείαν
εἰσάγει, κελεύων ἀποθέσθαι οὐ τὰ βιωτικά, ἀλλὰ
τὰ τούτοις κακῶς χρώμενα: ταῦτα δὲ ἦν τὰ τῆς
ψυχῆς ἀρρωστήματα καὶ πάθη.
Clement of Alexandria. G.W. Butterworth. Clement of Alexandria, with an English Translation by G.W. Butterworth. William Heinemann Ltd; G.P. Putnam's Sons. London; New York. 1919. Keyboarding.
Google Digital Humanities Awards Program provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.