What is truly our own
Basil continues his argument that wealth and pleasures are alien possessions, now turning to what is genuinely ours: the soul and the body.
Or do we not know how many fields, how many houses, how many nations and cities took on the names of other masters while those who acquired them were still alive? And how those who once were slaves climbed onto the throne of rule, while those called lords and masters were content to stand among the governed, and bowed down to their own slaves, as if in a turn of the dice their affairs had suddenly been reversed?
As for the things devised for our eating and drinking, and all that wealth in its insolence has contrived beyond need for the service of the thankless belly that holds nothing back—when could they ever be ours, even if they are poured in continually? They deposit only a small pleasure in the taste as they pass, and immediately we are disgusted with them as troublesome and superfluous, and we eagerly cast them out, as if, should they linger in the inward parts, we would be in the greatest danger for our very life. At any rate, surfeit has brought death to many, and has become the provider of no longer enjoying anything at all.
And licentious beds, and profane embraces, and all the works of a raging and frenzied soul—are they not plainly and entirely a loss to nature, and a conspicuous harm, and rather an alienation and diminishment of what truly belongs to each person, as the body is diminished in its couplings and robbed of the most genuine and sustaining nourishment of its members? Therefore, for each of those who have wallowed in licentious beds, immediately after the act, when the sting of the flesh has withered away and the mind has come to the loathsome end of what it attempted, as if from drunkenness or some storm it finds leisure to consider where on earth it is, a violent regret for its lack of self-control enters in. For it perceives that the body has become weaker, sluggish for the work of necessary tasks, and altogether feeble.
This, then, is what the trainers understood when the law of self-control was written in the wrestling schools, keeping the bodies of the young men inviolate from pleasures, and not permitting them, while they were competing, even to glance at shining faces, if they wished to have their heads crowned—since lack of self-control brings laughter in the wrestling, not a crown.
These things, then, as entirely alien and superfluous, and unable to become the property of anyone, it is good to pass by with eyes shut. But of the things that are truly ours, we ought to take great forethought. What then is truly ours? The soul, by which we live, which is something fine and intellectual, and needs none of the things that weigh it down; and the body, the vehicle given to it for life by the Creator. For this is a human being: a mind bound in suitable and fitting flesh. This is fashioned in our mothers' wombs by the all-wise craftsman of all things. This the time of birth pangs leads into the light from those dark chambers. This was appointed to rule over the things on earth. For this, creation has been spread out as a training ground of virtue. For this, a law is laid down: to imitate the Maker as far as possible, and to sketch in outline on earth the good order of the heavens. This, when it is called from here, departs. This stands before the judgment seat of the God who sent it.
Greek
Ἢ οὐκ ἴσμεν ὁπόσοι μὲν ἀγροὶ, πό σαι δὲ οἰκίαι, πόσα δὲ ἔθνη καὶ πόλεις, καὶ ζώντων ἔτι τῶν κτησαμένων, ἑτέρων ὀνόματα μετημφιάσαντο δεσποτῶν; καὶ ὡς οἱ μὲν πάλαι δουλεύοντες ἐπὶ τὸν τῆς ἀρχῆς θρόνον ἀνέβησαν, οἱ δὲ κύριοι καὶ δεσπό ται καλούμενοι στῆναι μετὰ τῶν ἀρχομένων ἠγάπη σαν, καὶ τοῖς ἑαυτῶν δούλοις ὑπέκυψαν, ὥσπερ ἐν κύβων περιτροπαῖς, μεταχθέντων ἄφνω τῶν πραγμάτων αὐτοῖς; Τά γε μὴν εἰς βρῶσιν ἡμῖν ἐπινενοημένα καὶ πόσιν, καὶ πάντα, ὅσα πέρα τῆς χρείας ὁ πλοῦτος ὑβρίζων ἐμηχανήσατο πρὸς θεραπείαν τῆς ἀχαρί στου καὶ μηδὲν στεγούσης γαστρὸς, πότ' ἂν ἡμέτερα γένοιτο, κἂν ἐπαντλῆται διηνεκῶς; Ἅ γε μικράν τινα τῇ γεύσει μόνον ἐναποθέμενα κατὰ τὴν πάροδον ἡδο νὴν, εὐθὺς ὡς ὀχληρὰ καὶ περιττὰ δυσχεραίνομεν, καὶ μετὰ σπουδῆς ἔξω ποι βάλλομεν, ὡς εἰ τοῖς σπλάγχνοις ἐγχρονίσοι, τὰ μέγιστα περὶ τοῦ ζῇν κινδυνεύσοντες. Πολλοῖς γοῦν ὁ κόρος ἤγαγε θάνα τον, καὶ τοῦ μηδενὸς ἀπολαύειν ἔτι γεγένηται πρό ξενος. Κοῖται δὲ ἀσελγεῖς, καὶ βέβηλοι συμπλοκαὶ, καὶ πάντα ὅσα λυττώσης ἔργα καὶ παραφόρου ψυχῆς, οὐχὶ πρόδηλος πάντη ζημία τῇ φύσει, καὶ βλάβη περιφανὴς, καὶ τῶν ἰδίων ὄντως ἑκάστου μᾶλ λον ἀλλοτρίωσίς τε καὶ μείωσις, ἐλαττουμένου τοῦ σώματος ἐν ταῖς μίξεσι, καὶ τῆς γνησιωτάτης καὶ συνεκτικωτάτης τῶν μελῶν ἀποσυλωμένου τροφῆς; Τοιγαροῦν ἑκάστου τῶν ταῖς ἀσελγέσιν ἐγκαλινδηθέντων εὐναῖς, μετὰ τὴν πρᾶξιν εὐθὺς, ὅταν ὁ μὲν τῆς σαρκὸς οἶστρος ἀπομαρανθῇ, πρὸς τὸ βδελυρὸν δὲ ὧν ἐνεχείρησε πέρας ἐλθὼν ὁ νοῦς, ὥσπερ ἐκ μέθης ἢ χειμῶνός τινος, τοῦ λογίσασθαι, ποῖ ποτέ ἐστι, λάβοι σχολὴν, σφοδρός τις εἰσέρχεται τῆς ἀκρασίας μετάμελος. Ἀδρανεστέρου τε γὰρ αἰσθάνεται γεγενη μένου τοῦ σώματος, καὶ πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀναγκαίων ἐργασίαν νωθροῦ, καὶ παντάπασιν ἀσθενοῦς. Τοῦτο δὴ ἄρα καὶ τοῖς παιδοτρίβαις κατανοήσασιν ὁ τῆς σωφροσύνης ἐν ταῖς παλαίστραις γέγραπται νό μος, ἄσυλα παρὰ τῶν ἡδονῶν τοῖς νεανίσκοις φυλάττων τὰ σώματα, καὶ οὐκ ἐπιτρέπων ἀγωνιζομένοις αὐτοῖς, οὐδὲ ὄσον προσβλέψαι ταῖς λαμπού σαις μορφαῖς, εἴγε ἐθέλοιεν στεφανωθῆναι τὴν κεφα λὴν, ὡς τῆς ἀκρασίας γέλωτα ἀγούσης ἐν τῷ παλαίειν, οὐ στέφανον. Ταῦτα μὲν ὡς ἀλλότρια πάντη καὶ περιττὰ, καὶ οὐδενὸς ἴδια γενέσθαι δυνάμενα, παρατρέχειν καλὸν, τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐπιμύσαντας· τῶν δὲ ὄντως ἡμετέρων πρόνοιαν προσήκει ποιεῖσθαι πολλήν. Τί δὲ ὄντως ἡμέτερον; Ψυχή τε, ᾗ ζῶμεν, λεπτή τις οὖσα καὶ νοερὰ, καὶ οὐδὲν δεομένη τῶν βαρυνόντων· καὶ σῶμα, τὸ ταύτῃ δοθὲν ὄχημα πρὸς τὸν βίον παρὰ τοῦ κτί σαντος. Τοῦτο γὰρ ἄνθρωπος· νοῦς ἐνδεδεμένος προσ φόρῳ καὶ πρεπούσῃ σαρκί. Τοῦτο ὑπὸ τοῦ πανσόφου τεχνίτου τῶν ὅλων ἐν τοῖς μητρῴοις ἡμῶν πλάττεται κόλποις. Τοῦτο εἰς φῶς ἐκ τῶν σκοτεινῶν ἐκεί νων θαλάμων ὁ τῶν ὠδίνων ἄγει καιρός. Τοῦτο ἄρ χειν ἐτάχθη τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς. Τούτῳ γυμνάσιον ἀρετῆς ἡ κτίσις ὑφήπλωται. Τούτῳ κεῖται νόμος, μιμεῖσθαι τὸν πλάστην εἰς δύναμιν, καὶ τὴν ἐν οὐρανοῖς εὐταξίαν σκιαγραφεῖν ἐπὶ γῆς. Τοῦτο, ἐντεῦθεν καλούμενον, ἀπανίσταται. Τοῦτο τῷ τοῦ πέμψαντος Θεοῦ παρ ίσταται βήματι.