that there is no one to care for anything, but that all things consist of atoms?311 Or, others
again who say that God is a body? Or who, tell me, are they? Are they those who would turn
the souls of men into the souls of dogs, and would pervade mankind that one was once a
dog, and a lion, and a fish? How long will ye go on and never cease trifling, “being darkened
in the understanding”? for they say and do all things as though they were indeed in the dark,
both in those things which concern doctrine, and those which concern life and conduct; for
the man who is in darkness sees none of the things which lie before him, but oftentimes
when he sees a rope, he will take it for a live serpent;312 or again, if he is caught by a hedge,
he will think that a man or an evil spirit has hold of him, and great is the alarm, and great
the perturbation. Such as these are the things they fear. “There were they in great fear,” it
saith, “where no fear was” (Ps. liii. 5.); but the things which they ought to fear, these they
fear not. But just as children in their nurses’ arms thrust their hands incautiously into the
fire, and boldly into the candle also, and yet are scared at a man clothed in sackcloth; just
so these Greeks, as if they were really always children, (as some one also amongst themselves
has said,313 the Greeks are always children,) fear those things that are no sins, such as
filthiness of the body, the pollution of a funeral,314 a bed, or the keeping of days, and the
like: whereas those which are really sins, unnatural lust, adultery, fornication, of these they
make no account at all. No, you may see a man washing himself from the pollution of a
dead body, but from dead works, never; and, again, spending much zeal in the pursuit of
riches, and yet supposing the whole is undone by the crowing of a single cock. “So darkened
are they in their understanding.” Their soul is filled with all sorts of terrors. For instance:
“Such a person,” one will say, “was the first who met me, as I was going out of the house”;
of course ten thousand evils must certainly ensue. At another time, “the wretch of a servant
in giving me my shoes,315 held out the left shoe first,”—terrible mishaps and mischiefs! “I
myself in coming out set forth with the left foot foremost”; and this too is a token of misfor-
tune. And these are the evils that occur about the house. Then, as I go out, my right eye
shoots up from beneath. This is a sure sign of tears. Again the women, when the reeds strike
against the standards, and ring, or when they themselves are scratched by the shuttle, turn
311 [On Democritus and Leucippus, founders of the Atomistic philosophy, see Ueberweg’s Hist. of Philosophy
(Amer. ed.), Vol. I., pp. 67–71; on Epicurus, Vol. I., pp. 205–207.—G.A.]
312 This was the instance in the Schools. Vid. Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrh. Hypot. I. 33.
313 The Egyptian priest to Solon. Plat. Tim. p. 22, B.
314 Vid. Theophr. Charact. xvi. περὶ δεισιδαιμονίας; Guther de Jure Manium in Græv. Thes. 12, 1175; Hes.
Opp. et D. 765, sqq.
315 Vid. Plin. N. H. 2, 7; Juv. Sat. 6, 579. These and like superstitions are condemned also by Clem. Alex.
Strom. vii. 4, pp. 842–844; St. Cyril of Jerus. iv. 37, and St. Aust. de Doctr. Christ. ii. 20, 21. This series, Vol. II.,
p. 545. See also St. Chrys. ad Illum Catech. ii. 5. This series, Vol. IX., p. 170.—G.A.
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Ephesians 4:17