XVIII.

To yield and give way to our passions is the lowest slavery, even as to rule over them is the only liberty.

The greatest of all good is to be free from sin, the next is to be justified; but he must be reckoned the most unfortunate of men, who, while living unrighteously, remains for a long time unpunished.

Animals in harness cannot but be carried over a precipice by the inexperience and badness of their driver, even as by his skilfulness and excellence they will be saved.

The end contemplated by a philosopher is likeness to God, so far as that is possible.—From the writings ofAntonius Melissa.

18 Τὸ ὑποπεσεῖν καὶ παραχωρῆσαι τοῖς πάθεσιν ἐσχάτη δουλεία, ὥσπερ τὸ κρατεῖν τούτων ἐλευθερία μόνη. Μεγίστου ὄντος ἀγαθοῦ τὸ μὴ ἁμαρτάνειν, δεύτερον ἀγαθὸν τὸ δικαιωθῆναι: ὅστις δὲ πολὺν χρόνον ἀδικῶν ἀκόλαστος μένει, τοῦτον δεῖ νομίζειν τὸν ἀτυχέστατον. Ἀνάγκη ἀπειρίᾳ καὶ κακίᾳ ἡνιόχου τὰ ὑπεζευγμένα κατὰ κρημνῶν φέρεσθαι, ὥσπερ ἐμπειρίᾳ καὶ ἀρετῇ διασώζεσθαι. Τέλος τῷ φιλοσοφοῦντι ἡ πρὸς θεὸν ὁμοίωσις κατὰ τὸ δυνατόν.