I may be allowed to describe the human image by comparison with some wonderful piece of modelling. For, as one may see in models those carved shapes which the artificers of such things contrive for the wonder of beholders, tracing out upon a single head two forms of faces; so man seems to me to bear a double likeness to opposite things-being moulded in the Divine element of his mind to the Divine beauty, but bearing, in the passionate impulses that arise in him, a likeness to the brute nature; while often even his reason is rendered brutish, and obscures the better element by the worse through its inclination and disposition towards what is irrational; for whenever a man drags down his mental energy to these affections, and forces his reason to become the servant of his passions, there takes place a sort of conversion of the good stamp in him into the irrational image, his whole nature being traced anew after that design, as his reason, so to say, cultivates the beginnings of his passions, and gradually multiplies them; for once it lends its co-operation to passion, it produces a plenteous and abundant crop of evils.

Καί μοι συγκεχωρήσθω κατά τινα πλαστικὴν θαυματοποιΐαν διαγράψαι τῷ λόγῳ τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην εἰκόνα. Καθάπερ γὰρ ἔστιν ἰδεῖν ἐν τοῖς πλάσμασι τὰς διγλύφους μορφάς͵ ἃς μηχανῶνται πρὸς ἔκπληξιν τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα φιλοτεχνοῦντες͵ μιᾷ κεφαλῇ δύο μορφὰς προσώπων ὑποχαράσσοντες, οὕτω μοι δοκεῖ διπλῆν φέρειν ὁ ἄνθρωπος πρὸς τὰ ἐναντία τὴν ὁμοιότητα, τῷ μὲν θεοειδεῖ τῆς διανοίας πρὸς τὸ θεῖον κάλλος μεμορφωμένος͵ ταῖς δὲ κατὰ πάθος ἐγγινομέναις ὁρμαῖς πρὸς τὸ κτηνῶδες φέρων τὴν οἰκειότητα. Πολλάκις δὲ καὶ ὁ λόγος ἀποκτηνοῦται διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὸ ἄλογον ῥοπῆς τε καὶ διαθέσεως͵ συγκαλύπτων τὸ κρεῖττον τῷ χείρονι. Ἐπειδὰν γάρ τις πρὸς ταῦτα τὴν διανοητικὴν ἐνέργειαν καθελκύσῃ͵ καὶ ὑπηρέτην γενέσθαι τῶν παθῶν τὸν λογισμὸν ἐκβιάσηται͵ παρατροπή τις γίνεται τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ χαρακτῆρος πρὸς τὴν ἄλογον εἰκόνα͵ πάσης πρὸς τοῦτο μεταχαρασσομένης τῆς φύσεως͵ καθάπερ γεωργοῦντος τοῦ λογισμοῦ τὰς τῶν παθημάτων ἀρχὰς καὶ δι' ὀλίγων εἰς πλῆθος ἐπαύξοντος. Τὴν γὰρ παρ' ἑαυτοῦ συνεργίαν χρήσας τῷ πάθει͵ πολύχουν καὶ ἀμφιλαφῆ τὴν τῶν ἀτόπων [193] γένεσιν ἀπειργάσατο.