De Agricultura

For "Cain," says he, "was a tiller of the ground;" and a little afterwards, when he is detected in having contracted the pollution of fratricide, it is said, "Cursed art thou by the earth, which opened her mouth to receive the word of thy brother from thy hand, with which thou tillest the earth, and it shall not put forth its strength to give unto thee."

How then could any one show more manifestly, that the lawgiver looks upon the wicked man as a tiller of the earth, and not as a husbandman, than by such language as we here see used? We must not indeed suppose that what is here said, is said of a man who is able to work by his hands or by his feet, or by any other of the powers of his body, or of any mountain land, or of any champaign country, but that is applicable to the powers existing in every one of us; for it happens that the soul of the wicked man is not concerned about any thing else except about his earthly body, and about all the pleasures of that body.

Moreover, the general crowd of men, travelling over the different climates of the earth and penetrating to its furthest boundaries, and traversing the seas, and investigating the things that lie hid in the recesses of the ocean, and leaving no single part of the whole universe unexplored, is continually providing from every quarter the means by which it

For as fishermen let down their nets at times to the most extraordinary depths, comprehending a vast surface of the sea in their circle, in order to catch the greatest possible number of fish enclosed within their nets, like people shut up within the walls of a besieged city; so in the same manner the greatest part of men having extended their universal nets to take everything, as the poets somewhere say, not only over the parts of the sea, but also over the whole nature of earth, and air, and water, seek to catch everything from every quarter for the enjoyment and attainment of pleasure.

For they dig mines in the earth, and they sail across the seas, and they achieve every other work both of peace and war, providing unbounded materials for pleasure, as for their queen, being utterly uninitiated in that husbandry of the soul which sows and plants the virtues and reaps their fruit, which is a happy life. But they labouring to procure, and reducing to a system those things which are pleasant to the flesh, cultivate with all imaginable care that composite mass, that carefully fashioned statue, the narrow house of the soul, which, from its birth to its death it can never lay aside, but which it is compelled to bear till the day of its death, burdensome as it is.

We have now therefore explained, in what respect, the occupation of tilling the ground differs from husbandry, and a tiller of the ground from a husbandman. And we must now consider whether there are not some other species akin to these already mentioned, but which, through the common names borne by them and others, conceal the real difference which exists between them. At least there are two which we have discovered by investigation, concerning which we will say what is fitting, if it is in our power.

Therefore, as we found a tiller of the earth and a husbandman, though there did not appear to be any difference between them (till we came to investigate the allegorical meaning concealed under each name), nevertheless very far removed from one another in fact, such also shall we find to be the case with a shepherd and a keeper of sheep. For the lawgiver sometimes speaks of the occupation of a shepherd, and sometimes of that of a keeper of sheep.

And those who do not examine expressions with any excessive accuracy, will perhaps fancy that these two appellations are synonimous terms for the same

For if it is customary to give both the names of shepherd and keeper of sheep to those who have the management of flocks, still they do not give these names to that reason which is the superintendant of the flock of the soul; for a man who is but an indifferent manager of a flock is called a keeper of sheep, but a good and faithful one is called a shepherd, and in what way we will proceed to show immediately.

Nature has made cattle akin to every individual among us, the soul putting forth two young branches as from one root; one of which being entire and undivided, and being left in its integrity is called the mind; but the other part is separated by six divisions into seven natures, five outward senses, and two other organs, the organs of speech, and that of generation.

But all this multitude of external senses and organs being destitute of reason is compared to a sheep, but since it is composed of many parts, it of necessity stands in need of a governor by the unvarying law of nature. Whenever therefore a man who is ignorant how to govern, and at the same time wealthy, rises up and appoints himself governor, he becomes the cause of innumerable evils to the flocks,

for he supplies all necessary things in superabundance, and the flock being immoderately glutted with them becomes insolent through the superfluity of food; for insolence is the genuine offspring of satiety. Accordingly, they become insolent and exult, and shake off all restraint, and being scattered in small divisions they break the appointed order of the Lord.

But he who, for a while, was then governor, being deserted by the flock under his orders, appears stripped of his authority, and runs about earnestly endeavouring, if possible, to collect the scattered flock together and to unite it again; but when he finds that he is unable to do this he groans and weeps, blaming his own remissness, and reproaching himself as the cause of all that has happened.

In this manner, also, the offspring of the outward senses, when the mind is supine and indolent, being satiated in the most unbounded degree with a superfluity of the pleasures of the outward senses, toss their heads, and frisk about, and rove about, at random, wherever they please; the eyes being opened

Since on what other account can we imagine, that in every quarter of the habitable globe, the theatres are every day filled with incalculable myriads of spectators? For they, being wholly under the dominion of sounds and sights, and allowing their ears and their eyes to be carried away without any restraint, go in pursuit of harp-players and singers to the harp, and every description of effeminate and unmanly music; and, moreover, eagerly receiving dancers and every other kind of actors, because they place themselves and move in all kinds of effeminate positions and motions, they are continually by their applause exciting the factions of the theatre, never thinking either of the propriety of their own conduct or of that of the general body of the citizens; but, miserable as they are, upsetting all their own plan of life for the sake of their eyes and ears.

And there are others who are still more unfortunate and miserable than these men, who have released their sense of taste out of prison as it were; and that sense, immediately rushing, in an unrestrained manner, to every kind of meat and drink, selects from the things that are already prepared, and also cherishes an indiscriminate and insatiable hunger for what is not present. So that, even if the channels of the belly are filled, its ever unsatisfied appetites, raging and ravening around, continue to look and stalk about in every direction, lest there should any where be any fragment which has been overlooked, that it may swallow that up also like a devouring fire.

And this gluttony is followed by its usual natural attendant, an eagerness for the connections of the sexes, which brings in its train a strange frenzy, an unrestrainable madness and a most grievous fury; for, when men are oppressed by the indulgence of gluttony and delicate food, and by much unmixed wine and drunkenness, they are no longer able to restrain themselves, but hastening to amorous gratifications they revel and disturb the doors, until they are at last able to rest when they have drawn off the great violence of their passion.

On which account nature, as it would seem, has placed the organs of such connection beneath the belly, being previously aware that they do not delight in hunger, but that they follow upon satiety and then rise up to fulfil their peculiar operations.

Those, then, who permit the flock committed to their charge to satiate themselves all at once with all the things that they desire, we must call keepers of sheep; but those, on the contrary, we should entitle shepherds, who supply their flocks with only so much as is necessary and proper for them; cutting off and utterly rejecting all superfluous and useless extravagance and abundance, which is not less injurious than want and deficiency, and who guard with great prudence against the possibility of the flock becoming diseased through their want of care and indolence, praying that those diseases, which at times are liable to attack flocks from external causes, may not visit theirs.

And they take equal care that it may not straggle about at random and get scattered, holding out to them as an object of fear one who will chastise those who never obey reason, and inflicting continual punishment, moderate when applied to those who err only in such a degree as admits of a remedy, but very severe when laid upon those whose wickedness is uncurable; for though in its essence it may appear an abominable thing, nevertheless punishment is the greatest good to foolish persons, great as the remedies of the physician are to those who are ill in the body.