Writings in Connection with the Manichaean Heresy

...what is man’s chief good, nor is there anyone who enjoys this who is not happy. We must then have our chief good at hand if we think of living happily.

5. We must now inquire what is man’s chief good, which of course cannot be anything inferior to man himself. For whoever pursues what is inferior to himself becomes inferior himself. But every man is bound to pursue what is best. Therefore, man’s chief good is not inferior to man. Is it then something similar to man himself? It must be so, if there is nothing above man which he is capable of enjoying. But if we find something which is both superior to man and can be possessed by the man who loves it, who can doubt that in seeking for happiness, man should endeavor to reach that which is more excellent than the being who makes the endeavor? For if happiness consists in the enjoyment of a good than which there is nothing better—which we call the chief good—how can a man be properly called happy who has not yet attained to his chief good? Or how can that be the chief good beyond which something better remains for us to arrive at? Such, then, being the chief good, it must be something that cannot be lost against the will. For no one can feel confident regarding a good which he knows can be taken from him, although he wishes to keep and cherish it. But if a man feels no confidence regarding the good which he enjoys, how can he be happy while in such fear of losing it?

IV.—Man—what?

6. Let us then see what is better than man. This must necessarily be hard to find, unless we first ask and examine what man is. I am not now called upon to give a definition of man. The question here seems to me to be—since almost all agree, or at least, which is enough, those I have now to do with are of the same opinion as me, that we are made up of soul and body—what is man? Is he both of these? Or is he the body only, or the soul only? For although the things are two, soul and body, and although neither without the other could be called man (for the body would not be man without the soul, nor again would the soul be man if there were not a body animated by it), still it is possible that one of these may...