Select Works of Porphyry (On Abstinence, Cave of the Nymphs, Auxiliaries)

INTRODUCTION.

...receive from any other. The goods also, of which labors are the leaders, in conjunction with virtue, we should pray that we may obtain after the labors [are accomplished].” All this is from Sextus. For, on page 648, he says: “Hæc posce à Deo, quæ dignum est præstare Deum. Ea pete à Deo, quæ accipere ab homine non potes. In quibus præcedere debet labor, hæc tibi opta evenire post laborem.” (Ask of God those things which it is worthy for God to provide. Seek of God those things which you cannot receive from man. In those things where labor must precede, wish for them to happen to you after the labor.) Only, in this last sentence, Rufinus has omitted to add, after labor, the words cum virtute (with virtue). What Porphyry says, almost immediately after this, is precisely the first of the Sentences of Demophilus (Opusc. Mythol. p. 626), viz.: “Ἃ δὲ κτησαμενος ου καθεξεις, μη αιτου παρα θεου· δωρον γαρ θεου παν αναφαιρετον· ωστε ου δωσει ὃ μη καθεξεις:” i.e., “Do not ask of God that which, when you have obtained, you cannot preserve. For every gift of God is incapable of being taken away; so that He will not give that which you cannot retain.” The sentence immediately following this is ascribed to Pythagoras, and is to be found in the Sentences of Stobæus (edit. 1609, p. 65): viz., “Ων δε του σωματος απαλλαγεισα ου δεηθηση, εκεινων καταφρονει· και ων αν απαλλαγεισα δεη, εις ταυτα συ ασκουμενη τον θεον παρακαλει γενεσθαι συλληπτορα.” In Stobæus, however, there is some difference, so as to render the sentence more complete. For immediately after καταφρονει (despise), there is παντων (all); for δεηθηση there is δεηση; for δεη, δεηση; for τον θεον, τους θεους; for συ ασκουμενη, σοι ασκουμενῳ; and instead of γενεσθαι συλληπτορα, γενεσθαι σοι συλληπτορα. This, therefore, translated, will be: “Despise all those things which, when liberated from the body, you will not want; and exercising yourself in those things of which, when liberated from the body, you will be in want, invoke the Gods to become your helpers.” In pages 27 and 28, Porphyry says, αιρετωτερου σοι οντος [χρηματα] εικη...