82. Thus therefore, had the whole human race been led on to the last stage of brutality, so that he, who was (once) rational, became the most irrational of all. Nor was there any other (being), of those that were on the earth, more vicious than man; who had been (so) led into every vile affection, and had (so) corrupted his mind with every species of wickedness, that he readily forsook even the reflection which belonged to his nature, and did nothing well, either of the things pertaining to the soul, the body, or of those, which were external to him; but, he every where became subject to vice upon vice!—For, the lives of men are divided among the things which are of the soul, of the body, and of those which are external (to both). But, the error of the Demons had (now) so possessed in every form, and had so corrupted, the lives of men, that the things of the soul were at war with them, through the madness of the Demon-worship which had (so) seized upon them, and through their foolishness and blindness as to the truth,— about which (truth) even the family of Philosophers was in a state of agitation. And, as to the things of the body, (they consisted) in the human sacrifices which (prevailed) throughout the whole earth ; and again, in the base, lawless, and corrupt practices, which were foreign to nature. The things too, which were external (to both, consisted) in this,

that in the cities, localities, and nations, all were, at one time, divided into parties ; at another,—when they were brought together,—they contended against each other, by means of the desolations and reductions of cities, in which they mutually laboured. And, the length of the day would be insufficient for me, were I to relate all the things pertaining to this ancient disease, which had (so) seized upon the whole race of man. And, on this account more particularly, was God the Saviour necessary to this our (mortal) life, as to those who had been cast down to the last extremity of evil: nor was there any other cure or aid (for this), except by means of the glorious and divine manifestation (of Christ).