XLI. (150) This, then, may be enough to say about the expression, “My crime is too great to be Forgiven.”{47}{this is not the translation given in the text of the Bible, though it is inserted in the margin. In the text of the Bible we read, “And Cain said unto the Lord, my punishment is greater than I can bear.”–#Ge 4:13.} Let us now consider what follows that verse–Cain says, “But if thou castest me out this day from off the face of the earth, and from thy face I shall be Hidden.”{48}{#ge 4:14.} What sayest thou, my good man? If thou art utterly cast out from the whole earth, shall you still be hidden? In what manner? (151) For shall you be able to live? or are you ignorant of this, that nature has given animals different places to live in, and has not assigned the same place to them all? She has allotted the sea to the fishes, and to the whole race of aquatic animals, and the land to all the terrestrial animals. And man too, according, at least, to the composite nature of his body, is a terrestrial animal. And it is owing to this that all animals easily die when they have quitted the place which properly belongs to them, and have gone, as it were, into a foreign country; as, for instance, when terrestrial animals go under the water, or when aquatic animals have sailed out upon the land. (152) If, therefore you, being a man, should be cast out from the land, whither will you turn? Will you dive under water, imitating the nature of aquatic animals? But you will die the moment that you are underneath the water. Or will you take wings and raise yourself aloft, and so attempt to traverse the regions of the air, changing your character of a terrestrial, for that of a flying animal? But, if it is in your power, change and re-fashion the divine impress that you bear. You cannot do so. For in proportion as you raise yourself to a greater height, so much the more rapidly will you descend from that higher region and with the greater impetuosity to the earth, which is your appropriate place.
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