And many are the stakes and ditches of lust which impede us, and the pits of wrath and anger which must be overleaped, and all the machinations we must avoid of those who plot against us,--who would no longer see the knowledge of God “through a glass.” “The half of virtue the far-seeing Zeus takes From man, when he reduces him to a state of slavery.” As slaves the Scripture views those “under sin” and “sold to sin,” the lovers of pleasure and of the body; and beasts rather than men, “those who have become like to cattle, female-mad horses, neighing after their neighbours’ wives.”[495] The licentious is “the lustful ass,” the covetous is the “savage wolf,” and the deceiver is “a serpent.” The severance, therefore, of the soul from the body, made a life-long study, produces in the philosopher gnostic alacrity, so that he is easily able to bear natural death, which is the dissolution of the chains which bind the soul to the body. “For the world is crucified to me, and I to the world,” the [apostle] says; “and now I live, though in the flesh, as having my conversation in heaven.”[496] CHAPTER IV. THE PRAISES OF MARTYRDOM. Whence, as is reasonable, the gnostic, when called, obeys easily, and gives up his body to him who asks; and, previously divesting himself of the affections of this carcase, not insulting the tempter, but rather, in my opinion, training him and convincing him, “From what honour and what extent of wealth fallen,”