Miscellanies 2.19.102

And Hippodamus the Pythagorean seems to me to write very finely: “Of friendships, some come from knowledge of the gods, some from the provision of men, some from the pleasure of animals.” So one is the friendship of a philosopher, another of a man, another of an animal. For truly the man who does good is an image of God, and in doing good he himself receives good; as the helmsman saves and is saved at once. That is why, when someone who asks receives, he does not say to the giver, “You gave well,” but, “You received well.” So the giver receives, and the receiver gives. “The righteous pity and show mercy”; “the kind will inhabit the earth, and the innocent will be left on it; but transgressors will be destroyed from it.” And Homer seems to me to have spoken prophetically of the believer when he said, “Give to a friend.” We must share with a friend, so that he may remain a friend still more; and we must help an enemy, so that he may not remain an enemy; for goodwill is bound by help, and enmity dissolved. But “if there is a ready will, it is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. For it is not that others should have relief and you affliction, but out of equality at the present time,” and so on. “He scattered, he gave to the poor; his righteousness remains forever,” says Scripture. For “according to the image and likeness,” as we said before, does not refer to the body; for it is not lawful for the mortal to be made like the immortal; but to mind and reason, on which the Lord fittingly stamps the likeness both in doing good and in ruling. For governments are directed rightly not by qualities of bodies but by judgments of the mind; “for by the counsels of holy men cities are well governed, and a house too.”