[136] That first man, earth-born, ancestor of our whole race, was made, as it appears to me, most excellent in each part of his being, in both soul and body, and greatly excelling those who came after him in the transcendent qualities of both alike: for this man really was the one truly “beautiful and good.” The fair form of his body may be gathered from three proofs. The first is this. When, at the severing of the great mass of water, which received the name of “sea,” the newly formed earth appeared, the material of the things to come into existence was, as a result, pure and free from mixture or alloy, and also supple and easy to work, and the things wrought out of it naturally flawless.
[137] Secondly, God is not likely to have taken the clay from any part of the earth that might offer, or to have chosen as rapidly as possible to mould this figure in the shape of a man, but selecting the best from it all, out of pure material taking the purest and most subtly refined, such as was best suited for his structure; for a sacred dwelling-place or shrine was being fashioned for the reasonable soul, which man was to carry as a holy image, of all images the most Godlike.
[138] The third proof, incomparably stronger than the two that have been given, is this, that the Creator excelled, as well as in all else, in skill to bring it about that each of the bodily parts should have in itself individually its due proportions, and should also be fitted with the most perfect accuracy for the part it was to take in the whole. And together with this symmetry (of the parts) He bestowed on the body goodly flesh, and adorned it with a rich complexion, desiring the first man to be as fair as could be to behold.