Preserve and maintain

Meaning

Preservation first appears as the philosophers’ hoped-for protection of the earthly body against destruction and mortality. That hope is qualified immediately in the introduction’s next unit: bodily death cannot be removed, and the restorative itself is called destructible. Later the object to be preserved is knowledge of faith received by grace, learned gradually so the pupil is not overwhelmed. The task there is guarding against falsification and grievous loss. These are related acts of keeping, not one kind of physical storage. The English distinguishes “maintain” for bodily condition and “preserve within himself” for received faith, making the change of object visible.