reasonings of those things subordinate to that which transcends all, through which His presence, which is beyond every conception, is shown, treading upon the intelligible heights of His most holy places). And then he is freed both from the things seen and from those who see, and enters into the truly mystical darkness of unknowing, in which he shuts off all perceptions of knowledge, and comes to be in the wholly intangible and invisible, being wholly of Him Who is beyond all, and of no one, neither himself nor another, being united in a higher way to the utterly Unknown by the inactivity of all knowledge, and knowing beyond mind by knowing nothing.

<II.> For this we pray to enter the brilliant darkness and through not seeing and not knowing to see and to know Him who is beyond sight and knowledge by the very fact of not seeing and not knowing -for this is to truly see and to know- and to praise the super-essential super-essentially through the removal of all beings, just as those who make a statute from a block of stone remove all the impediments that stand in the way of the pure view of the hidden form, and reveal its hidden beauty by the removal alone. And it is necessary, I think, to praise the removals in a way contrary to the affirmations; for in that case, beginning from the first principles and descending through the intermediate to the last, we made the affirmations; but here from the last things to the most primary the... we may know that unknowing which is hidden by all that is known in all beings, and may we see that super-essential darkness which is hidden by all the light in existing things.

<III.> In the Theological Outlines, then, we praised the main points of the affirmative theology, how the divine and good Nature is said to be one, how triune; what is meant by the Fatherhood and the Sonship; what the theology of the Spirit intends to show; how from the immaterial and indivisible Good the innermost lights of Goodness burst forth, and have remained incommunicably in It, in themselves, and in one another, co-eternal with their budding forth; how the super-essential Jesus has been substantiated in true human nature, and whatever other things have been declared by the oracles are praised in the Theological Outlines. And in the treatise On the Divine Names, how He is named Good, how Being, how Life and Wisdom and Power, and whatever else belongs to the intelligible divine names. And in the Symbolic Theology, what are the metaphorical transfers of names from things of sense to divine things, what are the divine forms, what the divine shapes and parts and organs, what the divine places and worlds, what the angers, what the griefs and wraths, what the drunkennesses and carousings, what the oaths and what the curses, what the slumbers and what the awakenings, and all other sacredly-fashioned forms of symbolic divine representation. And I think you have observed how much more verbose the last are than the first. For it was necessary that the Theological Outlines and the exposition of the Divine Names be more concise than the Symbolic Theology. Since the more we ascend upwards, the more our words are contracted by the contemplation of intelligible things; just as now, entering into the darkness which is above mind, not a brevity of words, but a complete wordlessness

λόγους τῶν ὑποβεβλημένων τῷ πάντα ὑπερέχοντι, δι' ὧν ἡ ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν ἐπίνοιαν αὐτοῦ παρουσία δείκνυται ταῖς νοηταῖς ἀκρότησι τῶν ἁγιω τάτων αὐτοῦ τόπων ἐπιβατεύουσα). Καὶ τότε καὶ αὐτῶν ἀπολύεται τῶν ὁρωμένων καὶ τῶν ὁρώντων καὶ εἰς τὸν γνόφον τῆς ἀγνωσίας εἰσδύνει τὸν ὄντως μυστικόν, καθ' ὃν ἀπομύει πάσας τὰς γνωστικὰς ἀντιλήψεις, καὶ ἐν τῷ πάμπαν ἀναφεῖ καὶ ἀοράτῳ γίγνεται, πᾶς ὢν τοῦ πάντων ἐπέκεινα καὶ οὐδενός, οὔτε ἑαυτοῦ οὔτε ἑτέρου, τῷ παντελῶς δὲ ἀγνώστῳ τῇ πάσης γνώσεως ἀνενεργησίᾳ κατὰ τὸ κρεῖττον ἑνούμενος καὶ τῷ μηδὲν γινώσκειν ὑπὲρ νοῦν γινώσκων.

<II.> Κατὰ τοῦτον ἡμεῖς γενέσθαι τὸν ὑπέρφωτον εὐχόμεθα γνόφον καὶ δι'

ἀβλεψίας καὶ ἀγνωσίας ἰδεῖν καὶ γνῶναι τὸν ὑπὲρ θέαν καὶ γνῶσιν αὐτῷ τῷ μὴ ἰδεῖν μηδὲ γνῶναι-τοῦτο γάρ ἐστι τὸ ὄντως ἰδεῖν καὶ γνῶναι -καὶ τὸν ὑπερούσιον ὑπερουσίως ὑμνῆσαι διὰ τῆς πάντων τῶν ὄντων ἀφαιρέσεως, ὥσπερ οἱ αὐτοφυὲς ἄγαλμα ποιοῦντες ἐξαιροῦντες πάντα τὰ ἐπιπροσθοῦντα τῇ καθαρᾷ τοῦ κρυφίου θέᾳ κωλύματα καὶ αὐτὸ ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ τῇ ἀφαιρέσει μόνῃ τὸ ἀποκεκρυμμένον ἀναφαίνοντες κάλλος. Χρὴ δέ, ὡς οἶμαι, τὰς ἀφαιρέσεις ἐναντίως ταῖς θέσεσιν ὑμνῆσαι· καὶ γὰρ ἐκείνας μὲν ἀπὸ τῶν πρωτίστων ἀρχόμενοι καὶ διὰ μέσων ἐπὶ τὰ ἔσχατα κατιόντες ἐτίθεμεν· ἐνταῦθα δὲ ἀπὸ τῶν ἐσχάτων ἐπὶ τὰ ἀρχικώτατα τὰς γνῶμεν ἐκείνην τὴν ἀγνωσίαν τὴν ὑπὸ πάντων τῶν γνωστῶν ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς οὖσι περικεκαλυμμένην καὶ τὸν ὑπερούσιον ἐκεῖνον ἴδωμεν γνόφον τὸν ὑπὸ παντὸς τοῦ ἐν τοῖς οὖσι φωτὸς ἀποκρυπτόμενον.

<III.> Ἐν μὲν οὖν ταῖς Θεολογικαῖς Ὑποτυπώσεσι τὰ κυριώτατα τῆς κατα φατικῆς θεολογίας ὑμνήσαμεν, πῶς ἡ θεία καὶ ἀγαθὴ φύσις ἑνικὴ λέγεται, πῶς τριαδική· τίς ἡ κατ' αὐτὴν λεγομένη πατρότης τε καὶ υἱότης· τί βούλεται δηλοῦν ἡ τοῦ πνεύματος θεολογία· πῶς ἐκ τοῦ ἀΰλου καὶ ἀμεροῦς ἀγαθοῦ τὰ ἐγκάρδια τῆς ἀγαθότητος ἐξέφυ φῶτα καὶ τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ καὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς καὶ ἐν ἀλλήλοις συναϊδίου τῇ ἀναβλαστήσει μονῆς ἀπομεμένηκεν ἀνεκφοίτητα· πῶς ὁ ὑπερούσιος Ἰησοῦς ἀνθρωποφυϊκαῖς ἀληθείαις οὐσίωται καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα πρὸς τῶν λογίων ἐκπεφασμένα κατὰ τὰς Θεολογικὰς Ὑποτυπώσεις ὕμνηται. Ἐν δὲ τῷ Περὶ Θείων Ὀνομάτων, πῶς ἀγαθὸς ὀνομάζεται, πῶς ὤν, πῶς ζωὴ καὶ σοφία καὶ δύναμις καὶ ὅσα ἄλλα τῆς νοητῆς ἐστι θεωνυμίας. Ἐν δὲ τῇ Συμβολικῇ Θεολογίᾳ, τίνες αἱ ἀπὸ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐπὶ τὰ θεῖα μετωνυμίαι, τίνες αἱ θεῖαι μορφαί, τίνα τὰ θεῖα σχήματα καὶ μέρη καὶ ὄργανα, τίνες οἱ θεῖοι τόποι καὶ κόσμοι, τίνες οἱ θυμοί, τίνες αἱ λῦπαι καὶ αἱ μήνιδες, τίνες αἱ μέθαι καὶ αἱ κραιπάλαι, τίνες οἱ ὅρκοι καὶ τίνες αἱ ἀραί, τίνες οἱ ὕπνοι καὶ τίνες αἱ ἐγρηγόρσεις καὶ ὅσαι ἄλλαι τῆς συμβολικῆς εἰσι θεοτυπίας ἱερόπλαστοι μορφώσεις. Καί σε οἴομαι συνεωρακέναι, πῶς πολυλογώτερα μᾶλλόν ἐστι τὰ ἔσχατα τῶν πρώτων· καὶ γὰρ ἐχρῆν τὰς Θεολογικὰς Ὑποτυπώσεις καὶ τὴν τῶν Θείων Ὀνομάτων ἀνάπτυξιν βραχυλογώτερα εἶναι τῆς Συμ βολικῆς Θεολογίας. Ἐπείπερ ὅσῳ πρὸς τὸ ἄναντες ἀνανεύομεν, τοσοῦτον οἱ λόγοι ταῖς συνόψεσι τῶν νοητῶν περιστέλλονται· καθάπερ καὶ νῦν εἰς τὸν ὑπὲρ νοῦν εἰσδύνοντες γνόφον οὐ βραχυλογίαν, ἀλλ' ἀλογίαν