Therefore he adds: "Do not pollute the spirit," by having it within and concealing it. But envy is material; for it is a companion to the deprivation of goods, and deprivation co-exists with barren matter; but the theurgic race is without envy and is stretched up toward the zeal for the goodness of God, but is not dragged down into the contentions and enmities of men. But these passions, being shut up in souls, wipe off a certain material evil onto the spirit and fill it with material deprivation and lifelessness. 4 From the same author, from the same philosophy. The soul, when it is established according to its own discursive faculty, has scientific knowledge of the things that are; but having established itself in the intellective part of its own substance, it intellectually perceives all things by simple and indivisible intuitions. But having run up to the One, and having folded up all the multitude within itself, it acts with divine inspiration and is united to the existences beyond intellect; for everywhere like is by nature united to like, and all knowledge through likeness connects that which understands with that which is understood, the sensible with the sensitive, the discursive with the faculty of discursive thought, the intelligible with the intellective, so also that which is before intellect with the flower of the intellect. For just as in other things intellect is not the highest, but for others what is beyond intellect, so in souls the first form of activity is not intellective, but more divine than intellect; and every soul and every intellect has twofold activities, the one kind uniform and superior to intellection, the other kind intellective. Therefore one must intellectually perceive that intelligible and that which subsists in itself and its existence, having closed off all other lives and powers. For just as by becoming intellect-like we approach the intellect, so by becoming uniform we run up to the union, standing on the summit of our own intellect; since the eye also does not see the sun otherwise than by becoming sun-like, but not by the light from fire; by which it is also clear that to perceive that thing intellectually is not to perceive intellectually. "But if," he says, "you incline your intellect," that is, if you rest with intellective intuitions on the conjunction with that, and thus "you perceive that" intelligible, "as intellectually perceiving something," that is, intuitively according to some measure of form and knowledge, "you will not perceive that;" for even if such intellections are simple, they fall short of the unitary simplicity of the intelligible and are carried to certain secondary intellective <natures> that have already proceeded into multitude. For nothing knowable is known by a lesser knowledge; therefore not even that which is beyond intellect, through intellect; for as soon as intellect directs its intuition upon something, it says that the object of its intellection is of such and such a kind, which is secondary to the intelligible; but if in the flower of the intellect within us we perceive this intelligible, established at the summit of the first intelligible triad, with what then could it be conjoined to the One, which is uncoordinated with all things and unparticipated? For if the first "Father" is said "to snatch himself away" from intellect and "power," who is He that has no need even so to snatch himself away, but is snatched away beyond all things simply and celebrated as God of all? And if also concerning the very first Father it is said in other places: "and the first power of a sacred word," who is he that is above this one and in whom this one participates to be called sacred? and if that which reveals the more ineffable being is named Word, before the Word there must be the Silence that brought the Word into subsistence, and before everything sacred, the deifying cause. As, therefore, the things after the intelligibles are logoi of the intelligibles, when they are contracted, so the Logos in them, having subsisted from another, more ineffable Henad, is the Logos of the Silence before the intelligibles, but of the intelligibles being kept in silence, it is Silence. Perhaps, then, the flower of the intellect and the flower of our whole soul are not the same thing; but the one is the most uniform part of our intellective life, while the other is the one of all the psychic powers, which are multiform; for we are not only intellect, but also discursive reason and opinion and attention and choice, and before these powers, a substance both one and many, both divisible and indivisible. And the one having appeared as twofold, the one being the flower of our first of powers, <the> other the center of the whole substance and of all the various powers around it, that one alone unites us to the father of the intelligibles; for it is an intellective one, and that is also perceived by the paternal intellect according to the one that is in

διόπερ ἐπάγει· "Μὴ πνεῦμα μολύνῃς", διὰ τοῦ ἔχειν ἔνδον καὶ ἀποκρύψαι. Ὑλικὸς δὲ ὁ φθόνος· στερήσει γὰρ τῶν ἀγαθῶν σύνοικος, ἡ δὲ στέρησις τῇ ἀγόνῳ ὕλῃ συνυφέστηκεν· ἄφθονον δὲ τὸ θεουργὸν φῦλον καὶ ἀνα τεινόμενον εἰς τὸν ζῆλον τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀγαθότητος, ἀλλ' οὐκ εἰς φιλονεικίας ἀνθρώπων καὶ δυσμενείας κατα σπώμενον. Ταῦτα δὲ τὰ πάθη, ταῖς ψυχαῖς ἐναποκλειό μενα, ἐναπομόργνυταί τινα ἐν τῷ πνεύματι κακίαν ἔνυ λον καὶ ἀναπίμπλησιν αὐτὸ τῆς ὑλικῆς στερήσεως καὶ ἀζωΐας. 4 Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς φιλοσοφίας. Ἱσταμένη ἡ ψυχὴ κατὰ τὸ διανοητικὸν τὸ ἑαυτῆς, ἐπιστήμων ἐστὶ τῶν ὄντων· ἐν δὲ τῷ νοερῷ τῆς οἰκείας οὐσίας ἑαυτὴν ἱδρύσασα, νοεῖ τὰ πάντα ταῖς ἁπλαῖς καὶ ἀμερίστοις ἐπιβολαῖς. Εἰς δὲ τὸ ἓν ἀναδραμοῦσα, καὶ πᾶν τὸ ἐν αὐτῇ συμπτύξασα πλῆθος, ἐνθεαστικῶς ἐνεργεῖ καὶ συνάπτεται ταῖς ὑπὲρ νοῦν ὑπάρξεσι· τῷ γὰρ ὁμοίῳ πανταχοῦ τὸ ὅμοιον συνάπτεσθαι πέφυκε, καὶ πᾶσα γνῶσις δι' ὁμοιότητα συνδεῖ τῷ κατανοουμένῳ τὸ κατανοοῦν, τῷ μὲν αἰσθητῷ τὸ αἰσθητικόν, τῷ δὲ δια νοητῷ τὸ διανοητικόν, τῷ δὲ νοητῷ τὸ νοητικόν, ὥστε καὶ τῷ πρὸ νοῦ τὸ ἄνθος τοῦ νοῦ. Ὡς γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ἄλλοις οὐκ ἔστι νοῦς τὸ ἀκρότατον, ἀλλ' ἡ ὑπὲρ νοῦν ἄλλοις οὕτως ἐν ταῖς ψυχαῖς οὐκ ἔστι νοερὸν τὸ πρῶτον τῆς ἐνεργείας εἶδος, ἀλλὰ τοῦ νοῦ θειότερον· καὶ πᾶσα ψυχὴ καὶ πᾶς νοῦς ἐνεργείας ἔχει διττάς, τὰς μὲν ἑνοειδεῖς καὶ κρείττονας νοήσεως, τὰς δὲ νοητικάς. ∆εῖ οὖν ἐκεῖνο τὸ νοητὸν καὶ κατ' αὐτὸ τὸ ἐνιστάμενον καὶ τὴν ὕπαρξιν νοεῖν, μύσαντα κατὰ πάσας τὰς ἄλλας ζωὰς καὶ δυνάμεις. Ὡς γὰρ νοειδεῖς γιγνόμενοι τῷ νῷ πρόσιμεν, οὕτως ἑνοειδεῖς πρὸς τὴν ἕνωσιν ἀνατρέχομεν, ἐπ' ἄκρῳ τῷ οἰκείῳ στάντες νῷ· ἐπεὶ καὶ ὀφθαλμὸς οὐκ ἄλλως ὁρᾷ τὸν ἥλιον ἢ γενόμενος ἡλιοειδής, ἀλλ' οὐ τῷ ἐκ πυρὸς φωτί· ᾧ καὶ δῆλον ὅτι τὸ νοεῖν ἐκεῖνο μὴ νοεῖν ἐστιν. "Ἐὰν δέ", φησίν, ἐπεγκλίνῃς σὸν νοῦν", τοῦτ' ἔστιν, ἐπερείσῃς ταῖς νοεραῖς ἐπιβολαῖς εἰς τὴν πρὸς ἐκεῖνο συναφήν, καὶ οὕτως "ἐκεῖνο νοήσῃς" τὸ νοητόν, "ὥς τι νοῶν", τοῦτ' ἔστι, κατά τι μέτρον εἴδους καὶ γνώσεως ἐπιβλητικῶς, "οὐκ ἐκεῖνο νοήσεις"· κἂν γὰρ ὦσιν αἱ τοιαῦται νοήσεις ἁπλαῖ, ἀπολείπονται τῆς τοῦ νοητοῦ ἑνιαίας ἁπλότητος καὶ εἰς δευτέρας φέρονταί τινας νοερὰς <φύσεις> εἰς πλῆθος ἤδη προελθούσας. Οὐδὲν γὰρ γνωστὸν δι' ἐλάττονος γιγνώσκεται γνώσεως· οὐ τοίνυν οὐδὲ τὸ ὑπὲρ νοῦν, διὰ νοῦ· ἅμα γὰρ νοῦς ἐπιβάλλει τινὶ καὶ τοιόνδε λέγει τὸ νοούμενον, ὅπερ ἐστὶ τοῦ νοητοῦ δεύτερον· ἀλλ' εἰ ἐν τῷ ἄνθει τοῦ ἐν ἡμῖν νοῦ τὸ νοητὸν τοῦτο νοοῦμεν, ἐπ' ἄκρῳ τῆς πρώτης νοητῆς τριάδος ἱδρυνθέν, τίνι ἂν ἔτι συναφθείη μὲν πρὸς τὸ ἕν, ὅ ἐστιν ἀσύντακτον πρὸς πάντα καὶ ἀμέθεκτον; εἰ γὰρ ὁ πρῶτος "Πατὴρ" ἁρπάζειν "ἑαυτόν" λέγεται τοῦ νοῦ καὶ τῆς "δυνάμεως", τίς ὁ μηδὲ οὕτως ἁρπάσαι δεηθεὶς ἑαυτόν, ἀλλ' ὑπερηρπασμένος ἀπὸ πάντων ἁπλῶς καὶ θεὸς πάντων ὑμνούμενος; εἰ δὲ καὶ περὶ τοῦ πρωτίστου Πατρὸς ἐν ἄλλοις εἴρηται· "καὶ δύναμιν πρώτην ἱεροῦ λόγου", τίς ὁ ὑπὲρ τοῦτον καὶ οὗπερ οὗτος μετέχων ἱερὸς λέγεται; καὶ εἰ ὁ ἐκφαίνων ἀρρητότερον ὄντα λόγος ὀνομάζεται, δεῖ πρὸ τοῦ λόγου τὴν τὸν λόγον ὑποστήσασαν εἶναι σιγήν, καὶ πρὸ παντὸς ἱεροῦ τὴν ἐκθεωτικὴν αἰτίαν. Ὡς οὖν τὰ μετὰ τὰ νοητὰ λόγοι τῶν νοητῶν εἰσι, συνηγμένων ὄντων, οὕτως ὁ ἐν ἐκείνοις λόγος, ἀπ' ἄλλης ἀρρητοτέρας ἑνάδος ὑποστάς, λόγος μέν ἐστι τῆς πρὸ τῶν νοητῶν σιγῆς, τῶν δὲ νοητῶν σιγωμένων, σιγή. Μήποτε οὖν οὐκ ἔστι ταὐτὸν νοῦ ἄνθος καὶ πάσης ἡμῶν τῆς ψυχῆς ἄνθος· ἀλλὰ τὸ μέν ἐστι τῆς νοερᾶς ἡμῶν ζωῆς τὸ ἑνοειδέστατον, τὸ δὲ ἁπασῶν τῶν ψυχικῶν δυνάμεων ἕν, πολυειδῶν οὐσῶν· οὐ γάρ ἐσμεν νοῦς μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ διάνοια καὶ δόξα καὶ προσοχὴ καὶ προαίρεσις, καὶ πρὸ τῶν δυνάμεων τούτων οὐσία μία τε καὶ πολλὴ καὶ μεριστή τε καὶ ἀμερής. ∆ιττοῦ τε τοῦ ἑνὸς πεφηνότος, καὶ τοῦ μὲν τῆς πρωτίστης ἡμῶν τῶν δυνάμεων ἄνθους ὄντος, <τοῦ> δὲ τῆς ὅλης οὐσίας κέντρου καὶ τῶν περὶ αὐτὴν ἁπασῶν παντοίων δυνάμεων, ἐκεῖνο μόνον ἡμᾶς συνάπτει τῷ πατρὶ τῶν νοητῶν· νοερὸν γάρ ἐστιν ἕν, νοεῖται δὲ καὶ ἐκεῖνο ὑπὸ τοῦ πατρικοῦ νοῦ κατὰ τὸ ἓν τὸ ἐν