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16. And otherwise, and since every soul that has been well purified to the utmost, being immortal and intellectual, is drawn up by divine power toward angelic lives according to the hierophant Dionysius, who says thus: for whenever it comes to be within itself by a circular motion and simple coiling from its outward intellectual powers, just as in a certain circle, the divine Principle of good bestows upon it its unerringness and turns it back from the many things without, gathering it first into itself, then, having become simple, unites it with the uniformly united powers of the angels; for through them as good guides (after the sacred and holy minds come the souls and all the good things of souls), it is led up to the very Principle of all good things and comes to be in communion with the illuminations that gush forth from there, according to the purification analogous to it, and participates richly, as much as it is able, in the gift of the good-like form, I do not think it just for its lofty contemplations and erotic theologies to risk being disbelieved when they fall on ears stopped up by envy and unbelief, or rather to say, on souls deeply veiled by the darkness of ignorance and trodden underfoot by mules and asses or dragons and serpents, I mean the impure and destructive passions; for holy things are unshareable by all who live a canine and swinish life, to whom these things are not given, as the saying goes, nor are the pearls of the word cast, but for those who are led up to the likeness of holiness through utmost purification, they are both shareable with ineffable and (22) divine pleasure and conducive to the wisdom and exaltation towards them, as shining lights and offspring of the divine fire.

17. Well then, since the truly divine and most pure soul of our guide was raised to such a height and was deemed worthy of such manifestations and of such grace of the fishermen and apostles and reached the very Principle of all good things by the brightness of its fiery mind, where all the souls of the just are led up, and came to be in rich communion with its illuminations, as indeed his poems and the loves of his divine hymns proclaim, how is it not holy, having been mingled with the Holy by nature and with the saints of old as light with light and fire with fire and a ray with the sun, the secondary things with the primary and things in images and types with the archetypes and truths? How is it not to be hymned and worthy of all hymns and encomia, it which is beyond these things and beyond all glory, both earthly and human? Let envy, which is ever indignant, fall away, and let Symeon, who is worthy of hymns and all manner of encomia, be hymned and praised, as we also set forth more broadly in the discourse 'Against the Accusers of the Saints' with sacred citations. For if these revelations and voices are not the voices of God nor of a soul that has been deified and come to be outside all sensation of the world and is wholly holy in every way, scarcely indeed would any other human thing accomplished by us with all diligence be shown to be acceptable to God and praiseworthy to men, whose glorious and brilliant quality is not brought about by the highest wisdom and knowledge of God.

18. These things, then, from the erotic and divine hymns of the teacher have been set forth by us for those who are overcome by envy toward good things and by unbelief and ignorance, so that either, upon their very first encounter with them, they might become better (23) at some point and superior to envy and malice, and might glorify, as is possible, the one who glorified in deed and word and contemplation

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16. Ἄλλως τε δέ καί ἐπεί πᾶσα ψυχή εἰς ἄκρον ἐκκαθαρθεῖσα καλῶς, ἀθάνατος οὖσα καί νοερά, δυνάμει θείᾳ πρός ἀγγελικάς ζωάς ἀνατείνεται κατά τόν ἱεροφάντην ∆ιονύσιον οὕτω λέγοντα˙ ἡνίκα γάρ εἰς ἑαυτόν κατά κυκλικήν κίνησιν καί ἑνοειδῆ συνέλιξιν ἀπό τῶν ἔξω τῶν νοερῶν αὐτῆς δυνάμεων γένηται, ὥσπερ ἔν τινί κύκλῳ τό ἀπλανές αὐτῇ ἡ θεία δωρουμένη ἀγαθαρχία καί ἀπό τῶν πολλῶν, τῶν ἔξωθεν, αὐτήν ἐπιστρέφουσα καί συνάγουσα πρῶτον εἰς ἑαυτήν, εἶτα ὡς ἑνοειδῆ γενομένην ἑνοῦσα ταῖς ἑνιαίως ἡνωμέναις δυνάμεσι τῶν ἀγγέλων˙ δι᾿ αὐτῶν γάρ ὡς ἀγαθῶν καθηγεμόνων (μετά τούς ἱερούς καί ἁγίους νόας αἱ ψυχαί καί ὅσα ψυχῶν ἀγαθά) ἐπ᾿ αὐτήν τήν πάντων ἀγαθῶν ἀγαθαρχίαν ἀνάγεται καί τῶν ἐκεῖθεν ἐκβλυζομένων ἀλλάμψεων ἐν μετουσίᾳ γίνεται κατά τήν ἀναλογοῦσαν ἐν αὐτῇ κάθαρσιν καί τῆς τοῦ ἀγαθοειδοῦς δωρεᾶς, ὁπόση δύναμις, μετέχει πλουσίως, οὐκ οἴομαι δίκαιον εἶναι κινδυνεύειν ταύτης τάς ὑψηλάς θεωρίας καί ἐρωτικάς θεολογίας ἀπιστεῖσθαι εἰς ἀκοάς πιπτούσας ὑπό φθόνου βεβυσμένας καίἀπιστίας, ἤ μᾶλλον εἰπεῖν εἰς ψυχάς σκότει ἀγνωσίας σφόδρα κεκαλυμμένας καί ὑπό ἡμιόνων καί ὄνων ἤ δρακόντων καταπατουμένας καί ὄφεων, τῶν ἀκαθάρτων λέγων καί ὀλεθρίων παθῶν˙ τά γάρ ἅγια ἀμέθεκτά εἰσι πᾶσι τοῖς τόν κυνώδη βίον καί χοιρώδη βιοῦσιν, οἷς οὐ δίδονται ταῦτα, ὡς τό λόγιον, οὔτε μήν οἱ μαργαρῖται ῥιπτοῦνται τοῦ λόγου, τοῖς δέ πρός τό ἴσον ἐξ ἄκρας ἀναγομένοις καθάρσεως τῆς ἁγιότητος μεθεκτά τε εἰσί μεθ᾿ ἡδονῆς ἀφάτου καί (22) θείας καί ἀναδοτικά τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτά σοφίας τε καί ὑψώσεως ὡς φῶτα φανά καί πυρός τοῦ θείου γεννήματα.

17. Εἶεν, ἐπεί δέ πρός τοσοῦτον ὕψος ἀνήχθη ἡ θεία τῷ ὄντι καί καθαρωτάτη ψυχή τοῦ καθηγεμόνος ἡμῶν καί τοιούτων ἐμφάσεων ἠξιώθη καί τοιαύτης χάριτος τῆς τῶν ἁλιέων καί ἀποστόλων καί ἐπ᾿αὐτήν τήν πάντων ἀγαθαργίαν ἔφθασε τῇ λαμπρότητι τῆς ἐμπύρου διανοίας αὐτῆς, ἔνθα πᾶσαι ψυχαί τῶν δικαίων ἀνάγονται, καί ἐν μετουσίᾳ τῶν ἐλλάμψεων ταύτης πλουσίως ἐγένετο, καθά δή καί τά ποιήματα καί οἱ ἔρωτες τῶν θείων ὕμνων ἐκβοῶσιν αὐτοῦ, πῶς οὐχ ἁγία τῷ φύσει ἁγίῳ καί τοῖς πάλαι ἁγίοις ἀνακραθεῖσα ὡς φωτί φῶς καί πυρί πῦρ καί ἡλίῳ ἀκτίς, τά δεύτερα τοῖς πρώτοις καί τά ἐν εἰκόσι καί τύποις τοῖς ἀρχετύποις καί ἀληθείαις; Πῶς οὐχ ὑμνητέα καί ὕμνων καί ἐγκωμίων πάντων ἀξία, ἡ ὑπέρ ταῦτα καί ὑπέρ πᾶσαν δόξαν ὁμοῦ γεηράν τε καί ἀνθρωπίνην; Πιπτέτω φθόνος ὁ τοῖς ἀεί νεμεσῶν, καί ὑμνείσθω καί εὐφημείσθω ὁ ὕμνων καί ἐγκωμίων παντοίων ἐπάξιος Συμεών, καθό καί ἐν τῷ ῾Κατά ἁγιοκατηγόρων᾿ λόγῳ μετά χρήσεων ἱερῶν πλατύτερον ἐξεθέμεθα. Εἰ γάρ αἱ ἀποκαλύψεις αὗται καί αἱ φωναί οὐ φωναί Θεοῦ οὐδέ ψυχῆς ἀποθεωθείσης καί γενομένης ἔξω πάσης τοῦ κόσμου αἰσθήσεως καί ὅλης καθόλου ἁγίας, σχολῇ γ᾿ ἄν ἄλλο τι τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων καί πρός ἡμῶν τελουμένων διά πάσης σπουδῆς εὐαπόδεκτον ἀποδειχθείη Θεῷ καί ἀνθρώποις ἐπαινετόν, ὅ μή σοφίᾳ καί γνώσει τῇ ἀνωτάτῳ Θεοῦ τό ἐπίδοξον καί λαμπρόν ἐπιφέρεται.

18. Ταῦτα τοίνυν διά τούς φθόνῳ πρός τά καλά καί ἀπιστίᾳ καί ἀγνωσίᾳ κεκρατμένους ἡμῖν προετέθη τῶν ἐρωτικῶν καί θείων ὕμνων τοῦ διδασκάλου, ἵν᾿ ἤ κατά πρώτην εὐθύς ἐπιβολήν ἐντυγχάνοντες τούτοις κρείττονες (23) γένοιντό ποτε καί φθόνου καί βασκανίας ἀνώτεροι, καί δοξάσωσιν, ὡς ἐφικτόν, τόν ἐν πράξει καί λόγῳ καί θεωρίᾳ δοξάσαντα