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the beginning, that is, the fear of God, can someone receive it who is possessed by the love of vain philosophy and is enveloped and twisted by its sophistries and speculations? For how could it enter a soul at all, and how, having entered, could it remain in a soul that is preoccupied and takes pleasure and is, as it were, constrained by all kinds and manifold reasonings, unless, having bid farewell to all these things, it becomes wholly dedicated to the leisure that is according to God, so that it may also become wholly dedicated to His love according to the commandment? For this reason His fear is the beginning of divine wisdom and contemplation, since it cannot remain with other things; having freed the soul from all things (p. 76) and having smoothed it with prayer, it makes it like a suitable writing-tablet for the inscription of the gifts of the Spirit.

Thus also Basil the Great, after setting forth Pharaoh's words to Israel that "You are idle, you are idle; you say, 'Let us go pray to the Lord our God,'" adds: "This then is the good leisure and profitable to him who is at leisure; but evil is the leisure of the Athenians, who had time for nothing else but to tell or to hear something new, which even now some imitate in the leisure of their life, being dear to evil spirits." And lest anyone should say that the great one says these things referring only to rhetorical idle talk, we shall add that which he himself says again, clarifying that precept of Solomon, "to know wisdom and instruction, and to understand words of prudence": "For some already," he says, "devoting their leisure to geometry which the Egyptians invented, or to astrology honored by the Chaldeans, or in general being occupied with figures and shadows and meteorology, have looked down upon the instruction of the divine oracles. Since, therefore, many have grown old in the study of these things, in the investigation of vanities, for this reason the discernment of instruction is necessary, both for choosing profitable instruction and for renouncing that which is foolish and harmful." Do you see how he calls the external education and the learning itself and the knowledge from it vain, harmful, unprofitable—which some, as you say, declare to be the goal of contemplation and salvific? And he even laments his own life, writing to Eustathius of Sebasteia, how much of it he passed applying his mind to the study of these subjects: "For I," he says, "having spent much time on vanity (p. 78) and having wasted almost all my youth in vain labor, in which I was engaged in acquiring the learning of the wisdom made foolish by God, when at last, as if roused from a deep sleep, I perceived the uselessness of the wisdom of the rulers of this age who are passing away, having wept much for my miserable life, I prayed that some guidance be given to me." Have you heard what are the names of the education and the knowledge which some now hasten in vain to extol? It is called vanity, vain labor, wisdom made foolish, wisdom that is passing away, wisdom of this age and of its rulers, wisdom destructive of the life and polity that is according to God. Therefore also the lover of true wisdom felt great regret for having spent time on it and for having found no guidance to true wisdom.

But now there are those, shamelessly I know not how, who say, as you yourself say, that it is no impediment to perfection of life to study Hellenic education throughout one's life, not even hearing the words of the Lord spoken directly to them, "Hypocrites, you know how to discern the signs of the sky, but how do you not discern the time of the kingdom?". For since the time of the eternal kingdom is at hand and God who gives it has come to dwell among us, how, if they truly desire the renewal of the mind, do they not approach Him through prayer for the

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ἀρχήν, τόν τοῦ Θεοῦ φόβον δηλαδή, δύναται χωρῆσαί τις ἐνεσχημένος τῇ τῆς ματαίας ἀγάπῃ φιλοσοφίας καί ταῖς στροφαῖς αὐτῆς καί θεωρίαις ἐνειλούμενός τε καί συστρεφόμενος. Πῶς γάρ ἄν εἰς ψυχήν ὅλως εἰσέλθοι, πῶς δ᾿ εἰσελθών παραμεῖναι δυνηθείη, προκατειλημμένην καί ἐνηδυνομένην καί οἷον στενοχωρουμένην παντοδαποῖς καί πολυτρόποις διαλογισμοῖς, εἰ μή πᾶσι χαίρειν εἰποῦσα τῆς κατά Θεόν ὅλη γένοιτο σχολῆς, ἵνα καί τῆς ἀγάπης ὅλη τούτου γένηται κατά τήν ἐντολήν; ∆ιά τοῦτο γάρ τῆς θείας σοφίας καί θεωρίας ἀρχή ἐστι τούτου ὁ φόβος, ἐπεί μεθ᾿ ἑτέρων παραμένειν οὐκ ἔχω, πάντων ἀπαλλάξας (σελ. 76) τήν ψυχήν καί τῇ προσευχῇ καταλεάνας, ἐπιτήδειον οἷον πυξίον ποιεῖ πρός καταγραφήν τῶν χαρισμάτων τοῦ πνεύματος.

Ταῦτ᾿ ἄρα καί ὁ μέγας Βασίλειος, προθείς τό τοῦ Φαραώ πρός τόν Ἰσραήλ ὅτι «σχολάζετε, σχολασταί ἐστε, λέγετε Κυρίῳ τῷ Θεῷ ἡμῶν προσευξώμεθα, ἐπιφέρει˙ «αὕτη μέν οὖν ἡ ἀγαθή σχολή καί ὠφέλιμος τῷ σχολάζοντι˙ πονηρά δέ σχολή ἡ τῶν Ἀθηναίων, οἵ εἰς οὐδέν ἄλλο εὐκαίρουν ἤ λέγειν τι καί ἀκούειν καινότερον, ἥν καί νῦν τινες μιμοῦνται τῇ τοῦ βίου σχολῇ, φίλην οὖσαν πονηροῖς πνεύμασιν». Ὡς ἄν δέ μή τις εἴπῃ πρός τάς ρητορικάς μόνας λογολεσχίας ἀποτεινόμενον ταῦτα λέγειν τόν μέγαν, ἐκεῖνο προσθήσομεν, ὅ φησιν αὖθις αὐτός, διευκρινῶν τό σολομώντειον ἐκεῖνο παράγγελμα, «γνῶναι σοφίαν καί παιδείαν καί νοῆσαι λόγους φρονήσεως»˙ «ἤδη γάρ τινες», φησί, «γεωμετρίᾳ σχολάζοντες ἥν ἐξεῦρον Αἰγύπτιοι ἤ ἀστρολογίᾳ τῇ παρά τῶν Χαλδαίων τετιμημένη ἤ ὅλως περί σχήματα καί σκιάς καί μετεωρολογίαν ἔχοντες, τῆς τῶν θείων λογίων παιδεύσεως ὑπερεῖδον˙ ἐπειδή οὖν πολλοί τῇ περί ταῦτα σπουδῇ κατεγήρασαν ἐν τῇ τῶν ματαίων ἐρεύνῃ, διά τοῦτο ἀναγκαία ἡ τῆς παιδείας ἐπίγνωσις πρός τε τήν αἵρεσιν τῆς ὠφελίμου παιδείας καί πρός ἀποταγήν τῆς ἀνοήτου καί βλαβερᾶς». Ὁρᾷς πῶς ματαίαν, βλαβεράν, ἀνόνητον, τήν ἔξω παιδείαν καί αὐτήν τήν τῶν μαθημάτων καί τήν ἐξ αὐτῶν προσαγορεύει γνῶσιν, ἥν τινες, ὡς σύ φῄς, τέλος θεωρίας καί σωτήριον ἀποφαίνωνται; Ἐκεῖνος δέ καί τήν οἰκείαν ἀπολοφύρεται ζωήν, πρός τόν Σεβαστείας Εὐστάθιον γράφων, ὅσην τῇ περί τά μαθήματα ταῦτα μελέτῃ τόν νοῦν προσέχων διήνυσεν˙ «ἐγώ» γάρ, φησί, «πολύν χρόνον προσαναλώσας τῇ ματαιότητι (σελ. 78) καί πᾶσαν σχεδόν τήν ἐμαυτοῦ νεότητα ἐναφανίσας τῇ ματαιοπονίᾳ, ἥν εἶχον προσδιατρίβων τῇ ἀναλήψει τῶν μαθημάτων τῆς παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ μωρανθείσης σοφίας, ἐπειδή ποτε, ὥσπερ ἐξ ὕπνου βαθέος διαναστάς, κατεῖδον τό ἄχρηστον τῆς σοφίας τῶν ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τῶν καταργουμένων, πολλά τήν ἐλεεινήν μου ζωήν ἀπολαύσας, εὐχόμην δοθῆναί μοί τινα χειραγωγίαν». Ἤκουσας τίνα τῆς παιδείας καί τῆς γνώσεως, ἥν νῦν ἐξαίρειν μάτην σπεύδουσί τινες, τά προσρήματα; Ματαιότης, ματαιοπονία κατανομάζεται, σοφία μωρανεῖσα, σοφία καταργουμένη, σοφία τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου καί τῶν ἀρχόντων αὐτοῦ, σοφία τῆς κατά Θεόν ζωῆς τε καί πολιτείας ἀφανιστική. ∆ιό καί ὁ τῆς ἀληθινῆς σοφίας ἐραστής πολύν μετάμελον ἔσχεν ἐνδιατρίψας αὐτῇ καί μηδεμίαν χειραγωγίαν πρός τήν ἀληθινήν σοφίαν εὑρόμενος.

Νῦν δ᾿ εἰσίν, ἀπηρυθριασμένως οὐκ οἶδ᾿ὅπως, οἵ λέγουσιν, ὡς αὐτός λέγεις, μηδέν ἐμπόδιον εἶναι πρός τελειότητα βίου τό διά βίου τήν ἑλληνικήν παιδείαν ἐκμελετᾶν, μηδέ τῶν τοῦ Κυρίου λόγων ἀκούοντες ἄντικρυς πρός αὐτούς λεγομένων, «ὑποκριταί, τά μέν σημεῖα τοῦ οὐρανοῦ οἴδατε διακρίνειν, τόν δέ καιρόν τῆς βασιλείας πῶς οὐ διακρίνετε;». Τοῦ γάρ καιροῦ τῆς αἰωνίου βασιλείας ἐπιστάντος καί τοῦ διδόντος αὐτήν Θεοῦ ἐπιδεδημηκότος, πῶς, εἴγε ἀληθῶς ἐφίενται τῆς τοῦ νοῦ ἀνακαινίσεως, οὐ δι᾿ εὐχῆς αὐτῷ προσέρχονται τό τῆς