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the infant and the more immature; for concerning such people he says, “I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able.” but to those who have fulfilled the measure of the intelligible age

“But solid food,” he says, “is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice.” Therefore, just as it is not possible to say that the man and the infant are in similar circumstances, even if no disease afflicts either of them 84 (for how could those who do not partake of the same things be in the same state of delight?), but not being afflicted by any disease is said similarly of this one and of that one, as long as each is without suffering, but the enjoyment of delight is no longer experienced similarly by them (for the one is able both to be gladdened by words and to preside over affairs and to pursue offices with good repute and to be distinguished by benefactions to the needy, and to live with a wife, if his desire so happens, and to rule a household and to find whatever pleasant things are with these throughout life; both things heard and things seen, hunts and baths and gymnastic exercises and sympotic pleasures and if there is anything else of this sort; but for the infant, delight is milk and the nurse's embrace and a gentle motion that both brings on and sweetens sleep; for the immaturity of its age has no natural capacity to contain gladness beyond this); in the same way, those who have nourished their souls through virtue in this life and, as the apostle says, have trained their intelligible faculties, if they should pass over to that bodiless life, will partake of the divine delight in proportion to the state and power existing in them, partaking of more or less of the things set before them according to the present capacity of each; but the soul that is untasted of virtue remains 85 without share in the evils from wickedness, since it was not afflicted with the disease of vice from the beginning, but of that life, which the preceding discourse defined as the knowledge and participation of God, it partakes at first only as much as that which is being nourished has capacity for, until, having been matured by the contemplation of what is as by some suitable nourishment, it becomes capable of more, partaking in the abundance of what is according to its ability. Looking at these things, we say that the soul of one who has come through every virtue and of one who has not partaken of life at all are similarly outside the evils of wickedness; however, we do not conceive of the way of life of each of these to be similar. For the one has heard, as the prophet says, the heavenly narrations, through which the glory of God is proclaimed, and through creation was guided to the understanding of the master of creation and used as a teacher of true wisdom the wisdom contemplated in existing things, and having understood the beauty of this light, he analogically understood the beauty of the true light and in the firmness of the earth he was taught the unchangeableness of the one who made it, and having understood the immeasurable magnitude of the heavens, he was guided to the infinite and boundless power that encompasses the universe, and seeing the rays of the sun extending from such great heights down to us, he believed through these phenomena that the providential activities of God do not fail to descend from the height of the divinity to each one of us. For if the one luminary both commonly encompasses the entire underlying matter with its illuminating power and, while distributing itself to all who partake, is present whole and undivided to each, how much more does the creator of the luminary both become “All in all,” as the 86 apostle says, and is present to each, giving himself to the extent that the subject receives. But also, someone seeing an ear of corn on the earth and the shoot from a plant and a ripe bunch of grapes and the beauty of autumn either in fruits or in flowers, and the wild grass, and a mountain rising from its peak to the ethereal height, and the springs at its foothills, flowing from the flanks of the mountain like breasts, and rivers flowing through the valleys, and the sea receiving the streams from everywhere and remaining within its measure, and waves bounded by the shores

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τὸν νήπιον καὶ ἀτελέστερον· πρὸς μὲν γὰρ τοὺς τοιούτους φησίν, ὅτι Γάλα ὑμᾶς ἐπότισα, οὐ βρῶμα· οὔπω γὰρ ἠδύνασθε· πρὸς δὲ τοὺς πεπληρωκότας τὸ μέτρον τῆς νοητῆς ἡλικίας

Τελείων δέ ἐστι, φησίν, ἡ στερεὰ τροφή, τῶν διὰ τὴν ἕξιν τὰ αἰσθητήρια γεγυμνασμένα ἐχόντων. καθάπερ τοίνυν οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τοῖς ὁμοίοις εἰπεῖν εἶναι τὸν ἄνδρα τε καὶ τὸ νήπιον, κἂν μηδεμία νόσος ἑκατέρῳ τούτων προσάπτηται 84 (πῶς γὰρ ἂν ἐν τῷ ἴσῳ τῆς τρυφῆς γένοιντο οἱ τῶν αὐτῶν μὴ μετέχοντες;), ἀλλὰ τὸ μὲν μὴ κακοῦσθαι νόσῳ τινὶ καὶ ἐπὶ τούτου καὶ ἐπ' ἐκείνου λέγεται παραπλησίως, ἕως ἂν ἔξω πάθους ἑκάτερος ᾖ, τῶν δὲ κατὰ τρυφὴν ἡ ἀπόλαυσις οὐκέτι ὁμοίως παρὰ τῶν αὐτῶν ἐνεργεῖται (τῷ μὲν γὰρ ὑπάρχει καὶ διὰ λόγων εὐφραίνεσθαι καὶ πραγμάτων ἐπιστατεῖν καὶ εὐδοκίμως ἀρχὰς μετιέναι καὶ ταῖς τῶν δεομένων εὐεργεσίαις λαμπρύνεσθαι γαμετῇ τε συνοικεῖν, ἂν οὕτω τύχῃ καταθυμία, καὶ οἴκου ἄρχειν καὶ ὅσα μετὰ τούτων ἐστὶν ἡδέα παρὰ τὸν βίον εὑρεῖν· ἀκροάματά τε καὶ θεάματα, θῆραι καὶ λουτρὰ καὶ γυμνάσια καὶ συμποτικαὶ θυμηδίαι καὶ εἴ τι τοιοῦτον ἕτερον· τῷ δὲ νηπίῳ ἡ τρυφὴ τὸ γάλα ἐστὶ καὶ ἡ τῆς τιθήνης ἀγκάλη καὶ ἠρεμαία κίνησις τὸν ὕπνον ἐφελκομένη τε καὶ ἡδύνουσα· τὴν γὰρ ὑπὲρ τοῦτο εὐφροσύνην τὸ ἀτελὲς τῆς ἡλικίας χωρῆσαι φύσιν οὐκ ἔχει)· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον οἱ διὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐν τῷ τῇδε βίῳ τὰς ψυχὰς θρέψαντες καί, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος, καταγυμνάσαντες ἑαυτῶν τὰ νοητὰ αἰσθητήρια, εἰ πρὸς τὴν ἀσώματον ἐκείνην μετοικισθεῖεν ζωήν, πρὸς λόγον τῆς ἐνυπαρχούσης αὐτοῖς ἕξεώς τε καὶ δυνάμεως τῆς θείας τρυφῆς μεταλήψονται, ἢ πλείονος ἢ ἐλάττονος κατὰ τὴν παροῦσαν ἑκάστου δύναμιν τῶν προκειμένων μετέχοντες· ἡ δὲ ἄγευστος τῆς ἀρετῆς ψυχὴ τῶν μὲν ἐκ πονηρίας κακῶν, ἅτε μηδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν συνενεχθεῖσα τῇ τῆς κακίας νόσῳ, διαμένει 85 ἀμέτοχος, τῆς δὲ ζωῆς ἐκείνης, ἣν θεοῦ γνῶσίν τε καὶ μετουσίαν ὁ πρὸ τούτων λόγος ὡρίσατο, τοσοῦτον μετέχει παρὰ τὴν πρώτην, ὅσον χωρεῖ τὸ τρεφόμενον, ἕως ἂν καθάπερ τινὶ τροφῇ καταλλήλῳ τῇ θεωρίᾳ τοῦ ὄντος ἐναδρυνθεῖσα χωρητικὴ τοῦ πλείονος γένηται, ἐν δαψιλείᾳ τοῦ ὄντος κατ' ἐξουσίαν μετέχουσα. Πρὸς ταῦτα βλέποντες ἔξω μὲν τῶν ἐκ πονηρίας κακῶν ὁμοίως εἶναί φαμεν τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ τε διὰ πάσης ἀρετῆς ἥκον τος καὶ τοῦ μηδὲ ὅλως μετεσχηκότος τοῦ βίου· οὐ μὴν ἐν τῷ ὁμοίῳ τὴν ἑκατέρου τούτων διαγωγὴν ἐννοοῦμεν. ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἤκουσε, καθὼς ὁ προφήτης φησί, τῶν οὐρανίων διηγημάτων, δι' ὧν ἡ δόξα τοῦ θεοῦ καταγγέλλεται, καὶ διὰ τῆς κτίσεως πρὸς τὴν κατανόησιν ὡδηγήθη τοῦ δεσπότου τῆς κτίσεως καὶ διδασκάλῳ τῆς ὄντως σοφίας ἐχρήσατο τῇ ἐν τοῖς οὖσι θεωρουμένῃ σοφίᾳ τό τε τοῦ φωτὸς τούτου κάλλος κατανοήσας ἀναλογικῶς τὸ τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ φωτὸς κάλλος ἐνόησε καὶ ἐν τῷ παγίῳ τῆς γῆς τὸ τοῦ πεποιηκότος αὐτὴν ἀμετάθετον ἐπαιδεύθη καὶ τὸ ἀμέτρητον τοῦ οὐρανίου μεγέθους κατανοήσας πρὸς τὸ ἄπειρόν τε καὶ ἀόριστον τῆς ἐμπεριεχούσης τὸ πᾶν δυνάμεως ὡδηγήθη τάς τε ἀκτῖνας ἰδὼν τοῦ ἡλίου ἐκ τῶν τοσούτων ὑψωμάτων μέχρις ἡμῶν διηκούσας τὸ μὴ ἀτονεῖν τὰς προνοητικὰς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐνεργείας πρὸς ἕκαστον ἡμῶν ἀπὸ τοῦ τῆς θεότητος ὕψους κατιέναι διὰ τῶν φαινομένων ἐπίστευσεν. εἰ γὰρ εἷς ὢν ὁ φωστὴρ κοινῇ τε τὸ ὑποκείμενον ἅπαν τῇ φωτιστικῇ δυνάμει καταλαμβάνει καὶ πᾶσι τοῖς μετέχουσιν ἑαυτὸν ἐπινέμων ὅλος ἑκάστῳ καὶ ἀδιαίρετος πάρεστι, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ὁ τοῦ φωστῆρος δημιουργὸς καὶ Πάντα ἐν πᾶσι γίνεται, καθώς φησιν ὁ 86 ἀπόστολος, καὶ ἑκάστῳ πάρεστι τοσοῦτον ἑαυτὸν διδούς, ὅσον τὸ ὑποκείμενον δέχεται. ἀλλὰ καὶ στάχυν τις ἰδὼν ἐπὶ γῆς καὶ τὴν ἐκ φυτοῦ βλάστην καὶ βότρυν ὥριμον καὶ τὸ τῆς ὀπώρας κάλλος ἢ ἐν καρποῖς ἢ ἐν ἄνθεσι καὶ τὴν αὐτόματον πόαν καὶ ὄρος ἐπὶ τὸ αἰθέριον ὕψος ἀπὸ τῆς ἄκρας ἀνατεινόμενον καὶ τὰς ἐν ὑπωρείαις πηγάς, μαζῶν δίκην ἐκ τῶν λαγόνων τοῦ ὄρους ἐπιρρεούσας, ποταμούς τε διὰ τῶν κοίλων ῥέοντας καὶ θάλασσαν ὑποδεχομένην τὰ πανταχόθεν ῥεύματα καὶ ἐν τῷ μέτρῳ μένουσαν κύματά τε τοῖς αἰγιαλοῖς ὁριζόμενα