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of self-love, having been raised up to the knowledge of the Creator; and 15∆_042 having received in exchange for a wicked self-love a good, intellectual self-love, separated from bodily affection, we do not cease worshiping God through this good self-love, always seeking from God the constitution of the soul. For this is true worship, and truly God-pleasing: the exact care of the soul through the virtues.

1.51 (να΄) The one who does not long for bodily pleasure, and who does not fear pain at all, has become dispassionate. For with these, along with the self-love that gave them birth, he has with one accord slain all the passions which exist because of and from them, along with ignorance, the chiefest of evils, and he has become entirely of the good which by nature is steadfast and abiding and always in the same state, remaining altogether immovable with it, and with unveiled face mirroring the glory of God; from the light-like splendor within him, beholding the divine and unapproachable glory.

1.52 (νβ΄) Let us deny, as much as we are able, the pleasure and the pain of the present life, and we shall be completely delivered from every device of the passions and from demonic malice. For because of pleasure we love the passions, and because of pain we flee from virtue.

1.53 (νγ΄) Since all vice is naturally destroyed by the same modes which constitute it, man, finding through experience itself that pain is in every way the successor of all pleasure, had his whole impulse toward pleasure, but his whole avoidance toward pain; for the one, struggling with all his power; and against the other, striving with all zeal, thinking, which was impossible, that through such a method he could separate them from each other, and to have self-love attached to pleasure alone 1200, completely unacquainted with pain, being ignorant on account of passion, it seems, that it is never possible for pleasure to be without pain. For 15∆_044 the toil of pain is blended in with pleasure, even if it seems to escape the notice of those who have it, because of the dominance of pleasure in the passion; and since that which is dominant is always by nature apparent, it conceals the perception of what is adjacent. Therefore, laying claim to pleasure on account of self-love, and again striving to flee pain for the same reason, we devise the countless births of the corrupting passions.

1.54 (νδ΄) One is ignorant of the experience of the senses with respect to pleasure and pain, when one has bound, or rather, has cleaved the intellect to God who is truly beloved and lovely and desirable, having become free from bodily relation.

1.55 (νε΄) Just as one cannot otherwise worship God purely, without thoroughly cleansing the soul; so neither can one worship creation, without caring for the body; in respect to which body man, performing the corrupting worship, and in respect to it having become a lover of self, had pleasure and pain unceasingly at work, always eating of the tree of disobedience, that which has the knowledge of both good and evil, mixed together at the same time in perception through experience. And perhaps if someone were to say that the visible creation is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will not err from the truth; for its participation naturally produces pleasure and pain.

1.56 (νστ΄) Where reason does not rule, the power of sensation is wont to arise, in which the power of sin is somehow mixed, drawing the soul down through pleasure toward pity for its kindred flesh according to substance; in which, having entrusted to it as a natural work the impassioned and pleasure-seeking care of the flesh, it leads it away from the life according to nature, and persuades it to become the creator of insubstantial vice.

1.57 (νζ΄) Vice is the forgetfulness by the intellectual soul of the goods according to nature, 15∆_046 which arises from an impassioned relation to the flesh and the world, which reason, acting as a general according to spiritual knowledge, makes to disappear, both the of the

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φιλαυτίας, πρός τήν γνῶσιν ἀναβιβασθέντες τοῦ Κτίσαντος· καί 15∆_042 πονηρᾶς ἀγαθήν ἀντιλαβόντες νοεράν φιλαυτίαν σωματικῆς κεχωρισμένην στοργῆς, οὐ παυόμεθα λατρεύοντες τῷ Θεῷ διά ταύτης τῆς καλῆς φιλαυτίας, ἐκ Θεοῦ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀεί ζητοῦντες τήν σύστασιν. Αὕτη γάρ ἐστιν ἀληθής λατρεία, καί ὄντως θεάρεστος, ἡ τῆς ψυχῆς διά τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀκριβής ἐπιμέλεια.

1.51 (να΄) Ὁ σωματικῆς ἡδονῆς μή ἐφιέμενος, καί ὀδύνην παντελῶς μή φοβούμενος, γέγονεν ἀπαθής. Ταύταις γάρ μετά τῆς τεκούσης αὐτάς φιλαυτίας, πάντα τά δι᾿ αὐτάς τε καί ἐξ αὐτῶν μετά τῆς ἀρχηγικωτάτης τῶν κακῶν ἀγνοίας, ὁμοθυμαδόν συναπέκτεινε πάθη, καί ὅλος γέγονε τοῦ ἑστῶτος καί μένοντος καί ἀεί ὡσαύτως ἔχοντος φύσει καλοῦ, παντάπασιν αὐτῷ συνδιαμένων ἀκίνητος, καί ἀνακεκαλυμμένῳ προσώπῳ τήν δόξαν τοῦ Θεοῦ κατοπτριζόμενος· ἐκ τῆς ἐν αὐτῷ φωτοειδοῦς λαμπρότητος, τήν θείαν καί ἀπρόσιτον δόξαν θεώμενος.

1.52 (νβ΄) Τήν ἡδονήν τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς καί τήν ὀδύνην, ὅση δύναμις, ἀρνησώμεθα, καί πάσης παθῶν ἐπινοίας καί δαιμονιώδους κακουργίας παντελῶς ἀπαλλαγησόμεθα. ∆ιά γάρ τήν ἡδονήν ἀγαπῶμεν τά πάθη, καί διά τήν ὀδύνην φεύγομεν τήν ἀρετήν.

1.53 (νγ΄) Ἐπειδή πᾶσα κακία πέφυκε τοῖς συνιστῶσιν αὐτήν συμφθείρεσθαι τρόποις, εὑρίσκων δι᾿ αὐτῆς τῆς πείρας ὁ ἄνθρωπος, πάσης ἡδονῆς εἶναι πάντως τήν ὀδύνην διάδοχον, πρός μέν τήν ἡδονήν, τήν ὅλην ἔσχεν ὁρμήν· πρός δέ τήν ὀδύνην, τήν ὅλην ἀποφυγήν· τῆς μέν, κατά πᾶσαν ὑπεραγωνιζόμενος δύναμιν· τῆς δέ, κατά πᾶσιν σπουδήν καταγωνιζόμενος, οἰόμενος, ὅπερ ἀμήχανον ἦν, διά τῆς τοιαύτης μεθοδείας, ἀλλήλων ταύτας διαστῆσαι, καί μόνῃ τῇ ἡδονῇ 1200 συνημμενην τήν φιλαυτίαν ἔχειν παντελῶς ὀδύνης ἀπείρατον, ἀγνοήσας ὑπό τοῦ πάθους, ὡς ἔοικεν, ὡς οὐκ ἐνδέχεταί ποτε χωρίς ὀδύνης εἶναι τήν ἡδονήν. Ἐγκέκραται 15∆_044 γάρ τῇ ἡδονῇ τῆς ὀδύνης ὁ πόνος, κἄν λανθάνειν δοκῇ τούς ἔχοντας, διά τήν κατά τό πάθος τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐπικράτειαν· ἐπειδή δέ τό ἐπικρατοῦν, ἀεί διαφαίνεσθαι πέφυκε, καλύπτον τοῦ παρακειμένου τήν αἴσθησιν. Ἡδονῆς οὖν διά τήν φιλαυτίαν ἀντιποιούμενοι, καί ὀδύνην διά τήν αὐτήν αἰτίαν πάλιν φεύγειν σπουδάζοντες, τάς ἀμυθήτους τῶν φθοροποιῶν παθῶν ἐπινοοῦμεν γενέσεις.

1.54 (νδ΄) Ἀγνοεῖ τις τήν καθ᾿ ἡδονήν καί ὀδύνην τῆς αἰσθήσεως πεῖραν, ὅταν τῷ Θεῷ τῷ ὄντως ἀγαπητῷ καί ἐραστῷ καί ἐφετῷ προσδήσῃ, μᾶλλον δέ κολλήσῃ τόν νοῦν, τῆς σωματικῆς γενόμενον ἐλεύθερον σχέσεως.

1.55 (νε΄) Ὥσπερ οὐ δύναταί τις ἄλλως λατρεύειν τῷ Θεῷ καθαρῶς, μή τήν ψυχήν ἄρδην ἐκκαθαίρων· οὕτως οὔτε τῇ κτίσει λατρεύειν, μή τό σῶμα περιποιούμενος· καθ᾿ ὅ σῶμα τήν φθοροποιόν ἐπιτελῶν λατρείαν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, καί κατ᾿ αὐτό γενόμενος φίλαυτος, ἡδονήν εἶχεν ἀπαύστως καί ὀδύνην ἐνεργουμένην, ἐσθίων ἀεί τό ξύλον τῆς παρακοῆς, τό καλοῦ τε καί κακοῦ, κατά ταὐτόν μεμιγμένην κατά τήν αἴσθησιν διά τῆς πείρας ἔχον τήν γνῶσιν. Καί τάχα ξύλον εἶναι γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ, τήν φαινομένην κτίσιν εἰπών τις, οὐχ ἁμαρτήσει τῆς ἀληθείας· ἡδονῆς γάρ καί ὀδύνης ποιητικήν ἔχει φυσικῶς τήν μετάληψιν.

1.56 (νστ΄) Ἔνθα λόγος οὐ κρατεῖ, τό κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πέφυκεν ἐπιγίνεσθαι κράτος, ἐν ᾧ τῆς ἁμαρτίας πέφυρταί πως ἡ δύναμις, πρός οἶκτον τῆς συγγενοῦς σαρκός καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν, τήν ψυχήν δι᾿ ἡδονῆς ὑποσύρουσα· καθ᾿ ἥν ὡς ἔργον αὐτῇ φυσικόν ἐγχειρίσασα τήν ἐμπαθῆ καί καθήδονον τῆς σαρκός ἐπιμέλειαν, ἀπάγει τῆς κατά φύσιν ζωῆς, καί πείθει τῆς ἀνυποστάτου κακίας γενέσθαι ταύτην δημιουργόν.

1.57 (νζ΄) Κακία ἐστί ψυχῆς νοερᾶς, ἡ λήθη τῶν κατά φύσιν καλῶν, 15∆_046 ἥτις ἐκ τῆς περί τήν σάρκα τε καί κόσμον, ἐμπαθοῦς ἐπιγίνεται σχέσεως, ἥν ἀφανίζει στρατηγῶν ὁ λόγος κατ᾿ ἐπιστήμην πνευματικήν, τήν τε τοῦ