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For he does not, like an ungrateful servant, hide the talent given to him by God, but as a faithful steward, he does not gratefully bury the wealth which he received from Him, of inexhaustible wisdom, according to what is written: "I learned without guile," he says, "and I impart without grudging; I do not hide her wealth."

9. For this reason his tongue was refined silver and his soul full of righteousness; his lips, as indeed of a righteous man, he knew to be exalted, and his mouth dripped with graces and the ineffable wisdom of God. And this truly came from great humility and purity; for, he says, "the mouth of the humble will meditate on wisdom," and "in the good heart of a man is wisdom, but in the heart of the foolish it is not discerned." For, (17) being full of humility, he continually had in the meditation of his heart the wisdom of God, according to what has been said, which is discerned by the humble in heart, and not at all by the foolish who are wise in the world, and the light of God was truly always his breath; which, having it like a lamp in his mind, the things which his eyes saw intellectually, as the oracle says, he both spoke and wrote most clearly with knowledge; "what," he says, "your eyes have seen, speak"; and speaking, he hymned most clearly from existing things the divine, as being common to all existing things. For the good is not at all unshared by any of the existing things, as Dionysius, who is so great in divine matters, says, but, having permanently established its super-essential ray in itself, it shines forth in a manner befitting its goodness with illuminations analogous to each of the existing things, and it raises the intellectual minds to its attainable contemplation and communion and likeness, as is right for it and as they holily strive.

10. Therefore, following in all things the theologians before him, the hidden reality of the Godhead, which is beyond mind and nature, he hymned with unsearchable and sacred reverences of the mind, as Dionysius says concerning theological men, and honoring the ineffable things altogether with prudent silence, he was raised up to the splendors illuminating him in sacred thoughts, and from there, being richly illumined and enlightened, he was supernaturally formed by them for thearchic and God-befitting hymns and for sacred hymnologies, so as to also see the thearchic lights bestowed upon him commensurately through them and to lovingly praise the Lord, the Giver of good, as the cause of every sacred principle and manifestation of light.

11. (18) This, then, is an ancient and primordial form and result of wisdom; for to the ancient and faithful, who long ago philosophized in the ancestral philosophy, the divine grace of the Spirit from above, thus accompanying them because of their exceeding purity, moved their minds to hymns both of love and of God and to meters of all kinds of discourses. From this, indeed, they were wonderfully shown to be poets of songs and hymns and divine melodies in those times; and they were not wisely and customarily accomplished in this through lessons of higher learning and perfect exercise of words, but from the philosophy of the soul's ways and from extreme asceticism and the keeping of the general virtues. And if anyone wishes to be assured of what has been said from a written source, let him read Philo the Jew in his work so entitled, *On the Contemplative Life* or *On Suppliants*, and he will know the trustworthiness of the account from it. But so that we too may take up a brief saying from there for the confirmation of the account, it says thus: "So that," it says, "they not only contemplate lofty things with the pure applications of their mind, but they also compose songs and hymns to God in all sorts of meters and melodies, necessarily setting them to more solemn rhythms."

12. What things, then, are sung by this father in divinely-inspired harmonies, these things, says Dionysius the Great, have been initiated by the divine oracles, and one will find, so to speak, the entire sacred hymnology of the theologians, that is, by searching the divine scriptures with a laborious soul and a pure mind, towards the good-working processions of the divine

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οὐ γάρ ὡς ἀγνώμων δοῦλος κατακρύπτει τό δοθέν αὐτῷ πρός Θεοῦ τάλαντον, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς πιστός οἰκονόμος τόν πλοῦτον, ὅν ἐδέξατο ἐξ αὐτοῦ, τῆς ἀκενώτου σοφίας εὐγνωμόνως κατά τό γεγραμμένον οὐ κατορύττει˙ ἀδόλως τε, φησίν, ἔμαθον ἀφθόνως τε μεταδίδωμι, τόν πλοῦτον αὐτῆς οὐκ ἀποκρύψομαι.

9. Ἔνθεν τοι καί ἄργυρος πεπυρωμένος οὖσα ἡ γλῶσσα αὐτοῦ καί δικαιοσύνης πλήρης ἡ ψυχή αὐτοῦ˙ τά χείλη αὐτοῦ οἷα δή τῷ ὄντι δικαίου ἠπίστατο ὑψηλά καί στόμα αὐτοῦ ἀπέσταζε χάριτας καί ἀπόρρητον σοφίαν Θεοῦ. Γέγονε δέ τοῦτο ἐκ πολλῆς ἀληθῶς ταπεινοφροσύνης καί καθαρότητος˙ στόμα γάρ, φησί, ταπεινῶν μελετήσει σοφίαν καί ἐν καρδίᾳ ἀγαθῇ ἀνδρός σοφία, ἐν δέ καρδίᾳ ἀφρόνων οὐ διαγινώσκεται. Εἶχε γάρ, (17) ταπεινοφροσύνης ὤν ἔμπλεως, διηνεκῶς ἐν μελέτῃ καρδίας τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφίαν, κατά τό εἰρημένον, ἥτις τοῖς ταπεινοῖς τήν καρδίαν, καί οὐ τοῖς ἄφροσι τοῦ κόσμου σοφοῖς καθόλου διαγινώσκεται, καί τό φῶς ἀεί τοῦ Θεοῦ ἦν ἀληθῶς ἡ πνοή αὐτοῦ˙ ὅ δίκην λύχνου ἔχων ἐν διανοίᾳ, ἅ ἑώρων οἱ ὀφθαλμοί αὐτοῦ νοερῶς, ὡς τό λόγιον, ἔλεγέ τε καί ἀριδηλότατα μετά γνώσεως ἔγραφεν˙ ἅ, φησίν, εἶδον οἱ ὀφθαλμοί σου, λέγε˙ καί λέγων ὕμνει σαφέστατα ἐκ τῶν ὄντων τό θεῖον, ὡς ὄν κοινόν πάντων τῶν ὄντων. Οὐ γάρ ἀκοινώτητόν ἐστι καθόλου τό ἀγαθόν οὐδενί τῶν ὄντων, ὥς φησιν ὁ τά θεῖα πολύς ∆ιονύσιος, ἀλλ᾿ ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ μονίμως τήν ὑπερούσιον ἱδρῦσαν ἀκτῖνα ταῖς ἑκάστου τῶν ὄντων ἀναλόγοις ἐλλάμψεσιν ἀγαθοπρεπῶς ἐπιφαίνεται καί πρός τήν ἐφικτήν αὐτοῦ θεωρίαν καί κοινωνίαν καί ὁμοίωσιν ἀνατείνει τούς νοερούς νόας, ὡς θεμιτόν αὐτῷ καί ἱεροπρεπῶς ἐπιβάλλοντας.

10. Τοιγαροῦν καί κατά πάντα τοῖς πρός αὐτοῦ θεολόγοις ἑπόμενος, τό μέν ὑπέρ νοῦν καί φύσιν τῆς θεότητος κρύφιον ἀνεξερευνήτοις ὕμνει καί ἱεραῖς νοός εὐλαβείαις, ὥς φησι περί θεολόγων ἀνθρῶν ∆ιονύσιος, τά δέ ἄρρητα σιγῇ τῇ σώφρονι διόλου τιμῶν ἐπί τάς ἐλλαμπούσας αὐτῷ ἐν τοῖς ἱεροῖς νοήμασιν αὐγάς ἀνετείνετο κἀκεῖθεν πλουσίως καταλαμπόμενός τε καί φωτιζόμενος πρός τούς θεαρχικούς καί θεοπρεπεῖς ὕμνους καί πρός τάς ἱεράς ὑμνολογίας ὑπ᾿ αὐτῶν ὑπερκοσμίως ἐτυποῦτο πρός τό καί ὁρᾶν τά συμμέτρως αὐτῷ δι᾿ αὐτῶν δωρούμενα θεαρχικά φῶτα καί τό ἀγαθοδότην Κύριον ὡς ἁπάσης ἱερᾶς ἀρχῆς καί φωτοφαενίας αἴτιον ἐρωτικῶς ἀνυμνεῖν.

11. (18) Παλαιόν δέ ἄρα τοῦτο καί ἀρχέγονον σοφίας εἶδος καί ἀποτέλεσμα˙ τοῖς γάρ παλαιοῖς καί πιστοῖς, τήν πάτριον πάλαι φιλοσοφοῦσι φιλοσοφίαν, ἄνωθεν ἡ θείας χάρις τοῦ Πνεύματος οὕτω δι᾿ ὑπερβολήν συγγινομένη καθάρσεως πρός ὕμνους ἐρωτικούς τε καί θείους καί πρός μέτρα λόγων παντοίων ἐκίνει τάς διανοίας αὐτῶν. Ἐκ δή τούτου ποιηταί ᾀσμάτων καί ὕμνων καί μελῶν θείων τοῖς τηνικαῦτα θαυμασίως ἐδείκνυντο˙ οὐκ ἐκ μαθημάτων δέ ἀναγωγῆς καί τελείας τῶν λόγων ἀσκήσεως πρός τοῦτο σοφῶς τε καί συνήθως ἀπετελοῦντο, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ φιλοσοφίας τῶν τῆς ψυχῆς τρόπων καί ἐξ ἄκρας ἀσκήσεως καί φυλακῆς τῶν γενικῶν ἀρετῶν . Εἴ τῳ δέ φίλον τό εἰρημένον ἐξ ἐγγράφου πιστωθῆναι αἰτίας, Φίλωνι τῷ Ἰουδαίῳ ἐν τῷ οὕτω πωςς ἐιγεγραμμένῳ λόγῳ αὐτοῦ Περί βίου θεωρητικοῦ ἤ περί ἱκετῶν ἐντυχέτω καί εἴσεται τό τοῦ λόγου πιστόν ἐξ αὐτῆς. Ἵνα δέ βρασύ τι καί ἡμεῖς λόγιον ἐκεῖθεν ἀναλαβώμεθα πρός τήν τοῦ λόγου βεβαίωσιν, φησίν ἐκεῖνο ὡδί˙ ὥστε, φησίν, οὐ θεωροῦσι μόνον τά ὑψηλά νοός ἐπιβολαῖς καθαροῦ, ἀλλά καί ποιοῦσιν ᾄσματα καί ὕμνους εἰς τόν Θεόν διά παντοίων μέτρων καί μελῶν, ἀριθμοῖς σεμνοτέροις ἀναγκαίως χαράσσοντες.

12. Ἅ γοῦν καί τούτῳ δή τῷ πατρί ἐν θεωρυμίαις ὕμνηται θεοφράστως, ταῦτα, φησί ∆ιονύσιος ὁ μέγας, πρός τῶν θείων λογίων μεμύηται, καί πᾶσαν, ὡς εἰπεῖν, τήν ἱεράν τῶν θεολόγων ὑμνολογίαν εὑρήσει τις, ἐπιπόνῳ δηλαδή ψυχῇ καί καθαρᾷ διανοίᾳ τάς θείας γραφάς, ἐρευνῶν, πρός τάς ἀγαθουργούς προόδους τῆς θείας