moves and nourishes and increases and perfects and purifies and renews. And light is the measure and number of hours, of days, and of all our time. For this is the light, even if it was then unformed, which the divine Moses said also defined that first triad of our days. And just as the Goodness turns all things to itself and is the chief-gatherer of the scattered as the principial and unitive Godhead, so all things long for it as source, as sustainer, as end. And the Good is, as the oracles say, that from which all things subsist and are, having been brought forth as from an all-perfect cause; and in which all things are held together, as if guarded and maintained in an all-powerful foundation; and to which all things are returned, as each to its own proper end; and which all things desire, the intellectual and rational things by way of knowledge, the sensible things by way of sense, things devoid of sense by the innate movement of vital longing, and the inanimate and merely existing things by their fitness for mere essential participation. According to the same principle of the manifest image, the light also gathers and turns to itself all things that see, that are moved, that are illuminated, that are warmed, that are in general held together by its rays. Therefore also the sun (helios), because it makes all things a-huddle (aollē) and gathers the scattered. And all sensible things desire it, desiring either to see or to be moved and illuminated and warmed and in general to be held together by the light. And I do not indeed say, according to the account of antiquity, that the sun, being a god and creator of this universe, specially superintends the visible world, but that "the invisible things" of God "from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." <5> But these things are in the Symbolic Theology. But now we must celebrate the intelligible name 'Light' for the Good, and say that the Good is called intelligible Light because it fills every super-celestial mind with intelligible light, and drives out all ignorance and error from all souls in which it might arise, and imparts to them all a holy light, and purifies their intellectual eyes from the mist of ignorance which surrounds them, and stirs and unfolds those which have been closed by the heavy weight of darkness, and imparts first a moderate radiance, then, as they as it were taste the light and desire it more, it gives more of itself and shines more abundantly upon them, "because they have loved much," and always lifts them up to what is before, according to their own analogy for looking upward. <6> Therefore the Good beyond all light is called intelligible Light as a fontal ray and an overflowing effusion of light, illuminating from its fullness every supramundane, perimundane, and intramundane mind, and renewing all their intellectual powers, and embracing all things by its transcendence, and excelling all things by its supereminence, and simply comprehending in itself and excelling and pre-containing all sovereignty of the illuminating power, as primal light and super-light, and gathering and making a-huddle all things intelligible and rational. For just as ignorance is divisive of those who have gone astray, so the presence of intelligible light is connective and unitive of those who are illuminated, and perfective, and moreover restorative to that which truly is, turning them back from their many opinions and gathering their diverse visions or, to speak more properly, fantasies into one true, pure, and single knowledge, and filling them with one and unitive light. <7> This Good is hymned by the sacred theologians both as Beautiful and as Beauty, and as "Love" and as Beloved, and as many other befitting divine names of the beauty-making and grace-endowed fairness as there are. But the Beautiful and Beauty are not divisible in the Cause which has comprehended the whole in one. For in the case of all existing things, dividing these into participations and participants, we say that the beautiful is that which participates in beauty, and beauty is the participation of the beauty-making Cause of all beautiful things. But the superessential Beautiful is called Beauty because of the fairness communicated from it to all existing things, fittingly to each, and as the cause of the good harmony and splendor of all things, flashing forth to all, like light, the beauty-making communications of its fontal ray

κινεῖ καὶ τρέφει καὶ αὔξει καὶ τελειοῖ καὶ καθαίρει καὶ ἀνανεοῖ. Καὶ μέτρον ἐστὶ καὶ ἀριθμὸς ὡρῶν, ἡμερῶν καὶ παντὸς τοῦ καθ' ἡμᾶς χρόνου τὸ φῶς. Aὐτὸ γάρ ἐστι τὸ φῶς, εἰ καὶ τότε ἀσχημάτιστον ἦν, ὅπερ ὁ θεῖος ἔφη Μωϋσῆς καὶ αὐτὴν ἐκείνην ὁρίσαι τὴν πρώτην τῶν καθ' ἡμᾶς ἡμερῶν τριάδα. Καὶ ὥσπερ πάντα πρὸς ἑαυτὴν ἡ ἀγαθότης ἐπιστρέφει καὶ ἀρχισυναγωγός ἐστι τῶν ἐσκεδασμένων ὡς ἑναρχικὴ καὶ ἑνοποιὸς θεότης, καὶ πάντα αὐτῆς ὡς ἀρχῆς, ὡς συνοχῆς, ὡς τέλους ἐφίεται. Καὶ τἀγαθόν ἐστιν, ὡς τὰ λόγιά φησιν, ἐξ οὗ τὰ πάντα ὑπέστη καὶ ἔστιν ὡς ἐξ αἰτίας παντελοῦς παρηγμένα καὶ ἐν ᾧ τὰ πάντα συνέστηκεν ὡς ἐν παντοκρατορικῷ πυθμένι φρουρούμενα καὶ διακρατούμενα καὶ εἰς ὃ τὰ πάντα ἐπιστρέφεται καθάπερ εἰς οἰκεῖον ἕκαστα πέρας καὶ οὗ ἐφίεται πάντα, τὰ μὲν νοερὰ καὶ λογικὰ γνωστικῶς, τὰ δὲ αἰσθητικὰ αἰσθητικῶς, τὰ δὲ αἰσθήσεως ἄμοιρα τῇ ἐμφύτῳ κινήσει τῆς ζωτικῆς ἐφέσεως, τὰ δὲ ἄζωα καὶ μόνον ὄντα τῇ πρὸς μόνην τὴν οὐσιώδη μέθεξιν ἐπιτηδειότητι. Κατὰ τὸν αὐτὸν τῆς ἐμφανοῦς εἰκόνος λόγον καὶ τὸ φῶς συνάγει καὶ ἐπιστρέφει πρὸς ἑαυτὸ πάντα τὰ ὁρῶντα, τὰ κινούμενα, τὰ φωτιζόμενα, τὰ θερμαινόμενα, τὰ ὅλως ὑπὸ τῶν αὐτοῦ μαρμαρυγῶν συνεχόμενα. ∆ιὸ καὶ ἥλιος, ὅτι πάντα ἀολλῆ ποιεῖ καὶ συνάγει τὰ διεσκεδασμένα. Καὶ πάντα αὐτοῦ τὰ αἰσθητὰ ἐφίεται ἢ ὡς τοῦ ὁρᾶν ἢ ὡς τοῦ κινεῖσθαι καὶ φωτίζεσθαι καὶ θερμαίνεσθαι καὶ ὅλως συνέχεσθαι πρὸς τοῦ φωτὸς ἐφιέμενα. Καὶ οὐ δήπου φημὶ κατὰ τὸν τῆς παλαιότητος λόγον, ὅτι θεὸς ὢν ὁ ἥλιος καὶ δημιουργὸς τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς ἰδίως ἐπιτροπεύει τὸν ἐμφανῆ κόσμον, ἀλλ' ὅτι «τὰ ἀόρατα» τοῦ θεοῦ «ἀπὸ κτίσεως κόσμου τοῖς ποιήμασι νοούμενα καθορᾶται, ἥ τε ἀΐδιος αὐτοῦ δύναμις καὶ θειότης». <5> Ἀλλὰ ταῦτα μὲν ἐν τῇ Συμβολικῇ θεολογίᾳ. Νῦν δὲ τὴν νοητὴν τἀγαθοῦ φωτωνυμίαν ἡμῖν ὑμνητέον καὶ ῥητέον, ὅτι φῶς νοητὸν ὁ ἀγαθὸς λέγεται διὰ τὸ πάντα μὲν ὑπερουράνιον νοῦν ἐμπιμπλάναι νοητοῦ φωτός, πᾶσαν δὲ ἄγνοιαν καὶ πλάνην ἐλαύνειν ἐκ πασῶν, αἷς ἂν ἐγγένηται ψυχαῖς, καὶ πάσαις αὐταῖς φωτὸς ἱεροῦ μεταδιδόναι καὶ τοὺς νοεροὺς αὐτῶν ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀποκαθαίρειν τῆς περικειμένης αὐταῖς ἐκ τῆς ἀγνοίας ἀχλύος καὶ ἀνακινεῖν καὶ ἀναπτύσσειν τῷ πολλῷ βάρει τοῦ σκότους συμμεμυκότας καὶ μεταδιδόναι πρῶτα μὲν αἴγλης μετρίας, εἶτα ἐκείνων ὥσπερ ἀπογευομένων φωτὸς καὶ μᾶλλον ἐφιεμένων μᾶλλον ἑαυτὴν ἐνδιδόναι καὶ περισσῶς ἐπιλάμπειν, «ὅτι ἠγάπησαν πολύ», καὶ ἀεὶ ἀνατείνειν αὐτὰς ἐπὶ τὰ πρόσω κατὰ τὴν σφῶν εἰς ἀνάνευσιν ἀναλογίαν. <6> Φῶς οὖν νοητὸν λέγεται τὸ ὑπὲρ πᾶν φῶς ἀγαθὸν ὡς ἀκτὶς πηγαία καὶ ὑπερβλύζουσα φωτοχυσία πάντα τὸν ὑπερκόσμιον καὶ περικόσμιον καὶ ἐγκόσμιον νοῦν ἐκ τοῦ πληρώματος αὐτῆς καταλάμπουσα καὶ τὰς νοερὰς αὐτῶν ὅλας ἀνανεάζουσα δυνάμεις καὶ πάντας περιέχουσα τῷ ὑπερτετάσθαι καὶ πάντων ὑπερέχουσα τῷ ὑπερκεῖσθαι καὶ ἁπλῶς πᾶσαν τῆς φωτιστικῆς δυνάμεως τὴν κυρείαν ὡς ἀρχίφωτος καὶ ὑπέρφωτος ἐν ἑαυτῇ συλλαβοῦσα καὶ ὑπερέχουσα καὶ προέχουσα καὶ τὰ νοερὰ καὶ λογικὰ πάντα συνάγουσα καὶ ἀολλῆ ποιοῦσα. Καὶ γὰρ ὥσπερ ἡ ἄγνοια διαιρετικὴ τῶν πεπλανημένων ἐστίν, οὕτως ἡ τοῦ νοητοῦ φωτὸς παρουσία συναγωγὸς καὶ ἑνωτικὴ τῶν φωτιζομένων ἐστὶ καὶ τελειωτικὴ καὶ ἔτι ἐπιστρεπτικὴ πρὸς τὸ ὄντως ὂν ἀπὸ τῶν πολλῶν δοξασμάτων ἐπιστρέφουσα καὶ τὰς ποικίλας ὄψεις ἤ, κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν, φαντασίας εἰς μίαν ἀληθῆ καὶ καθαρὰν καὶ μονοειδῆ συνάγουσα γνῶσιν καὶ ἑνὸς καὶ ἑνωτικοῦ φωτὸς ἐμπιπλῶσα. <7> Τοῦτο τἀγαθὸν ὑμνεῖται πρὸς τῶν ἱερῶν θεολόγων καὶ ὡς καλὸν καὶ ὡς κάλλος καὶ ὡς «ἀγάπη» καὶ ὡς ἀγαπητὸν καὶ ὅσαι ἄλλαι εὐπρεπεῖς εἰσι τῆς καλλοποιοῦ καὶ κεχαριτωμένης ὡραιότητος θεωνυμίαι. Τὸ δὲ καλὸν καὶ κάλλος οὐ διαιρετὸν ἐπὶ τῆς ἐν ἑνὶ τὰ ὅλα συνειληφυίας αἰτίας. Ταῦτα γὰρ ἐπὶ μὲν τῶν ὄντων ἁπάντων εἰς μετοχὰς καὶ μετέχοντα διαιροῦντες καλὸν μὲν εἶναι λέγομεν τὸ κάλλους μετέχον, κάλλος δὲ τὴν μετοχὴν τῆς καλλοποιοῦ τῶν ὅλων καλῶν αἰτίας. Τὸ δὲ ὑπερούσιον καλὸν κάλλος μὲν λέγεται διὰ τὴν ἀπ' αὐτοῦ πᾶσι τοῖς οὖσι μεταδιδομένην οἰκείως ἑκάστῳ καλλονὴν καὶ ὡς τῆς πάντων εὐαρμοστίας καὶ ἀγλαΐας αἴτιον δίκην φωτὸς ἐναστράπτον ἅπασι τὰς καλλοποιοὺς τῆς πηγαίας ἀκτῖνος αὐτοῦ