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inexpressible? We have not learned our own words that can signify that beauty. There is no example of what is sought among existing things; it is impossible for it to be revealed by comparison. For who likens the sun to a small spark or sets a tiny drop against the infinity of the abysses? For whatever relation the small drop has to the abysses, or the tiny sparklet to the great ray of the sun, such is the relation of all things admired as beautiful by men to that beauty which is contemplated in the first good and that which is beyond all good. 10.2 What conception, then, will demonstrate the magnitude of the loss to the one who has suffered this loss? It seems to me that the great David has well shown this helplessness, who once, when his mind was lifted up by the power of the spirit and, as it were, going out of himself, he saw that unattainable and incomprehensible beauty in that blessed ecstasy—and he certainly saw it as it is possible for a man to see, having gone outside the veils of the flesh and entered by the mind alone into the contemplation of incorporeal and intelligible things—when he longed to say something worthy of what he had seen, he cried out that saying which all sing, that "Every man is a liar"; and this is, at least in my reasoning, that every man who entrusts to speech the interpretation of the ineffable light is truly a liar, not through hatred of the truth, but through the weakness of his narration. For perceptible beauty, as much as it is present below in our life, whether appearing in inanimate matter or in animate bodies through some pleasing color, our faculty of perception is sufficient both to admire and to approve and to make it known to another, as the account of such beauty is inscribed by the writing of words as if in some image; but of that whose archetype escapes comprehension, how could discourse bring it before the eyes, finding no device for description, having no color to speak of, no shape, no size, no grace of form, nor any such trifles at all? For that which is entirely formless and unshaped and alien to all quantity and established far from all things that are contemplated concerning body and sensation, how could one make it known through things that are apprehended by sensation alone? Yet we must not on this account despair of this desire, because it appears loftier than our comprehension, but by as much as reason has shown the object of our search to be great, so much the more must the mind be exalted and lifted up with the magnitude of what is sought, so as not to be entirely outside the participation of the good; for the danger is not small, lest by what is exceedingly high and ineffable we should slip away entirely from the thought of it, not resting our comprehension of it on anything familiar.

11.t Chapter 11. How might one come to a conception of the truly beautiful?

11.1 Therefore, on account of this weakness, through those things by sensation

familiar to guide the mind toward the invisible. And our conception might be of this sort: just as, then, those who look at things more superficially and without thought, whenever they see a person or whatever happens to be among the things that appear, they investigate nothing more than what is seen—for it is enough for them, having beheld the bulk of the body, to think they have comprehended the whole account of the person—, but the one who is discerning in soul and has been taught not to entrust the investigation of things to the eyes alone, will not stop at the things that appear, nor does he reckon what is not seen among the things that are not, but also nature

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ἄφραστον; Ἰδίας φωνὰς σημαντικὰς ἐκείνου τοῦ κάλλους οὐ μεμαθήκαμεν. Ὑπόδειγμα τοῦ ζητουμένου ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν ἔστιν οὐδέν· ἐκ συγκρίσεως αὐτὸ δηλωθῆναι ἀμήχανον. Τίς γὰρ ὀλίγῳ σπινθῆρι προσεικάζει τὸν ἥλιον ἢ ῥανίδα βραχεῖαν πρὸς τὴν τῶν ἀβύσσων ἀπειρίαν ἀνθίστησιν; Ὃν γὰρ ἔχει λόγον πρὸς τὰς ἀβύσσους ἡ ὀλίγη σταγὼν ἢ πρὸς τὴν μεγάλην τοῦ ἡλίου ἀκτῖνα μικρὸν σπινθηράκιον, οὕτω διάκειται καὶ πάντα τὰ παρὰ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὡς καλὰ θαυμαζόμενα πρὸς ἐκεῖνο τὸ κάλλος, ὃ περὶ τὸ πρῶτον ἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ ἐπέκεινα παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ θεωρεῖται. 10.2 Τίς οὖν ἐπίνοια τὸ μέγεθος τῆς ζημίας τῷ παθόντι τὴν ζημίαν ταύτην ἐνδείξεται; Καλῶς μοι δοκεῖ ὁ μέγας ∆αβὶδ τὴν ἀμηχανίαν ἐνδεδεῖχθαι ταύτην, ὃς ἐπειδή ποτε τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ πνεύματος ὑψωθεὶς τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ οἷον ἐκβὰς αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν εἶδεν ἐκεῖνο τὸ ἀμήχανον καὶ ἀπερι νόητον κάλλος ἐν τῇ μακαρίᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἐκστάσει-εἶδε δὲ πάντως ὡς ἀνθρώπῳ δυνατὸν ἰδεῖν ἔξω τῶν τῆς σαρκὸς προκαλυμμάτων γενόμενος καὶ εἰσελθὼν διὰ μόνης τῆς διανοίας εἰς τὴν τῶν ἀσωμάτων καὶ νοητῶν θεωρίαν- ἐπειδή τι καὶ εἰπεῖν ἄξιον τοῦ ὀφθέντος ἐπεπόθησεν, ἐκείνην ἐξεβόησε τὴν φωνήν, ἣν πάντες ᾄδουσιν, ὅτι «Πᾶς ἄν θρωπος ψεύστης»· τοῦτο δέ ἐστιν, ὥς γε ὁ ἐμὸς λόγος, ὅτι πᾶς ἄνθρωπος φωνῇ ἐπιτρέπων τὴν τοῦ ἀφράστου φωτὸς ἑρμηνείαν ὄντως ψεύστης ἐστίν, οὐχὶ τῷ μίσει τῆς ἀλη θείας, ἀλλὰ τῇ ἀσθενείᾳ τῆς διηγήσεως. Τὸ μὲν γὰρ αἰσθη τὸν κάλλος, ὅσον κάτω περὶ τὸν ἡμέτερον ἀναστρέφεται βίον, εἴτε ἐν ἀψύχοις ὕλαις εἴτε καὶ ἐν σώμασιν ἐμψύχοις διά τινος εὐχροίας ἐμφανταζόμενον, αὐτάρκης ἡμῶν ἡ κατὰ τὴν αἴσθησιν δύναμις καὶ θαυμάσαι καὶ ἀποδέξασθαι καὶ γνώριμον ἑτέρῳ ποιῆσαι, διὰ τῆς τῶν λόγων γραφῆς ὥσπερ ἐν εἰκόνι τινὶ τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ τοιούτου κάλλους ἐγγρα φομένου· οὗ δὲ τὸ ἀρχέτυπον διαφεύγει τὴν κατανόησιν, πῶς ἂν ὁ λόγος ὑπ' ὄψιν ἀγάγοι, οὐδεμίαν μηχανὴν ὑπο γραφῆς ἐξευρίσκων, οὐ χροιὰν ἔχων εἰπεῖν, οὐ σχῆμα, οὐ μέγεθος, οὐ μορφῆς εὐμοιρίαν, οὐδέ τινα ὅλως φλυαρίαν τοιαύτην; Τὸ γὰρ ἀειδὲς πάντῃ καὶ ἀσχημάτιστον καὶ πηλικότητος πάσης ἀλλότριον καὶ πάντων, ὅσα περὶ σῶμα καὶ αἴσθησιν θεωρεῖται, πόρρωθεν ἱδρυμένον, πῶς ἄν τις διὰ τῶν μόνῃ τῇ αἰσθήσει καταλαμβανομένων γνω ρίσειεν; Οὐ μὴν διὰ τοῦτό γε ἀπογνωστέον ἡμῖν τῆς ἐπι θυμίας ταύτης, ὅτι ὑψηλοτέρα φαίνεται τῆς καταλήψεως, ἀλλ' ὅσῳ μέγα τὸ ζητούμενον ὁ λόγος ἀπέδειξε, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον ὑψοῦσθαι χρὴ τὴν διάνοιαν καὶ συνεπαίρεσθαι τῷ μεγέθει τοῦ ζητουμένου, ὡς μὴ παντελῶς ἔξω γενέσθαι τῆς τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ μετουσίας· κίνδυνος γὰρ οὐ μικρός, μὴ τῷ λίαν ὑψηλῷ τε καὶ ἀρρήτῳ παντάπασι τῆς περὶ αὐτοῦ ἐννοίας ἀπολισθήσωμεν, μηδενὶ γνωρίμῳ τὴν κατανόησιν αὐτῶν ἐπερείδοντες.

11.t Κεφάλαιον ιαʹ Πῶς ἄν τις ἐν περινοίᾳ γένοιτο τοῦ ὄντως καλοῦ;

11.1 ∆εῖ τοίνυν τῆς ἀσθενείας ἕνεκεν ταύτης διὰ τῶν τῇ αἰσθήσει

γνωρίμων χειραγωγεῖν πρὸς τὸ ἀόρατον τὴν διάνοιαν. Ἡ δὲ ἐπίνοια γένοιτ' ἂν ἡμῖν τοιαύτη· ὥσπερ τοίνυν οἱ μὲν ἐπιπολαιότερον καὶ δίχα διανοίας τὰ πράγματα βλέποντες, ἐπειδὰν ἴδωσιν ἄνθρωπον ἢ ὅπερ ἂν τύχῃ τῶν φαινομένων, πλέον οὐδὲν τοῦ ὁρωμένου περι εργάζονται-ἀρκεῖ γὰρ αὐτοῖς θεασαμένοις τὸν ὄγκον τοῦ σώματος ὅλον νομίσαι τὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου λόγον κατειλη φέναι-, ὁ δὲ διορατικὸς τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ πεπαιδευμένος μὴ μόνοις ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐπιτρέπειν τὴν τῶν ὄντων ἐπίσκεψιν, οὐ μέχρι τῶν φαινομένων στήσεται, οὐδὲ τὸ μὴ βλεπόμενον ἐν τοῖς μὴ οὖσι λογίζεται, ἀλλὰ καὶ φύσιν