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The mind, remaining in sensible things because of sensation, becomes a creator of impure passions, not being able to pass over through contemplation to kindred intelligible realities.

2.76 (76) He who, in time of the uprising of the passions, 1249 nobly closes his senses, and completely repels the imagination and memory of sensible things, and entirely restricts the natural movements of the mind concerning the investigation of external things, has shamed and conquered through the divine hand the wicked and tyrannical dominion that rose up against him.

2.77 (77) Whenever reason becomes mindless, and anger rash, and desire irrational, and ignorance and tyranny and licentiousness rule the soul, then the habit of evil is naturally put into practice, being entwined with the manifold pleasure of the senses.

2.78 (78) It is necessary for the mind that knows how to escape with knowledge the invisible conflicts, neither to pursue natural contemplation, nor to do anything else at the time of the assault of the wicked powers, 15∆_116 than only to pray, and to subdue the body with labors, and to effect with all diligence the purification of the earthly mindset, and to guard the walls of the city; I mean the guarding virtues of the soul, or the methods for guarding the virtues; I mean self-control and patience; lest, deceiving by means of things on the right hand, he who gives the soul a turbid subversion to drink should steal away the desire for God, and through things that seem good, should drag down to worse things the intellect that seeks what is good.

2.79 (79) He who nobly, through reasoned and comprehensive self-control and patience, has closed his senses, and through the powers of the soul has walled off the entrances of the forms of sensible things to the mind, easily destroys the wicked contrivances of the devil, turning him back with shame by the way he came. And the way by which the devil comes is the material things that seem to be for the constitution of the body.

2.80 (80) The mind, having joined sensation to itself according to nature through the medium of reason, gathers the true knowledge from natural contemplation.

2.81 (81) Springs are outside the city; that is, of the soul; which Hezekiah stops up; all sensible things. And the waters of these springs are the concepts of sensible things. And the river flowing through the midst of the city is the knowledge gathered according to natural contemplation from the concepts of sensible things, 1252 passing through the midst of the soul, as being the boundary of mind and sensation. For the knowledge of sensible things is neither entirely alienated from the intellectual power, nor wholly assigned to the activity of sensation; but being, as it were, in the middle of the congress of the mind with sensation and of sensation with the mind, it effects through itself their conjunction with one another; 15∆_118 according to sensation, being formed in appearance by the shapes of sensible things; but according to the mind, transferring the impressions into the principles of the shapes. Therefore, the knowledge of things seen was rightly called a river flowing through the midst of the city, as being on the borderline of the extremes, I mean, of mind and sensation.

2.82 (82) He who at the time of the uprising of temptations, refrains from metaphysical contemplation, but holds fast to prayer according to the contraction of the mind from all things towards itself and God, slays the habit that produces evil, and turns back the devil with shame, who suggests the said habit, on which he relied and came to the soul with his own arrogance, being lifted up against the truth through proud thoughts; which the great David, having perhaps known and suffered and done, who most of all had experience of intelligible things

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αἰσθητῶν ἐναπομένων διά τήν αἴσθησιν νοῦς, ἀκαθάρτων γίνεται παθῶν δημιουργός, διά θεωρίας πρός τά συγγενῆ νοητά μή δυνάμενος διαβῆναι.

2.76 (οστ΄) Ὁ ἐν καιρῷ τῆς τῶν παθῶν ἐπαναστάσεως 1249 γενναίως μύσας τάς αἰσθήσεις, καί τήν τῶν αἰσθητῶν φαντασίαν τε καί μνήμην παντελῶς ἀπωσάμενος, καί συστείλας πάντη τάς τοῦ νοῦ περί τήν τῶν ἐκτός ἔρευναν φυσικάς κινήσεις, κατῄσχυνε νικήσας διά τῆς θείας χειρός, τήν ἐπαναστᾶσαν αὐτῷ πονηράν καί τυραννικήν δυναστείαν.

2.77 (οζ΄) Ὅταν ἄνους ὁ λόγος γένηται, καί προπετής ὁ θυμός καί ἄλογος ἡ ἐπιθυμία, καί ἄγνοια καί τυραννίς καί ἀκολασία κρατῶσι τῆς ψυχῆς, τότε ἡ τῆς κακίας ἕξις ἔμπρακτος γίνεσθαι πέφυκε, συμπλακεῖσα τῇ διαφόρῳ τῶν αἰσθήσεων ἡδονῇ.

2.78 (οη΄) Χρή τόν γνωστικῶς τάς ἀοράτους συμπλοκάς, ὑπαλύσκειν ἐπιστάμενον νοῦν, μήτε φυσικήν μετιέναι θεωρίαν, μηδ᾿ ἄλλο τι ποιεῖν ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῆς τῶν πονηρῶν δυνάμεων προσβολῆς, 15∆_116 ἤ μόνον προσεύχεσθαι, καί τό σῶμα πόνοις δαμάζειν, καί τήν τοῦ χοϊκοῦ φρονήματος διά πάσης σπουδῆς ποιεῖσθαι καθαίρεσιν, καί φυλάττειν τά τείχη τῆς πόλεως· λέγω δέ τάς φρουρητικάς τῆς ψυχῆς ἀρετάς, ἤ τάς τῶν ἀρετῶν φυλακτικάς μεθόδους· ἐγκράτειαν λέγω καί ὑπομονήν· μήπως διά τῶν δεξιῶν ἀπατήσας, ἀποστήσῃ Θεοῦ κλέψας τήν ἔφεσιν, ὁ τήν ψυχήν ποτίζων ἀνατραπήν θολεράν, καί διά τῶν νομιζομένων καλῶν, πρός τά χείρονα τήν τά καλά ζητοῦσαν ὑποσύρῃ διάνοιαν.

2.79 (οθ΄) Ὁ γενναίως διά τῆς λελογισμένης καί περιεκτικῆς ἐγκρατείας καί ὑπομονῆς μύσας τάς αἰσθήσεις, καί διά τῶν κατά ψυχήν δυνάμεων τάς πρός τόν νοῦν τῶν αἰσθητῶν σχημάτων ἀποτειχίσας εἰσόδους, εὐχερῶς τοῦ διαβόλου τάς πονηράς διόλλυσι μηχανάς, ὑποστρέφων αὐτόν μετ᾿ αἰσχύνης τῇ ὁδῷ ᾗ ἦλθεν. Ὁδός δέ δι᾿ ἧς ὁ διάβολος ἔρχεται, ἐστί τά πρός σύστασιν τοῦ σώματος εἶναι δοκοῦντα ὑλικά.

2.80 (π΄) Νοῦς ἑαυτῷ κατά φύσιν διά μέσου λόγου συνάψας τήν αἴσθησιν, τήν ἐκ τῆς φυσικῆς θεωρίας ἀληθῆ συλλέγεται γνῶσιν.

2.81 (πα΄) Πηγαί εἰσιν ἔξω τῆς πόλεως· τουτέστι τῆς ψυχῆς· ἅς Ἐζεκίας ἐμφράττει· τά αἰσθητά πάντα· ὕδατα δέ τούτων τυγχάνουσι τῶν πηγῶν, τά τῶν αἰσθητῶν νοήματα· ποταμός δέ διορίζων διά μέσης τῆς πόλεώς ἐστιν, ἡ κατά φυσικήν θεωρίαν ἐκ τῶν 1252 αἰσθητῶν νοημάτων συναγομένη γνῶσις, διά μέσης διερχομένη τῆς ψυχῆς, ὡς νοῦ καί αἰσθήσεως οὖσα μεθόριος. Ἡ γάρ γνῶσις τῶν αἰσθητῶν, οὔτε πάντη νοερᾶς ἀπεξένωται δυνάμεως, οὔτε διόλου προσνενέμηται τῇ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ἐνεργείᾳ· ἀλλ᾿ οἷον τῆς τε τοῦ νοῦ πρός τήν αἴσθησιν, καί πρός τόν νοῦν τῆς αἰσθήσεως συνόδου, μέση τυγχάνουσα, δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς ποιεῖται τήν πρός ἄλληλα 15∆_118 τούτων συνάφειαν· κατά μέν τήν αἴσθησιν, κατ᾿ εἶδος τυπουμένη τοῖς σχήμασι τῶν αἰσθητῶν· κατά δέ τόν νοῦν, εἰς λόγους τῶν σχημάτων τούς τύπους μεταβιβάζουσα. ∆ιό ποταμός διορίζων διά μέσης τῆς πόλεως, εἰκότως προσηγορεύθη τῶν ὁρωμένων ἡ γνῶσις, ὡς τῶν ἄκρων, λέγω δέ νοῦ καί αἰσθήσεως, οὖσα μεταίχμιος.

2.82 (πβ΄) Ὁ κατά τόν καιρόν τῆς τῶν πειρασμῶν ἐπαναστάσεως, τῆς μετά φυσικῆς ἀπεχόμενος θεωρίας, τῆς δέ προσευχῆς κατά τήν ἐκ πάντων πρός ἑαυτόν τε καί τόν Θεόν τοῦ νοῦ συστολήν ἀντεχόμενος, ἀποκτείνει τήν ποιητικήν τῆς κακίας ἕξιν, καί ἀποστρέφει μετ᾿ αἰσχύνης τόν διάβολον, ὑποβαλλόμενον τήν εἰρημένην ἕξιν, ἐφ᾿ ᾗ πεποιθώς μετά τῆς οἰκείας ἀλαζονείας ἦλθε πρός τήν ψυχήν, διά τῶν ὑπερηφάνων λογισμῶν τῆς ἀληθείας κατεπαιρόμενος· ὅπερ τυχόν καί γνούς καί παθών καί ποιήσας ὁ μέγας ∆αβίδ, ὁ πάντων μάλιστα πεῖραν ἔχων τῆς τῶν νοητῶν