26

spacious; for it was as if points suspended from every side of the circumference made the little hole in the stone still narrower. Those who were leading me said that I must pass through this opening—for there was no other way to get through from there—and they suggested that I put my head in first, and then slide through with the rest of my body. I did according to their suggestions and the stone yielded to me as I came out and dissolved as if it were some very soft body. And I, having come to another side, first encountered a very deep ladder and I descended confidently, and indeed at the end a temple was opened to me, and on the left side an icon of the Theotokos adorned it, but the other side I did not see very clearly right away. Then, seeing my mother standing near the icon and, as it were, clinging to it, I rushed as I was to embrace her. But you commanded me with your hand to stop for a little while; and shrinking back, I was instantly frozen. And you did not turn, but as if stealing my conversation from me, you said: “turn your eyes to the right of the temple.” And when I had done this, a certain monk appeared, not standing, but bent at the knees; a tablet was in his hands, upon which he had indeed fixed his eyes. He seemed to be of a very great size, stern in appearance and scowling of brow and exuding precisely the “ascetic life.” “And who is this?” I asked my mother. And she, again without turning, said: “The great Basil, my child. But go and venerate him.” But when I had approached and looked at him, he shook his head. He suddenly closed the tablet and, making a sound like thunder, “had disappeared.” And I no longer saw my mother, but I was living somewhere else, and “those who had led me away” invisibly approached me again and seemed to be arranging my robe and whispering some words, which I did not retain, being released from sleep. 27. Therefore, O mother, I am convinced that even in death you have “taken care” of your son, having grasped this matter from many proofs; but I, as if resisting your rectitude and breaking with the rule, do not at all “philosophize the philosophy” dear to you, but I do not know what portion has seized me from the beginning and has nailed me to books, and I cannot be torn away from them. For the art of words charms me, and along with the arrangement of the subjects I have exceedingly loved the beauty that blossoms upon it, and “like the bees” I fly over the meadows of reason, and on the one hand I “cull the flowers,” and on the other I drink up the dewiness of the language and make honey in my hives. The revolution of the sphere does not allow me to be at rest, but forces me to investigate what its motion is, from where it has rolled forth, what its nature is, what the circles are, how they are imposed, how they are divided, how large the segments of the straight lines are, what the angles are, the co-ascensions, the equalities, the obliquities, what the magnitudes are, of what sort of nature, what the motions are and how many, if all things are of fire, or of another nature. The static science also moves me, and I cannot but consider “continuous magnitude,” nor fail to observe the precision of the proof, how the axioms are from the mind, and from the axioms the immediate propositions straightaway, how all things stand, how they have been made precise, what is the proportional, what the irrational, what the rational, what the incommensurable, what the commensurable, and of what sort are “the lengths and the powers,” and the revolution around a solid. But the first and immaterial part does not even allow me to sleep; at any rate, I have marveled at its relation to all things, or of all things to it, both its limit and its infinity, and how from these two the others arise, and how both the idea and the soul and nature are referred to numbers, the one according to what is innate to the mind, the other according to what is concurrent with reason, the other according to what is commensurate with the natural order, and of what sort is the natural law, and what in it is perfect, what is symmetrical, the ordered, the beautiful, the self-sufficient, the equal, the same, the unmixed, the simple, the paradigm, the principle, what is the life-giving, what is the psychic, what are the things of numbers up to

26

εὐρύχωρον· οἱονεὶ γὰρ ἀκίδες ἑκασταχόθεν τῆς περιφερείας ἀπῃωρημέναι τὸ τοῦ λίθου ἔτι ἀπεστένουν τρημάτιον. ταύτην οἱ ἄγοντες τὴν ὀπὴν διαδῦναί με ἔφασαν δεῖν-μὴ γὰρ ἄλλως εἶναι ἐκεῖθεν διεληλυθέναι -καὶ ὑπέθεσαν τὴν κεφαλὴν ὑποθεῖναι πρότερον, εἶθ' οὕτω τῷ λοιπῷ διολισθῆσαί με σώματι. ἐποίησα κατὰ τὰς ὑποθήκας καὶ ὁ λίθος ὑπεδίδου μοι ἐξιόντι καὶ ὥσπερ τι σῶμα μαλακώτατον διελύετο. κἀγὼ καθ' ἕτερον μέρος γενόμενος βαθυτάτῃ πρώτως ἐντετύχηκα κλίμακι καὶ κατῄειν θαρρούντως καὶ δή μοι πρὸς τῷ τέρματι νεὼς ἀνέῳκτο καὶ τὸ μὲν λαιὸν μέρος εἰκὼν ἐκόσμει τῆς Θεομήτορος, τὸ δ' ἄλλο οὐ πάνυ εὐθὺς τεθέαμαι. Εἶτά γε τὴν τεκοῦσαν πρὸς τῇ εἰκόνι ἑστηκυῖαν ἰδὼν καὶ οἶον ἐκκρεμαμένην, ὥρμησα μὲν ὡς εἶχον περιβαλεῖν. σὺ δέ μοι τῇ χειρὶ βραχύ τι στῆναι ἐπέταξας· καὶ ὑποπτήξας ἐπάγην ἀθρόον. καὶ οὐδ' ὡς ἐπεστράφης, ἀλλ' οἷον ὑποκλέπτουσά μοι τὴν ὁμιλίαν· «ἐπὶ τὰ δεξιά-ἔφησας-τοῦ νεὼ στρέψαι τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς». καὶ τοῦτο πεποιηκότι μοναχός τις ὦπτο οὐκ ὄρθιος, ἀλλ' ὑποκλάσας τοῖς γόνασι· δέλτος αὐτῷ ἐν χεροῖν, πρὸς ἣν δὴ καὶ ἐπεπήγει τοῖς ὄμμασιν. ἐῴκει δὲ ὑπερμεγέθει τινί, στρυφνὸς τὴν ὄψιν καὶ σκυθρωπὸς τὴν ὀφρῦν καὶ τὴν «ἀσκητικὴν» ἀκριβῶς ἀποπνέων «ζωήν». «καὶ τίς δὲ οὗτος;»· τὴν μητέρα ἠρώτησα. ἡ δὲ ἀμεταστρόφως αὖθις· «ὁ μέγας-ἔφη-, τέκνον, Βασίλειος. ἀλλ' ἄπιθι προσκυνήσων αὐτῷ». ἐπεὶ δὲ προσελήλυθα καὶ προσβλέψας, οὗτος ἀνένευσεν. ὁ μὲν ἀθρόον συμπτύξας τὴν δέλτον καὶ βροντῆς ἦχον πεποιηκὼς «ἀφανὴς ἐγεγόνει». καὶ οὐδὲ τὴν μητέρα ἔτι τεθέαμαι, ἀλλ' ἑτέρωσέ πη διαιτώμενος ἦν καὶ «οἱ ἀπαγαγόντες» ἀφανῶς μοι αὖθις προσεληλύθεσαν καὶ ἐδόκουν τήν τε στολήν μοι κατακοσμεῖν καί τινας λόγους ἐπιψιθυρίζειν, οὓς οὐ κατέσχον τοῦ ὕπνου διαφειμένος. 27. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν, ὦ μῆτερ, καὶ θανοῦσα «ἐπιμέλειαν πεποίησαι» τοῦ υἱέος πέπεισμαι, τοῦτο πολλοῖς τεκμηρίοις τὸ πρᾶγμα κατειληφώς· ἐγὼ δὲ ὥσπερ ἀντιπίπτων σοι ταῖς εὐθύτησι καὶ ἀντικλώμενος τῷ κανόνι, οὐ πάνυ τὴν σοὶ φίλην «φιλοσοφίαν φιλοσοφῶ», ἀλλ' οὐκ οἶδα ἥτις με μερὶς εἴληφεν ἐξ ἀρχῆς καί με τοῖς βιβλίοις προσήλωσε καὶ οὐκ ἔχω τούτων ἀποσπασθήσεσθαι. Θέλγει γάρ με καὶ ἡ τέχνη τῶν λόγων καὶ μετὰ τῆς οἰκονομίας τῶν ὑποθέσεων καὶ τὸ ἐπανθοῦν αὐτῇ ὑπερηγαπήκειν κάλλος καὶ «κατὰ τὰς μελίττας» τοῖς λογικοῖς λειμῶσιν ἐφίπταμαι καὶ τὰ μὲν «ἄνθη κείρω», τὰ δὲ τὸ δροσῶδες ἀναπίνω τῆς λέξεως καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἐμοῖς σίμβλοις μελιτουργῶ. οὐκ ἐᾷ με ἡσυχάζειν ἡ τῆς σφαίρας περιφορά, ἀλλ' ἀναγκάζει με πολυπραγμονεῖν τίς ἡ κίνησις, πόθεν ἐκκεκύλισται, τίς ἡ φύσις, τίνες οἱ κύκλοι, πῶς ἐπιβέβληνται, πῶς διῄρηνται, πηλίκα τὰ τῶν εὐθειῶν τμήματα, τίνες αἱ γωνίαι, αἱ συναναφοραί, αἱ ἰσότητες, αἱ λοξώσεις, τίνα τὰ μεγέθη, ποδαπῆς φύσεως, πῶς αἱ κινήσεις καὶ πόσαι, εἰ τοῦ πυρὸς ἅπαντα, εἰ φύσεως ἄλλης. κινεῖ με καὶ ἡ στάσιμος ἐπιστήμη καὶ οὐκ ἔχω μὴ συννοεῖν «τὸ συνεχὲς μέγεθος» μὴ τὸ ἀκριβὲς τῆς ἀποδείξεως θεωρεῖν, πῶς ἀπὸ νοῦ μὲν τὰ ἀξιώματα, ἐκ δὲ τῶν ἀξιωμάτων αἱ ἄμεσοι προτάσεις εὐθύς, πῶς ἕστηκε πάντα πῶς ἠκρίβωται, τί τὸ ἀνάλογον τί τὸ ἄλογον, τί τὸ ῥητόν, τί τὸ ἄμετρον, τί τὸ σύμμετρον, ὁποῖα δὲ καὶ «τὰ μήκη καὶ αἱ δυνάμεις», καὶ ἡ περὶ τὸ στερεὸν στροφή. τὸ δέ γε πρῶτον μέρος καὶ ἄϋλον οὐδὲ καθεύδειν ἐᾷ· τεθαύμακα γοῦν αὐτοῦ τὸ πρὸς ἅπαντα ἢ τῶν πάντων πρὸς τοῦτο, τό τε πέρας αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ ἄπειρον, καὶ πῶς ἐκ δυεῖν τούτοιν τὰ ἄλλα καὶ πῶς καὶ ἡ ἰδέα καὶ ἡ ψυχὴ καὶ ἡ φύσις εἰς ἀριθμοὺς ἀναφέρονται, ἡ μὲν κατὰ τὸν τῷ νῷ σύμφυτον, ἡ δὲ κατὰ τὸν τῷ λόγῳ σύνδρομον, ἡ δὲ κατὰ τὸν τῇ φυσικῇ τάξει ἰσόμετρον, ποδαπός τε ὁ λόγος ὁ φυσικός, καὶ τί μὲν τὸ ἐν τούτῳ τέλειον, τί δὲ τὸ σύμμετρον, τὸ τεταγμένον, τὸ κάλλος, τὸ αὔταρκες, τὸ ἶσον, τὸ ταὐτόν, τὸ ἀμιγές, τὸ ἁπλοῦν, τὸ παράδειγμα, ἡ ἀρχή, τίς ὁ ζωογονικός, τίς ὁ ψυχικός, τί τὰ τῶν ἀριθμῶν ἄχρι