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he suspects that certain wondrous things come from that little light, but what they are in truth he is unable to reason or conceive, but when he is cast out of the prison, then he sees the whole light and all things and all people in the light at once, in this way, understand for me also the one who has just departed from the necessities of the body and has become wholly outside of the world and of the visible things of lowliness. And otherwise, imagine for me this entire world as being in reality one very dark and lightless prison, and consider for me the light of the sun as a lamp's light, and outside of this, the unutterable, the ineffable, the unapproachable, the light beyond conception and beyond reason and beyond all light, the Tri-hypostatic light, but the things in that light are invisible and unknown, unutterable and inexplicable to all those who have been in this prison, even if some seem through the Scriptures to understand and contemplate these things; for to the majority it is not even known that anything exists beyond these things.

When, therefore, with all faith and all longing we shall seek, not to see the light outside this prison, nor the things in that light and world - for no one of those who seek these things has been deemed worthy to see, nor will ever be deemed worthy to behold them at all, (109) but rather, first, to keep the commandments of God, to repent, to mourn, to be humbled and the other things which we have mentioned before, then there is opened for us, as it were, a small opening in this visible vault of heaven and the immaterial and intelligible light above it is revealed; which the soul, upon seeing it, is completely entranced, completely astounded, seeing a new wonder, a paradoxical wonder and what until then it had never yet beheld, in which it also abides as if caught up into heaven and is constrained to be there and to comprehend its incomprehensible nature and especially in seeing it day and night and being taught each day from there that it is unwaning, that it is infinite and ineffable, from where it has no desire at all to turn back to this prison and to see again the things in it.

Know then that this is the beginning of the introductory things into piety and for those who have just stripped for the contests of virtue. When, therefore, he has tarried for a long time irreversibly in that contemplation, he knows not how, there is opened to him—I know not whether heaven, I know not whether the eye of his heart, and this rather than that, so to speak—by that light, and inside the house of his soul, that is, of this tabernacle, that wondrous and most radiant light enters, illuminating him commensurately, as much, that is, as his nature can bear. And so again, having tarried for a long time, as is usual by degrees, and as if always being with this, he considers such a thing; but wonders upon wonders and mysteries upon mysteries and contemplations upon contemplations, he is taught, being illuminated from it every hour, so to speak, and seeing and understanding and being initiated; which, should he wish to write them down, neither paper nor ink would suffice for him, and time, I think, would fail him as he explains these things in detail. But rather, how indeed could he write down things that cannot be told, being ineffable and in every way unutterable? Wherefore, as if in light then, (110) or rather with the light, he is present and does not continue as if in ecstasy, but he also sees himself and his own affairs and sees his neighbors as they are and he foretells and foreknows that, if he should get outside of this prison, and especially after the resurrection, and should behold that unbearable light as it is, and the good things in it "which eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and have not entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love him" will be revealed to him more clearly through the light that is now in him, by which he is also illuminated; for we are not then deprived of knowing or seeing, but as the discourse has shown above, according to the radiance and contemplation of the light, so in proportion rather also the knowledge and the contemplation of God, and the recognition and knowledge of one another will be greater and purer in inexpressible gladness and exultation for ever and ever. And this also in the old

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θαυμαστά τινα ἐκ τοῦ ὀλίγου φωτός ἐκείνου εἶναι ὑπονοεῖ, ὁποῖα δέ εἰσιν ἐν ἀληθείᾳ λογίσαθαι ἤ ἐννοῆσαι οὐ δύναται, ἐπάν δέ καί τῆς φυλακῆς ἔξωθεν ἐκβληθῇ, τότε καί τό φῶς ὅλον καί τά ἐν φωτί ἅπαντα καί ἅπαντας ὁμοῦ καθορᾷ, οὕτω μοι νόει καί τόν ἄρτι ἐκδεδημηκότα τῶν τοῦ σώματος ἀναγκῶν καί ὅλον ἔξω γεγονότα τοῦ κόσμου καί τῶν ὁρωμένων τῆς ταπεινώσεως. Καί τοῦτον μέν τόν σύμπαντα κόσμον ὡς μίαν ὄντα τῷ ὄντι σκοτεινοτάτην καί ἀφεγγῆ φυλακήν ἄλλως μοι πάλιν ὑπονόει, λυχνιαῖον δέ φῶς τό τοῦ ἡλίου λογίζου μοι φῶς, ἔξωθεν δέ τούτου τό ἀνεκλάλητον, τό ἄφραστον, τό ἀπρόσιτον, τό ὑπέρ ἔννοιαν καί ὑπέρ λόγον καί ὑπέρ πᾶν φῶς τρισυπόστατον φῶς, τά δέ ἐν τῷ φωτί ἐκείνῳ πᾶσι τοῖς ἐν τῇ φυλακῇ ταύτῃ γενομένοις ἀόρατά τε καί ἄγνωστα, ἄφθεγκτα καί ἀνερμήνευτα, εἰ καί δοκοῦσί τινες διά τῶν Γραφῶν ταῦτα νοεῖν τε καί θεωρεῖν· τοῖς γάρ πλείοσιν οὐδέ ὅτι πέρα τούτων ἐστί τι γινώσκεται.

Ὁπηνίκα οὖν πάσῃ πίστει καί παντί πόθῳ ζητήσομεν, οὐχί τό ἰδεῖν τό ἔξωθεν ταύτης τῆς φυλακῆς φῶς, οὐδέ τά ἐν τῷ φωτί ἐκείνῳ καί κόσμῳ πράγματα - οὐδείς γάρ τῶν ταῦτα ζητούντων ἠξιώθη ἰδεῖν, οὐδ᾿ οὐ μή ἀξιωθήσεταί ποτε αὐτά καθόλου θεάσασθαι , (109) ἀλλά τό φυλάξαι ἐν πρώτοις τάς ἐντολάς τοῦ Θεοῦ, τό μετανοεῖν, τό πενθεῖν, τό ταπεινοῦσθαι καί τά λοιπά ἅ προείπομεν, τηνικαῦτα καί διανοίγεται ἡμῖν ὥσπερ ὀπή τις μικρά ἐν τῷ ὁρωμένῳ τούτῳ ὀρόφῳ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ καί τό ὑπεράνω τούτου φῶς ἄϋλόν τε καί νοητόν παραδείκνυται· ὅ καί ἡ ψυχή κατιδοῦσα ὅλη καθόλου ἐξίσταται, ὅλη ἐκπλήττεται, θαῦμα καινόν ὁρῶσα, θαῦμα παράδοξον καί ὅ μέχρι τότε οὐδέπω τεθέαται, ἐν ᾧ καί ἐπιμένει ὥσπερ καί ἁρπαζομένη εἰς τόν οὐρανόν καί βιαζομένη εἶναι ἐκεῖ καί κατανοεῖν τό τούτου ἀκατανόητον καί μάλιστα ἐν τῷ βλέπειν αὐτό ἡμέρας τε καί νυκτός καί διδάσκεσθαι καθ᾿ ἑκάστην ἐκεῖθεν ὅτι πέλει ἀνέσπερον, ὅτι ἄπειρον ὑπάρχει καί ἄφραστον, ὅθεν καί πρός τήν φυλακήν ταύτην ἐπιστραφῆναι καί βλέπειν αὖθις τά ἐν αὐτῇ ὅλως οὐ βούλεται.

Τοῦτο τοίνυν ἀρχήν ἴσθι τῶν εἰσαγωγικῶν εἰς εὐσέβειαν καί ἄρτι πρός τούς τῆς ἀρετῆς ἀποδυσαμένων ἀγῶνας. Ἐπάν οὖν χρονίσῃ ἀνεπιστρόφως πρός τήν θεωρίαν ἐκείνην, ὡς οὐκ οἶδε, διανοίγεται αὐτῷ, οὐκ οἶδα ὁ οὐρανός, οὐκ οἶδα ὁ τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ ὀφθαλμός καί οὗτος μᾶλλον ἤ ἐκεῖνος, εἰπεῖν, ὑπό τοῦ φωτός ἐκείνου καί ἔνδον τοῦ οἴκου τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ, λέγω δή τούτου τοῦ σκήνους, τό φῶς ἐκεῖνο εἰσέρχεται τό θαυμαστόν καί ὑπέρλαμπρον, φωτίζον συμμέτρως αὐτόν, ὅσον ἡ φύσις δηλονότι χωρεῖ. Οὕτω δέ πάλιν χρονίσας, ὡς σύνηθες ἐκ τοῦ κατ᾿ ὀλίγον, καί ὡς ἀεί ποτε τούτῳ συνών, λογίζεται τό τοιοῦτον· θαύματα δέ ἐπί θαύμασι καί μυστήρια ἐπί μυστηρίοις καί θεωρίας ἐπί θεωρίαις, ἐλλαμπόμενος ἐξ αὐτοῦ καθ᾿ ὥραν, ἵν᾿ εἴπω, καί ὁρῶν καί νοῶν καί μυούμενος ἐκδιδάσκεται· ἅ καί εἰ γράφειν θελήσει, οὐδέ χάρτης οὐδέ μέλαν ἀρκέσει αὐτῷ, ἐπιλείψει δέ, οἶμαι, καί ὁ χρόνος αὐτόν ἐξηγούμενον ταῦτα λεπτομερῶς. Μᾶλλον δέ, πῶς ἄρα γράψαι δυνήσεται τά μή δυνάμενα ῥηθῆναι, ἄφραστα ὄντα καί ἄρρητα πάντῃ; Ὅθεν καί ὡς ἐν φωτί τότε, (110) μᾶλλον μετά τοῦ φωτός, σύνεστι καί οὐχ ὡς ἐν ἐκστάσει διατελεῖ, ἀλλά καί ἑαυτόν καί τά κατ᾿ αὐτόν καθορᾷ καί τούς πλησίον βλέπει ἐν οἵοις εἰσί καί προλέγει καί προγινώσκει ὅτι, ἐάν ἔξω τῆς φυλακῆς ταύτης γένηται καί μάλιστα μετά τήν ἀνάστασιν, καί τό φῶς ἐκεῖνο τό ἄστεκτον ὅσον ἐστί θεάσηται, καί τά ἐν αὐτῷ ἀγαθά "ἅ ὀφθαλμός οὐκ εἶδε καί οὖς οὐκ ἤκουσε καί ἐπί καρδίαν ἀνθρώπου οὐκ ἀνέβη, ἅ ἡτοίμασεν ὁ Θεός τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτόν" ἀποκαλυφθήσονται αὐτῷ τρανότερον διά τοῦ ἐν αὐτῷ ὄντος νυνί φωτός ὑφ᾿ οὗ καί φωτίζεται· οὐ γάρ στερούμεθα τότε τοῦ γνωρίζειν ἤ βλέπειν, ἀλλ᾿ ὡς ὁ λόγος ἀνωτέρω ἀπέδειξε, κατά τήν τοῦ φωτός λαμπρότητα καί θεωρίαν, ἀναλόγως μᾶλλον καί ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ γνῶσις καί ἡ θεωρία, καί ὁ ἀναγνωρισμός καί ἡ γνῶσις ἀλλήλων πλεῖον καί καθαρώτερον ἐν ἀνεκφράστῳ θυμηδίᾳ καί ἀγαλλιάσει ἔσεται εἰς αἰῶνας αἰώνων. Καί τοῦτο καί ἐν τῇ παλαιᾷ οἱ