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looking only at the flower, I do not see the tree then. But the flower, blooming more frequently and drawing me entirely to it with longing, ends in a fruit of love. But this fruit, in turn, does not endure to be borne by the tree of fear, but rather when it has fully ripened, then it is seen alone, without the tree. For fear is not found in love at all, nor again without fear is it brought to fruit in the soul. Truly a wonder beyond reason, and beyond all thought, that a tree with labor blossoms and bears fruit; but its fruit in turn uproots the whole tree, and the fruit remains alone. How a fruit can exist without the tree, I am altogether unable to explain; yet it remains, yet love exists without the fear that bore it. Love, therefore, is truly all gladness, (103) and fills the one who possesses it with joy and delight and, in perception, casts him out of the world, which fear is not at all able to accomplish. For being within things seen and things perceived, how could it have the power to cast the one who possesses it far from these things, and join him wholly in perception to the invisible things? Truly, it will in no way have the power! But the flower, and the fruit, which fear begets, is outside the world, which know how to seize the mind and to lift the soul with it and to cast it outside the world.

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πρός τό ἄνθος μόνον ἔχων οὐχ ὁρῶ τό δένδρον τότε. Συχνοτέρως δέ τό ἄνθος ἐπανθοῦν καί πρός ἐκεῖνο ὅλον με τῷ πόθῳ ἕλκον εἰς καρπόν ἀγάπης λήγει. Ὁ καρπός δέ οὗτος πάλιν οὐκ ἀνέχεται τῷ δένδρῳ τῷ τοῦ φόβου βασταχθῆναι, ἀλλά μᾶλλον ὅτε πλήρης ὡριμάσει, τότε μόνος δίχα δένδρου καθορᾶται. Φόβος γάρ ἐν τῇ ἀγάπῃ οὐχ εὑρίσκεται οὐδ᾿ ὅλως, οὐδέ πάλιν δίχα φόβου ἐν ψυχῇ καρποφορεῖται. Ὄντως θαῦμα ὑπέρ λόγον, ὑπέρ ἔννοιαν δέ πᾶσαν, ὅτι δένδρον μετά κόπου ἐξανθεῖ καί καρπόν φέρει˙ ὁ καρπός αὐτοῦ δέ πάλιν ὅλον ἐκριζοῖ τό δένδρον, μένει δ᾿ ὁ καρπός καί μόνος. Πῶς καρπός τοῦ δένδρου δίχα, ὅλως ἐξειπεῖν οὐκ ἔχω˙ τέως μένει, τέως ἔστιν ἡ ἀγάπη δίχα φόβου τοῦ αὐτήν ἀποτεκόντος. Ἡ ἀγάπη οὖν ὑπάρχει ὄντως πᾶσα εὐφροσύνη, (103) καί χαρᾶς καί θυμηδίας ἐμπιπλᾷ τόν κεκτημένον καί τοῦ κόσμου ἐν αἰσθήσει τοῦτον ἔξωθεν ἐκβάλλει, ὅπερ φόβος οὐκ ἰσχύει ἀπεργάσασθαι οὐδ᾿ ὅλως. Ἔνδον γάρ τῶν ὁρωμένων καί τῶν αἰσθητῶν ὤν ἔνδον, πῶς τόν ἔχοντα ἰσχύει τούτων πόρρω βάλλειν ἆρα, ἐν αἰσθήσει τε συνάψαι ὅλον ἄν τοῖς ἀοράτοις; Ὄντως οὐδαμῶς ἰσχύσει! Τό δέ ἄνθος, ὁ καρπός τε, ὅν ὁ φόβος ἀποτίκτει, ἔξωθεν τοῦ κόσμου ἔστιν, ἅ καί νοῦν ἁρπάζειν οἶδε καί ψυχήν σύν τούτῳ αἴρειν καί τοῦ κόσμου ἔξω βάλλειν.