56. The Seal³⁶ prevailed: the demons are worsted, the terrors are allayed. And then what follows? The wickedness revives, he takes courage again; the attempt is repeated, the same terrors return; again the sign of the Cross, and the vanishing demons; the neophyte in despair. The celebrant is at hand, explaining away the truth: "We have made ourselves abominable, we have not terrified them;" the worse side conquers, for these were his words: and by dint of talking he persuades, and by persuading he leads his disciple into the pit of perdition.³⁷ And no wonder at it, for a vicious disposition is more ready to follow what is better than to be checked by what is better. Now what he said, did, or was deceived in, before he was sent up again, those may know who initiate and are initiated into these rites: at any rate he reascends full of the demon both in mind and in his actions, and indicating by the frenzy of his eyes whom he had been worshipping; if indeed he was not possessed with a demon from the very day on which he first took up with such bad ideas; but then, it became more conspicuous, in order that he might not have gone down there in vain, and become partaker with demons: a thing which those people call "enthusiasm," putting a handsome name upon it. Now his first actions were as related above.

Ν#2ʹ. Ἴσχυσεν ἡ σφραγὶς, ἡττῶνται οἱ δαίμονες, λύονται οἱ φόβοι. Εἶτα τί; Ἀναπνεῖ τὸ κακὸν, θρασύνεται πάλιν, αὖθις ὁρμὴ, καὶ οἱ αὐτοὶ φόβοι, καὶ ἡ σφραγὶς πάλιν, καὶ ἠρεμοῦντες οἱ δαίμονες: καὶ ὁ μύστης ἐν ἀπορίᾳ: καὶ ὁ μυσταγωγὸς ἐγγύθεν παρεξηγούμενος τὴν ἀλήθειαν: Ἐβδελύχθημεν, λέγων, οὐκ ἐφοβήσαμεν: νικᾷ τὸ χεῖρον: λέγει γὰρ ταῦτα, καὶ εἰπὼν πείθει, καὶ πείσας ἄγει τὸν μαθητὴν ἐπὶ τὸ τῆς ἀπωλείας βάραθρον. Καὶ θαυμαστὸν οὐδέν: πρόχειρος γὰρ ἡ πονηρία τῷ κακῷ μᾶλλον ἀκολουθεῖν ἢ ὑπὸ τοῦ κρείττονος ἀνακόπτεσθαι. Ἃ μὲν οὖν εἰπὼν, ἢ ποιήσας. ἢ ἐξαπατηθεὶς ἀναπέμπεται, εἰδεῖεν ἂν οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα τελοῦντές τε καὶ τελούμενοι: ἄνεισι δ' οὖν καὶ τῇ ψυχῇ δαιμονῶν καὶ τοῖς πράγμασι, καὶ τῷ μανιώδει τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν ἐπισημαίνων οὓς ἐθεράπευσεν: εἰ μή γε καὶ ἀπ' ἐκείνης τῆς ἡμέρας ἐπλήσθη δαιμόνων, ἀφ' ἧς οὕτω πονηρὰ προὔθετο: ἀλλὰ τότε καὶ περιφανέστερον: ἵνα μὴ μάτην ᾖ κατεληλυθὼς, καὶ τῶν δαιμόνων μετειληφὼς, ὂν ἐνθουσιασμὸν ἐκεῖνοι καλοῦσι, μεταποιοῦντες σεμνῶς τὰ ὀνόματα. Τὰ μὲν δὴ πρῶτα τοιαῦτα.