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God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.” What then, is the wisdom of men, when compared to that of God, shamed and made foolish, while foolishness speaks boldly and becomes wise? Or, do you interpret comparatively what you wish, but what you do not wish, not being profitable for the preparation of your arguments, you leave uncompared? And who would be persuaded by you, unless, having been deceived by your words, he considered profane learning to be salvific?

Therefore, what he says next after this, as having in itself the refutation of its falsehood, I think I should omit. But as if judging it not to be enough for him to lie, but also making it of the greatest importance to lie against others, he has again lowered himself to slander, and while I was saying that of the gifts of God some are natural, given in common to all before the Law, and in the Law, and after the Law, but others are supernatural and spiritual and especially ineffable, and while I was preferring these to those, and those deemed worthy of the wisdom of the Spirit to every Hellenic faction, and that one of the things naturally given by God is philosophy, and that the sciences are discoveries of the human mind, he himself, as if from me, says that one should think that only those things have been given by God which human reasoning cannot attain, but that none of the other things is worthy of such an honor. But neither of these things was said by me there. For I know that human reasoning does not attain to many things that even come about by nature, but I deem each thing worthy of its proper honor: the spiritual graces as supernatural and accruing immediately through the Spirit only to those who excel in virtue, p. 308) but the natural things, while affirming that they fall far short of the spiritual graces, are given by God in common to all through nature.

Having based his argument on this slander, then, he puts on airs and is diffuse and vaunts himself over those who do not call the wisdom of the Greeks a spiritual gift of God, and he puts forward many sayings of the divine Basil to the effect that every art has been granted to men by God, a thing which no one contradicts. Then, through many words, he has lapsed into his own opinion and, having constructed it, concluded and declared it, saying: “both the principles of the sciences and prophecy and any revelation whatsoever are of such a kind that, if they are not given, they surpass human reasoning, but when they are given, the soul attains to them.” So that either nothing, or all things are likewise gifts of God and given by God. Therefore might one say to him: and you, who preeminently think to deem yourself worthy of Hellenic grace through the sciences, are you similarly graced by God as he who has the abundance of revelations, and are the Egyptians who first discovered the sciences of equal honor with the prophets and apostles? For how are those who have come to partake of gifts similarly given and similarly known not of equal honor?

“But God,” he says, “when He had just created the soul, filled it with the common notions and with the powers of definition and division and syllogism, from which the sciences are constituted; therefore the sciences are gifts of God.” What justification, then, is this for those who misuse or abuse them and for those who perfect the Gospel of Christ, as if it were incomplete, from the sciences? For neither would one acquit fornicators and the incontinent of blame on the grounds that God in the beginning, having formed and ensouled the body, created in it the generative and nutritive power. But these are the things which we forbid by our words: the misuse and the abuse and the reverence given to the sciences beyond what is proper (p. 310); and you, if you are willing to listen to these things with understanding, will both know and confess this, and you will cease growing old in such things, and you will no longer say that these teachings are salvific and initiatory, cathartic and illuminating for the soul, having been persuaded by these arguments and by those of the great Basil.

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μωρά τοῦ κόσμου ἐξελέξατο ὁ Θεός, ἵνα τούς σοφούς καταισχύνῃ». Τί οὖν, ἡ μέν σοφία τῶν ἀνθρώπων συγκρινομένη πρός τήν τοῦ Θεοῦ καταισχύνεται καί μωραίνεται, ἡ δέ μωρία παρρησιάζεται καί σοφίζεται; Ἤ, ἅ μέν βούλει, συγκριτικῶς ἐκλαμβάνεις, ἅ δ᾿ οὐκ ἔνι σοι βουλομένῳ, μή λυσιτελοῦντα τῇ παρασκευῇ τῶν σῶν λόγων, ἀφίεις ἀσύγκριτα; Καί τίς ἄν σοι πείθοιτο, εἰ μή τοῖς σοῖς λόγοις ἠπατημένος, τήν ἐξω παιδείαν σωτήριον ἥγηται;

Ἅ μέν οὖν ἐφεξῆς μετά ταῦτα λέγει, ὡς αὐτόθεν ἔχοντα τόν τοῦ ψεύδους ἔλεγχον, παρεῖναί μοι δοκῶ. Ψεύδεσθαι δ᾿ ὥσπερ οὐκ ἀποχρῶν εἶναι κρίνας ἑαυτῷ, ἀλλά καί καταψεύδεσθαι τῶν ἄλλων περί πλείστου ποιούμενος, εἰς τό συκοφαντεῖν αὖθις καθῆκεν ἑαυτόν, κἀμοῦ λέγοντος τῶν δώρων τοῦ Θεοῦ τά μέν εἶναι φυσικά, κοινῇ πᾶσι δεδομένα πρό νόμου καί ἐν νόμῳ καί μετά νόμον, τά δ᾿ ὑπερφυᾶ καί πνευματικά καί διαφερόντως ἀπόρρητα, καί ὑπερτιθέντος ταῦτα ἐκείνων καί τούς κατηξιωμένους τῆς σοφίας τοῦ Πνεύματος πάσης ἑλληνικῆς συμμορίας, ἕν δέ τῶν φυσικῶς δεδομένων ὑπό Θεοῦ τήν φιλοσοφίαν καί ἀνθρωπίνης διανοίας εὑρήματα τά μαθήματα, αὐτός ὡς ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ φησιν ἐκ Θεοῦ δεδόσθαι, ἐκεῖνα μόνα προσῆκεν οἴεσθαι, ὅσων ἀνθρώπινος οὐκ ἐξικνεῖται λογισμός, τῶν δ᾿ ἄλλων οὐδέν τῆς τοιαύτης ἀξιοῦν τιμῆς. Ἐμοί δέ οὐδέτερον τούτων εἴρηται ἐκεῖ. Οἶδα γάρ ὅτι πολλῶν καί τῶν φύσει γινομένων ἀνθρώπινος οὐκ ἐξικνεῖται λογισμός, τιμῆς δέ ἀξιῶ ἕκαστον τῆς προσηκούσης˙ τάς μέν πνευματικάς χάριτας ὡς ὑπερφυεῖς καί μόνοις ἀμέσως διά τοῦ Πνεύματος τοῖς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν διαφέρουσι προσγινομένας, σελ. 308) τά δέ φυσικά μακρῷ μέν φάσκων τῶν πνευματικῶν χαρίτων ἀποδεῖν, κοινῇ δέ πᾶσι πρός Θεοῦ δεδόσθαι διά τῆς φύσεως.

Τῇ δή συκοφαντίᾳ ταύτῃ τόν λόγον ἐρείσας ἐκεῖνος θρύπτεται καί διαχεῖται καί κατεπαίρεται τῶν μή λεγόντων πνευματικόν Θεοῦ δῶρον τήν Ἑλλήνων σοφίαν καί πολλάς προβάλλεται ρήσεις Βασιλείου τοῦ θείου ὡς ἐκ Θεοῦ πάσης τέχνης χαρισθείσης ἀνθρώποις, ὅπερ οὐδείς ὁ ἀντιλέγων ἐστίν. Εἶτα διά πολλῶν εἰς τήν οἰκείαν ἐξέβη δόξαν καί κατασκευάσας συνεπέρανε καί ἀπεφήνατο ταύτην λέγων˙ «καί αἱ ἀρχαί τῶν μαθημάτων καί ἡ προφητεία καί ἡτισοῦν ἀποκάλυψις τοιαῦτά ἐστιν, οἷα, μή δοθέντα μέν, ὑπερβαίνειν ἀνθρώπινον λογισμόν, δοθέντων δέ, ἐξικνεῖσθαι αὐτῶν τήν ψυχήν». Ὥστε ἤ οὐδέν, ἤ πάνθ᾿ ὁμοίως δῶρά ἐστι Θεοῦ καί δεόσδοτα. Οὐκοῦν εἴποι τις ἄν πρός αὐτόν˙ καί σύ, ὁ τῆς ἑλληνικῆς χάριτος διαφερόντως, διά τῶν μαθημάτων καταξιῶσαι σαὐτόν οἰόμενος, τῷ τήν ὑπερβολήν τῶν ἀποκαλύψεων ἔχοντι ὁμοίως κεχαριτωμένος ὑπάρχεις ὑπό Θεοῦ, καί οἱ τά μαθήματα τήν ἀρχήν εὑρόντες Αἰγύπτιοι τοῖς προφήταις καί ἀποστόλοις εἰσίν ὁμότιμοι; Πῶς γάρ οὐχ ὁμότιμοι οἱ τῶν ὁμοίως δεδομένων καί ὁμοίως γινωσκομένων δώρων ἐν μεθέξει γενόμενοι;

«Ἀλλ᾿ ὁ Θεός», φησίν, «ἐμπέπληκεν ἄρτι δημιουργήσας τήν ψυχήν τῶν κοινῶν ἐννοιῶν καί τῶν ὁριστικῶν καί διαιρετικῶν καί συλλογιστικῶν δυνάμεων ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε τά μαθήματα˙ οὐκοῦν δῶρα Θεοῦ τά μαθήματα». Τί δ᾿ ἄρα τοῦτο δικαίωμα τοῖς παραχρωμένοις ἤ καταχρωμένοις καί τοῖς τό εὐαγγέλιον τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὡς ἀτελές τελειοῦσιν ἐκ μαθημάτων; Οὐδέ γάρ τούς πόρνους καί ἀκρατεῖς αἰτίας ἐξέλοιτ᾿ ἄν τις ὅτι τήν ἀρχήν ὁ Θεός τό σῶμα πλάσας τε καί ψυχώσας τήν γεννητικήν καί θρεπτικήν ἐνεποίησε τούτῳ δύναμιν. Ταῦτα δέ ἐστιν ἅ κωλύομεν διά τῶν λόγων ἡμεῖς, τήν παράχρησιν καί τήν κατάχρησιν καί τό παρά τό προσῆκον (σελ. 310) παρεχόμενον τοῖς μαθήμασι σέβας˙ καί σύ γε τοῦτο, εἰ συνετῶς ἀκούειν ἐκείνων ἐθέλεις, εἴσῃ τε καί ὁμολογήσεις καί τό καταγηρᾶν ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις ἀφήσεις καί σωτηρίους καί τελεστηρίους καθαρτικούς τε καί φωτιστικούς ψυχῆς τούς λόγους οὐκέτ᾿ ἐρεῖς, τούτοις τε τοῖς λόγοις καί τοῖς τοῦ μεγάλου Βασιλείου πεισθείς.