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of the conception of reason, how will it not be found completely unthinkable? For what must one understand upon hearing 'manner of generation'? It is among the most difficult things. Does it mean the form of the animal that gives birth, or the impulse, or the disposition, or the place, or the time, or the perfecting of the embryo through conception? Or does it refer to the generative regions themselves? Or not these things, but does it mean something else among the things observed in generation? And 1.1.452 how would we learn what is being said? For the invalid and insignificant nature of the word 20manner20 causes us to hesitate about its meanings, with all things equally falling under suspicion and each equally having an incoherence with the subject at hand. Likewise also what he says, 20manner of likeness20, so spoken, we suspect is foreign to all understanding, looking away to the examples of things known through 1.1.453 custom. For what is begotten is not made like the form or the 20manner20 of the birth. For birth, in the case of carnal generation, is a dilation of the body, bringing forth to the outside the perfected creature from the formation in the bowels, while what is begotten is a man or a horse or an ox or whatever happens to exist through 1.1.454 generation. How then does 20the manner of the likeness20 of what is born 20follow the manner of the generation20? Let this man himself say, or anyone who was taught the midwife's art by him. For birth is one thing, and what comes from birth is another, and the account is different for each. That what is said is false in the case of those born through the flesh, no one with any sense would dispute. 1.1.455 But if he calls making and fashioning a 20manner of generation20, 20which, he says, the manner of the20 resulting 20likeness follows20, even so the argument is separated from what is probable. Let us consider it thus through examples. Iron is shaped by blows, being formed by the craftsman for some useful purpose in life. 1.1.456 How then the shape of the shovel, if it so happens, is like the hand of the artisan or the manner of its construction—such as hammers and coals and bellows and anvil, by which the craftsman formed it—no one could say. And what was said of this one example applies to all things that are worked by some process of construction: that what is made is in no way like 20the manner of its 1.1.457 generation20. For what does the form of the garment have in common with the bobbin or the rods or the shuttle or, in general, with the manner of the weaver's craft? What does the bench have in common with the working of the wood, or anything else that is made with the form of the one who fashioned it? 1.1.458 But in perceptible and corporeal matters, I think even our opponents would agree that this argument is ineffective. It would remain to consider whether it contributes anything toward the construction of his blasphemy. What then was the subject of inquiry? That it must be confessed whether the Son is like or unlike the Father in substance, which, he says, because he was unable to learn it from the principles of providence, he ascended to the manner of generation, so that through this he might know not the one begotten, whether he is like the one who begot, but a certain 20manner of likeness20, and because this is unknown to the many, for this reason to meddle with the substance that begot. Has he then forgotten his own definitions, in which he says that 20substances must be understood 1.1.459 20from their works20? Therefore, since the substance that was begotten, which he calls the work of the one above it, has not yet been revealed as to how it is by nature, how, having passed over that which is, as he himself says, lower and for this reason more accessible to the comprehension of inquirers, does he attach himself to that which is 20most sovereign and highest20? And while establishing in his own discourse that one must know the divine words precisely, now he makes little account of them, as if ignorant that it is not possible to approach the knowledge of the Father without first drawing near through the Son. For 'No one,' he says, 'knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.' But this man, in those things where he is about to insult the 1.1.460 pious and God-befitting [attributes] of the only-begotten

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ἐννοίας λόγων ἀδιανόητον παντελῶς πῶς οὐχ εὑρεθήσεται; τί γὰρ δεῖ νοῆσαι γεννήσεως τρόπον ἀκού σαντα, πάνυ τῶν ἀπόρων ἐστί. τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ ἀποτίκτοντος ζῴου λέγει ἢ τὴν ὁρμὴν ἢ τὴν διάθεσιν ἢ τόπον ἢ χρόνον ἢ τὸ διὰ συλλήψεως τελειοῦσθαι τὸ ἔμβρυον; ἢ αὐτῶν τῶν γεννητικῶν μέμνηται τόπων; ἢ ταῦτα μὲν οὐχί, ἕτερον δὲ τῶν κατὰ τὴν γέννησιν θεωρουμένων λέγει; καὶ 1.1.452 πῶς ἂν μάθοιμεν τὸ λεγόμενον; τὸ γὰρ ἄκυρον καὶ ἀσή μαντον τῆς τοῦ 20τρόπου20 λέξεως ἐπιδιστάζειν ἡμᾶς τοῖς σημαινομένοις παρασκευάζει, ἐπίσης πάντων ταῖς ὑπονοίαις ὑποπιπτόντων καὶ κατ' ἴσον ἑκάστου τὸ ἀσυνάρτητον πρὸς τὸ προκείμενον ἐχόντων. ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ὅ φησιν 20ὁμοιό τητος τρόπον20 οὑτωσὶ λεγόμενον, ἀλλότριον πάσης δια νοίας ὑπονοοῦμεν πρὸς τὰ ὑποδείγματα τῶν διὰ τῆς συνη 1.1.453 θείας γνωρίμων ἀποσκοποῦντες. οὐ γὰρ πρὸς τὸ εἶδος ἢ τὸν 20τρόπον20 τοῦ τόκου καὶ τὸ γεννώμενον ὁμοιοῦται. ὁ μὲν γὰρ τόκος ἐπὶ τῆς διὰ σαρκὸς γεννήσεως σώματός ἐστι διαστολή, τὸ τελειωθὲν ζῷον ἐν τῇ διαπλάσει τῶν σπλάγχνων ἐπὶ τὸ ἔξω προάγουσα, τὸ δὲ γεννώμενον ἄν θρωπός ἐστιν ἢ ἵππος ἢ βοῦς ἢ ὅ τι ἂν τύχῃ διὰ γεννή 1.1.454 σεως ὑφιστάμενον. πῶς τοίνυν 20ὁ τῆς ὁμοιότητος20 τοῦ τικτομένου 20τρόπος ἕπεται τῷ τρόπῳ τῆς γεν νήσεως20, εἰπάτω αὐτὸς οὗτος ἢ εἴ τις ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τὴν μαιευτικὴν ἐπαιδεύθη τέχνην. ἄλλο γάρ τι ὁ τόκος καὶ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ τόκου ἄλλο καὶ διάφορος ἐφ' ἑκατέρου ὁ λόγος. Ὅτι μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τῶν διὰ σαρκὸς τικτομένων ψεῦδός ἐστι τὸ λεγόμενον, οὐδεὶς ἂν ἀντείποι τῶν νοῦν ἐχόντων. 1.1.455 εἰ δὲ τὸ ποιεῖν καὶ τὸ κατασκευάζειν 20τρόπον γεν νήσεως20 ὀνομάζει, 20ᾧ ἕπεσθαι τὸν τρόπον τῆς20 τοῦ γινομένου φησὶν 20ὁμοιότητος20, καὶ οὕτως ὁ λόγος τοῦ εἰκότος κεχώρισται. οὑτωσὶ δὲ διὰ τῶν ὑποδειγμάτων σκοπήσωμεν. πληγαῖς τυποῦται σίδηρος πρός τι τῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ χρησίμων παρὰ τοῦ δημιουργοῦντος σχηματιζόμενος. 1.1.456 τὸ οὖν σχῆμα τῆς ἄμης, ἂν οὕτω τύχῃ, πῶς ὁμοιοῦται τῇ χειρὶ τοῦ τεχνίτου ἢ τῷ τρόπῳ τῆς κατασκευῆς οἷον σφύραις καὶ ἄνθραξι καὶ φύσαις καὶ ἄκμονι, δι' ὧν αὐτὴν ὁ δημιουργὸς ἀνετυπώσατο, οὐκ ἄν τις εἰπεῖν ἔχοι· τὸ δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἑνὸς ὑποδείγματος εἰρημένον πᾶσιν ἐφαρμόζει τοῖς διά τινος κατασκευῆς ἀπεργασθεῖσιν, ὅτι 20τῷ τρόπῳ τῆς 1.1.457 γεννήσεως20 τὸ γινόμενον οὐδαμῶς ὁμοιοῦται. τί γὰρ κοινὸν ἔχει τὸ εἶδος τοῦ ἱματίου πρὸς τὸ πηνίον ἢ τοὺς κανόνας ἢ τὴν κερκίδα ἢ ὅλως πρὸς τὸν τρόπον τῆς τοῦ ὑφάντου κατασκευῆς; τί δὲ τὸ βάθρον πρὸς τὴν τῶν ξύλων ἀπεργασίαν ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν γινομένων πρὸς τὸ σχῆμα τοῦ κατεργασαμένου; 1.1.458 Ἀλλ' ἐν μὲν τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς καὶ σωματικοῖς ἀργεῖν τὸν λόγον τοῦτον καὶ αὐτοὺς οἶμαι τοὺς ἐναντίους συντί θεσθαι. ὑπόλοιπον δ' ἂν εἴη σκοπεῖν, εἴ τινα συντέλειαν πρὸς τὴν τῆς βλασφημίας κατασκευὴν συνεισφέρεται. τί οὖν τὸ ζητούμενον ἦν; τὸ δεῖν κατὰ τὴν οὐσίαν ὁμοίως ἢ ἀνομοίως ἔχειν τῷ πατρὶ τὸν υἱὸν ὁμολογεῖσθαι, ὅπερ διὰ τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι, φησίν, ἐκ τῶν τῆς προνοίας λόγων μαθεῖν ἐπὶ τὸν τῆς γεννήσεως ἀνεληλυθέναι τρόπον, ὡς διὰ τούτου γνῶναι οὐχὶ τὸν γεννηθέντα, εἰ ὁμοίως ἔχει πρὸς τὸν γεννήσαντα, ἀλλά τινα 20ὁμοιό τητος τρόπον20, καὶ διὰ τὸ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἄγνωστον εἶναι τοῦτον, διὰ τοῦτο τὴν γεννήσασαν οὐσίαν περιεργά ζεσθαι. ἆρα οὖν ἐπιλέλησται τῶν ἰδίων διορισμῶν, ἐν οἷς φησιν 20ἐκ τῶν ἔργων20 δεῖν 20τὰς οὐσίας καταλαμ 1.1.459 βάνεσθαι20; τῆς οὖν γεννηθείσης οὐσίας, ἣν ἔργον ὀνο μάζει τῆς ὑπερκειμένης, μηδέπω φανερωθείσης πῶς ἔχει κατὰ τὴν φύσιν; πῶς ὑπερβὰς τό, ὡς αὐτὸς λέγει, κα τώτερον καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τῇ καταλήψει τῶν ζητούντων προσεχέστερον, τῇ 20κυριωτάτῃ καὶ ἀνωτάτῃ20 προσ φύεται; καὶ τὸ ἀκριβῶς εἰδέναι τὰς θείας φωνὰς ἐν τῷ καθ' αὑτὸν λόγῳ κατασκευάζων, νῦν κἀκείνων ὀλίγον ποι εῖται τὸν λόγον, ὥσπερ ἀγνοῶν ὅτι οὐκ ἔστι τῇ γνώσει τοῦ πατρὸς προσβῆναι μὴ διὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ προσεγγίσαντα; Οὐδεὶς γάρ, φησίν, ἔγνω τὸν πατέρα, εἰ μὴ ὁ υἱός, καὶ ᾧ ἂν βούληται ὁ υἱὸς ἀποκαλύψαι. Ἀλλ' οὗτος ἐν οἷς μὲν ἂν μέλλῃ καθυβρίζειν τὰς 1.1.460 εὐσεβεῖς καὶ τῇ θεότητι πρεπούσας τοῦ μονογενοῦς