67.  I will only say this of him.  Whenever I handle his Hexaemeron, and take its words on my lips, I am brought into the presence of the Creator, and understand the words of creation, and admire the Creator more than before, using my teacher as my only means of sight.  Whenever I take up his polemical works, I see the fire of Sodom,126    Gen. xix. 24. by which the wicked and rebellious tongues are reduced to ashes, or the tower of Chalane,127    Chalane.  LXX. for Babel. impiously built,128    Gen. xi. 4. and righteously destroyed.  Whenever I read his writings on the Spirit, I find the God Whom I possess, and grow bold in my utterance of the truth, from the support of his theology and contemplation.  His other treatises, in which he gives explanations for those who are shortsighted, by a threefold inscription on the solid tablets of his heart, lead me on from a mere literal or symbolical interpretation to a still wider view, as I proceed from one depth to another, calling upon deep129    Ps. xlii. 8. after deep, and finding light after light, until I attain the highest pinnacle.  When I study his panegyrics on our athletes, I despise the body, and enjoy the society of those whom he is praising, and rouse myself to the struggle.  His moral and practical discourses purify soul and body, making me a temple fit for God, and an instrument struck by the Spirit, to celebrate by its strains the glory and power of God.  In fact, he reduces me to harmony and order, and changes me by a Divine transformation.

Ἐγὼ τοῦτο μόνον αὐτοῦ διηγήσομαι. Ὅταν τὴν ἑξαήμερον αὐτοῦ μεταχειρίζωμαι καὶ διὰ γλώσσης φέρω, μετὰ τοῦ κτίστου γίνομαι, καὶ γινώσκω κτίσεως λόγους, καὶ θαυμάζω τὸν κτίστην πλέον ἢ πρότερον, ὄψει μόνῃ διδασκάλῳ χρώμενος. Ὅταν τοῖς ἀντιρρητικοῖς ἐντύχω λόγοις, τὸ Σοδομιτικὸν ὁρῶ πῦρ, ᾧ τεφροῦνται γλῶσσαι πονηραὶ καὶ παράνομοι, ἢ τὸν Χαλανῆς πύργον, κακῶς μὲν οἰκοδομούμενον, καλῶς δὲ λυόμενον. Ὅταν τοῖς περὶ Πνεύματος, εὑρίσκω Θεὸν ὃν ἔχω, καὶ παρρησιάζομαι τὴν ἀλήθειαν, ἐπιβατεύων τῆς ἐκείνου θεολογίας καὶ θεωρίας. Ὅταν ταῖς ἄλλαις ἐξηγήσεσιν, ἃς τοῖς μικρὰ βλέπουσιν ἀναπτύσσει, τρισσῶς ἐν ταῖς στερραῖς ἑαυτοῦ πλαξὶ τῆς καρδίας ἀπογραψάμενος, πείθομαι μὴ μέχρι τοῦ γράμματος ἵστασθαι, μηδὲ βλέπειν τὰ ἄνω μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ περαιτέρω διαβαίνειν καὶ εἰς βάθος ἔτι χωρεῖν ἐν βάθους, ἄβυσσον ἀβύσσῳ προσκαλούμενος καὶ φωτὶ φῶς εὑρίσκων, μέχρις ἂν φθάσω πρὸς τὸ ἀκρότατον. Ὅταν ἀθλητῶν ἐγκωμίοις προσομιλήσω, περιφρονῶ τὸ σῶμα καὶ σύνειμι τοῖς ἐπαινουμένοις καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἄθλησιν διεγείρομαι. Ὅταν ἠθικοῖς λόγοις καὶ πρακτικοῖς, καθαίρομαι ψυχὴν καὶ σῶμα, καὶ ναὸς Θεοῦ γίνομαι δεκτικός, καὶ ὄργανον κρουόμενον Πνεύματι καὶ θείας ὑμνῳδὸν δόξης τε καὶ δυνάμεως: τούτῳ μεθαρμόζομαι καὶ ῥυθμίζομαι καὶ ἄλλος ἐξ ἄλλου γίνομαι, τὴν θείαν ἀλλοίωσιν ἀλλοιούμενος.