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of these words; but when the mind of the philosopher is sick, it is not at all unlikely that he does not understand what is sick and from whence. We shall therefore attempt both to comprehend and to explain the cause of the sickness, and also, with God, to mix a medicine, which brings one back to health, if he might be persuaded to accept it. For who would not suffer in his soul, seeing so fine a member of this church being intellectually torn away from it? I myself, therefore, know that my soul was stung by this very thing in the beginning, (p. 338) to such an extent that I think some would not believe it if I were to say how much. And the great pain I endured while writing, as I myself then told those who were with me, I undertook not so much for the sake of those who embrace stillness as for the one to whom the counter-arguments are directed; and if he had been willing, as I asked at the beginning, to resolve these opinions and the attacks against the simpler of the brothers by speaking with one another face to face, the long treatises would have vanished. But now I do not know to what end these things will come; but I pray to God and hope for better things.

But I think I should leave aside the first and more distant causes of the sickness; the most immediate of all, which is also apparent in the words of the one who is sick, is both the reality and the name of the truth that is beyond us. It is a terrible thing indeed to deceive a man who is a lover of learning and to engender an unattainable desire in souls that are greedily disposed toward knowing; for this very thing also created in Adam in the beginning the love of equality with God. For this philosopher also thought this to be salvific and that without this there is no perfection: for the knowing faculty of the soul to be harmonized in a permanent union with the truth that extends through all the creations of God. But seeing that this was not fully accomplished from the divine oracles and commandments, he looked to the Greeks, who seemed to have discovered the principles of creation, and he revered their teachings as perfecting the soul; for he did not understand how unprofitable this is for the soul in the present age, and impossible. "For as bones in the womb of her that is with child," says Solomon, "so you shall not know the works of God, which he will make, all of them." But you will not know what he will make, yet you will know what he has made? And indeed the same one says: "a man shall not be able to find the work that is done (p. 340) under the sun, however much he may labor to seek it, and whatever the wise man may say he knows, he shall not be able to find it." For this reason, the reasonings of the outsiders concerning creation are varied, but that they are all untrue, there are those who have composed the science that shows this; but that some one of the differing parties boasts the truth, none of their sciences is able to show, nor has it been conceived at all. And so, the one who does not bear witness to the indisputable nature of truth only in those things revealed by the divinely-inspired for our benefit, nor understands from the things spoken by God to Job the incomprehensibility of God's wisdom in His creations, but who thinks to comprehend precisely from outside wisdom the truth that is shown through all things, has built the house of his knowledge, without realizing it, upon sand, or rather, upon successive waves, entrusting so great a matter to the turns of arguments, which are always by nature overthrown by the turns of other arguments; such a wise man, therefore, will be likened to a fool, and there is no small fear that he may also suffer the great fall, according to the Lord's parable. The cause of the deceit, then, if I am aiming at the truth, is this part of the truth. It remains, therefore, to mix the cleansing potion.

But taking care so that those who are sick may take it without pain, let us grant what we previously denied as being altogether impossible. Let us grant, then, that the true principles of creation are to be found from the outside teachings, and let us require them to follow what has been previously demonstrated to us from the oracles, and to believe that Christ alone is the physician of spirits, the God of spirits, and only in the

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λόγων τουτωνί˙ τοῦ δέ φρονοῦντος νοσοῦντος τῷ φιλοσόφῳ, οὐδέν ἀπεικός καί ὅ τι καί ὅθεν αὐτό νοσεῖ μή νοεῖν. Πειρασόμεθα οὖν ἡμεῖς τήν αἰτίαν τῆς νόσου συνιδεῖν τε καί ἐξειπεῖν, ἀλλά καί φάρμακον σύν Θεῷ κεράσαι, ἤν ἄρα πεισθῇ προσέσθαι, πρός ὑγίειαν ἐπανάγον. Τίς γάρ οὐκ ἄν πάθοι τήν ψυχήν, οὕτω καλόν μέλος τῆς ἐκκλησίας νοητῶς ὁρῶν ταύτης ἀπορρηγνύμενον; Ἔγωγ᾿ οὖν ἐπί τοσοῦτον οἶδα δι᾿ αὐτό τοῦτο τήν ψυχήν δηχθείς τήν ἀρχήν, (σελ. 338) ὡς μή ἄν πιστευθῆναί τισι δοκεῖν ἐφ᾿ ὅσον εἰπόντα. Καί τόν πόνον δ᾿ ὅσον ὑπέστην γράφων, ὡς καί αὐτός τότε τῖς συνοῦσιν ἔλεγον, οὐχ ὑπέρ τῶν τήν ἡσυχίαν ἀσπαζομένων μᾶλλον ὑπῆλθον ἤ τούτου πρός ὅν αἱ ἀντιθέσεις εἰσί˙ κἄν εἴπερ ἠθέλησεν, ἀξιοῦντι τήν ἀρχήν, τοῖς πρός ἀλλήλους διά στόματος λόγοις καταλῦσαι τάς δόξας ταύτας καί τάς πρός τούς ἁπλουστέρους τῶν ἀδελφῶν ἐπιθέσεις, φροῦδα ἄν ἦν τά μακρά συγγράμματα. Νῦν δ᾿ οὐκ οἶδ᾿ εἰς ὅ τι ταυτί τελευτήσει˙ Θεῷ δ᾿ εὔχομαι καί ἐλπίζω τά κρείττω.

Ἀλλά γάρ τῶν τῆς νόσου πρώτων καί πορρωτέρω αἰτίων ἀφεῖσθαί μοι δοκῶ˙ τό προσεχέστατον δ᾿ ἁπάντων, ὅ κἀν τοῖς τοῦ νοσοῦντος ἐμφαίνεται λόγοις, τό τῆς ὑπέρ ἡμᾶς ἀληθείας ἐστί καί πρᾶγμα καί ὄνομα. ∆εινόν ὄντως ἄνδρα κλέψαι φιλομαθῆ καί ταῖς περί τό εἰδέναι λίχνως διακειμέναις ψυχαῖς ἔφεσιν ἀνέφικτον ἐντεκεῖν˙ αὕτη γάρ καί τῷ Ἀδάμ τῆς ἰσοθεΐας τόν ἔρωτα τήν ἀρχήν ἐνεποίησεν. Ὠήθη γάρ καί ὁ φιλόσοφος οὗτος τοῦτ᾿ εἶναι σωτηριῶδες καί ἄνευ τούτου τελειότητα μή παρεῖναι τῇ διά τῶν κτισμάτων πάντων τοῦ Θεοῦ διηκούσῃ ἀληθείᾳ τό γνωστικόν ἐνηρμόσθαι τῆς ψυχῆς καθ᾿ ἕνωσιν μόνιμον. Τοῦτο δ᾿ ἐκ τῶν θείων λογίων καί ἐνταλμάτων μή τελέως προσγινόμενον ὁρῶν, πρός τούς δοκοῦντας τούς τῆς κτίσεως εὑρηκέναι λόγους ἔβλεψεν Ἕλληνας καί τά κατ᾿ αὐτούς ὡς τελεστικά ψυχῆς ἐσεβάσθη μαθήματα˙ οὐ γάρ ἐνενόησεν ὡς ἀλυσιτελές τοῦτο κατά τόν νῦν αἰῶνα τῇ ψυχῇ καί ἀδύνατον˙ «ὡς γάρ ὀστᾶ ἐν γαστρί τῆς κυοφορούσης», φησίν ὁ Σολομών, «οὕτως οὐ γνώσῃ τά ποιήματα τοῦ Θεοῦ, ἅ ποιήσει τά σύμπαντα». Ἀλλ᾿ ἅ μέν ποιήσει οὐκ εἴσῃ, ἅ δέ πεποίηκεν εἴσῃ; Καί μήν ὁ αὐτός φησιν˙ «οὐ δυνήσεται ἄνθρωπος τοῦ εὑρεῖν τό ποίημα τό πεποιημένον (σελ. 340) ὑπό τόν ἥλιον, ὅσα ἐάν μοχθήσῃ τοῦ ζητῆσαι, καί γε ὅσα ἄν εἴποι ὁ σοφός τοῦ γνῶναι, οὐ δυνήσεται εὑρεῖν. ∆ιό καί διάφοροι περί κτίσεως μέν εἰσίν οἱ τῶν ἔξωθεν λόγοι, πάντες δ᾿ ὅτι μή ἀληθεῖς, εἰσίν οἵ τούτων ἐπιστήμην συνέθεντο τήν δεικνῦσαν˙ ὅτι δέ εἷς τις τῶν διαφερομένων τἀληθές αὐχεῖ, οὐδεμία τούτων ἐπιστήμη δύναται δεῖξαι ἤ ὅλως ἐπινενόηται. Καί τοίνυν ὁ μή τοῖς ὑπό τῶν θεοπνεύστων ἐπί τό συνοῖσον ἐκφανεῖσι μόνοις τό ἀναμφίλεκτον τῆς ἀληθείας προσμαρτυρῶν κἀν τῶν πρός τόν Ἰώβ ὑπό Θεοῦ εἰρημένων τῆς ἐν τοῖς κτίσμασι τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφίας τό ἀκατάληπτον συνιών, ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τῆς ἔξω σοφίας τήν διά πάντων δεικνουμένην ἀλήθειαν ἀκριβῶς κατανοῆσαι οἰόμενος, ἔλαθεν ἑαυτόν ἐπί ψάμμου, μᾶλλον δέ ἐπ᾿ ἀλλεπαλλήλων κυμάτων, τόν τῆς γνώσεως οἶκον οἰκοδομῶν, τοσοῦτο πρᾶγμα λόγων στροφαῖς πιστεύων, ἀεί στροφαῖς ἄλλων λόγων πεφυκυΐαις καταπαλαίεσθαι˙ μωρῷ τοίνυν ὁμοιωθήσεται ὁ τοιοῦτος σοφός καί δέος οὔ τι μικρόν μή καί τήν πτῶσιν πάθῃ μεγάλην κατά τήν τοῦ Κυρίου παραβολήν. Τό γοῦν αἴτιον τῆς ἀπάτης, εἴπερ ἄρα καταστοχάζομαι τῆς ἀληθείας, τοῦτο τό μέρος τῆς ἀληθείας ἐστίν. Ὑπόλοιπον δ᾿ ἄρα κεράσαι τό καθάρσιον πόμα.

Προμηθευόμενοι δέ ὥστε καί προσενέγκασθαι τούς νοσοῦντας ἀλύπως, δῶμεν ὅ ἀπείπομεν πρότερον, ὡς ἀδύνατον παντάπασιν ὄν. ∆ῶμεν τοίνυν τούς τῶν κτισμάτων ἀληθεῖς λόγους ἐκ τῶν ἔξω μαθημάτων εὑρίσκεσθαι, κἀκείνους ἀξιώσωμεν τοῖς ἐκ τῶν λογίων ἡμῖν προαποδεδειγμένοις ἕπεσθαι καί μόνον εἶναι πιστεύειν ἰατρόν τῶν πνευμάτων Χριστόν, τόν τῶν πνευμάτων Θεόν, καί μόνῃ τῇ