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For I am not ashamed to say that I have not yet known the inescapable methods and arts of the unclean demons, since I have the dust of matter darkening the eyes of the soul, and not allowing me to behold purely the nature of things that have come into being; and to distinguish from the collection of things that are those that seem to be, and only deceive the irrational sense; because it is truly for those alone who are exceedingly contemplative and lofty in thought to investigate and speak of such things; and who have received through much experience the discernment of things both good and not so; and what is indeed better and more honorable than all other things, those who have received from God the grace and power (253) both to think well and to speak clearly the things that have been thought; However, so that the account concerning these things may not be left entirely without consolation regarding the present topic, after saying a few things about the genesis of the passions, and insofar as to show the end from the beginning to the gnostics among you, I make the explanation of the following chapters in order.

Definition of evil. Evil neither was nor will be subsisting according to its own nature; for it does not have in any way whatsoever substance, or nature, or hypostasis, or power, or energy among the things that exist; nor is it a quality, or a quantity, or a relation, or a place, or a time, or a position, or an action, or a movement, or a state, or a passion, naturally contemplated in any of the things that exist, nor indeed has it subsisted at all in all these things according to a natural affinity; it is neither a beginning, nor a middle, nor an end; but that I may speak, enclosing it as in a definition, evil is a lack of the energy of the powers inherent in nature toward their end, and absolutely nothing else; or again, evil is an irrational movement of the natural powers toward something other than the end, according to an erroneous judgment; and by end, I mean the cause of beings, for which all things naturally long, even if the evil one, having completely covered his envy with a pretense of goodwill, by deceit persuaded man to move his desire toward something else among beings other than the cause, and created ignorance of the cause.

The first man, therefore, lacking the movement of his natural powers toward the end in their energy, suffered from ignorance of his own cause; thinking that one to be God, through the counsel of the serpent, whom the word of the divine commandment had ordered to be avoided. Thus having become a transgressor, and being ignorant of God, by mixing his entire intellectual power tightly with all of sensation, he drew upon himself the composite and destructive knowledge of sensible things, which is activated for passion, and he was compared to the mindless cattle, and was made like them, in every way doing and seeking and willing the same things as them; and having more toward irrationality, the exchange of the natural reason for the unnatural. Therefore, inasmuch as man attended to the knowledge of visible things according to sensation alone, to that extent he tightened upon himself the ignorance of God; and inasmuch as he tightened the bond of this ignorance, to that extent he clung to the experience of the sensory enjoyment of the material things that had become known; and inasmuch as he was filled with this, to that extent he kindled the love of self-love born from it; and inasmuch as he carefully cultivated the love of self-love, to that extent he devised many ways of constituting pleasure, as it is both the offspring and the end of self-love. And since all vice is by nature destroyed along with the ways that constitute it; (255) finding through experience itself that pain is in every case the successor of all pleasure, he had his whole impulse toward pleasure, but his whole aversion toward pain; striving for the one with all his power, and struggling against the other with all his zeal; thinking, which was impossible, through such a method, these from each other

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οὐ γάρ αἰσχύνομαι λέγειν, ὡς οὐδέπω τάς δυσεκλύτους ἔγνων τῶν ἀκαθάρτων δαιμόνων μεθοδείας τε καί τέχνας, ἅτε δή τόν τῆς ὕλης κονιορτόν ἔχων ἐπισκοτοῦντα τοῖς ὄμμασι τῆς ψυχῆς, καί οὐκ ἐῶντα καθαρῶς θεωρῆσαι τήν τῶν γεγονότων φύσιν· καί διακρῖναι τῶν ὄντων συλλόγου τά εἶναι δοκοῦντα, καί μόνην φενακίζοντα τήν ἄλογον αἴσθησιν· ὅτι μόνων ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐστιν τά τοιαῦτα διερευνᾶσθαι καί εἰπεῖν, τῶν ἄγαν θεωρητικῶν καί ὑψηλῶν τήν διάνοιαν· καί διά πείρας πολλῆς εἰληφότων, τήν τε τῶν καλῶν καί μή τοιούτων διάγνωσιν· καί τό δή τῶν ἄλλων ἁπάντων κρεῖττον καί τιμιώτερον, τήν πρός τό νοεῖν τε καλῶς, καί λέγειν σαφῶς τά νοηθέντα (253) παρά τοῦ Θεοῦ δεξαμένων χάριν καί δύναμιν· πλήν ὡς ἄν μή παντελῶς ἀπαραμύθητος κατά τήν παροῦσαν ὑπόθεσιν ὁ περί τούτων λόγος καταλειφθῇ, μικρά περί τῆς γενέσεως τῶν παθῶν εἰπών, καί ὅσον παραδεῖξαι τοῖς καθ᾿ ὑμᾶς γνωστικοῖς τό τέλος ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς, τῶν ἐφ᾿ ἑξῆς ἀκολούθως ποιοῦμαι κεφαλαίων τήν ἐξήγησιν.

Ὅρος κακοῦ. Τό κακόν οὔτε ἦν, οὔτε ἔσται κατ᾿ οἰκείαν φύσιν ὑφεστώς· οὔτε γάρ ἔχει καθ᾿

ὁτιοῦν οὐσίαν, ἤ φύσιν, ἤ ὑπόστασιν, ἤ δύναμιν, ἤ ἐνέργειαν ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν· οὔτε, ποιότης ἐστίν, οὔτε ποσότης, οὔτε σχέσις, οὔτε τόπος, οὔτε χρόνος, οὔτε θέσις, οὔτε ποίησις, οὔτε κίνησις, οὔτε ἕξις, οὔτε πάθος, φυσικῶς τινι τῶν ὄντων ἐνθεωρούμενον, οὔτε μήν ἐν τούτοις πᾶσιν τό παράπαν κατ᾿ οἰκείωσιν φυσικήν ὑφέστηκεν· οὔτε ἀρχή, οὔτε μεσότης, οὔτε τέλος ἐστίν· ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα ὡς ἐν ὅρῳ περιλαβών εἴπω, τό κακόν τῆς πρός τό τέλος τῶν ἐγκειμένων τῇ φύσει δυνάμεων ἐνεργείας ἐστίν ἔλλειψις, καί ἄλλο καθάπαξ οὐδέν· ἤ πάλιν, τό κακόν, τῶν φυσικῶν δυνάμεων κατ᾿ ἐσφαλμένην κρίσιν ἐστίν, ἐπ᾿ ἄλλο παρά τό τέλος ἀλόγιστος κίνησις· τέλος δέ φημι, τήν τῶν ὄντων αἰτίαν, ἧς φυσικῶς ἐφίεται πάντα, κἄν εἰ τά μάλιστα τόν φθόνον εὐνοίας πλάσματι καλύψας ὁ πονηρός, πρός ἄλλο τι τῶν ὄντων παρά τήν αἰτίαν κινῆσαι τήν ἔφεσιν παραπείσας δόλῳ τόν ἄνθρωπον, τήν τῆς αἰτίας ἐδημιούργησεν ἄγνοιαν.

Τῆς οὖν πρός τό τέλος ἐνεργείας τῶν κατά φύσιν δυνάμεων ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἐλλείψας τήν κίνησιν, τήν τῆς οἰκείας αἰτίας ἐνόσησεν ἄγνοιαν· ἐκεῖνον νομίσας εἶναι Θεόν, διά τῆς συμβουλῆς τοῦ ὄφεως, ὅνπερ ἔχειν ἀπόμοτον ὁ τῆς θείας ἐντολῆς διετάξατο λόγος. Οὕτω δέ παραβάτης γενόμενος, καί τόν Θεόν ἀγνοήσας, πρός ὅλην τήν αἴσθησιν, ὅλην ἀπρίξ ἀναμίξας τήν νοεράν δύναμιν, τήν σύνθετον καί ὀλέθριον πρός πάθος ἐνεργουμένην τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἐπεσπάσατο γνῶσιν, καί παρεσυνεβλήθη τοῖς κτήνεσιν τοῖς ἀνοήτοις, καί ὡμοιώθη αὐτοῖς, τά αὐτά αὐτοῖς κατά πάντα τρόπον καί ἐνεργῶν καί ζητῶν καί βουλόμενος· καί πλέον εἰς ἀλογίαν ἔχων, τοῦ κατά φύσιν λόγου πρός τό παρά φύσιν τήν ἄμειψιν. Ὅσον οὖν κατά μόνην τήν αἴσθησιν, τῆς τῶν ὁρωμένων ἐπεμελεῖτο γνώσεως ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τοσοῦτον ἐπέσφιγγεν ἑαυτῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ τήν ἄγνοιαν· ὅσον δέ ταύτης τῆς ἀγνοίας συνέσφιγγε τόν δεσμόν, τοσοῦτο τῆς πείρας ἀντείχετο τῆς τῶν γνωσθέντων ὑλικῶν αἰσθητικῆς ἀπολαύσεως· ὅσον δέ ταύτης ἐνεφορεῖτο, τοσοῦτον τῆς ἐκ ταύτης γεννώμενης φιλαυτίας ἐξῆπτε τόν ἔρωτα· ὅσον δέ πεφροντισμένως περιεποιεῖτο τῆς φιλαυτίας τόν ἔρωτα, τοσοῦτον τῆς ἡδονῆς, ὡς τῆς φιλαυτίας οὔσης καί γεννήματος καί τέλους, πολλούς ἐπενόει τρόπους συστάσεως. Καί ἐπειδή πᾶσα κακία πέφυκε τοῖς συνιστῶσιν αὐτήν συμφθείρεσθαι τρόποις· (255) εὑρίσκων δι᾿ αὐτῆς τῆς πείρας, πάσης ἡδονῆς εἶναι πάντως τήν ὀδύνην διάδοχον, πρός μέν τήν ἡδονήν, τήν ὅλην ἔσχεν ὁρμήν· πρός δέ τήν ὀδύνην, τήν ὅλην ἀποφυγήν· τῆς μέν, κατά πᾶσαν ὑπεραγωνιζόμενος δύναμιν, τήν δέ, κατά πᾶσαν σπουδήν καταγωνιζόμενος· οἰόμενος, ὅπερ ἀμήχανον ἦν, διά τῆς τοιαύτης μεθοδείας, ἀλλήλων ταύτας