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of a part, nor genera by species, nor commonalities by particulars, nor, to speak concisely, the container by the contained.

Thus, therefore, according to the principle given, this must be understood in the case of an ox and a horse and any other thing whatsoever. If, then, it is not sufficient for a perfect knowledge of things to state the multitude of attributes contemplated around them—I mean, for instance, body and being born and perishing, and all such things that pertain to the subject—but it is altogether necessary also to show what the subject of these is, upon which these stand as on a foundation, if we are to represent the concept perfectly and without omission. For we can say 'man' or 'ox' or 'horse'—these things not being body itself, but embodied; and not being birth and corruption itself, but being born and perishing; so that these things—I mean body and birth and corruption—are indeed about the living creatures, but the living creatures are not these things, that is, body and birth and corruption.

If, therefore, no being at all is, in its very being, that which is and is called the sum of what is thought and said by us about it, but is something other than these, that about which these things are, which holds them together, but is itself in no way held together by them (for that about which these things both are and are said is not from them, or them, or one of them, or from some of them, or one of them, or in them, or in some, or in one of them), let every soul accustomed to leap rashly upon every account concerning God cease from its vain impiety, and having learned its own 1228 weakness in small matters, let it in silence worship only the ineffable and supraconceptual reality of the divine essence, which is beyond all knowledge. "For not even, in a small way, as the saint has already taught, is the (14∆_306> precise understanding of creation" according to the true account contained by our knowledge, so that I too may dwell a little on the argument and marvel at the inscrutability of the wisdom beyond all things.

For who of the excessively wise, trusting in logical approaches and confident in non-existent proofs, having approached the majesty of beings with reason, will be able to know, to speak, and to demonstrate? What are the principles primarily instilled in the existence of each of the beings, according to which each of the beings both exists and has its nature, and is formed into a species, and is shaped, and is composed, and is able, and acts, and is acted upon—not to mention the difference and particularity in quantity and in quality, and in relation, and in place, and in time, and in position, in motion and in state, with respect to which our rational faculty is by nature magnificently expanded into an equal number of powers, into intellect, and intellection, and conception, and discursive thought, and comprehension, and the internal word, and the uttered and the vocalized, that is, voice and cry, and again to be contracted—apart from the difference and particularity of this according to science and art, just as in quantity and quality and the rest, as has been enumerated?

Who knows the principles of beings as they are, as I said, and how they differ, and have an unmoved stability according to nature and a motion that in no way passes over into one another—having stability in motion, and most paradoxically, motion in stability? what is the bond of opposites to one another for the constitution of one cosmos, and the manner of the well-ordered and unconfused motion and administration? what again is the interweaving of opposites in our bodies by composition according to mixture, bringing things separated by nature into a friendly cohabitation and by its mean state taming the severity in the extremes, and preparing them to pass through one another harmlessly and making this the preservation of composite things, the perichoresis of the extremes into one another according to the mixture, and how each of these is, and what it is, (14∆_308> and where it bears or is borne and for what it has come to be or bears or is borne, not only, as has been said, by which principles these primarily exist, but also

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μέρους, οὐδέ τά γένη τοῖς εἴδεσιν, οὐδέ τά κοινά τοῖς ἰδιάζουσιν, οὐδέ συνελόντα φάναι, τοῖς περιεχομένοις τά περιέχοντα.

Οὕτως οὖν κατά τόν ἀποδοθέντα λόγον καί ἐπί βοός καί ἵππου καί παντός τοῦ ὁτιοῦν ἑτέρου ληπτέον. Εἰ τοίνυν οὐκ ἀρκεῖ πρός τελείαν γνῶσιν τῶν πραγμάτων τό πλῆθος τῶν περί αὐτά θεωρουμένων εἰπεῖν, λέγω δή τό σῶμα καί τό γεννᾶσθαι καί τό φθείρεσθαι, καί ὅσα τοιαῦτα περί τό ὑποκείμενόν ἐστιν, ἀλλά δεῖ πάντως καί τό ὑποκείμενον τούτοις, θεμελίου τρόπον ἐφ᾿ ᾧ ταῦτα βέβηκε, τί ἐστιν ἐνδείξασθαι, εἰ μέλλοιμεν τελείως καί ἀπαραλείπτως τό νοούμενον παριστάναι. Ἤ γάρ ἄνθρωπον ἔχομεν εἰπεῖν ἤ βοῦν ἤ ἵππον, ταῦτα δή τά μή ὄντα αὐτό τοῦτο σῶμα, ἀλλ᾿ ἐνσώματα, καί μή ὄντα αὐτό τοῦτο γεννήσεις καί φθοράς, ἀλλά γεννώμενα καί φθειρόμενα, ὡς εἶναι ταῦτα, σῶμά φημι καί γέννησιν καί φθοράν, δηλαδή περί τά ζῶα, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τά ζῶα ταῦτα ὑπάρχειν, σῶμα λέγω καί γέννησιν καί φθοράν.

Εἰ τοίνυν οὐδέν τό σύνολον τῶν ὄντων ἐστί κατ᾿ αὐτό τό εἶναι ὅπερ ἐστί καί λέγεται τό ἄθροισμα τῶν ἡμῖν περί αὐτό νοουμένων τε καί λεγομένων, ἀλλ᾿ ἕτερόν τι παρά ταῦτα, τό περί ὅ ταῦτά ἐστι, συνεκτικόν μέν τούτων, αὐτό δέ τούτοις οὐδαμῶς συνεχόμενον (οὐδέ γάρ ἐστιν ἐκ τούτων, ἤ ταῦτα, ἤ τι τούτων, ἤ ἔκ τινων, ἤ τινος αὐτῶν, ἤ ἐν τούτοις, ἤ τισιν, ἤ τινι τούτων, τό περί ὅ ταῦτα καί ἔστι καί λέγεται), παυσάσθω πάσα ψυχή παντί λόγῳ τῶν περί Θεοῦ θρασέως ἐπιπηδᾷν εἰθισμένη τοῦ διακενῆς ἀσεβεῖν, καί ἐν τοῖς μικροῖς μαθοῦσα τήν οἰκείαν 1228 ἀσθένειαν, καί σιγῇ σεβέσθω μόνον τήν ἄῤῥητόν τε καί ὑπέρ νόησιν καί πάσης ἐπέκεινα γνώσεως τῆς θείας οὐσίας ὀντότητα. "Οὐδέ αὐτή γάρ κατά μικρόν, ὡς προλαβών ἐδίδαξεν ὁ ἅγιος, ἡ τῆς κτίσεως (14∆_306> ἀκριβής κατανόησις" κατά τόν ἀληθῆ λόγον ὑπό τῆς ἡμῶν περιέχεται γνώσεως, ἵνα κἀγώ μικρόν τι προσδιατρίψω τῷ λόγῳ, καί τῆς ὑπέρ πάντα σοφίας θαυμάσω τό ἀνεξιχνίαστον.

Τίς γάρ τῶν ἄγαν σοφῶν ταῖς λογικαῖς πιστεύων ἐφόδοις καί ταῖς οὐκ οὔσαις θαῤῥῶν ἀποδείξεσι μετά λόγου τήν τῶν ὄντων ἐπελθών μεγαλειότητα δυνήσεται γνῶναι, εἰπεῖν τε καί παραστῆσαι; Τίνες οἱ ἑκάστῳ τῶν ὄντων τῇ ὑπάρξει πρώτως ἐγκαταβληθέντες λόγοι, καθ᾿ οὕς καί ἔστι καί πέφυκε τῶν ὄντων ἕκαστον, καί εἰδοπεποίηται, καί ἐσχημάτισται, καί συντέθειται, καί δύναται, καί ἐνεργεῖ, καί πάσχει, ἵνα μή λέγω τήν ἐν τῷ ποσῷ τε καί τῷ ποιῷ, καί τῇ σχέσει, καί τῷ τόπῳ, καί τῷ χρόνῳ, καί τῇ θέσει, τῇ τε κινήσει καί ἕξει, διαφοράν καί ἰδιότητα, πρός ἅ καί ἡ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς μεγαλοφυῶς λογική πέφυκεν ἰσαρίθμως πλατύνεσθαι δύναμις εἰς νοῦν, καί νόησιν, καί ἔννοιαν, καί διάνοιαν, καί σύννοιαν, καί τόν ἐνδιάθετον λόγον, τόν τε κατά προφοράν καί τόν γεγωνότα, τουτέστι φωνήν καί κραυγήν, καί αὖθις συνάγεσθαι, χωρίς τῆς κατ' ἐπιστήμην καί τέχνην, ὥσπερ ἐν ποσῷ τε καί ποιῷ καί τοῖς λοιποῖς, καθώς ἀπηρίθμηται, τούτου διαφορᾶς τε καί ἰδιότητος;

Τίς ὁ γινώσκων τούς λόγους τῶν ὄντων καθώς καί εἰσίν, ὡς εἶπον, καί διαφέρουσι, καί στάσιν ἔχουσιν ἀκίνητον τήν κατά φύσιν καί πρός ἄλληλα μηδαμῶς μεταπίπτουσαν κίνησιν, ἐν τῇ κινήσει τήν στάσιν, καί ἐν τῇ στάσει τό παραδοξότατον τήν κίνησιν ἔχοντα; τίς πρός ἄλληλα τῶν ἐναντίων εἰς ἑνός κόσμου σύστασιν ὁ δεσμός, καί τῆς εὐτάκτου τε καί ἀφύρτου κινήσεώς τε καί διοικήσεως ὁ τρόπος; τίς πάλιν τῶν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς σωμάτων ἡ τῶν ἐναντίων κατά τήν κρᾶσιν διά συνθέσεως συμπλοκή, τά διεστῶτα κατά τήν φύσιν εἰς φιλικήν συνοικίαν ἐνάγουσα καί τῇ μεσότητι τό ἐν τοῖς ἄκροις αὐστηρόν τιθασσεύουσα, καί χωρεῖν δι᾿ ἀλλήλων ἀλυμάντως παρασκευάζουσα καί ταύτην ποιουμένη τῶν συνθέτων συντήρησιν, τήν τῶν ἄκρων κατά τήν κρᾶσιν εἰς ἄλληλα περιχώρησιν, καί πῶς ἕκαστον τούτων ἐστί, καί τί ἐστι, (14∆_308> καί ποῦ φέρον ἤ φερόμενον καί ἐπί τίνι γεγένηται ἤ φέρει ἤ φέρεται, οὐ μόνον, ὡς εἴρηται, οἷς προηγουμένως ὑπάρχουσι ταῦτα λόγοις, ἀλλά καί