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not purifying the soul with virtues. Inasmuch as man, performing the corrupting service for the body, and becoming self-loving against himself, had unceasing pleasure and active pain; always eating of the tree [Alt. the tree] of disobedience, he had through experience the supposition [Fr. knowledge] of good and evil mixed in his perception.

And perhaps someone who says that the visible creation is the tree of knowledge of good and evil will not sin against the truth; for participation in it naturally produces pleasure and pain.

Or again, since creation has spiritual principles of visible things, which also nourish the intellect, and again a natural power, which on the one hand delights the senses, but on the other perverts the intellect, it was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; having knowledge of the good when contemplated spiritually, but of evil when partaken of bodily. For it becomes a teacher of passions to those who partake of it bodily, bringing upon them forgetfulness of divine things; for which reason God perhaps forbade it to man, for the time being postponing participation in it, so that first, as was most just, by participation in grace he might recognize his own cause, and having tempered by such participation the immortality given by grace toward impassibility and immutability, having already become a god by deification, he might harmlessly and freely with God contemplate the creatures of God, and receive their (260) knowledge as God, and not as man, having by grace the same knowledge of beings with wisdom as God, through the transformation of his intellect and senses toward deification.

Thus, then, must the matter of the tree be understood here, according to the anagogical interpretation which can be fitting for all, while the more mystical and superior account is preserved for those mystical in mind, and is honored by us with silence. But I have now mentioned the tree of disobedience incidentally, wishing to show how ignorance concerning God deified creation; of which a clear worship is the self-love of the human race according to the body; in connection with which there is a kind of mixed knowledge, the experience of pleasure and of pain; on account of which the whole mire of evils was introduced into the life of men, in diverse and various ways, and, as no account could reach, constituted in multiform ways, inasmuch as each of those who have partaken of human nature has living and acting within himself, according to quantity and quality, a friendship for his visible part—I mean, the body—compelling him slavishly, both through the desire for pleasure and the fear of pain, to devise many forms of passions, as the occasions and circumstances coincide, and the manner of such things allows; by which he might be able to choose pleasure for his constant companion in life, and to remain completely untouched by pain, teaching him to practice the impossible, and being unable to come to the intended end. For since the whole nature of bodies is corruptible and subject to dissolution, through however many ways one practices to preserve it, he rather makes its corruption stronger; always fearing and not wanting for what is cherished, and against his will insensibly handling through the cherished thing that which is not cherished, which is dependent on things that by nature cannot stand; and because of this he alters the disposition of the soul along with things that are subject to dissolution, as it swims along unstably with things that are in flux, and does not perceive his own destruction, because of the complete blindness of the soul toward truth.

But the release from all these evils, and a short road to salvation, is the true love of God according to full knowledge, and the soul's complete renunciation of both the body and this world; by which, casting off the desire for pleasure and the fear of pain, we are freed from evil self-love, having been raised up to the knowledge of the Creator, and from a wicked a good

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μή τήν ψυχήν ταῖς ἀρεταῖς ἐκκαθαίρων. Καθ᾿ ὅ σῶμα τήν φθοροποιόν ἐπιτελῶν λατρείαν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, καί καθ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ γενόμενος φίλαυτος, ἡδονήν εἶχεν ἀπαύστως, καί ὀδύνην ἐνεργουμένην· ἐσθίων ἀεί τοῦ ξύλου [Αl. τό ξύλον] τῆς παρακοῆς, τοῦ καλοῦ τε καί κακοῦ κατ᾿ αὐτόν μεμιγμένην κατά τήν αἴσθησιν διά τῆς πείρας ἔχων τήν οἴησιν [Fr. γνῶσιν] .

Καί τάχα ξύλον εἶναι γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ τήν φαινομένην κτίσιν εἰπών τις, οὐχ ἁμαρτήσει τῆς ἀληθείας· ἡδονῆς γάρ καί ὀδύνης ποιητικήν ἔχει φυσικῶς τήν μετάληψιν.

Ἤ πάλιν ἐπειδή καί λόγους ἔχει πνευματικούς τῶν ὁρωμένων ἡ κτίσις, καί νοῦν διατρέφοντας· καί δύναμιν πάλιν φυσικήν, τήν μέν αἴσθησιν τέρπουσαν· τόν δέ νοῦν διαστρέφουσαν, ξύλον γνωστόν καλοῦ τε καί κακοῦ προσηγορεύθη· τοῦ καλοῦ μέν ἔχουσα γνῶσιν θεωρουμένη πνευματικῶς· τοῦ κακοῦ δέ, λαμβανομένη σωματικῶς. Παθῶν γάρ γίνεται διδάσκαλος τοῖς σωματικῶς αὐτῆς μεταλαμβάνουσιν, τῶν θείων αὐτοῖς λήθην ἐπάγουσα· διό τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ τυχόν ἀπηγόρευσεν, ἀναβαλλόμενος αὐτῆς τέως τήν μετάληψιν ὁ Θεός, ἵνα πρότερον, ὡς ἦν μάλιστα δίκαιον, διά τῆς ἐν χάριτι μετοχῆς τήν οἰκείαν ἐπιγνοῦς αἰτίαν, καί τήν δοθεῖσαν κατά χάριν ἀθανασίαν διά τῆς τοιαύτης μεταλήψεως πρός ἀπάθειαν στομώσας καί ἀτρεψίαν, ὡς θεός ἤδη τῇ θεώσει γενόμενος, ἀβλαβῶς ἐπ᾿ ἀδείας μετά Θεοῦ τά τοῦ Θεοῦ διασκέψηται κτίσματα, καί τήν αὐτῶν ἀναλήψηται (260) γνῶσιν ὡς Θεός, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἄνθρωπος, τήν αὐτήν ἔχων τῷ Θεῷ κατά χάριν τῶν ὄντων μετά σοφίας εἴδησιν, διά τήν πρός θέωσιν τοῦ νοῦ καί τῆς αἰσθήσεως μεταποίησιν.

Οὕτω μέν οὖν ἐνταῦθα ληπτέον περί τοῦ ξύλου, κατά τήν πᾶσιν ἁρμόσαι δυναμένην ἀναγωγήν, τοῦ μυστικωτέρου λόγου καί κρείττονος φυλαττομένου τοῖς μυστικοῖς τήν διάνοιαν, καί παρ᾿ ἡμῶν διά τῆς σιωπῆς τιμωμένου. Τοῦ ξύλου δέ νῦν τῆς παρακοῆς ἐμνήσθην παροδικῶς, δεῖξαι θέλων ὡς ἡ περί Θεόν ἄγνοια, τήν κτίσιν ἐθεοποίησεν· ἧς ὑπάρχει λατρεία σαφής, ἡ κατά τό σῶμα τοῦ γένους τῶν ἀνθρώπων φυλαυτία· περί ἥν ἐστιν ὥσπερ τις μικτή γνῶσις, ἡ τῆς ἡδονῆς πεῖρα καί τῆς ὀδύνης· δι᾿ ἅς ἡ πᾶσα τῶν κακῶν ἐπεισήχθη τῷ βίῳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἰλύς, διαφόρως τε καί ποικίλως, καί ὡς οὐκ ἄν τις ἐφίκοιτο λόγος, πολυμόρφως συνισταμένη, καθόσον ἕκαστος τῶν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης μετειληφότων φύσεως, κατά τό ποσόν τε καί ποιόν ἐν ἑαυτῷ ζῶσαν ἔχει καί πράττουσαν τήν περί τό φαινόμενον αὐτοῦ μέρος· λέγω δέ τό σῶμα, φιλίαν, ἀναγκάζουσαν αὐτόν δουλοπρεπῶς, διά τε τήν ἐπιθυμίαν τῆς ἡδονῆς, καί τόν φόβον τῆς ὀδύνης, πολλάς ἰδέας ἐπινοῆσαι παθῶν, καθώς οἵ τε καιροί συμπίπτουσι καί τά πράγματα, καί ὁ τῶν τοιούτων ἐπιδέχεται τρόπος· ἐφ᾿ ᾧ τήν μέν ἡδονήν ἑλεῖν δυνηθῆναι διαπαντός πρός συμβίωσιν· τῆς ὀδύνης δέ παντελῶς ἀνέπαφον διαμεῖναι, τό ἀμήχανον ἐπιτηδεύειν διδάσκουσαν, καί εἰς πέρας κατά σκοπόν ἐλθεῖν μή δυνάμενον. Φθαρτῆς γάρ οὔσης τῆς ὅλης φύσεως τῶν σωμάτων καί σκεδαστῆς, δι᾿ ὅσων τις ἐπιτηδεύει τρόπων ταύτην συστήσασθαι, τήν αὐτῆς φθοράν ἰσχυροτέραν μᾶλλον καθίστησιν· δεδοικώς καί μή θέλων ἀεί τό στεργόμενον, καί παρά γνώμην περιέπων ἀνεπαισθήτως διά τοῦ στεργομένου τό μή στεργόμενον, ἐξηρτημένον τῶν φύσει στῆναι μή δυναμένων· καί διά τοῦτο συνεξαλλοιῶν τοῖς σκεδαστοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς τήν διάθεσιν, συνδιανηχομένην ἀστάτως τοῖς ῥέουσιν, καί τήν οἰκείαν ἀπώλειαν οὐ κατανοῶν, διά τήν παντελῆ τῆς ψυχῆς πρός ἀλήθειαν τύφλωσιν.

Πάντων δέ τούτων τῶν κακῶν ἐστιν ἀπαλλαγή, καί σύντομος πρός σωτηρίαν ὁδός, ἡ ἀληθής τοῦ Θεοῦ κατ᾿ ἐπίγνωσιν ἀγάπη, καί ἡ καθ᾿ ὅλου τῆς κατά ψυχήν πρός τε τό σῶμα καί τόν κόσμον τοῦτον ἐξάρνησις· καθ᾿ ἥν, τῆς μέν ἡδονῆς τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, καί τῆς ὀδύνης δέ τόν φόβον ἀποβαλλόμενοι, τῆς κακῆς ἐλευθερούμεθα φιλαυτίας, πρός τήν γνῶσιν ἀναβιβασθέντες τοῦ Κτίσαντος, καί πονηρᾶς ἀγαθήν