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Hence, knowing that nothing is more akin by nature to rational beings than reason, nor indeed is anything more fitting for glory for the God-loving than practice and understanding concerning it; I mean reason, not that which is by artifice in uttered speech, elegantly enchanted by eloquence for the pleasure of hearing, which even wicked men, by practicing it, can exercise; but that which nature possesses essentially and without learning, hidden according to disposition, for both the unerring contemplation of beings, and the apprehension of the truth in reasons; which the Holy Spirit of God is wont to lead into co-existence, when it has been well-formed by the virtues, and to make it a divine image of the beauty according to the likeness, lacking in none of the things that belong naturally to the divinity according to grace. For it is an instrument that gathers with knowledge the whole manifestation of the divine goodness that flashes forth intelligibly in beings; through which, entering into the magnificent work of beings, it both leads and is led to the generative cause of beings, leading those who have made for it through all things the entire impulse of the desire that unites them by nature, who are in no way overcome by any of the things after the cause. By cherishing which, we subjugate all things contrary to nature; and we are revealed as doers of all the divine virtues, clearly scraping away with every good thing the soul's material shame for spiritual beauty. For where reason prevails, the power according to sense is wont to cease, in which the power of sin is somehow mixed, dragging the soul down through pleasure toward pity for the flesh that is kindred in substance; in accordance with which, having undertaken as its natural work the passionate care for the flesh according to pleasure, it leads it away from the life according to nature, and persuades it to become the creator of non-existent evil. For evil is, for an intelligent soul, the forgetting of the good things according to nature, which arises from a passionate disposition toward the flesh and the world; which reason, acting as a general, makes to disappear, and according to spiritual knowledge, investigating both the genesis and nature of the world and of the flesh, and driving the soul toward the kindred region of intelligible things, toward which the law of sin has no power, since it no longer has sense-perception as a bridge to cross over to the intellect, which has already been dissolved in its relation to the soul, and cast away among the sensible spectacles; whose relation and nature the intellect, having passed beyond, perceives not at all.

(265) Knowing this, as I said, I thought it necessary to give some other assistance to the present discourse of this treatise, the writing of the scholia set forth in the margins; which both completes the discourse toward beauty, and provides to those who will read it a sweeter feast of the thoughts contained therein, and becomes, simply, a security for the entire thought contained in the treatise. For after its publication, having read the whole work, and having found some places needing clarification, and others, addition and thought, and others, some moderate reflection upon the established text according to the edition; I made this writing of the scholia, fitting to each place the appropriate reflection. Therefore I exhort all who will read it, or even copy it, to also read and set down alongside it the writing of the scholia from the outside, according to the notation for each; so that the discourse may be complete in every way, not at all maimed by any neglected part.

SCHOLIA. a. He says that the flesh, through its manifest habits, is receptive of the disposition according to virtue

of the soul, an instrument joined to the soul itself for manifestation. b. He says sense-perception transmits to the intellect the image of visible things, for

the understanding of the principles in beings, as an instrument for the intellect's passage to intelligible things.

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Ἐντεῦθεν εἰδώς μηδέν λόγου κατά φύσιν εἶναι τοῖς λογικοῖς οἰκειότερον, μήτε μήν τοῖς περί αὐτόν τριβῆς καί συνέσεως τοῖς φιλοθέοις πρός εὐδοξίαν ἁρμοδιώτερον· φημί δέ λόγον, οὐ τόν ἐκ τέχνης ἐν προφορᾷ κατ᾿ εὐγλωττίαν πρός ἀκοῆς ἡδονήν κομψῶς γεγοητευμένον, ὅν ἀσκεῖσθαι καί μοχθηροί δύναντ᾿ ἄν ἄνδρες ἐπιτηδεύοντες· ἀλλ᾿ ὅν ἡ φύσις οὐσιωδῶς καί δίχα μαθήσεως κατά διάθεσιν ἔχει κρυπτόμενον, πρός τε τήν ἄπταιστον τῶν ὄντων διάσκεψιν, καί τῆς ἐν λόγοις ἀληθείας διάληψιν· ὅν καί τό Πνεῦμα τοῦ Θεοῦ τό ἅγιον καλῶς τοῖς ἀρεταῖς διαπλασθέντα, πρός συμβίωσιν πέφυκεν ἄγεσθαι, καί θεῖον ἄγαλμα τῆς καθ᾿ ὁμοίωσιν ὡραιότητος αὐτόν κατασκευάζειν· μηδενί τῶν προσόντων φυσικῶς τῇ θεότητι κατά τήν χάριν λειπόμενον. Ὄργανον γάρ ἐστιν ὅλην ἐπιστημόνως συλλεγόμενον τήν νοητῶς ἐν τοῖς οὖσι ἀπαστράπτουσαν τῆς θείας ἀγαθότητος ἔμφασιν· δι᾿ ἧς ἐμβατεύων τῇ τῶν ὄντων μεγαλουργίᾳ, πρός τήν γενέτιν φέρει τε καί φέρεται τῶν ὄντων αἰτίαν· τούς αὐτῷ δι᾿ ὅλου ποιώσαντας τήν ὅλην ὁρμήν τῆς ἑνούσης αὐτοῖς κατά φύσιν ἐφέσεως, μηδενί τῶν μετά τήν αἰτίαν παντελῶς κρατουμένους. Ὅν ἡμεῖς περιέποντες, πάντων παρά φύσιν δουλούμενοι· πασῶν δέ τῶν θείων ἀναδεικνύμεθα πράκτορες ἀρετῶν, παντί δηλονότι καλῷ τό κατά τήν ὕλην αἶσχος τῆς ψυχῆς, πρός κάλλος πνευματικόν ἀποξέοντες. Ἔνθα γάρ λόγος κρατεῖ, τό κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πέφυκεν ἀπογίνεσθαι κράτος, ἐν ᾧ τῆς ἁμαρτίας πέφυρταί πως ἡ δύναμις, πρός οἶκτον τῆς συγγενοῦς καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν σαρκός τήν ψυχήν δι᾿ ἡδονῆς ὑποσύρουσα· καθ᾿ ἥν ὡς ἔργον αὐτῇ φυσικόν ἐγχειρήσασα τήν ἐμπαθῆ καί καθ᾿ ἡδονήν τῆς σαρκός ἐπιμέλειαν, ἀπάγει τῆς κατά φύσιν ζωῆς, καί πείθεται τῆς ἀνυποστάτου κακίας αὐτήν γενέσθαι δημιουργόν. Κακία γάρ ἐστι ψυχῆς νοερᾶς, ἡ λήθη τῶν κατά φύσιν καλῶν, ἥτις ἐκ τῆς περί σάρκα τε καί κόσμον ἐμπαθοῦς, ἐπιγίνεται σχέσεως· ἥν ἀφανίζει στρατηγῶν ὁ λόγος, καί κατ᾿ ἐπιστήμην πνευματικήν, τήν τε τοῦ κόσμου καί τῆς σαρκός διερευνώμενος γένεσίν τε καί φύσιν, καί πρός τήν συγγενῆ τῶν νοητῶν τήν ψυχήν χώραν ἐλαύνων, πρός ἥν ὁ νόμος τῆς ἁμαρτίας οὐδεμίαν ποιεῖται δύναμιν, οὐχ ἔχων καθάπερ γέφυραν πρός τόν νοῦν διαβιβάζουσαν αὐτόν ἔτι τήν αἴσθησιν, διαλυθεῖσαν ἤδη πρός τήν ψυχήν κατά τήν σχέσιν, καί τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἐναποῤῥιφεῖσαν θεάμασιν· ὧν διαβάς τήν σχέσιν καί τήν φύσιν ὁ νοῦς, παντελῶς οὐκ αἰσθάνεται.

(265) Τοῦτο, καθάπερ ἔφην, εἰδώς, δεῖν ᾠήθην ἑτέραν τινά τῷ παρόντι λόγῳ τῆσδε τῆς συγγραφῆς δοῦναι βοήθειαν, τήν τῶν παρατεθέντων ἐν τοῖς μετωπίοις σχολίων γραφήν· αὐτόν τε πρός κάλλος συμπληροῦσαν τόν λόγον· καί τοῖς ἐντευξομένοις, ἡδυτέραν τῶν ἐν τοῖς νοήμασι παρεχομένην ἑστίασιν· καί πάσης ἁπλῶς γινομένην τῆς ἐμφερομένης τῇ συγγραφῇ διανοίας, ἀσφάλειαν. Μετά γάρ ἔκδοσιν ἀναγνούς τήν ὅλην πραγματείαν, εὑρών τε τινας μέν τόπους δεομένους σαφηνείας· τινάς δέ, προσθήκης καί διανοίας· καί ἄλλους μετρίας τινός ἐπί τῷ κειμένῳ κατά τήν ἔκδοσιν ἐπενθυμήσεως· ταύτην ἐποιησάμην τήν τῶν σχολίων γραφήν, ἁρμόσας ἑκάστῳ τόπῳ τό προσῆκον ἐνθύμημα. ∆ιό παρακαλῶ πάντας τούς ἐντευξομένους, ἤ καί μεταγράψοντας, καί τήν τῶν σχολίων ἔξωθεν ἀναγνῶναι καί παραθέσθαι γραφήν, κατά τήν ἑκάστῳ σημείωσιν· ἵνα ἄρτιος ᾗ κατά πάντα τρόπον ὁ λόγος, μηδενί παρημελημένῳ παντελῶς κολοβούμενος.

ΣΧΟΛΙΑ. α.΄ Τήν σάρκα φησίν διά τῶν φαινομένων ἠθῶν εἶναι δεκτικήν τῆς κατ᾿ ἀρετήν

τῆς ψυχῆς διαθέσεως, ὄργανον πρός ἔμφασιν αὐτῇ τῇ ψυχῇ συνεζευγμένην. β΄. Τήν αἴσθησιν λέγει παραπέμπουσαν τῷ νῷ τήν τῶν ὁρατῶν φαντασίαν, πρός

κατανόησιν τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσιν λόγων, ὡς ὄργανον τῆς τοῦ νοῦ πρός τά νοητά διαβάσεως.