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1.65 (65) You will not be able to reach the greater virtues if you have not attained the summit of those within your ability.

1.66 (66) In whom mercy and truth prevail, in them is also everything that is pleasing to God. For the one judges no one without mercy; while the other shows love for humanity in nothing outside of truth.

1.67 (67) Having mixed self-control with simplicity, you will be in summary possession of the blessedness from there.

1.68 (68) You will not cut off all the passions that war against you, unless you first leave unplowed the ground from which they were nourished.

1.69 (69) Some hasten to purify only the matter of the body; (15∆_342> while others, also that of the soul. For some have gained strength against only actual sin; others also against passion; but against desire, very few.

1.70 (70) Evil matter, for the body is passionate attachment, for the soul sensual pleasure, and for the mind attachment. Touch is the accuser of the first, the other senses of the second, and of the last, a contrary disposition.

1.71 (71) The one given to sensual pleasure is near the one with passionate attachment; the one with attachment is near the one given to sensual pleasure; but the dispassionate one is far from both.

1.72 (72) The one with passionate attachment is he whose sinful thought is more violent, even if for the time being he does not sin outwardly. The one given to sensual pleasure is he whose actuality of sin is weaker than his thought, even if he suffers inwardly. The one with attachment is he who is devoted to the freedom, or rather the slavery, of intermediate things; while the dispassionate one would be he who is ignorant of the difference of all these.

1.73 (73) Passionate attachment is destroyed from the soul through fasting and prayer, sensual pleasure through vigil and silence, and attachment through stillness and attention; while dispassion is established through the remembrance of God.

1.74 (74) From the lips of dispassion, like honeycombs, 1417 the words of eternal life drip. Who then would be worthy to touch his own lips to those lips, and to rest between her breasts, and to partake of the sweet fragrance of her garments? that is, to be delighted in the laws of the virtues, which, it says, are above all the fragrances of sensible perception.

(15∆_344>1.75 (75) Every soul will be stripped of the visible body; but of the body of sin, the few who have also enjoyed the pleasures of this life.

1.76 (76) All will be seen as dead from among the living; but only those who have hated it from disposition will be made dead to sin.

1.77 (77) Who might see himself naked of sin before the common death of the body? and who has known both himself and his own nature, what it is like before the coming stripping?

Of the same. A soul wounded with bridal love, Prayer knows how to unite thus to the Bridegroom. 1.78 (78) The rational soul, lying on the border of the sensible and the intelligible light

soul, through the one, was permitted to see and do the things of the body; through the other, to do the things of the spirit. But since the latter was obscured for it, and the former was made clear, through its original habit, unless it becomes wholly with the intelligible in prayer, it is wholly unable to gaze upon divine things. But it is necessary for it to be in the midst of battle

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1.65 (ξε΄) Οὐ δυνήσῃ ἐπί τάς μείζους φθάσαι τῶν ἀρετῶν, μή τῶν κατά δύναμιν καταλαβών τήν ἀκρότητα.

1.66 (ξστ΄) Ἐν οἷς κρατεῖ ἔλεος καί ἀλήθεια, ἐν ἐκείνοις καί πᾶν εἴ τι θεάρεστον. Ἡ μέν γάρ οὐδένα κρίνει ἐλέους χωρίς· τό δέ φιλανθρωπεύεται ἐν οὐδέν ἀληθείας ἐκτός.

1.67 (ξζ΄) Τῇ ἁπλότητι κερασάμενος τήν ἐγκράτειαν, ἐν περιλήψει γενήσῃ τῆς ἐκεῖθεν μακαριότητος.

1.68 (ξη΄) Οὐ κόψῃς πάντα τά πολεμοῦντά σε πάθη, εἰ μή πρότερον τήν γῆν, ἐξ ἧς ἐτρέφοντο, ἐάσῃς ἀνήροτον.

1.69 (ξθ΄) Οἱ μέν, τήν τοῦ σώματος μόνον ὕλην ἐκκαθάραι σπεύδουσιν· (15∆_342> οἱ δέ, καί τήν τῆς ψυχῆς. Οἱ μέν γάρ πρός μόνην τήν κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἁμαρτίαν ἰχύν ἔλαβον· οἱ δέ καί πρός τό πάθος· πρός δέ τήν ἐπιθυμίαν πάνυ ἐλάχιστοι.

1.70 (ο΄) Ὕλην πονηρά, σώματος μέν ἐμπάθεια, ψυχῆς δέ ἡδυπάθεια, προσπάθεια δέ τοῦ νοός. Κατηγορεῖται δέ τῆς μέν ἀφή, τῆς δέ αἱ λοιπαί αἰσθήσεις, τῆς δέ τελευταίας ἐναντία διάθεσις.

1.71 (οα΄) Ὁ μέν ἡδυπαθής πλησίον ἐστί τοῦ ἐμπαθοῦς· ὁ δέ προσπαθής, τοῦ ἡδυπαθοῦς· μακράν δέ ἀμφοτέρων ὁ ἀπαθής.

1.72 (οβ΄) Ἐμπαθής ἐστιν ὁ τό ἁμαρτητικόν ἔχων τοῦ λογισμοῦ βιαιότερον, κἄν τέως μή ἁμαρτάνει ἐκτός. Ἡδυπαθής δέ ὁ τήν ἐνέργειαν τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἔχων ἀσθενεστέραν τοῦ λογισμοῦ, κἄν πάσχῃ ἐντός. Προσπαθής δέ ὁ τῇ ἐλευθερίᾳ, μᾶλλον δέ τῇ δουλείᾳ τῶν μέσων, προσκείμενος· ἀπαθής δ᾿ ἄν εἴη ὁ τούτων πάντων τήν διαφοράν ἀγνοῶν.

1.73 (ογ΄) Ἀπόλλυται ἐκ ψυχῆς ἐμπάθεια μέν διά νηστείας καί προσευχῆς, ἡδυπάθεια δέ δι᾿ ἀγρυπνίας καί σιωπῆς, ἡ δέ προσπάθεια διά ἡσυχίας καί προσοχῆς· ἀπάθεια δέ συνίσταται ἐκ μνήμης Θεοῦ.

1.74 (οδ΄) Τῆς ἀπαθείας ἀπό χειλέων, κηρία μέλιτος, 1417 οἷα οἱ λόγοι τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς ἀποστάζουσι. Τίς οὖν ἀξιωθείη τοῖς χείλεσιν ἐκείνοις προσάψαι τά ἴδια, καί μασθῶν ἀνά μέσον αὐτῆς αὐλισθῆναι, καί ὀσμῆς ἡδείας μεταβαλεῖν ἱματίων ἐκείνης; τουτέστι, νόμοις ἐνηδυνθῆναι τῶν ἀρετῶν, τῶν ὑπέρ πάντα φησί τά ἀρώματα ὄντα τῆς αἰσθητῆς διαγνώσεως.

(15∆_344>1.75 (οε΄) Τοῦ μέν ὁρωμένου σώματος, πᾶσα ψυχή γυμνωθήσεται· τοῦ δέ τῆς ἁμαρτίας, οἱ τῆς ἐνταῦθα ζωῆς ὀλίγοι τῶν ἡδέων προσαπολαύσαντες.

1.76 (οστ΄) Νεκροί μέν ἐκ ζώντων πάντες ὀφθήσονται· νεκρωθήσονται δέ τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ μόνοι οἱ ἐκ διαθέσεως ταύτην μισήσαντες.

1.77 (οζ΄) Τίς ἑαυτόν πρό τοῦ κοινοῦ θανάτου τοῦ σώματος ἴδοι τῆς ἁμαρτίας γυμνόν; καί τίς ὁ γνούς αὐτόν τε καί τήν ἰδίαν φύσιν, ὁποία ἐστί πρό τῆς μελλούσης γυμνώσεως;

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ. Ψυχήν ἔρωτι νυμφικῷ τετρωμένην, Εὐχή συνάπτειν οἶδεν ὦδε νυμφίῳ. 1.78 (οη΄) Τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ τε καί νοεροῦ φωτός ἡ λογική ἐν μεθορίῳ κειμένη

ψυχή, διά μέν τούτου, ὁρᾷν καί πράττειν τά τοῦ σώματος ἐπετράπη· δι᾿ ἐκείνου δέ, πράττειν τά τοῦ πνεύματος. Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπειδή ἠμαυρώθη μέν αὐτῇ ἐκεῖνο, ἐτρανώθη δέ τοῦτο, διά τήν ἀρχῆθεν συνήθειαν, εἰ μή ὅλως μετά τοῦ νοεροῦ ἐν τῇ εὐχῇ γένηται, ὁλικῶς τοῖς θείοις ἐνατενίζειν οὐ δύναται. Ἀνάγκη δέ εἶναι αὐτήν ἐν μεταιχμίῳ