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γ΄. He says it is a property of love to demonstrate one mind among those who live according to it. δ΄. That when the intellect, having traversed the essence of beings, approaches God, it becomes without intellection, for He is beyond every being and essence and knowledge and intellection. ε΄. That the Word of God effects the differentiation of gifts in those who receive Him according to the dispositions of their souls. στ΄. That the demons engage in our unseen wars in the mind as if over present matters. ζ΄. That because of pleasure, he says, we love the passions; and because of pain, we flee from virtue. η΄. That just as reason, when it masters the passions, makes the senses an instrument of virtue, so also the passions, when they master reason, form the senses toward sin.

θ΄. Of perceptible things, that is. ι΄. That by habit, after release from the natural relation to beings, the soul, united to God, receives an immovable stability concerning the good. (268) ια ΄. He calls the essences of beings 'beings'; and what seem to be, the flows and outflows according to quality and quantity, around which the formation of the senses is constituted, creating sin.

ιβ ΄. That man, being midway between God and matter, by not being moved toward God as the cause and end of his own generation, but toward matter, reasonably became ignorant of God, having made his intellect earthly by his inclination toward matter.

ιγ΄. He called the experience of sensible things through sensation 'composite knowledge,' as it naturally has pleasure because of generation, and pain because of corruption.

ιδ΄. The creation of visible things, he says, has both spiritual principles for the intellect and a natural power for sensation; the concepts of which exist like a tree in the middle of the heart, which is tropologically understood as paradise.

ιε΄. One is ignorant of the experience of sensation according to pleasure and pain when he has bound his intellect to God, having become free of the bodily relation.

From the works of Photius. This divine man and noble confessor undertakes the labor of providing the solutions to these.

But in his phrasing he is long-winded in his periods, and delights in hyperbata; abounding in circumlocutions, and not zealous to speak plainly; from which obscurity and difficulty of acquisition (difficulty of oversight) runs through his writing. And with the roughness of his density, in so far as he subjects his discourse to construction and rests, he does not even strive to be pleasant to the ear. With him, the metaphor of words is not embellished for grace and charm, but is employed so simply and without concern; and what is near, and what wears out those who have devoted themselves to him, is that his solutions are contrived far from the letter and from known history, or rather, even from the difficulty itself; except if someone loves to unfold his mind with anagogies and contemplations, he could not find any more varied or more diligently crafted than these. For he both collects what was said by those before him concerning some of the difficulties; and he also adds from his own industry no less, if not even more, things put forth that are elegant and thoughtfully considered. But everywhere his piety, and the pure and genuine nature of his longing for Christ, shines through.

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γ΄. Τῆς ἀγάπης ἴδιόν φησι τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτήν ζώντων μίαν ἐνδεῖξαι γνώμην. δ΄. Ὅτι τῶν ὄντων διαβάς τήν οὐσίαν ὁ νοῦς, ἀνόητος γίνεται Θεῷ προσβάλλων

ὑπέρ πᾶσαν ὄντι καί οὐσίαν καί γνῶσιν καί νόησιν. ε΄. Ὅτι πρός διαθέσεις ψυχῶν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ λόγος ἐν τοῖς δεχομένοις αὐτόν

ποιεῖται τήν τῶν χαρισμάτων διαφοράν. στ΄. Ὅτι κατά διάνοιαν ὡς ὑπέρ παρουσῶν τῶν ὑλῶν τούς ἀφανεῖς ἡμῶν

συμπλέκονται πολέμους οἱ δαίμονες. ζ΄. Ὅτι διά τήν ἡδονήν φησι ἀγαπῶμεν τά πάθη· καί διά τήν ὀδύνην τήν ἀρετήν

ἀποφεύγομεν. η΄. Ὅτι καθάπερ ὁ λόγος κρατῶν τῶν παθῶν ἀρετῆς ὄργανον ποιεῖται τάς

αἰσθήσεις, οὕτω καί τά πάθη κρατοῦντα τοῦ λόγου, μορφοῦσιν τάς αἰσθήσεις πρός ἁμαρτίαν.

θ΄. Τῶν αἰσθητῶν δηλονότι. ι΄. Ὅτι καθ᾿ ἕξιν μετά τήν ἀπαλλαγήν τῆς πρός τά ὄντα φυσικῆς σχέσεως

ἑνωθεῖσα τῷ Θεῷ ἡ ψυχή, τήν περί τό καλόν παγιότητα λαμβάνει ἀμετακίνητον. (268) ια ΄. Ὄντα λέγει τάς τῶν ὄντων οὐσίας· εἶναι δέ δοκοῦντα τάς κατά ποῖον

καί πόσον ῥοάς τε καί ἀποῤῥοάς, περί ἅς ἡ τῶν αἰσθήσεων πλάσις συνέστηκεν τήν ἁμαρτίαν δημιουργοῦσα.

ιβ ΄. Ὅτι μέσος ὤν Θεοῦ καί ὕλης ὁ ἄνθρωπος, τό πρός τόν Θεόν ὡς αἰτίαν καί τέλος τῆς οἰκείας γενέσεως μή κινεῖσθαι, ἀλλά πρός τήν ὕλην, εἰκότως τόν Θεόν ἠγνόησε, τῇ πρός τήν ὕλην ῥοπῇ τόν νοῦν ἀπογεώσας.

ιγ΄. Σύνθετον γνῶσιν εἶπεν, τήν κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν πεῖραν τῶν αἰσθητῶν, ὡς κατά φύσιν ἔχουσαν ἡδονήν διά τήν γένεσιν, καί πόνον διά τήν φθοράν.

ιδ΄. Κτίσις τῶν ὁρατῶν, φησιν, καί πρός τόν νοῦν ἔχει λόγους πνευματικούς, καί φυσικήν πρός αἴσθησιν δύναμιν· ὧν τά νοήματα καθάπερ ξύλον ἐν μέσῳ τῆς καρδίας, παραδείσου τροπικῶς νοουμένης, ὑπάρχουσι.

ιε΄. Ἀγνοεῖ τις τήν καθ᾿ ἡδονήν καί ὀδύνην τῆς αἰσθήσεως πεῖραν, ὅταν τῷ Θεῷ προσδήσει τόν νοῦν, τῆς σωματικῆς ἐλεύθερος γενόμενος σχέσεως.

Ἐκ τῶν Φωτίου. Τούτων τάς λύσεις ὁ θεῖος οὗτος ἀνήρ καί γενναῖος ὁμολογητής ἀποδιδόναι

ὑπέρχεται πόνον. Ἐστί δέ τήν φράσιν σχοινοτενής τε ταῖς περιόδοις, καί χαίρων ὑπερβατοῖς· ἐνακμάζων τε ταῖς περιβολαῖς, καί κυριολογεῖν οὐκ ἐσπουδασμένος· ἐξ ὧν αὐτοῦ τῇ συγγραφῇ καί τό ἀσαφές καί δυσεπίκτητον (δυσεπισκόπητον) διατρέχει. Τῷ τραχεῖ δέ τοῦ ὄγκου, ὅσα περί συνθήκην καί ἀναπαύσεις τόν λόγον ὑποβάλλων, οὐδ᾿ ἡδύς εἶναι σπουδάζει τῇ ἀκοῇ. Μεταφορά αὐτῷ τῶν λέξεων οὐκ εἰς τό χάριεν καί γεγοητευμένον περιήνθισται, ἀλλ᾿ οὕτως ἁπλῶς καί ἀπεριμερίμνως παραλαμβάνεται· ὅ δέ ἐγγύς, καί τούς περί αὐτόν ἀποκναίει ἐσπουδακότας, πόῤῥω τοῦ γράμματος καί τῆς ἐγνωσμένης ἱστορίας ἤ μᾶλλον καί αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἠπορημένου αἱ λύσεις αὐτῷ περινοοῦνται· πλήν εἴ τινι φίλον ἀναγωγαῖς καί θεωρίαις τόν νοῦν ἀνελίσσειν, οὐκ ἄν ποικιλωτέραις οὐδ᾿ ἐσπουδασμέναις μᾶλλον ἤ ταύταις περιτύχοι. Συλλέγει μέν γάρ καί τῶν πρό αὐτοῦ εἰς ἔνια τῶν ἠπορημένων εἰρημένα· συνάπτει δέ καί τῆς οἴκοθεν φιλοπονίας οὐδέν ἔλαττον, εἰ μή καί μᾶλλον, τό γλαφυρόν τε καί περινενοημένον προβεβλημένα. Πανταχοῦ δέ τό εὐσεβές αὐτοῦ, καί τοῦ εἰς Χριστόν πόθου τό καθαρόν καί γνήσιον διαλάμπει.