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knowledge. But if we do not attain it, we are least able to strengthen those who are weak in faith by the power of words, but we ourselves have knowledge through faith. For we do not believe everything by demonstrations, nor do we think that the mystery of faith ought to be reduced to a system, neither we, nor those before us who through reason advocated for the word of truth, but in this also we show the strength of the word of truth and provide an occasion for correction to those who in some respect are lame in this, and a basis of security for those who rightly divide it.

The one who conveyed to you those treatises on these matters, Joseph, in all things noble and good and, if anyone is, god-loving in his way of life and for this reason dear to us, being in a hurry to return, snatched them from us almost extemporaneously, like newborn children who have not received their proper care. But since they have been produced for the demonstration of truth, and not for a display of beauty, for this reason I think they are praised also by your wisdom. But take this to mind, that we, having long desired the highest wisdom, or rather having been drawn to the desire for it by the highest love for humanity, having abandoned every kind of verbal art and the study of them, have devoted ourselves to this throughout our life, (p. 432) and there are many with you who know this of us and will bear witness with us; and you yourself are not unaware, as far as I can persuade myself. But all other things are of necessity set aside by us, since the things pertaining to that wisdom are naturally constituted in the non-possession of all things and in the forgetting of all things, just as also in the abstraction from all things the divine is conceived in a certain transcendence. But the goal of that wisdom is not equal to this; for from this point the mind thinks of things unlike God, but there the mind intellectually receives in actuality the divine manifestations, being and always becoming a spotless mirror of God. And even if we have almost entirely forgotten the sciences concerned with words, even though when need urges we try, not willingly, to take up some of these as we are able, for which reason we have also renounced those Attic graces and the very artful manner of expression, and of the true wisdom we have comprehended nothing or little, but we run as if to the fragrance of myrrh, not yet having the myrrh itself in our hands.

May He who, by an excess of love for humanity, put this desire in us also grant an unending end through his mercies, a beginning of the future ambrosia. Pray with us for this yourself, and we pray for your virtue, and may God from above be a helper and a hearer.

SECOND LETTER TO AKINDYNOS (P. 334)

CONCERNING THE INCONSISTENCY OF BARLAAM IN HIS DOCTRINES The one who, due to his readiness and skill in accusing us

having made us the subject, sending out treatises directed at us and having additionally written a note promising to do him this favor, that if any argument remained to us, it should come from us not to another, but to him, has continuously drawn the defense upon himself by two enticements, namely the request of the matter. And since your letter now to us requires almost the same arguments, and you are so fond of these that even through prayer you send us compulsions to write, and these, as you yourself would say, are not even very seemly, since, therefore, you have been so completely captured by the power of desire, and to you the same defense

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ἐπιστήμην. Εἰ δέ μή ἐφικοίμεθα, τούς μέν τῇ πίστει ἀσθενοῦντας δυνάμει λόγων ἥκιστ᾿ ἔχομεν ἐπιρρωννύειν, αὐτοί δέ διά τῆς πίστεως ἐπιστημόνως ἔχομεν. Οὐ γάρ ἀποδείξεσι τό πᾶν πιστεύομεν, οὐδέ τό μυστήριον δεῖν οἰόμεθα τεχνογραφεῖσθαι τῆς πίστεως, οὔθ᾿ ἡμεῖς, οὔθ᾿ οἱ πρό ἡμῶν διά λόγου τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας συνηγορήσαντες, ἀλλά κἀν τούτῳ δείκνυμεν τοῦ λόγου τῆς ἀληθείας τό ἰσχυρόν καί τοῖς κατά τι τούτου χωλεύουσιν ἐπανορθώσεως παρέχομεν ἀφορμήν καί τοῖς ὀρθοτομοῦσι τοῦτον ἀσφαλείας ὑπόθεσιν.

Ὁ δέ διακομίσας ὑμῖν τούς ἐπί τούτοις λόγους ἐκείνους, τά πάντα καλός κἀγαθός καί τήν πολιτείαν εἴπερ τις θεοφιλής καί ἡμῖν διά τοῦτο προσφιλής Ἰωσήφ, ἐπί τήν ἐπάνοδον σπεύδων, αὐτοσχεδίους σχεδόν ἥρπασε παρ᾿ ἡμῶν, οἷον ἀρτιτόκους παῖδας, μή τυχόντας τῆς προσηκούσης φροντίδος. Ἀλλ᾿ ἐπεί πρός ἀληθείας ἀπόδειξιν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ κάλλους ἐπίδειξιν ἐξενηνόχαται, παρά τοῦτ᾿ οἶμαι καί παρά τῆς σῆς ἐπαινοῦνται σοφίας. Ἐκεῖνό γε μήν ἐπί νοῦν σε λαβεῖν, ὡς ἡμεῖς ἐκ πολλοῦ τήν ἀνωτάτω σοφίαν ποθήσαντες, μᾶλλον δέ πρός τόν αὐτῆς πόθον παρά τῆς ἀνωτάτω φιλανθρωπίας ἐφελκυσθέντες, παντοίου λόγων εἴδους καί τῆς κατ᾿ αὐτά μελέτης ἀφέμενοι, ταύτῃ προσανέχομεν διά βίου, (σελ. 432) καί τοῦτ᾿ εἰσίν οἵ συνίσασιν ἡμῖν καί συμμαρτυρήσουσι παρ᾿ ὑμῖν πολλοί˙ καί σύ δέ αὐτός οὐκ ἀνεπιγνώμων ὅσα ἐμαυτόν ἔχω πείθειν. Παρεῖται δέ ἡμῖν τ᾿ ἄλλ᾿ ἅπαντα ἐξ ἀνάγκης, ἐπειδήπερ ἐν τῇ πάντων ἀποκτήσει καί καί τῇ πάντων ἐπιλήσει τά κατ᾿ ἐκείνην τήν σοφίαν συνίστασθαι πέφυκεν, ὥσπερ κἀν τῇ πάντων ἀφαιρέσει ἐν ὑπεροχῇ τινι τό θεῖον νοεῖται. Ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἴσον τούτῳ τῆς σοφίας ἐκείνης τό τέλος˙ ἐντεῦθεν μέν γάρ τά ἀπεμφαίνοντα τῷ Θεῷ διανοεῖται ὁ νοῦς, ἐκεῖ δ᾿ ἔργῳ τάς θείας ἐμφάσεις νοερῶς ὁ νοῦς δέχεται, ἔσοπτρον ἀκηλίδωτον Θεοῦ καί ὤν καί ἀεί γινόμενος. Κἄν ἡμεῖς τῶν μέν περί λόγους ἐπιστημῶν ἐπιλελήσμεθα σχεδόν παντάπασιν, εἰ καί χρείας ἐπειγούσης οὐχ ἑκόντες εἶναί τινα τούτων ἀναλαμβάνειν ὡς ἐνόν πειρώμεθα, διό καί τάς ἀττικάς ἐκεῖνας χάριτας καί τό λίαν ἔντεχνον τῆς ἐξαγγελίας ἀπειπάμεθα, τῆς δέ ἀληθινῆς σοφίας οὐδέν ἤ μικρόν κατειλήφαμεν, ἀλλ᾿ οἷον εἰς ὀσμήν μύρου τρέχομεν, αὐτό τό μύρον οὐκ ἐν χερσίν ἔχοντές πω.

Ὁ δέ τόν πόθον τοῦτον ἡμῖν ὑπερβολῇ φιλανθρωπίας ἐνθείς καί τέλος ἀτέλεστον διά τούς οἰκτιρμούς αὐτοῦ παράσχοι τῆς μελλούσης ἀμβροσίας ἀρχήν. Τοῦτο καί αὐτός ἡμῖν σύνευξαι καί ἡμεῖς ἐπευχόμεθά σου τῇ ἀρετῇ καί θεός ἄνωθεν ἐπίκουρος καί ἐπήκουος εἴη.

Β' ΠΡΟΣ ΑΚΙΝ∆ΥΝΟΝ (Σελ. 334)

ΠΕΡΙ ΤΗΣ ΤΟΥ ΒΑΡΛΑΑΜ ΕΝ ΤΟΙΣ ∆ΟΓΜΑΣΙ ∆ΙΑΦΟΡΑΣ Ὁ μέν τῆς ἑαυτοῦ περί τό κατηγορεῖν ἑτοιμότητός δε καί δεινότητος ἡμᾶς

ὑπόθεσιν ἐνστησάμενος, πρός ἡμᾶς τούς λόγους ἀποτεινομένους ἐκπέμψας καί γραμμάτιον προσεπιστείλας ταύτην ἐπαγγέλον δοῦναι οἱ χάριν, εἴ τις ἡμῖν ὑπολέλειπται λόγος, μή πρός ἕτερον, ἀλλά πρός αὐτόν ἥκειν παρ᾿ ἡμῶν, δυσίν ἀνθολκαῖς, τῇ τε τοῦ πράγματος αἰτήσει, τήν ἀπολογίαν ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτόν ἐπισπασάμενος διετέλεσεν. Ἐπεί δέ καί τῷ σῷ νῦν πρός ἡμᾶς γράμματι τῶν αὐτῶν σχεδόν λόγων δεῖ, κἀπί τοσοῦτο τούτων ἐρᾷς ὡς καί δι᾿ εὐχῆς ἡμῖν τάς πρός τό γράφειν ἐπιπέμπειν ἀνάγκας, καί ταῦθ᾿ ὥς γε αὐτός ἄν φαίης μηδ᾿ ἄγαν εὐπρεπεῖς οὔσας, ἐπεί τοίνυν οὕτω κατ᾿ ἄκρας ἑάλως τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ πόθου καί σοί τόν αὐτόν ἀπολογητικόν