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become possible and easy, according to the one who said in the Spirit: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Whom those who have been enriched see invisibly, the ineffable beauty of God Himself; they hold untouchably, they comprehend incomprehensibly His formless species, the shapeless shape and the unfigured figure in an unseen vision and in uncompounded beauty, unvariedly variegated.

But what is it that they see when they comprehend? The simple light itself of the Godhead itself they see richly with the eyes of the mind, which also, touching with immaterial hands with irrepressible love, they eat without chewing in the spiritual mouth of their mind and soul, of the contemplation of whose beauty and sweetness they are never able to be wholly sated. For always, the newer, gushes forth an addition of sweetness and kindles their desire more vehemently; but if it should ever not appear to them again more clearly, they are disposed as if deprived of the whole, and if it should wish to be completely hidden (204) even for a little while, it produces in them a sharp and unbearable pain of ineffable longing.

But let us understand by an example the necessity and flame of such a longing. Imagine for me a beloved maiden for a certain poor man, being of royal lineage and crowned with a royal diadem, and being more beautiful than all the women on earth and existing inside her chamber, but her lover approaching from outside, as one cast out on account of poverty and extreme lowliness. If then the maiden, from a small and very narrow opening, having extended outside only her hand adorned with gold, gives it to the lover, and he, having seized it and perceiving its impossible beauty, kisses it, expecting to reign with and be united with her, she promising this to him with oaths, then suddenly the maiden, snatching her hand from his hands, draws it back to herself and hides it completely, will she not cause him unbearable affliction and through this work in such a man a more vehement kindling of longing? I think you too will bear witness with me to the account of the example.

And if in visible and sensible bodies and things alike these things are accustomed to happen thus, being perishable and quickly passing away, by how much more will this happen in the intelligible and invisible things, being incorruptible and eternal; for by as much as the eternal goods are better than the temporal ones, so much more vehemently, in proportion, do they also produce love in the souls of the lovers; whence the longing for God does not permit them to be held in any way by desire or passion for anything. For they do not long for glory, nor luxury, nor riches, nor are they permitted to touch the love of bodies at all in their mind; but just as a bridegroom, seeing the lifeless icon (205) of the bride made from colors, is devoted to it and gazes upon it continually and wishes to see it, inflaming his own longing and desire for her, but when he sees that bride herself having arrived, not being according to the form of the icon, but possessing a blameless form of beauty with incomparable and ineffable grace, and he kisses and embraces her, he no longer at all endures to look upon her icon relatively, in the same way, but more greatly, suffer also those who from the magnitude and beauty of visible creatures contemplate the power and wisdom of the Creator and are led up by these to love and faith toward Him and, according to their progress, to a pure fear. For whenever they are united essentially with God Himself and are deemed worthy of His vision and participation, no longer to the icon of His works, nor to the shadow of visible things do they attend with passion or attachment, or relatively. For their mind, delighting in things beyond sense and being, as it were, mixed and

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δυνατά καί ῥᾴδια γίνονται κατά τόν εἰρηκότα ἐν Πνεύματι· "Πάντα ἰσχύω ἐν τῷ ἐνδυναμοῦντί με Χριστῷ". Ὅν οἱ πεπλουτηκότες ὁρῶσιν ἀοράτως αὐτοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ τό ἄφραστον κάλλος· κρατοῦσιν ἀνεπάφως, κατανοοῦσιν ἀκατανοήτως τό ἀνείδεον εἶδος αὐτοῦ, τήν ἄμορφον μορφήν καί τό ἀσχημάτιστον σχῆμα ἐν ἀθεάτῳ θέᾳ καί ἀσυνθέτῳ κάλλει ἀποικίλτως πεποικιλμένον.

Τί δέ ἐστιν ὅ κατανοοῦντες ὁρῶσι; Τό ἁπλοῦν τῆς θεότητος αὐτό φῶς αὐτό τοῖς νοεροῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ὁρῶσι πλουσίως, ὅ καί ψηλαφῶντες ἀΰλοις χερσίν ἀκατασχέτῳ τῷ ἔρωτι, ἀνεστίως ἐσθίουσιν ἐν πνευματικῷ τῷ τοῦ νοός καί τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτῶν στόματι, οὗ τῆς θεωρίας τοῦ κάλλους καί τῆς γλυκύτητος ὅλως κορεσθῆναι οὐδέποτε δύνανται. Ἀεί γάρ, τό καινότερον, προσθήκην ἡδύτητος βλύζει καί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν αὐτῶν ἐκκαίει σφοδρότερον· εἰ δέ ποτε μή πάλιν αὐτοῖς τρανότερον φαίνοιτο, ὡς τοῦ ὅλου στερισκόμενοι διάκεινται, εἰ δέ καί κρυβῆναι τελείως (204) κἄν πρός μικρόν ἐθελήσειε, πόθου ἀρρήτου πόνον δριμύν καί ἀφόρητον ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀπεργάζεται.

Ἀλλά γάρ τοῦ τοιούτου πόθου ἐν παραδείγματι τήν ἀνάγκην καί τήν φλόγα κατανοήσωμεν. Νόει μοι ἐρωμένην κόρην πτωχῷ τινι, ἐκ βασιλικοῦ μέν τυγχάνουσαν γένους καί βασιλικῷ κατεστεμμένην τῷ διαδήματι, ὡραιοτέραν τε οὖσαν πασῶν τῶν ἐπί γῆς γυναικῶν καί ἔνδοθεν ὑπάρχουσαν τοῦ κοιτῶνος αὐτῆς, τόν δέ ταύτης ἐρῶντα ἔξωθεν προσπελάζοντα, οἷα δή ἀπερριμμένον διά πτωχείαν καί ἄκραν εὐτέλειαν. Εἰ τοίνυν ἐκ μικρᾶς καί στενοτάτης ὀπῆς ἡ κόρη, μόνην χρυσῷ πεπυκασμένην τήν χεῖρα ἔξωθεν ἐκτείνασα, τῷ ἐραστῇ ἐπιδώσει, κἀκεῖνος ταύτης δραξάμενος καί τό ἀμήχανον κάλλος αὐτῆς κατανοῶν κατασπάζεται αὐτήν, ὡς συμβασιλεῦσαι καί συναφθῆναι αὐτῇ προσδοκῶν, τοῦτο ἐκείνης μεθ᾿ ὅρκων ὑπισχνουμένης αὐτῷ, εἶτα αἴφνης ἐκ τῶν ἐκείνου χειρῶν τήν αὐτῆς ἡ κόρη χεῖρα ἁρπάσασα συστείλῃ πρός ἑαυτήν καί ἀποκρύψει τελείως, οὐχί θλῖψιν ἀφόρητον αὐτῷ προξενήσει καί τήν τοῦ πόθου μᾶλλον ἔκκκαυσιν περισσοτέραν ἐκ τούτου τῷ τοιούτῳ σφοδρῶς ἀπεργάσεται; Οἶμαι, συμμαρτυρήσετέ μοι τῷ λόγῳ τοῦ ὑποδείγματος καί ὑμεῖς.

Εἰ δέ ἐν ὁρωμένοις καί αἰσθητοῖς σώμασιν ὁμοῦ καί πράγμασιν οὕτω ταῦτα συμβαίνειν εἴωθε, φθειρομένοις οὖσι καί ταχέως παρερχομένοις, πόσῳ γε μᾶλλον ἐν τοῖς νοητοῖς ἀοράτοις τοῦτο συμβήσεται, ἀφθάρτοις οὖσι καί ἀϊδίοις· ὅσῳ γάρ κρείττονα τῶν προσκαίρων εἰσί τά αἰώνια ἀγαθά, τοσοῦτον ἀναλόγως καί τόν ἔρωτα ἐμποιοῦσι σφοδρότερον ἐν ταῖς τῶν ἐρώντων ψυχαῖς· ὅθεν οὐδέ ἐᾷ τούτους ὁ πόθος τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπιθυμίᾳ ἤ προσπαθείᾳ ἔν τινι κρατηθῆναι κἄν ὁπωσοῦν. Οὐ δόξης γάρ, οὐ τρυφῆς, οὐ χρημάτων οὗτοι ἐφίενται, ἀλλ᾿ οὐδέ σωμάτων ἔρωτος προσψαῦσαι ὅλως κατά νοῦν συγκεχώρηνται· ἀλλά καθάπερ ὁ τήν ἐκ χρωμάτων κατασκευασθεῖσαν ἄψυχον εἰκόνα (205) τῆς νύμφης νυμφίος ὁρῶν ταύτῃ πρόσκειται καί ἐνατενίζει διηνεκῶς καί βούλεται ὁρᾶν αὐτήν, ἀναφλέγων τόν πόθον αὐτοῦ καί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν τήν πρός αὐτήν, ἐπάν δέ αὐτήν ἐκείνην τήν νύμφην παραγενομένην θεάσηται, οὐ κατά τήν τῆς εἰκόνος μορφήν οὖσαν, ἀλλ᾿ ἀσυγκρίτῳ καί ἀφράστῳ κάλλει ἀμώμητον τό εἶδος κεκτημένην τῆς εὐπρεπείας, καί ταύτην κατασπάσηται καί περιπλακῇ, οὐκέτι ὅλως ἀνέχεται πρός τήν εἰκόνα ταύτης ἐναπιδεῖν σχετικῶς, τό αὐτό δή μειζόνως πάσχουσι καί οἱ ἐκ μεγέθους καί καλλονῆς τῶν ὁρωμένων κτισμάτων τήν δύναμιν καί τήν σοφίαν τοῦ γενεσιουργοῦ ἀναθεωροῦντες καί εἰς ἀγάπην καί πίστιν τήν πρός αὐτόν καί εἰς φόβον ἐκ τούτων ἁγνόν κατά προκοπήν ἀναγόμενοι. Ὁπότε γάρ αὐτῷ ἐκείνῳ οὐσιωδῶς τῷ Θεῷ ἑνωθῶσι καί τῆς ἐκείνου θέας καί μεθέξεως ἀξιωθῶσιν, οὐκέτι τῇ εἰκόνι τῶν ποιημάτων, οὐδέ τῇ σκιᾷ τῶν ὁρωμένων ἐμπαθῶς ἤ προσπαθῶς, ἤ σχετικῶς προσανέχουσι. Τῆς διανοίας γάρ αὐτῶν ἐν τοῖς ὑπέρ αἴσθησιν ἐμφιλοχωρούσης καί οἱονεί ἀνακιρναμένης καί