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is understood); Therefore, by summarizing in these things all that is recounted according to the place (Fr. type), the account has presented the spiritual interpretation. But that the passage may become clearer, let us examine each thing definitively, if you please.

A molten calf, then, is the mingling and confusion of the natural faculties with one another; or rather (301) a passionate and irrational congress, productive of the irrational activity of unnatural passions. And one calf, because there is one habit of evil, dispersed into many forms of evil; and a calf, because of its patient, industrious, and agricultural nature, and as it were, its supportive and inventive character, as in the rumination of the evil disposition regarding the passions; and molten, because the habit and activity of the passions is brought about according to the form of the evil fantasy pre-existing in the mind. And the saying: These are your gods, is spoken in the plural, because evil is by nature dispersive and unstable, and multiform and divisive. For if the good is by nature unitive and cohesive of what is divided, then evil is clearly divisive and destructive of what is united. And earrings are the principles concerning theology that naturally inhere in the mind from the pious contemplation of beings. And the ornaments about the neck are the correct doctrines concerning beings according to natural contemplation; the bracelets are the activity of the virtues in practice.

Or again, earrings are the innate reason. For the ear is a symbol of reason. The ornament about the neck is the spirited faculty; for the neck is a type of stature and tyranny. And bracelets of the hands, desire, indicated by the practice which is according to pleasure. All of which the mind, taking according to the meaning given for each, into the fire of the passions, produces the irrational and senseless habit of ignorance, the mother of all evils. And he grinds it fine, when the mind, having examined in thought the density of the passion in its appearance to sense, has divided each of the things that make up the composition of the passion and led it back to its own principle, and thus scatters it on the water; I mean the knowledge of the truth, leading what has been distinguished, and freed from evil entanglement and composition with one another.

I mean something like this: every passion is composed by the entanglement of some sensible object, and of sense, and of a natural power; I mean, perhaps, of spirit, or desire, or reason turned aside from what is according to nature. If, therefore, the mind, having contemplated the end of their composition with one another—that of the sensible object and of sense and of the natural power associated with it—is able to distinguish each of these and lead it back to its own natural principle, and to contemplate the sensible object in itself, without the relation of sense to it, and sense without its affinity for the sensible object, and desire, so to speak, or any other of the natural powers, without the passionate disposition toward sense and the sensible object, which the movement of the passion prepares the contemplation to become, he has ground fine the calf, that is, the constitution of whatever passion occurs, and has scattered it on the water of knowledge; having utterly destroyed even the bare fantasy of the passions, through the restoration of the things which naturally constitute them to themselves. May it be granted to us as well, by grinding fine the molten calf, to destroy it from the (304) soul, which possesses alone the unadulterated divine image, in no way whatsoever defiled by external things. And the saying, And Moses made the sons of Israel drink of it, signifies the manner of the teaching that purges the passions, given by teachers to learners.

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νενόηται)· πᾶσαν μέν οὖν τήν τῶν ἱστορουμένων κατά τόν τόπον (Fr. τύπον) ἐν τούτοις συντέμων, παρέθετο τήν θεωρίαν ὁ λόγος. Ἵνα δέ σαφέστερον γένηται τό χωρίον, ὁριστικῶς ἕκαστον, εἰ δοκεῖ, θεωρήσωμεν.

Μόσχος οὖν ἐστι χωνευτός, ἡ τῶν κατά φύσιν δυνάμεων εἰς ἀλλήλας φύρσις καί σύγχυσις· ἤ μᾶλλον (301) σύνοδος ἐμπαθής καί ἀλόγιστος, καί τῆς ἀλογίστου τῶν παρά φύσιν παθῶν ἐνεργείας ἀποτελεστική. Εἷς δέ μόσχος, ὅτι μία κακίας ἕξις, εἰς πολλά κακίας εἴδη διασκεδαζομένη· μόσχος δέ, διά τό καρτερικόν καί φιλόπονον, καί γεωργικόν, καί οἷον ἀναδοτικόν καί ἐπινοητικόν, ὡς ἐν μηρυκισμῷ τῆς περί τά πάθη κακῆς διαθέσεως· χωνευτός δέ, ὅτι κατ᾿ εἶδος τῆς προαποκειμένης τῇ διανοίᾳ κακῆς φαντασίας, ἡ τῶν παθῶν ἕξις ἀποτελεῖται καί ἐνέργεια. Τό δέ· Οὗτοι οἱ θεοί σου, πληθυντικῶς εἰρημένον, ἐπειδή σκεδαστόν φύσει τό κακόν ὑπάρχει καί ἄστατον, καί πολύμορφον καί διαιρετικόν. Εἰ γάρ φύσει τό καλόν ἐστιν ἑνοποιητικόν τῶν διῃρημένων καί συνεκτικόν, τό κακόν δηλονότι τῶν ἡνωμένων ἐστί διαιρετικόν τε καί φθαρτικόν. Ἐνώτια δέ, οἱ περί θεολογίας φυσικῶς τῷ νῷ ἐνυπάρχοντες ἐκ τῆς τῶν ὄντων εὐσεβοῦς κατανοήσεως τυγχάνουσι λόγοι. Οἱ δέ περί τόν τράχηλον κόσμοι εἰσί, τά κατά τήν φυσικήν θεωρίαν ὀρθά περί τῶν ὄντων δόγματα· τά ψέλλια, ἡ κατά τήν πρᾶξίν ἐστιν ἐνέργεια τῶν ἀρετῶν.

Ἤ πάλιν ἐνώτιά ἐστιν ὁ ἔμφυτος λόγος. Λόγου γάρ τό οὖς σύμβολον. Περιτραχήλιος δέ κόσμος ἐστί τό θυμικόν· ἀναστήματος γάρ καί τυραννίδος τύπος ὁ τράχηλος. Ψέλλια δέ χειρῶν, ἡ ἐπιθυμία, διά τῆς καθ᾿ ἡδονάς μηνυομένη πράξεως. Ἅπερ πάντα κατά τήν περί ἑκάστου δοθεῖσαν ἔννοιαν ἅπτων ὁ νοῦς εἰς τό πῦρ τῶν παθῶν, ἀποτελεῖ τήν ἄλογον καί ἀνόητον τῆς ἀγνοίας ἕξιν, τήν πάντων μητέρα τῶν κακῶν. Λεπτύνει δέ αὐτήν, ὁπηνίκα τό τοῦ πάθους κατά τήν ἐπιφάνειαν πρός αἴσθησιν πάχος τῇ διανοίᾳ διασκοπήσας ὁ νοῦς, τῶν ποιούντων τοῦ πάθους τήν σύνθεσιν, πρός τήν οἰκείαν ἀρχήν ἕκαστον διελών ἀναγάγῃ, καί οὕτως σπείρῃ ὑπό τό ὕδωρ· λέγω δέ τήν γνῶσιν τῆς ἀληθείας, ἄγων τά διευκρινηθέντα, καί τῆς πρός ἄλληλα κακῆς ἀπαλλαγέντα συμπλοκῆς καί συνθέσεως.

Οἷον τι λέγω, πᾶν πάθος κατά συμπλοκήν πάντως αἰσθητοῦ τινος, καί αἰσθήσεως καί φυσικῆς δυνάμεως· θυμοῦ λέγω τυχόν, ἤ ἐπιθυμίας, ἤ λόγου παρατραπέντος τοῦ κατά φύσιν, συνίσταται. Ἐάν οὖν τό πρός ἄλληλα κατά σύνθεσιν τέλος, τοῦ τε αἰσθητοῦ καί τῆς αἰσθήσεως, καί τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ φυσικῆς δυνάμεως θεωρήσας ὁ νοῦς, δυνηθῇ πρός τόν οἰκεῖον φύσει λόγον τούτων ἕκαστον διακρίνας ἐπαναγαγεῖν, καί θεωρῆσαι καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν τό αἰσθητόν, ἄνευ τῆς πρός αὐτό τῆς αἰσθήσεως σχέσεως, καί τήν αἴσθησιν δίχα τῆς τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ πρός αὐτήν οἰκειότητος, καί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν, φέρε εἰπεῖν, ἤ ἄλλην τινά τῶν κατά φύσιν δυνάμεων, χωρίς τῆς ἐμπαθοῦς ἐπ᾿ αἰσθήσει τε καί αἰσθητῷ διαθέσεως, ὡς ἡ τοῦ πάθους ποιά παρασκευάζει τήν θεωρίαν γίνεσθαι κίνησις, ἐλέπτυνε λεάνας τοῦ μόσχου, τουτέστι τοῦ οἱουδήποτε πάθους συμβαίνοντος τήν σύστασιν, καί ὑπό τό ὕδωρ τῆς γνώσεως ἔσπειρεν· ἀφανίσας παντελῶς καί αὐτήν τῶν παθῶν τήν ψιλήν φαντασίαν, διά τῆς πρός ἑαυτά τῶν ἀποτελούντων αὐτά κατά φύσιν πραγμάτων ἀποκαταστάσεως. Γένοιτο δέ καί ἡμᾶς τόν χωνευτόν μόσχον λεπτύναντας τῆς (304) ψυχῆς ἀφανίσαι, μόνην ἐχούσης ἀκίβδηλον τήν θείαν εἰκόνα, μηδενί καθάπαξ τῶν ἐκτός μολυνομένην. Τό δέ φερόμενον, Καί ἐπότισεν αὐτό Μωϋσῆς τούς υἱούς Ἰσραήλ, τόν τρόπον σημαίνει τῆς τῶν παθῶν καθαιρετικῆς διδασκαλίας, τοῖς μανθάνουσι παρά τῶν διδασκόντων διδόμενον.