96

Stop playing with me, do not say: no, but I have the whole, even if I have nothing at all! How or what you are saying, I wonder. Listen and I will speak again: conceive for me a great sea and seas of seas, an abyss of abysses again, (180) sketch it out in your mind. If then you stand beside these, on the shore of the seas, you would surely rightly tell me you see the water, though you do not see the whole at all. For the whole, how could you see it, infinite to your eyes and immense to your hands? Surely, what you see, you see; but if someone should ask you: Do you see all the seas? By no means, you will answer. And do you hold them all in your palm? No, you will say, for how could I have the strength? But if he should ask you again: Do you not see them at all? You say: Yes, I see a little and hold some water of the sea. Therefore, with your hand holding in the waters, you have all the abysses joined to your hand, for they are not cut off from one another; yet you do not have all of them, but a little. In comparison, then, to all of them, how much do you have? You might say, like a single drop. But all of them you do not have, although you have them connected. So then I also say to you, that having, I have nothing, and I am poor, and I see wealth laid up for me. When I am satisfied, I hunger, (181) and when I am poor, I am rich; when I drink, I also thirst, and the drink is exceedingly sweet: one taste quenches every thirst of myriads, and I always thirst to drink, though I drink absolutely beyond satiety.

96

παῦσαι παίζειν με, μή λέγε˙ οὔ, ἀλλά τό ὅλον ἔχω, εἰ μηδέν μηδόλως ἔχω! Πῶς ἤ τί λαλεῖς, θαυμάζω. Ἄκουσον καί πάλιν λέξω˙ πέλαγός μοι νόει μέγα καί θαλάσσας θαλασσῶν τε, ἄβυσσον ἀβύσσων πάλιν (180) κατά νοῦν ὑποζωγράφει. Εἰ οὖν ἵστασαι πρός τούτοις, τῇ ἀκτῇ τῶν θαλασσίων, πάντως ἄν καλῶς μοι εἴποις καθορᾶν τό ὕδωρ ἄρα, καί μή βλέπων ὅλον ὅλως. Τό γάρ ὅλον, πῶς θεάσῃ, ἄπειρον τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς σου ἄσχετιν καί ταῖς χερσί σου; Πάντως, ὅσον βλέπεις, βλέπεις˙ εἰ δέ ἔροιτό σε τις δή˙ Βλέπεις ὅλας τάς θαλάσσας; Οὐδαμῶς, ἀποκριθήσῃ. Πάσας δέ κρατεῖς παλάμῃ; Οὔ, λέξεις, πῶς γάρ ἰσχύω; Εἰ δέ ἔροιτό σε πάλιν˙ Οὐδέ ὅλως ταύτας βλέπεις; Λέγεις˙ Ναί, μικρόν τι βλέπω καί κρατῶ θαλάσσης ὕδωρ. Ὅσα οὖν τήν χεῖρα ἔχεις ἐν τοῖς ὕδασι κρατοῦσαν, ὅλας ἔχεις τάς ἀβύσσους συνημμένας τῇ χειρί σου, οὐ γάρ τέτμηνται ἀλλήλων καί οὐ πάσας, ἀλλ᾿ ὀλίγον. Πρός οὖν πάσας, πόσον ἔχεις; Ὡς ῥανίδα μίαν εἴπῃς. Τάς δέ πάσας σύ οὐκ ἔχεις, καίτοι συνημμένας ἔχεις. Οὔτω γοῦν κἀγώ σοι λέγω, ὅτι ἔχων οὐδέν ἔχω καί πτωχός εἰμι καί πλοῦτον ἀποκείμενον ὁρῶ μοι. Ὅτε χορτασθῶ, λιμάσσω, (181) ὅτε δέ πένομαι, πλουτῶ, ὅτε πίνω, καί διψῶ, καί γλυκύ τό πόμα λίαν˙ μία γεῦσις πᾶσαν δίψαν μυριάδων καταπαύει, καί διψῶ ἀεί τοῦ πίνειν ὑπέρ κόρον πάντως πίνων.