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theologies; but just as again there are those who have been granted a share of clear theology beyond the more perfect things and veils, so also there are those who have peered into the invisible things of God, such as Moses and Paul and those like them, even if from visible things they suitably guide us toward the understanding of those things.

What then, O philosopher, is the meaning to you of those manifold and crooked sophisms of evil artifice, that "one who knows one thing, and is, and is a beginning, and is able, must know that it is, what it is, and the one, and the beginning, and the power"? For if someone were saying that God is in no way known from existing things, you would have been right to bring forward these things which belong to every rational nature; but since we (p. 550) place the knowledge of the mysteries of the Spirit through the Spirit above the knowledge that belongs by nature and is common to all, what help will it be to you who contradicts these things, that the most introductory knowledge of God comes from existing things? But you, however, are accustomed to contradict in this way, since also to the spiritual men who say that there is a light contemplated by the mind, not only knowledge, you show through many proofs that knowledge is also called light, and by this you think you are completely victorious in your opposition. "But without this introductory knowledge," he says, "no one will be rational, nor will there be progress toward the more perfect things of rational beings." Neither will a man ever be a man before he becomes an infant; but having become a man, he has done away with childish things. But if among men he thinks childish thoughts and prides himself on them, how will he not be ridiculous? And how is not such a man the one who says he is a Christian and pursues Greek learning, in order to reap the knowledge of God from there?

And what about this, that "a diseased rational part of the soul would not become intelligent by diligence"? For truly the rational part of the soul is diseased of one who considers his own thought more trustworthy than the oracles of the Spirit and who does not think that the divine commandments are a great and perfect cure for the soul. For previously he was saying that these are able to cleanse by half, but now, having removed all their purifying power, he has attributed it to knowledge, saying that the beginning and middle and end of the knowledge of God and of the health of the soul and of purification come from knowing many and more and all things, and that one must in no way be ignorant of the many things, so that we may be able to gather them into something universal and achieve the circular knowledge concerning beings, that is, to learn the encyclical education, so that we might also be deemed worthy of thoughts equal to the angels, which are unified and indivisible, just as if one were to say that he who wants to see an indivisible point (p. 552) must first make it multipartite, and that the monad cannot come to be by the subtraction of the many, but only by their synthesis, although every one that comes from synthesis is also divisible, whereas in that case the unified and indivisible is the subject. But I know, having been initiated by the fathers, and indeed having heard and believed some of them, that they contemplated these many things and this entire sensible world, not by sensation, not by reasoning, but by the proper power and grace of the godlike mind, which also brings distant things as if before the eyes and supernaturally presents future things as present. And it is not surprising that the divinely-inspired speaker from the Areopagus praises the creator of nature also from the things that exist in us by nature, since also through inanimate and through insensible and through irrational and through rational things, he alone is the one who is glorified, but also to him alone especially belongs the worship in Spirit, which God himself proclaimed to be the only worship desired by God.

Of the sayings of the great Dionysius, as many as the philosopher unwittingly put forward against himself, leaving behind many that still remain, I shall mention one, the last one. He says then in the first book of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy: "this is the common goal for every hierarchy, the close love for God and divine things, divinely and unitively ministered, and before this, the complete and irreversible departure from their opposites, the knowledge of beings as they are, the vision and science of the sacred truth, the divine participation in the uniform perfection." He reasons

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θεολογίαι˙ ἀλλ᾿ ὥσπερ αὖθίς εἰσιν οἵ τῶν τελεωτέρων καί προκαλυμμάτων ἐκτός θεολογίας σαφοῦς εὐμοίρησαν, οὕτως εἰσίν οἱ καί εἰς τά ἀόρατα τοῦ Θεοῦ παρακύψαντες, ὡς Μωϋσῆς τε καί Παῦλος καί οἱ κατ᾿ αὐτούς, εἰ καί ἀπό τῶν ὁρωμένων ἡμῖν οἰκείως πρός τήν κατανόησιν ἐκείνων ἡμᾶς χειραγωγοῦσι.

Τί δή σοι, ὦ φιλόσοφε, βούλεται τά πολυειδῆ ἐκεῖνα καί λοξά τῆς κακοτεχνίας σοφίσματα, ὅτι «εἰδέναι δεῖ τό ἔστι, τό τίἐστι καί τό ἕν καί τήν ἀρχήν καί τήν δύναμιν τόν ἕν τι εἰδότα καί ὄν καί ἀρχήν καί δυνάμενον»; Εἰ μέν γάρ ἔλεγέ τις μηδαμῶς ἐκ τῶν ὄντων γινώσκεσθαι Θεόν, καλῶς ἄν ταῦτα τά πάσῃ προσόντα φύσει λογικῇ προὔφερες˙ ἐπεί δ᾿ ἡμεῖς τήν (σελ. 550) διά τοῦ Πνεύματος γνῶσιν τῶν μυστηρίων τοῦ Πνεύματος ὑπερτίθεμεν τῆς φύσει καί κοινῇ πᾶσι προσούσης γνώσεως, τί σοι συμπράξει τῷ πρός ταῦτ᾿ ἀντιλέγοντι τό τήν εἰσαγωγικωτάτην τοῦ Θεοῦ γνῶσιν ἐκ τῶν ὄντων προσγίνεσθαι; Σύ δ᾿ ὅμως οὕτως ἀντιλέγειν εἴωθας ἐπεί καί τοῖς πνευματικοῖς ἀνδράσι λέγουσιν εἶναι φῶς νῷ θεωρητόν, οὐχί τήν γνῶσιν μόνην, σύ διά πολλῶν δεικνύεις φῶς καί τήν γνῶσιν λεγομένην, καί νικᾶν διά τούτου κατά κράτος δοκεῖς ἀντιταττόμενος. «Ἀλλά χωρίς τῆς εἰσαγωγικῆς ταύτης, οὐδέ λογικός τις ἔσται», φησίν, «οὐδ᾿ ἡ πρός τά τελεώτερα τῶν λογικῶν πρόοδος». Οὐδ᾿ ἀνήρ ἔσται ποτέ πρίν γενέσθαι νήπιον˙ ἀλλ᾿ ἀνήρ γενόμενος, τά τοῦ νηπίου κατήργηκεν. Εἰ δ᾿ ἐν ἀνδράσι τά τῶν νηπίων φρονεῖ καί τούτοις σεμνύνεται, πῶς οὐ καταγέλαστος ἔσται; Πῶς δ᾿ οὐ τοιοῦτος ὁ χριστιανός εἶναι λέγων καί τά ἑλληνικά παιδεύματα μετιών, ἵν᾿ ἐκεῖθεν τήν θεογνωσίαν καρπώσηται;

Τί δ᾿ ὅτι «νοσοῦν ψυχῆς λογικόν ἐξ ἐπιμελείας νοερόν οὐκ ἄν γένοιτο»; Ὄντως γάρ νοσεῖ τό λογικόν τῆς ψυχῆς τοῦ τήν οἰκείαν διάνοιαν πιστοτέραν ἡγουμένου τῶν λογίων τοῦ Πνεύματος καί μή μέγα καί τέλειον ἴαμα ψυχῆς τ΄ς θείας ἐντολάς οἰομένου. Πρῴην μέν γάρ ἐξ ἡμισείας καθαίρειν ἔφασκε ταύτας δύνασθαι, νῦν δέ τό καθαρτικόν αὐτῶν ἅπαν ἀφελών τῇ γνώσει προσένειμεν, ἀρχήν καί μέσον καί τέλος θεογνωσίας τε καί ὑγιείας ψυχῆς καί καθάρσεως ἐκ τοῦ πολλά καί πλείω καί πάνα εἰδέναι λέγων προσγίνεσθαι καί δεῖν μηδαμῶς ἀγνοεῖ τά πολλά, ἵνα καί συνελεῖν εἴς τι καθόλου δυνηθείημεν καί τήν κυκλικήν περί τά ὄντα γνῶσιν κατορθοῦν τουτέστι, τήν ἐγκύκλιον μανθάνειν παίδευσιν, ἵνα καί τῶν ἰσαγγέλων καταξιωθείημεν νοήσεων, τῶν ἑνιαίων καί ἀμερῶν, ὥσπερ ἄν εἴ τις ἔλεγε δεῖν τόν σημεῖον (σελ. 552) ἀμερές ἰδεῖν βουλόμενον, πολυμερές αὐτό πρότερον προσθέσθαι καί τήν μονάδα μή τῇ ἀφαιρέσει τῶν πολλῶν δύνασθαι γενέσθαι, ἀλλά τῇ συναιρέσει μόνῃ, καίτοι πᾶν τό ἐκ συναιρέσεως ἕν καί μεριστόν, ἐκεῖ δέ τό ἑνιαῖον καί ἀμερές ὑπόκειται. Ἐγώ δέ οἶδα παρά τῶν πατέρων μεμυημένος, ἤδη δά καί τινων αὐτῶν ἀκούσας τε καί πιστεύσας, ὠς καί τά πολλά ταῦτα καί τόν αἰσθητόν ἅπαντα τοῦτον κόσμον, οὐκ κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν, οὐ κατά λογισμόν, ἀλλά κατ᾿ οἰκείαν τοῦ θεοειδοῦς νοῦ δύναμιν καί χάριν ἐθεάσαντο, ἥ καί τά μακράν ὡς ὑπ᾿ ὀφθαλμούς ποιεῖ καί τά μέλλοντα ὡς παρόντα ὑπερφυῶς παρίστησι. Τόν δ᾿ ἐξ Ἀρείου Πάγου θεορρήμονα οὐ θαυμαστόν κάι ἐκ τῶν φυσικῶς ἡμῖν ἐνυπαρχόντων ἐξυμνεῖν τόν τῆς φύσεως δημιουργόν, ἐπεί καί δι᾿ ἀψύχων καί δι᾿ ἀναισθήτων καί δι᾿ ἀλόγων καί διά λογικῶν αὐτός ἐστι μόνος ὁ δοξαζόμενος, ἀλλά καί αὐτῷ μόνῳ ἐξαιρέτως πρέπει ἡ ἐν Πνεύματι λατρεία, ἥν καί μόνην ποθεινήν Θεῷ ὁ Θεός αὐτός προσεῖπεν.

Τῶν δή τοῦ μεγάλου ∆ιονυσίου ρήσεων, ὅσας ἔλαθεν ὁ φιλόσοφος καθ᾿ ἑαυτοῦ προβαλόμενος, πολλάς ἔτ᾿ οὔσας καταλιπών, μιᾶς μνημονεύσω, τῆς τελευταίας. Φησί τοίνυν ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ τῆς Ἐκκλησιαστικῆς ἱεραρχίας˙ «ἁπάσῃ τοῦτο κοινόν ἱεραρχίᾳ τό πέρας, ἡ πρός Θεόν καί τά θεῖα προσεχής ἀγάπησις, ἐνθέως τε καί ἑνιαίως ἱερουργουμένη, καί πρό γε τούτου ἡ τῶν ἐναντίων παντελής καί ἀνεπίστροφος ἀποφοίτησις, ἡ γνῶσις τῶν ὄντων ᾗ ὄντα ἐστίν, ἡ τῆς ἱερᾶς ἀληθείας ὅρασίς τε καί ἐπιστήμη, ἡ τῆς ἑνοειδοῦς τελειώσεως ἔνθεος μέθεξις». Συλλογίζεται