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and they are divided inexpressibly. Compared to the whole, how much do I have? A single grain or a spark! And I seek to receive the whole, even if I have the whole in every way. How the whole, what are you saying to me? You are jesting as if with fools; stop jesting with me, do not speak; no, but I have the whole, even if I have nothing at all! How or what you are saying, I marvel. Listen and I will speak again; imagine 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 things, on the shore of the seas, you would certainly say to me rightly that you see the water then, even while not seeing the whole at all. For the whole, how would you see it, being infinite to your eyes and uncontainable to your hands? In any case, as much as you see, you see; but if someone should ask you: Do you see all the seas? By no means, you will answer. 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 something and I hold water of the sea. As much, then, as you have your hand holding in the waters, you have all the abysses connected to your hand, for they are not cut off from one another, and not all of them, but a little. Compared then to them all, how much do you have? As a single drop, you might say.

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καί διΐστανται ἀφράστως. Πρός τόν ὅλον πόσον ἔχω; Κόκκον ἕνα ἤ σπινθῆρα! Καί ζητῶ λαβεῖν τό ὅλον, εἰ καί ὅλον πάντως ἔχω. Πῶς τό ὄλον, τί μοι λέγεις; Ὡς πρός ἄφρονας προσπαίζεις˙ 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.