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If then this divine drop is thus and of such a nature to me, what will I seem to have at all? Truly, having, I have nothing. In another way again I will say these things to you: The sun from on high shines, treading upon its rays; rather, I seize a ray, I ascend running upward to approach the sun. But when I draw near well and think to touch it, the ray escapes my hands and immediately I am blinded and fall from both, from the sun and the rays. From on high then I fall, I sit and again I weep and seek the former ray. Since I am thus, it, having split for me all the gloom of the night, descends like a rope from the height of heaven. I quickly grasp this; I tighten my grip as on something that can be held, and it is ungraspable; yet, ungraspably, I both hold it and ascend. Thus then, as I am ascending, rays ascend with me, (183) and I pass beyond the heavens, and the heavens of heavens, and I see a sun again above these, higher up. Whether it flees, I do not know, or whether it stands still, I am not aware; for a time I walk, for a time I run, for a time I am not strong enough to arrive. Passing beyond height after height, and when I have come beyond every high thing, as I think,

117

Εἰ οὖν οὕτω καί τοιαύτη ἔστι μοι ῥανίς ἡ θεία, ὅλως ἔχειν τί δοκήσω; Ὄντως ἔχων οὐδέν ἔχω. Ἄλλως πάλιν σοι ταῦτα λέξω˙ Ἥλιος ἀφ᾿ ὕψους λάμπει ἐπιβαίνων ταῖς ἀκτῖσι˙ μᾶλλον δέ κρατῶ ἀκτῖνα, ἀναβαίνω τρέχων ἄνω πλησιάσαι τῷ ἡλίῳ. Ὅτε δέ καλῶς ἐγγίσω καί δοκήσω τοῦ προσψαῦσαι, διαφεύγει μου τάς χεῖρας ἡ ἀκτίς καί εὐθύς τυφλοῦμια καί ἐκπίπτω ἀμφοτέρων, τοῦ ἡλίου καί ἀκτίνων. Ἀπό ὕψους οὖν ἐκπίπτω, κάθημαι καί πάλιν κλαίω καί ζητῶ τήν πρίν ἀκτῖνα. Οὕτως τοίνυν ἔχοντός μου, τῆς νυκτός ὅλον τόν ζόφον αὕτη διασχίσασά μοι ὡς σχοινίον ἀπό ὕψους οὐρανίου καταβαίνει. ∆ράσσομαι συντόμως ταύτης, ὡς ληπτήν σφίγγω κρατῆσαι, καί ἀκράτητος ὑπάρχει˙ ὅμως δέ ἀλήπτως ταύτην καί κρατῶ καί ἀναβαίνω. Οὕτως οὖν ἀνερχομένῳ συνανέρχονται ἀκτῖνες, (183) οὐρανούς δέ ὑπερβαίνω, οὐρανῶν τούς οὐρανούς τε, βλέπω ἥλιον δέ πάλιν ὑπέρ τούτων ἀνωτέρω. Εἴτε φεύγει, οὐ γινώσκω, εἴτε ἵσταται, οὐκ οἶδα˙ τέως βαίνω, τέως τρέχω, τέως φθάσαι οὐκ ἰσχύω. Ὕψους ὑπερβαίνων δ᾿ ὕψη, ὑπέρ ὕψωμά τε ἅπαν γενομένῳ μοι, ὡς δοκῶ,