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is brought as a base. Therefore, there are four myriads, the perfect good demonstrated in actuality analogously according to each general virtue.

13. He who, after fleeing from wickedness, has simply, by inactivity from sin, kept, he says, the decad of the commandments; and again, by showing the perfect practice of each commandment to be a summary of the others, as all are contemplated in each according to the practice of each, has made the decad a hundred (for the perfect observance in practice of each commandment is the fulfilled practice of the rest); and again, having attained the perfect and scientific discernment of these according to nature, has made the hundred a thousand. And finally, by engaging with their bare principles in the intellect according to contemplation, he has made the thousand a myriad, being gathered from the distinction according to practice to the unitive monad according to contemplation. And to speak concisely, he who, by the perfect avoidance of wickedness, has kept the commandments inviolate, and has demonstrated their perfect practice, and has achieved their most complete discernment according to nature, and has completed their perfect spiritual contemplation, this one has possessed the four myriads, which are gathered together by the perfect principle of progress in each one; for the perfect contains together, without interval, both the principles of the beginning and of the end.

14. He says evil has a beginning (for it has as its beginning our motion contrary to nature), but the good does not have a beginning (for the good exists by nature before every age and time); he says the good is intelligible, which alone one must understand; but evil is not intelligible, which alone one must not understand. He says the good is expressible (for it alone must be spoken), but evil is not expressible (for it alone must not be spoken). And he says the good is something that comes to be (for though existing ungenerated according to nature, by grace through love for humanity it endures to come to be from us, for the deification of us who do and speak and understand it), which must preeminently come to be; but evil is not something made, which alone must not come to be. He says evil is corruptible (for the nature of evil is corruption, having no existence at all in any way), but the good is incorruptible, as always existing, and never ceasing to be, and protective of all things in which it may come to be. This, then, with the rational part, we seek; with the desiring part, we long for; with the spirited part, we guard as inviolable; with the perceptive part, according to knowledge we discern it unmixed from its opposites; with the faculty of speech, by speaking it we make it manifest to those who are ignorant; and with the generative faculty, we multiply it, or rather, to speak truly, we ourselves are multiplied according to it.

15. He calls the first dispassion the motion of the body in practice that has no contact with sin.

16. He calls the second dispassion the complete rejection of passionate thoughts in the soul; through which the motion of the passions, according to the first dispassion, withers away, since it does not have the passionate thoughts to ignite it to action.

17. He calls the third dispassion the complete immobility of desire concerning the passions; on account of which the second is also naturally brought about, being established by the purity of thoughts.

18. He calls the fourth dispassion the complete putting away in the mind of all sensible images; in accordance with which the third has received its origin, since it does not have the images of sensible things forming for it the icons of the passions.

19. The thousand is a monad in no need of perfection; for it has the most complete principle of all the monads before it, and of itself. Therefore, when combined with a monad again, it is productive of a monad, but not of a decad. For a monad succeeds the composition of the thousand, as those say who have precisely understood the power of numbers. Reasonably, therefore, the triad of thousands signifies the triadic principle according to theology; which the one who has left the spiritual Babylon goes out possessing, with perfect virtue.

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ἐπιφέρεται βάσιν. Οὐκοῦν τέσσαρες μυριάδες εἰσί, τό καθ᾿ ἑκάστην γενικήν ἀρετήν ἀναλόγως κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν δεικνύμενον τέλειον ἀγαθόν.

13. Ὁ μετά τήν φυγήν τῆς κακίας ἁπλῶς τῇ ἀργίᾳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας φυλάξας, φησί, τήν δεκάδα τῶν ἐντολῶν· καί πάλιν τήν ἑκάστης πρᾶξιν ἐντολῆς τελείαν τῶν ἄλλων δείξας περίληψιν, ὡς πασῶν ἐν ἑκάστῃ κατά τήν ἑκάστης πρᾶξιν θεωρουμένων, τήν δεκάδα πεποίηκεν ἑκατοντάδα (ἡ γάρ ἑκάστης ἐντολῆς τελεία κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν τήρησις τῶν λοιπῶν ἐστι πρᾶξις πεπληρωμένη), καί πάλιν τήν κατά φύσιν τούτων τελείαν ἐπιστημονικῶς διάκρισιν ἐσχηκώς, τήν ἑκατοντάδα πεποίηκε χιλιάδα. Καί τέλος τοῖς τούτων κατά νοῦν γυμνοῖς προσβαλών κατά τήν θεωρίαν λόγοις, πεποίηκε μυριάδα τήν χιλιάδα, ἀπό τῆς κατά τήν πρᾶξιν διαστολῆς, ἐπί τήν κατά τήν θεωρίαν ἑναδικήν συναγόμενος μονάδα. Καί συντόμως εἰπεῖν, ὁ τῇ τελείᾳ τῆς κακίας ἀποφυγῇ τηρήσας ἀπαραβάτους τάς ἐντολάς, καί τελείαν αὐτῶν τήν πρᾶξιν ἐπιδειξάμενος, καί πληρεστάτην αὐτῶν κατορθώσας τήν κατά φύσιν διάκρισιν, καί τελείαν αὐτῶν διανύσας τήν πνευματικήν θεωρίαν, οὗτος τάς τέσσαρας ἔσχε μυριάδας, τῷ καθ᾿ ἑκάστην προκοπήν τελείῳ λόγῳ συναγομένας· τό γάρ τέλειον ἀδιαστάτως ὁμοῦ, τούς τε τῆς ἀρχῆς καί τοῦ τέλους ἔχει τούς λόγους.

14. Ἠργμένον λέγει τό κακόν (ἀρχήν γάρ ἔχει τήν ἡμῶν παρά φύσιν κίνησιν), οὐκ ἠργμένον δέ, τό ἀγαθόν (πρό παντός γάρ αἰῶνος καί χρόνου φύσει τό ἀγαθόν)∙ νοητόν λέγει τό ἀγαθόν, ὅπερ δεῖ μόνον νοεῖν· οὐ νοητόν δέ τό κακόν, ὅπερ δεῖ μόνον μή νοεῖν. Ῥητόν λέγει τό ἀγαθόν (αὐτό γάρ δεῖ μόνον λαλεῖσθαι), οὐ ῥητόν δέ κακόν (αὐτό γάρ δεῖ μόνον μή λαλεῖσθαι). Καί γινόμενον λέγει τό ἀγαθόν (κατά φύσιν γάρ ὑπάρχον ἀγέννητον κατά χάριν διά φιλανθρωπίαν παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀνέχεται γίνεσθαι, πρός τήν ἡμῶν τῶν ποιούντων καί λαλούντων καί νοούντων ἐκθέωσιν), ὅπερ δεῖ μονώτατον γίνεσθαι· οὐ ποιούμενον δέ τό κακόν, ὅπερ δεῖ μόνον μή γίνεσθαι. Φθαρτόν λέγει τό κακόν (φθορά γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ κακοῦ φύσις οὐδαμῶς κατ᾿ οὐδέν ὕπαρξιν ἔχουσα), ἄφθαρτον δέ τό ἀγαθόν, ὡς ἀεί ὄν, καί μήποτε τοῦ εἶναι παυόμενον καί πάντων οἷς ἄν ἐγγένηται φρουρητικόν. Τοῦτο γοῦν, τῷ μέν λογιστικῷ ζητοῦμεν· τῷ δέ ἐπιθυμητικῷ, ποθοῦμεν· τῷ δέ θυμικῷ, φυλάττομεν ἄσυλον· τῷ δ' αἰσθητικῷ, κατ᾿ ἐπιστήμην ἀμιγές αὐτό τῶν ἐναντίων διακρίνομεν· τῷ δέ φωνητικῷ λαλοῦντες αὐτό ποιοῦμεν φανερόν τοῖς ἀγνοοῦσι· καί τῷ γονίμῳ, πληθύνομεν αὐτό, μᾶλλον δέ, ἀληθές εἰπεῖν, ἡμεῖς κατ᾿ αὐτό πληθυνόμεθα.

15. Πρώτην ἀπάθειαν λέγει, τήν πρός ἁμαρτίαν τοῦ σώματος κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἀνέπαφον κίνησιν.

16. ∆ευτέραν ἀπάθειαν λέγει, τήν κατά ψυχήν τῶν ἐμπαθῶν λογισμῶν τελείαν ἀποβολήν· δι᾿ ἧς ἡ τῶν παθῶν ἀπομαραίνεται κατά τήν πρώτην ἀπάθειαν κίνησις, ἐξάπτοντας αὐτήν πρός ἐνέργειαν οὐκ ἔχουσαν τούς ἐμπαθεῖς λογισμούς.

17. Τρίτην ἀπάθειαν λέγει, τήν περί τά πάθη τελείαν τῆς ἐπιθυμίας ἀκινησίαν· δι᾿ ἥν καί ἡ δευτέρα γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν, τῇ τῶν λογισμῶν καθαρότητι συνισταμένη.

18. Τετάρτην ἀπάθειαν λέγει, τήν κατά διάνοιαν πασῶν τῶν αἰσθητῶν φαντασιῶν τελείαν ἀπόθεσιν· καθ᾿ ἥν ἡ τρίτη τήν γένεσιν εἴληφεν, οὐκ ἔχουσα τάς φαντασίας τῶν αἰσθητῶν εἰδοποιούσας αὐτῇ τῶν παθῶν τάς εἰκόνας.

19. Ἡ χιλιάς ἀπροσδεής τελειότητος ὑπάρχει μονάς· πασῶν γάρ τῶν πρό αὐτῆς μονάδων, καί ἑαυτῆς τόν λόγον ἔχει πληρέστατον. ∆ιό καί συντιθεμένη μονάδος πάλιν, ἀλλ' οὐ δεκάδος ἐστί ποιητική. Μονάς γάρ τήν τῆς χιλιάδος διαδέχεται σύνθεσιν, ὥς φασιν οἱ τῶν ἀριθμῶν ἠκριβωκότες τήν δύναμιν. Εἰκότως οὖν τόν κατά θεολογίαν τριαδικόν σημαίνει λόγον, ἡ τῶν χιλίων τριάς· ὅν μετά τῆς τελείας ἀρετῆς ὁ τήν νοουμένην Βαβυλωνίαν ἀφείς ἔχων ἐξέρχεται.