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of the intelligible sun brightly sees the things unknown to all others and speaks, yet not all things, but as many as he might be able to express in word. For who will ever have the strength to declare the things there, what sort, how many, and of what kind, being incomprehensible and invisible to all? For the form of the formless, the quantity of the unquantifiable, the beauty of the inconceivable—who will comprehend, how will he measure, how will he have the strength to speak at all? And the shapes of the shapeless (233) how will he describe in word? By no means at all, you will say to me. But only they who see them know these things. Therefore let us hasten not with words but with deeds to seek out, and to see and to be taught the wealth of divine mysteries, which the Master gives as a gift to those who diligently seek and who have clearly acquired forgetfulness of the whole world and of the things in it. For the one who seeks those things with whole-souled purpose, how will he not truly forget all things here and acquire a mind naked of these things and immediately be found alone outside of all things? Whom the one God seeing to have become alone for His sake and to have denied the world and all things of the world, the One having found the one, is united to him. O awesome dispensation, O ineffable goodness! But the things from thence, do not ask, do not search, do not seek out! For if the multitude of the stars or at all the drops of rain (234) or the sand to count,

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νοητοῦ φαιδρῶς ἡλίου βλέπει τά τοῖς ἄλλοις πᾶσιν ἀγνοούμενα καί λέγει, πλήν οὐ πάντα, ἀλλά ὅσα λόγῳ φράσαι δυνηθείη. Τίς γάρ πώποτε δηλῶσαι τά ἐκεῖσε ἐξισχύσει οἷα, ὅσα, ποταπά τε, ἀκατάληπτά τε ὄντα καί ἀόρατα τοῖς πᾶσιν; Ἀνειδέων γάρ τό εἶδος, τήν ποσότητα ἀπόσων, κάλλος ἀκατανοήτων τἰς νοήσει, πῶς μετρήσει, πῶς εἰπεῖν ὅλως ἰσχύσει; Τῶν ἀμόρφων τάς μορφάς δέ (233) πῶς τῷ λόγῳ διαγράψει; Πάντως οὐδαμῶς, ἐρεῖς μοι. Ἀλλ᾿ ἐκεῖνοι μόνοι ταῦτα ἴσασιν οἱ καθορῶντες. ∆ιό μή λόγοις, ἀλλ᾿ ἔργοις σπεύσωμεν τοῦ ἐκζητῆσαι, ἰδεῖν τε καί διδαχθῆναι θείων μυστηρίων πλοῦτον, ὅν δωρεῖται ὁ ∆εσπότης τοῖς ἐμπόνως ἐκζητοῦσι καί παντός τοῦ κόσμου λήθην καί τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ πραγμάτων ἐναργῶς προσκτησαμένοις. Ὁ γάρ ἐκζητῶν ἐκεῖνα ὁλοψύχῳ προαιρέσει, πῶς οὐχί τῶν τῇδε πάντων ἀληθῶς ἀμνημονήσει καί γυμνόν τόν νοῦν ἐκ τούτων κτήσεται καί πάντων ἔξω εὑρεθήσεται εὐθέως μόνος; Ὅν ἰδών ὁ μόνος Θεός μόνον δι᾿ ἐκεῖνον γεγονότα καί τόν κόσμον ἀρνησάμενον καί πάντα τά τοῦ κόσμου, μόνος μόνον εὑρηκώς ἑνοῦται τούτῳ. Ὤ φρικτῆς οἰκονομίας, ὤ χρηστότητος ἀρρήτου! Τά δ᾿ ἐντεῦθεν μή ἐρώτα, μή ἐρεύνα, μή ἐκζήτει! Εἰ γάρ πλῆθος τῶν ἀστέρων ἤ ὅλως ὑετοῦ σταγόνας (234) εἴτε ψάμμον ἀριθμῆσαι,