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but also of the rest of creation the sizes and beauties, or the natures and the positions, or their causes, as they are, no one will be able either to speak of or to conceive, how could he be able to tell of the Creator's compassion, which He shows toward those holy souls with whom He is united? For He certainly deifies them also by His own union. Therefore, when a soul has been deified, he who wishes to speak of its ways or its nature, its disposition, its thought, or to recount to you all things concerning it, is attempting, since he does not know, to represent to you through words what God is like. But it is not permitted for those in the world or those living according to the flesh to investigate such things, but receiving these things by faith alone, to imitate the lives of all the saints, to run with tears and repentance and other ascetic hardship, and with endurance of temptations, so that they may get outside the world, as has been said by me, and they will find, as I said, (235) all things without fail. And finding them they will be astonished and will marvel, and they will pray for me, wretch that I am, that I may not fall away from these things, but may attain those very things which I was longing to attain and I long for, and with longing I obscure and blunt my longing. Have you ever heard such a thing? For longing kindles longing and fire feeds the flame; but in me it is not so, but - I do not know how to say it - the excess of love extinguishes my love. For I do not love as much as I wish,

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ἀλλά καί λοιπῶν κτισμάτων τά μεγέθη τε καί κάλλη ἤ τάς φύσεις καί τάς θέσεις ἤ τάς τούτων τε αἰτίας, ὡς εἰσίν, οὐδείς ἰσχύσει ἤ εἰπεῖν ἤ ἐννοῆσαι, πῶς τοῦ κτίστου δυνηθείη ἐξειπεῖν τήν εὐσπλαγχνίαν, ἥν ἐνδείκνυται, μεθ᾿ ὧνπερ ἑνωθῇ ψυχῶν ἁγίων; Πάντως γάρ θεοῖ κἀκείνας τῇ ἑνώσει τῇ οἰκείᾳ˙ θεωθείσης ψυχῆς τοίνυν ὁ βουλόμενος τοῦ λέγειν τρόπους ταύτης ἤ τήν φύσιν, τήν διάθεσιν, τήν γνώμην, ἤ τά κατ᾿ αὐτήν σοι πάντα διηγεῖσθαι, ὡς οὐκ οἶδε, ποταπός σοι διά λόγου παραστῆσαι ὁ Θεός ἐστιν, πειρᾶται. Ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἔξεστι τοιαῦτα ἐκζητεῖν τούς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἤ τούς κατά σάρκα ζῶντας, ἀλλά πίστει μόνῃ ταῦτα δεχομένους ἐκμιμεῖσθαι βίους τῶν ἁγίων πάντων, δάκρυσι καί μετανοίᾳ καί λοιπῇ σκληραγωγίᾳ, πειρασμῶν ὑπομονῇ τε τρέχειν, ὅπως ἔξω κόσμου γένωνται, ὡς εἴρηταί μοι, καί εὑρήσουσιν, ὡς εἶπον, (235) ἅπαντα ἀπαραλείπτως. Ἐκπλαγήσονται δ᾿ εὑρόντες καί θαυμάσονται, κἀμοῦ δέ τοῦ ἀθλίου ὑπερεύξονται, ἵνα τούτων μή ἐκπέσω, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτῶν ἐκείνων τύχω, ὧνπερ καί τυχεῖν ἐπόθουν καί ποθῶ καί πόθῳ πόθον ἀμαυρῷ καί ἀπαμβλύνω. Ἤκουσάς ποτε τοιοῦτον; Πόθος γάρ πόθον ἀνάπτει καί τό πῦρ τρέφει τήν φλόγα˙ ἐν ἐμοί δ᾿ οὐκ ἔστιν οὕτως, ἀλλά - πῶς εἰπεῖν οὐκ ἔχω - ἔρωτος τό ὑπερβάλλον σβέννυσι τόν ἔρωτά μου. Οὐκ ἐρῶ γάρ, ὅσον θέλω,