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What then is mind? The purest and rational part of the soul, for the contemplation of beings and

of things preconceived.

What are the faculties? Activities of the soul directed in consequence toward some one of the beings.

What is character? A disposition of the soul acquired from habit.

What is sense perception? An instrument of the soul, a power of the sense organs perceptive of things external.

What is spirit? An unformed substance, preceding all motion. The End of the blessed monk Maximus, On the Soul.

S. MAXIMI CONFESSORIS EPISTOLAE

I. AN ADMONITORY DISCOURSE P. 364.

In the form of a letter

To the servant of God, Lord George, the all-praised eparch of Africa. No one, I think, who is deprived of light in any way so desires a solar

ray to enjoy, as all we humble ones, who have been richly filled with your goodness and nobility, desire to see you present again, and to enjoy your beauty; you who are characterized by the divine ways of your companion virtues, by which we also knew you before when you were dwelling among us, magnificently distinguished; through which we were rather clearly taught that virtue belongs to judgment, not to rank; and the imitation of God to disposition, not to dignity. For in those in whom, blessed as you are, the power of love for God is genuinely rooted in the depth of the soul, to these the state of being likewise disposed toward the good has undoubtedly been added; just as, indeed, to those who are captivated by the love of material things, there is a readiness to fall into and be scattered among a multitude of passions. And quite reasonably so. For he who cleaves to the Divine, which is one and only, and impassible, and has absolutely nothing from eternity that is contemplated with it or co-contemplated with it that is essentially different—for none of the things that come from it can reach it—cleaving to it by will according to desire, he himself is also one and only and impassible, having become, by his irresistible inclination toward the One, one and only and immutable. For if there is one and only thing desired by him, and this is properly immutable, as being essentially immovable because of its natural infinity—for the infinite immovable has nowhere to be moved—therefore he himself, as of the one

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Τί δέ νοῦς. Ψυχῆς τό καθαρώτατον καί λογικόν, εἰς θεωρίαν τῶν ὄντων καί

προκατειλημμένων.

Τί φρένες. Ἐνέργειαι ψυχῆς πρός τι τῶν ὄντων ἀκολούθως φερόμεναι.

Τί τρόπος. Ἕξις ψυχῆς ἐξ ἕθους πεπορισμένη.

Τί αἴσθησις. Ὄργανον ψυχῆς, δύναμις αἰσθητηρίων τῶν ἔξωθεν ἀντιληπτική.

Τί πνεῦμα. Οὐσία ἀσχημάτιστος, πάσης κινήσεως προηγουμένη. Τέλος τοῦ μακαρίου Μαξίμου μοναχοῦ, Περί ψυχῆς.

S. MAXIMI CONFESSORIS EPISTOLAE

Α´. ΛΟΓΟΣ ΠΑΡΑΙΝΕΤΙΚΟΣ Σελ. 364.

Ἐν εἴδει ἐπιστολῆς

Πρός τόν δοῦλον τοῦ θεοῦ κύριον Γεώργιον τόν πανεύφημον ἔπαρχον Ἀφρικῆς. Οὐδείς οὕτω τῶν φωτός, ὡς οἶμαι, καθ᾿ οἱανδήποτε τρόπον ἐστερημένων ἡλιακῆς

ἀκτίπος ἀπολαῦσαι ποθεῖ, ὡς οἱ ἡμεῖς οἱ ταπεινοί πάντες, οἱ τῆς σῆς πλουσίως ἐμφορηθέντες καλοκαγαθίας, ποθοῦμεν πάλιν σε θεάσασθαι παρόντα, καί ἀπολαῦσαί σου τῆς καλλονῆς· τοῖς θείοις μέν τοι τῶν συντρόφων ἀρετῶν κεχαρακτηρισμένον τρόποις, οἷς καί πρότερον ἐνδημοῦντα μεγαλοφυῶς ἐμπρέποντά σε γινώσκομεν· δι᾿ ὧν μᾶλλον σαφῶς ἐδιδάχθημεν, γνώμης, ἀλλ᾿ οὐ τάξεως εἶναι τήν ἀρετήν· καί διαθέσεως, ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀξίας εἶναι τό θεομίμητον. Οἷς γάρ εἰς τό βάθος τῆς ψυχῆς καθ᾿ ὑμᾶς εὐλογημένοις, γνησίως ἐνεῤῥιζώθη τῆς πρός Θεόν ἀγάπης ἡ δύναμις, τούτοις τό ὡσαύτως ἔχειν περί τό καλόν ἀναμφιβόλως προσγέγονεν· ὥσπερ ἀμέλει καί τοῖς ἐπτοημένοις τῇ ἀγάπῃ τῶν ὑλικῶν, τό εἰς πλῆθος παθῶν εὐέμπτωτόν τε καί εὐσκέδαστον. Καί μάλα γε εἰκότως. Ὁ γάρ τοῦ Θείου, ἑνός ὄντος καί μόνου, καί ἀπαθοῦς, καί μηδέν τό παράπαν ἐξ ἀϊδίου κατ᾿ οὐσίαν διάφορον συνθεωρούμενον ἤ συνεπιθεωρούμενον ἔχοντος· οὐ γάρ ἐφικνεῖται αὐτοῦ τι τῶν ἐξ αὐτοῦ· κατά τήν ἔφεσιν γνωμικῶς ἀντεχόμενος, εἷς καί αὐτός ἐστι καί μόνος καί ἀπαθής, τῇ πρός τό ἕν ἀσχέτῳ νεύσει γενόμενος, εἷς τε καί μόνος, καί ἄτρεπτος. Εἰ γάρ ἕν ἐστι καί μόνον αὐτῷ ποθούμενον, τοῦτο δέ κυρίως ἄτρεπτόν ἐστιν, ὡς κατ' οὐσίαν διά τήν φυσικήν ἀπειρίαν ἀκίνητον· οὐ γάρ ἔχει ποῦ κινηθῆναι τό ἀκίνητον ἄπειρον· ἄρα καί αὐτός οἷα τοῦ ἑνός