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being a lover, as is likely, has become one and only (365) and unchanging, having made his intention entirely immovable from the one. But he who, through ignorance of what is better, has by his own intention bound the love of his soul to material things, which are by nature changeable and alterable, and in no way able to stand still at all, is of necessity changeable and subject to passion and easily altered, having the disposition of his soul moved along with and suffering with things that are by nature moved and suffer.

Therefore, my blessed lord, may none of the things that exist be able to displace you from this good and contemplative state, which holds your intention journeying with God; may time, irregularly changing with itself the course of material things, not alter the stability of your intention; may the threat of men, proffering fear, not move the steadfastness of your good disposition; may the speech of flatterers, sweetening the hearing by its utterance, not enervate the vigor of the soul; may a desire for retaliation, arising perhaps from having power over someone, not utterly corrupt the gentleness of your character; may the desire for the glory associated with ruling not diminish the yearning for the love of the Divine.

For not to rule over men is not at all a lack of glory before God or men; but rather an increase of glory, inasmuch as the soul has become free from all manner of external turmoil and care, as my argument holds; and everyone who piously discerns what is right will, I think, agree. For every truly virtuous and God-loving man is sufficient in himself for all happiness, needing no external adornment to procure it. For he who has established the manifestations of the divine properties as the marks of his own life, has the complete fullness of all good things; through which the precise likeness to God is naturally engendered in men; to which nothing even of the things after God, when compared, can in any way be set beside.

And to speak simply, may not sickness, not health, not wealth that is dragged downwards, not poverty of perishable things, not blame, not praise, not death, not life, not the present, not the future, nor, in a word, any other of the things that exist or come to be, be able to corrupt this philosophy that has nurtured you and brought you to this point of some glory before God and men.

And how will this come to be? If we entrust all that concerns ourselves to God; and if we endure to seek absolutely nothing of those things which we were not commanded to seek from God; but to seek with all diligence everything that we were commanded (368) to seek from God; and if, on the one hand, those things that are, after God, under our own intention and power, we should will in every way and be diligent to form through our very actions; and on the other hand, those things which by all accounts do not need our intention in order to come to be or cease to be, we should concede to God with thanksgiving and faith to lead wherever He wills and desires, in no way disputing at all against the principles of His providence and administration; by which all things are brought unknowingly with ineffable wisdom to their own end according to the foreknowledge of God, even if He should bring about the outcome of such principles otherwise and contrary to our expectation.

For He is the wisest guardian and protector of our affairs, inasmuch as He has not acquired wisdom as something that accrued to Him, but is Himself in His essence properly both being and called Wisdom.

Let us will to keep one thing only with sincerity: to love Him, as He said, with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves; striving to devise every way to bring this divine ordinance to fulfillment; and the divine goal has been completely and most fully achieved by us within our limits, whatever worth or rank, life and condition we may have; whether rulers or ruled, rich or poor, healthy or sick, or in any other bodily state; and concerning all other things which in no way follow our disposition to the

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ὑπάρχων ἐραστής, κατά τό εἰκός, εἷς γέγονε καί μόνος (365) καί ἄτρεπτος· ὡς ποιήσας παντάπασιν ἀπό τοῦ ἐνός τήν γνώμην ἀκίνητον. Ὁ δέ τοῖς ὑλικοῖς, τρεπτοῖς οὖσι κατά φύσιν καί ἀλλοιώτοις, καί οὐδαμοῦ παντελῶς στῆναι δυναμένοις, ἀγνοίᾳ τοῦ κρείττονος κατά γνώμην οἰκείαν ἐνδήσας τῆς ψυχῆς τόν ἔρωτα, τρεπτός ἐστιν ἐξ ἀνάγκης καί ἐμπαθής καί εὐαλλοίωτος· τοῖς φύσει κινουμένοις καί πάσχουσι τήν συνεπικινουμένην ἔχων πάσχουσαν τῆς ψυχῆς τήν διάθεσιν.

Μή τοίνυν ταύτης σου, δέσποτά μου εὐλογημένε, τῆς ἀγαθῆς καί θεωτικῆς ἕξεως, τῆς ἐχούσης σου πρός τόν Θεόν τήν γνώμην συνέκδημον, ἐκστῆσαί τι τῶν ὄντων δυνηθῇ· μή χρόνος ἀτάκτως ἑαυτῷ συμμεταβάλλων τήν τῶν ὑλικῶν πραγμάτων φοράν, τῆς γνώμης ἀλλοιώσῃ τό βάσιμον· μή ἀνθρώπων ἀπειλή φόβον προτεινομένη, τῆς καλῆς διαθέσεως μετακινήσῃ τό στάσιμον· μή λόγος κολάκων ἀνδρῶν τῇ προφορᾷ καταγλυκαίνων τήν ἀκοήν τῆς ψυχῆς χαυνώσῃ τό εὔτονον· μή ὄρεξις ἀντιλυπήσεως, ἐκ τοῦ δύνασθαι τυχόν πρός τινα, τό σύνολον διαφθείρῃ τοῦ τρόπου τό ἥμερον· μή πόθος τῆς περί τό ἄρχειν δόξης, τῆς περί τό Θεῖον ἀγάπης μειώσῃ τήν ἔφεσιν. Οὐ γάρ ἔλλειψις δόξης παρά Θεῷ πάντως ἤ ἀνθρώποις ἐστί τό μή ἄρχειν ἀνθρώπων· ἀλλά καί μᾶλλον δόξης ἐπίδοσις, ὅσον ταραχῆς καί φροντίδος ἡ ψυχή παντοίας καθέστηκεν ἐλευθέρα τῆς ἔξωθεν, ὡς ὁ ἐμός ἔχει λόγος· καί πᾶς εὐσεβῶς τά δέοντα συνορῶν, ὡς οἶναι, συνθήσεται. Πᾶς γάρ ἀνήρ ὡς ἀληθῶς ἐνάρετος καί φιλόθεος, αὐτάρκης ἑαυτῷ πρός πᾶσαν εὐδαιμονίαν ἐστί· μηδεμίας περιβολῆς τῶν ἐκτός, πρός τό πορίσασθαι ταύτην δεόμενος. Ὁ γάρ τῶν θείων ἰδιωμάτων ἑαυτοῦ κατά τόν βίον τάς ἐμφάσεις καταστήσας γνωρίσματα, πάντων ἐντελῶς ἔχει τῶν ἀγαθῶν τό πλήρωμα· δι᾿ οὗ πέφυκεν ἐγγίνεσθαι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἡ πρός τόν Θεόν ἀκριβής ἐξομοίωσις· πρός ἥν οὐδέ τῶν μετά Θεόν συγκρινόμενον καθοτιοῦν παραβάλλεται. Καί ἁπλῶς εἰπεῖν, μή νόσος, μή ὑγεία, μή πλοῦτος ὁ κάτω συρόμενος, μή πενία τῶν φθειρομένων, μή ψόγος, μή ἔπαινος, μή θάνατος, μή ζωή, μή τό παρόν, μή τό μέλλον, μηδέ καθάπαξ ἕτερον τῶν ὄντων ἤ γινομένων, τήν θρεψαμένην σε ταύτην , καί εἰς τόδε προαγαγοῦσαν παρά τι Θεῷ καί ἀνθρώποις κλέος φιλοσοφίαν, νοθεῦσαι δυνηθῇ. Τοῦτο δέ γενήσεται, πῶς; Εἰ πάντα πιστεύσοιμεν τῷ Θεῷ τά καθ᾿ ἑαυτούς· καί μηδέν μέν ζητεῖν ἀνασχοίμεθα παντελῶς, ὧν ἐκ Θεοῦ ζητεῖν οὐ προσετάγημεν· ζητεῖν δέ διά πάσης σπουδῆς, πᾶν ὅτιπερ ἐκ θεοῦ (368) ζητεῖν ἐπετάγημεν· καί τά μέν ὡς μετά Θεόν ὑπό γνώμην ἡμετέραν ὄντα καί δύναμιν, κατά πάντα τρόπον θελήσαιμεν, καί μορφῶσαι δι᾿ αὐτῶν τῶν ἔργων σπουδάσαιμεν· τά δέ, πάσαις ψῆφοις, ὡς τῆς ἡμῶν πρός τό γίνεσθαί τε καί ἀπογίνεσθαι γνώμης οὐ χριῄζοντα, παραχωρήσαιμεν τῷ Θεῷ μετ᾿ εὐχαριστίας καί πίστεως ἄγειν ὅπη θέλει καί βούλεται, μηδέν πρός τούς λόγους διαφερόμενοι τό σύνολον τῆς αὐτοῦ προνοίας καί διοικήσεως· οἷς τό πᾶν ἀγνώστως μετά σοφίας ἀποῤῥήτου πρός τό ἑαυτοῦ κατά πρόγνωσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ φέρεται πέρας· κἄν ἄλλως, καί παρά τήν ἡμῶν ἐλπίδα ποιῆται τῶν τοιούτων λόγων τήν ἔκβασιν. Σοφώτατος γάρ ἐστι τῶν ἡμετέρων κηδεμών καί προστάτης, ἅτε δή μή συμβᾶσαν αὐτῷ τήν σοφίαν κτησάμενος, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτός κατ᾿ οὐσίαν σοφίαν κυρίως καί ὤν καί λεγόμενος. Ἕν μόνον γνησίως τηρῆσαι θελήσωμεν, τό ἀγαπᾷν αὐτόν, καθώς εἶπεν, ἐξ ὅλης καρδίας, καί ψυχῆς, καί δυνάμεως, καί τόν πλησίον ὡς ἑαυτούς· σπουδάζοντες πάντα τρόπον ἐπινοῆσαι πρός πέρας ἀγαγεῖν τό θεῖον τοῦτο διάταγμα· καί ὅλος πληρέστατος ἡμῖν κατά περιγραφήν ὁ θεῖος κατώρθωται σκοπός, ὡς ἄν ἀξίας ἤ τάξεως, βίου τε καί σχήματος ἔχωμεν· εἴτε ἄρχοντες, εἴτε ἀρχόμενοι, πλουτοῦντές τε καί πενόμενοι, καί ὑγιαίνοντες καί νοσοῦντες, καί ἄλλως πῶς τοῦ σώματος ἔχοντες· καί περί τῶν ἄλλων ὅσα πάντως ἡμῶν κατά διάθεσιν οὐχ ἕπεται τῇ