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is known", but this too by those who are sound in reason and the senses of the soul; for the rest of mankind are disposed insensibly and without discernment even toward these works.

For seeing someone fasting with vainglory, they approve, and they condemn the one who eats with humility. They consider another who is temperate in humility to be a hypocrite, but the one who eats with gluttony they regard as simple and unaffected, with whom they also take pleasure in eating more frequently, consoling their own passions. But indeed, those who feign foolishness and speak jests and nonsense unseasonably, making unbecoming gestures and moving others to laughter, they, reasoning that such men are striving to cover their virtue and dispassion through such feigned practices, gestures and words, honor them as dispassionate and holy; but those who live in reverence and virtue and simplicity of heart and are in fact holy, they misjudge and pass over as just one of the other men. Again, others consider the talkative and showy man to be more instructive and spiritual, but the silent man who is (370) scrupulous about idle talk they declare to be boorish and mute. Others turn away from the one who speaks in the Holy Spirit as being high-minded and proud, being struck by his words rather than moved to compunction, but the one who speaks cleverly from his belly or from learning and lies against their salvation they over-praise and approve. And so among such men there is no one who is able to see and discern the matter well and as it is.

For he who is once blind is blind to all things, so also he who is deaf is deaf to all things. For the blind man does not see one person but not another, nor does the deaf man hear the voice of one but not another, but both this one and that are wholly impaired in their senses. So therefore, everyone who is insensible to the one is insensible to all things, just as also he who has perception of the one is in perception of all things and is outside their perception. He is in the perception of all things and is not comprehended by their perception. He who is deaf to the word is deaf to every voice, just as he who hears the word hears all things. This man is deaf to every voice; he hears all things and nothing, except only those making their speeches in the word, and not even them but only the word, which speaks voicelessly in the voice. He who is blind to the one is wholly blind to all things, but he who sees in the one is in contemplation of all things and abstains from the contemplation of all things and is in the contemplation of all things and is outside the things contemplated. Being in the one, this man sees all things, and being in all things he sees nothing of all things. Thus, therefore, he who sees in the one through the one (371) sees both himself and all people and all things, and being hidden and in it, he sees nothing of all things. He, therefore, who hears and sees and perceives knows the power of what is said, but he who does not know is plainly shown to not possess the senses of the soul sharpened and healthy. But he who is so disposed has not yet known that "a worshipper is a mixture, earthly and heavenly, temporary and immortal, ruling over things on earth, ruled from above, an overseer of the visible creation, an initiate of the intelligible," as someone renowned in theology says somewhere. But being in honor he was compared to the mindless beasts and made like them, and having been made like them he remains so still, not having turned back, not having been called back or raised to his first dignity according to the free gift of the economy of the Master and Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Still being an irrational beast, as it is said in David, a donkey, perhaps, or an ox or a pig, to whom the pearls of ineffable knowledge are not given by God, the image

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γινώσκεται", πλήν καί οὗτος παρά τῶν ὑγιαινόντων τόν λόγον καί τά τῆς ψυχῆς αἰσθητήρια· οἱ γάρ λοιποί τῶν ἀνθρώπων καί πρός αὐτά τά ἔργα ἀναισθήτως καί ἀδιακρίτως διάκεινται.

Νηστεύοντα γάρ τινά μετά κενοδοξίας ὁρῶντες ἀποδέχονται, καί τόν ἐσθίοντα μετά ταπεινώσεως κατακρίνουσιν. Ἄλλον ἐν ταπεινώσει ἐγκρατευόμενον ὑποκριτήν εἶναι λογίζονται, τόν δέ μετά γαστριμαργίας ἐσθίοντα ὡς ἁπλοῦν ἡγοῦνται καί ἀνεπιτήδευτον, ᾧ καί συνεσθίειν συχνοτέρως ἡδύνονται, τά ἑαυτῶν πάθη παραμυθούμενοι. Ἀλλά γάρ καί τούς τόν σαλόν ὑποκρινομένους καί ἀστεῖα καί φλυαρίας λέγοντας ἀκαίρως, σχήματά τε ἀπρεπῆ διαπραττομένους καί τούς λοιπούς κινοῦντας πρός γέλωτα, ὡς τήν ἀρετήν αὐτῶν καί ἀπάθειαν διά τῶν τοιούτων δῆθεν ἐπιτηδευμάτων καί σχημάτων καί λόγων καλύπτειν σπουδάζοντας λογισάμενοι, ὡς ἀπαθεῖς καί ἁγίους τιμῶσι, τούς δέ ἐν εὐλαβείᾳ καί ἀρετῇ καί ἀφελότητι καρδίας διάγοντας καί ἁγίους τῷ ὄντι πέλοντας, ὡς οἷα δή τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων ἕνα παραλογίζονταί τε καί παρατρέχουσιν. Ἄλλοι πάλιν τόν λάλον καί ἐπιδεικτικόν διδακτικόν μᾶλλον καί πνευματικόν εἶναι λογίζονται, τόν δέ σιωπηλόν καί (370) περί ἀργολογίαν ἀκριβαζόμενον ἄγροικον καί ἄφωνον ἀποφαίνονται. Ἕτεροι τόν ἐν Πνεύματι Ἁγίῳ φθεγγόμενον ὡς ὑψηλόφρονα καί ὑπερήφανον ἀποστρέφονται, τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῦ πληττόμενοι μᾶλλον ἤ κατανυσσόμενοι, τόν δέ ἀπό κοιλίας ἤ ἐκ μαθημάτων τορνολογοῦντα καί τῆς αὐτῶν σωτηρίας καταψευδόμενον ὑπερεπαινοῦσι καί ἀποδέχονται. Καί οὕτως οὐδείς ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις ἐστίν ὁ καλῶς καί ὡς ἔχει τό πρᾶγμα ἰδεῖν καί διακρῖναι δυνάμενος.

Ὁ γάρ ἅπαξ τυφλός πρός πάντα τυφλός ἐστιν, οὕτω καί ὁ κωφός ὤν πρός πάντα κωφός ἐστιν. Οὐ γάρ ὁ τυφλός τόν μέν ὁρᾷ, τόν δέ οὔ, οὐδέ ὁ κωφός τοῦ μέν ἀκούει τῆς φωνῆς, τοῦ δέ οὔ, ἀλλά καθόλου κἀκεῖνος καί οὗτος πηροί τάς αἰσθήσεις εἰσίν. Οὕτω τοιγαροῦν πᾶς ἀναίσθητος πρός τό ἕν πρός πάντα ἀναίσθητός ἐστιν, ὡς καί ὁ ἔχων αἴσθησιν πρός τό ἕν ἐν αἰσθήσει πάντων ἐστί καί τῆς αἰσθήσεως αὐτῶν ἐκτός ἐστιν. Ἐν τῇ αἰσθήσει τῶν πάντων ἐστί καί ὑπό τῆς αἰσθήσεως αὐτῶν οὐ καταλαμβάνεται. Ὀ κωφός πρός τόν λόγον κωφός πρός πᾶσαν φωνήν ἐστιν, ὡς καί ὁ ἀκούων τοῦ λόγου τῶν πάντων ἀκούει. Οὗτος κωφεύων ἐστί πρός πᾶσαν φωνή· πάντων ἀκούει καί οὐδενός, εἰ μή τῶν ἐν λόγῳ μόνων τούς λόγους ποιουμένων, καί οὐδ᾿ αὐτῶν ἀλλά τοῦ λόγου μόνου, τοῦ ἐν τῇ φωνῇ ἀφώνως φθεγγομένου. Ὁ τυφλός πρός τό ἕν τυφλός ὅλως πρός πάντα ἐστίν, ὁ δέ βλέπων ἐν τῷ ἑνί ἐν θεωρίᾳ τῶν πάντων ἐστί καί τῆς θεωρίας τῶν πάντων ἀπέχεται καί ἐν τῇ θεωρίᾳ τῶν πάντων γίνεται καί ἔξω τῶν θεωρουμένων ἐστίν. Ἐν τῷ ἑνί οὗτος ὤν τά πάντα ὁρᾷ, καί ἐν πᾶσιν ὤν οὐδέν τῶν πάντων ὁρᾷ. Οὕτως οὖν ὁ βλέπων ἐν τῷ ἑνί διά τοῦ ἑνός (371) καί ἑαυτόν καί πάντας καί ἅπαντα καθορᾷ, καί κεκρυμμένος ὤν καί ἐν αὐτῷ οὐδέν τῶν πάντων ὁρᾷ. Ὁ τοίνυν ἀκούων καί βλέπων καί αἰσθανόμενος οἶδε τῶν λεγομένων τήν δύναμιν, ὁ δέ μή εἰδώς πρόδηλός ἐστιν ὅτι οὔτε τά αἰσθητήρια τῆς ψυχῆς τετρανωμένα καί ὑγιᾶ ἐπιφέρεται. Ὁ δέ οὕτως ἔχων οὔπω ἔγνω ὅτι "προσκυνητής μικτός ἐστιν, ἐπίγειος καί οὐράνιος, πρόσκαιρος καί ἀθάνατος, βασιλεύων τῶν ἐπί γῆς, βασιλευόμενος ἄνωθεν, ἐπόπτης τῆς ὁρωμένης κτίσεως, μύστης τῆς νοουμένης", ὥς πού τίς φησιν ἐν θεολογίᾳ βεβοημένος. Ἀλλ᾿ ἐν τιμῇ ὤν παρασυνεβλήθη τοῖς κτήνεσι τοῖς ἀνοήτοις καί ὠμοιώθη αὐτοῖς, καί ὁμοιωθείς μένει τοιοῦτος ἔτι, μή ἐπαναστραφείς, μή ἐπανακληθείς ἤ ἐπί τό πρῶτον ἀξίωμα ἀναχθείς κατά τήν τῆς οἰκονομίας δωρεάν τοῦ ∆εσπότου καί Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, τοῦ Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ἔτι δέ κτῆνος ὤν ἄλογον, ὥσπερ ∆αυιτικῶς εἴρηται, ὄνος, τυχόν, ἤ βοῦς ἤ χοῖρος, οἷς οἱ μαργαρῖται τῆς ἀπορρήτου γνώσεως οὐ δίδονται πρός Θεοῦ, τήν εἰκόνα