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5. Simply, he speaks of corners, the various unions of beings; that is, the unions of the various more general natures with one another into a single convergence.

6. That every union of the aforementioned created things has a principle of wisdom, according to which it comes to be; which the Word called towers of the corners. For the fortification and tower-building of each of the beings is both the knowledge essentially about it, and the connective principle of all things to one another into a single convergence.

7. He called cisterns the hearts receptive of the heavenly gifts of holy knowledge, being hewn out by the solid word of the commandments; and casting off, as if calluses, both the friendship toward the passions and the disposition of nature toward sensible things; and being filled with the knowledge brought from above, which both cleanses the passions and makes the virtues life-giving in the spirit.

8. The livestock of the Shephelah, that is, those being trained in moral philosophy through many afflictions, he says, are in need of words that teach endurance.

9. The livestock of the plain, he says, are those running well in the virtues and remaining free from the passion of what is worse, needing words and teachings concerning thanksgiving.

10. Simply, he speaks of the hill country, the high contemplation of nature in the spirit, which those who have renounced the phantasms of the senses cultivate, and who have passed over to the principles through the means of the virtues.

11. Carmel is the height of the full knowledge according to (445) circumcision. And circumcision has come to be, both the removal of the disposition according to nature toward generation, and the renunciation of the mind’s dispositional relation to beings. And manifestly the vineyard of this state is the principle of Providence that gives sober ecstasy; which the men and thoughts that move around the simple and unoriginate monad alone cultivate. For he who moves toward this alone has cut off from himself, like a foreskin, the disposition that conceals the cause of the earthly generation of beings.

12. Another manner of contemplation of the same things. 13. A noble difficulty, of the impossibility for the... to be consistent with this passage

history of the events. 14. He has called practical philosophy the fear of the Lord; from the beginning, the end.

For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. 15. The high discourse concerning the Godhead is a tower in the soul, by the... of the commandments

activities fortified. 16. What is the gate of the corner? 17. The principles of particular things, he says, by approaching the universal ones, the... of the

unions of divided things they make. Because the more universal principles unitively contain the principles of the more particular ones; to which the particulars naturally have their reference.

18. That of these too there is a certain relational principle in the spirit, giving to them their union with one another.

19. Consider how one must, he says, understand the word, "he prevailed." 20. The one who has acquired the pious opinion concerning each thing, does not fear those who through the

appearances the demons who lead men astray. 21. The vine makes wine; the wine, intoxication; the intoxication, ecstasy; therefore also the

active principle, which is the vine, being cultivated by the virtues, begets knowledge; and knowledge, the good ecstasy, which removes the mind from its disposition according to sense-perception.

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ε΄. Γωνίας ἁπλῶς λέγει, τάς τῶν ὄντων διαφόρους ἑνώσεις· ἤγουν τάς τῶν διαφόρων γενικωτέρων φύσεων πρός ἀλλήλας εἰς μίαν σύννευσιν ἑνώσεις.

στ΄. Ὅτι πᾶσα ἕνωσις τῶν εἰρημένων κτισμάτων, λόγον ἔχει σοφίας, καθ᾿ ὅν γίνεται· οὕστινας πύργους γωνιῶν εἶπεν ὁ λόγος. Ὀχύρωμα γάρ καί πύργωσίς ἐστιν ἑκάστου τῶν ὄντων, ὅ τε κατ᾿ οὐσίαν τῆς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῷ γνώσεως, καί ὁ πρός ἄλληλα πάντων συνδετικός εἰς μίαν σύννευσιν λόγος.

ζ΄. Λάκκους ἐκάλεσεν, τάς δεκτικάς τῶν οὐρανίων χαρισμάτων τῆς ἁγίας γνώσεως καρδίας, λατομουμένας τῷ στεῤῥῷ λόγῳ τῶν ἐντολῶν· καί ἀποβαλλομένας καθάπερ πωρώματα τήν τε πρός τά πάθη φιλίαν, καί τήν πρός τά αἰσθητά τῆς φύσεως σχέσιν· καί πληρουμένας τῆς ἄνωθεν φερομένης ῥυπτικῆς τε τῶν παθῶν, καί ζωοποιητικῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐν πνεύματι γνώσεως.

η΄. Τά κτήνη τῆς Σεφιλά, τουτέστιν ἠθικήν παιδευομένους διά πολλῶν θλίψεων φιλοσοφίαν, δεομένους τήν ὑπομονήν διδασκόντων λόγων φησίν.

θ΄. Τά κτήνη τῆς πεδεινῆς φησιν, τούς εὐδρομοῦντας ἐν ἀρεταῖς, καί ἀπαθεῖς τοῦ χείρονος διαμένοντας, δεομένους τῶν περί εὐχαριστίαν λόγων τε καί διδαγμάτων.

ι΄. Τήν ἁπλῶς ὀρεινήν λέγει, τήν ὑψηλόν ἐν πνεύματι θεωρίαν τῆς φύσεως, ἥν γεωργοῦσιν οἱ τῶν αἰσθητῶν ἀπογενόμενοι φαντασιῶν, καί πρός τούς διά μέσων τῶν ἀρετῶν διαβάντες λόγους.

ια΄. Κάρμηλος μέν ἐστι τό ὕψος τῆς κατά τήν (445) περιτομήν ἐπιγνώσεως. Περιτομή δέ καθέστηκεν, ἤ τε τῆς κατά φύσιν πρός γένεσιν ἀφαίρεσις διαθέσεως, ἤ τε τῆς τοῦ νοῦ πρός τά ὄντα κατά διάθεσιν σχέσεως ἀπογένεσις. Ταύτης δέ προδήλως ἄμπελός ἐστι τῆς καταστάσεως, ὁ τήν σώφρονα διδούς ἔκστασιν τῆς Προνοίας λόγος· ὅν γεωργοῦσιν οἱ περί μόνην τήν ἁπλῆν καί ἄναρχον μονάδα κινούμενοι ἄνδρες καί λογισμοί. Ὁ γάρ πρός μόνην ταύτην κινούμενος, ὥσπερ ἀκροβυστίαν ἀπέτεμεν ἑαυτοῦ, τήν καλύπτουσαν τήν αἰτίαν γῆς γενέσεως τῶν ὄντων διάθεσιν.

ιβ΄. Ἄλλος τῶν αὐτῶν θεωρίας τρόπος. ιγ΄. Ἀπορίας γενναία, τοῦ μή δύνασθαι κατά τόνδε τόν τόπον συμβαίνειν τήν

ἱστορίαν τῶν πραγμάτων. ιδ΄. Φόβον Κυρίου κέκληκε τήν πρακτικήν φιλοσοφίαν· ἐκ τῆς ἀρχῆς τό τέλος.

Ἀρχή γάρ σοφίας, φόβος Κυρίου. ιε΄. Ὁ περί θεότητος ὑψηλός λόγος, πύργος ἐστί κατά ψυχήν, ταῖς τῶν ἐντολῶν

ἐνεργείαις ὠχυρωμένος. ιστ΄. Τίς ἡ πύλη τῆς γωνίας; ιζ΄. Οἱ τῶν ἐπί μέρους λόγοι φησίν, τοῖς καθ᾿ ὅλου προσχωροῦντες, τάς τῶν

διῃρημένων ἑνώσεις ποιοῦνται. ∆ιότι τῶν μερικωτέρων ἑνοειδῶς οἱ καθολικώτεροι τούς λόγους περιλαμβάνουσι· πρός οὕς φυσικῶς τήν ἀναφοράν ἔχει τά κατά μέρος.

ιη΄. Ὅτι καί τούτων ἔστι τις σχετικός ἐν πνεύματι λόγος, τήν πρός ἄλληλα διδούς αὐτοῖς ἕνωσιν.

ιθ΄. Σκόπει πῶς δεῖ, φησί, λαμβάνειν τό, κατίσχυσε. κ΄. Ὁ τήν εὐσεβῆ περί ἑκάστου δόξαν κτησάμενος, οὐ δέδοικε τούς διά τῶν

φαινομένων τούς ἀνθρώπους πλανῶντας δαίμονας. κα΄. Ἡ ἄμπελος οἶνον ποιεῖ· ὁ οἶνος, μέθην ἡ μέθη, ἔκστασιν· οὐκοῦν καί ὁ

ἐνεργής λόγος, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἡ ἄμπελος, γεωργούμενος ταῖς ἀρεταῖς, γεννᾷ τήν γνῶσιν· ἡ δέ γνῶσις, τήν καλήν ἔκστασιν, τήν τόν νοῦν τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν σχέσεως ἐξιστῶσαν.