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they say: "He refutes the opposition." Indeed, they say that a refutation is a syllogism of contradiction. For instance, let someone posit that: "To act is base." We say that: "The temperate man acts. And everything that the temperate man does is good." And a refutation of contradiction has occurred. Again, let someone say that: "To commit injustice is beneficial"; for there are those who hold such an opinion, that injustice is helpful, and rather that justice is harmful. "The just man," he says, "does not increase his wealth, but the unjust man multiplies his money." We then make a refutation of contradiction of this kind, that: "Injustice is to be forbidden. Everything that is to be forbidden is harmful. Therefore, injustice is harmful. What is harmful is not beneficial. Therefore, injustice is not beneficial." A syllogism of contradiction has occurred, and this syllogism of contradiction is called a refutation. For the former dialecticians did not engage in dialectic as they do now. Therefore, they are sophists rather than dialecticians. They have the aim of winning and they set forth contentious propositions, which they hold to and persist in. But the true dialectician, since he argues for both sides—one of which is true, the other false—knows from arguing against each other, which is true and which is false. And the truth itself appears from the false being shown, because there is the same knowledge of opposites. 12 And you have made his soul waste away like a spider. 279 You made his soul waste away like a spider, his soul in respect to which he is soulish. Concerning a base man or woman it is said: "she was carried by the spirit in the desires of her own soul." When someone fashions from the soul, for example, for herself prophecies or as it were doctrines of piety, "she is carried by the spirit in the desires of the soul." She is not carried by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, in another book I spoke of the difference, that: that man is carnal who wars according to the flesh, who yields to the desires of the flesh, who has been sold under the flesh, who has become carnal and been sold under sin. But a spiritual man is one who has ascended beyond the state of the soulish, when he is both divinely inspired in all things by the Holy Spirit and acts and does them. But the soulish man is one who is neither carnal nor spiritual. And perhaps all the wise of the world are such. They think they are self-directed according to the movements and thoughts of their own souls. And for this reason they do not receive the things of the spirit; for since they prefer their own things and think their own understanding is great, they do not receive the things of the spirit, considering them foolishness; for there are some, and whole heresies established both among Greeks and among Christians, that say that allegories are foolishness, that they are fabrications. And they say that the theories about intelligible things are false, since indeed they consider all things to be bodies and perceptible. These, therefore, are soulish men, not receiving the things of the spirit, considering themselves to be self-directed and able to contemplate all things by themselves. Therefore, you have made his soul of such a kind—not its substance, but the state according to which it is soul—waste away like the spider. But the spider is so very weak that it is said: "They weave a spider's web. Their web will not be for a garment." The easily overturned nature of the construction of the creature called the spider, he says, is the wasting away of the soul. When the soul wastes away, this wasting away also becomes a benefit to it; for what is spider-like in it grows weak, and finally it is shown to be outside of evil. Therefore, you have made the soul of this man, who is being rebuked in reproofs for lawlessness, waste away like a spider. 12 Yet every man is troubled in vain. All men who are outside the discipline of God and his reproofs are troubled in vain. But this one, even if he is troubled when he is rebuked, even if his soul wastes away like the spider, does not suffer this in vain; for he receives a change for the better. But if someone were such a mere man, not under discipline, not under reproofs

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λέγουσιν· "ἐλέγχει τὴν ἐναντιότητα". ἀμέλει λέγουσιν ὅτι ἔλεγχός ἐστιν συλλογισμὸς ἀντιφάσεως. φέρε εἰπεῖν, τιθέσθω τις ὅτι· "τὸ πράττειν φαῦλόν ἐστιν" λέγομεν̣ ὁ´̣τι· "ο῾̣ σ̣ώφρων πράττει. πᾶν δὲ ὃ πράττει ὁ σώφρων, ἀγαθόν ἐστιν". καὶ γέγονεν ἔλεγχος ἀντιφάσεως. πάλιν λεγέτω τι̣ς̣ ὅτι· "τὸ ἀδικεῖν ἐπωφελές ἐστιν"· εἰσὶν γὰρ δόξαν τοιαύτην ἔχοντες, ὅτι ὠφελητική ἐστιν ἡ ἀδικία, μᾶλλον ἡ δικαιοσύνη βλαπτική ἐστιν. "ὁ δὲ δίκαιος", φησίν, "οὐκ αὐξάνει πλοῦτον, ὁ δὲ ἄδικος πληθύνει χρήματα". ποιοῦμεν οὖν ἔλεγχον ἀντιφάσεως τοιοῦτον ὅτι· "ἡ ἀδικία ἀπαγορευτέα ἐστίν. πᾶν τὸ ἀπαγορευτέον βλαβερόν. ἡ ἄρα ἀδικία βλαβερά. τὸ βλαβερὸν οὐκ ἐπωφελές. ἡ ἄρα ἀδικία οὐκ ἐπωφελής". γέγονεν ἀντιφάσεως συλλογισμός, καὶ οὗτος ὁ συλλογισμὸς ὁ τῆς ἀντιφάσεως καλεῖται ἔλεγχος. οὐχ ὡς νῦν γὰρ διαλέγονται, οἱ διαλεγόμενοι οἱ πρότερον ἐποίουν τοῦτο. διὸ σοφισταὶ μᾶλλόν εἰσιν ἢ διαλεκτικοί. σκοπὸν ἔχουσιν νεικῆσαι καὶ τίθενται ἐριστικὰς προτάσεις, ἃς κ̣ρατοῦσιν καὶ ἐνμένουσιν ἐν αὐταῖς. ὁ δὲ ἀληθῶς διαλεκτικὸς ἐπεὶ εἰς ἑκάτερα ἐπιχειρεῖ-ἐστὶν δὲ τ̣ὸ ἕτερον ἀληθές, τὸ δὲ ἕτερον ψευδές-, ἐκ τῆς εἰς ἄλληλα ἐπιχειρήσεως οἶδεν, ποῖον τὸ ἀληθὲς καὶ ποῖον τ̣ὸ ψ̣ευδε´̣ς̣. καὶ αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ ἀληθὲς φαίνεται ἐκ τοῦ δειχθῆναι τὸ ψευδές, ὅτι τῶν ἐναντίων ἡ αὐτή ἐστιν ἐπιστήμη. 12 καὶ ἐξέτηξας ὡς ἀράχνην τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ. 279 ὡς ἀράχνην τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἐξέτηξας, τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ καθ' ἣν ψυχικός ἐστιν. περί τινος φαύλου λέγεται ἢ φαύλης· "ἐν ἐπιθυμίαις ψυχῆς αὐτῆς ἐπνευματοφορεῖτο". ὅταν τις ἀπὸ ψυχῆς ἀναπλάσῃ, φέρε, ἑαυτῇ προφητείας ἢ ὡσανεὶ δόγματα εὐσεβείας, "ἐν ἐπιθυμίαις ψυχῆς πνευματοφορεῖται". οὐκ ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ πνευματοφορεῖται. ἐν ἄλλῳ γοῦν βιβλίῳ τὴν διαφορὰν εἶπον ὅτι· σάρκινός ἐστιν ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐκεῖνος ὁ κατὰ σάρκα στρατευόμενος, ὁ ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις εἴκων τῆς σαρκός, ὁ πεπραμένος ὑπὸ τὴν σάρ̣κα, ὁ γενόμενος σάρκινος καὶ πεπραμένος ὑπὸ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν. πνευματι̣κὸς δ̣ὲ ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν ὁ ὑπεραναβὰς τὴν τοῦ ψυχικοῦ κατάστασιν, ὅταν τὰ πάντα ὑπὸ ἁγίου πνεύματος καὶ θεοφορῆται καὶ π̣οιῶν καὶ πράττῃ. ψυχικὸς δέ ἐστιν ὁ μηδὲ σάρκινος ὢν μηδὲ πνευματικός. καὶ τάχα οἱ τοῦ κόσμου σοφοὶ πάντες εἰσὶν τοιοῦτοι. νομίζουσιν αὐθέκαστοι εἶναι κατὰ τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ἑαυτῶν κινήματα καὶ νοήματα. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο οὐ δέχονται τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος· ἐπεὶ γὰρ τὰ ἑαυτῶν προκρίνουσιν καὶ τὴν ἑαυτῶν νόησιν νομίζουσιν εἶναι μεγάλη̣ν, οὐ δέχονται τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος μωρίαν αὐτὰ ἡγούμενοι· καὶ γάρ εἰσίν τινες καὶ αἱρέσεις ὅλαι συνεστῶσαι καὶ παρ' Ἕλλησιν καὶ παρὰ Χριστιανοῖς εἰσιν αἱ λέγουσαι ὅτι αἱ ἀλληγορίαι μωρίαι εἰσίν, ἀναπλάσματά εἰσιν. καὶ τὰ περὶ τῶν νοητῶν θεωρήματα λέγουσιν ψεύδη εἶναι, ἅτε δὴ πάντα σώματα νομίζοντες καὶ αἰσθητὰ εἰ῀̣ναι. οὗτοι οὖν ψυχικοὶ ἄνθρωποί εἰσιν οὐ δεχόμενοι τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος αὐθεκάστους ἑ αυτοὺς ἡγούμενοι εἶναι καὶ δυναμ̣ένους παρ' αὐτῶν θεωρεῖν τὰ πάντα. τὴν ψυχὴν οὖν αὐτοῦ τὴν τοιαύτην, οὐ τὴν οὐσίαν, ἀλλὰ τὴν κατάστασιν καθ' ἣν ψυχή ἐστιν, ἐξέτηξας κατὰ τὴν ἀράχνην. ἡ ἀράχνη δὲ πάνυ οὕτως ἀσθενής ἐστιν ὡς λέγεσθαι· "ἱστὸν ἀράχνης ὑφαίνουσιν. ὁ ἱστὸς αὐτῶν οὐκ ἔσται εἰς ἱμάτιον". τὸ εὐανάτρεπτον τοῦ κατασκευάσματος τοῦ ζῴου τοῦ καλουμένου ἀράχνου λέγει εἶναι ἔκτηξιν ψυχῆς. ὅταν ἐκτακῇ ἡ ψυχή, καὶ ἐπ' ὠφελίᾳ αὐτῆς γίνεται ἡ ἔκτηξις αὕτη· ἀσθενεῖ γὰρ ἐν αὐτῇ τὸ ἀραχνῶδες, καὶ λοιπὸν ἀποδείκνυται ἔξω κακίας. τοῦ ἀνθρώπου οὖν τούτου ἐξέτηξας ὡς ἀράχνην τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ ἐν ἐλεγμοῖς ὑπὲρ ἀνομίας ἐλεγχομένου. 12 πλὴν μάτην ταράσσεται πᾶς ἄνθρωπος. πάντες οἱ ἄνθρωποι οἱ ἔξω τῆς παιδεύσεως τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐλεγμῶν μάτην ταράσσονται. οὗτος δὲ κἂν ταραχθῇ ἐλεγχόμενος, κἂν ἐκτηκομένης τῆς ψυχῆς αὐτοῦ κατὰ τὴν ἀράχνην, οὐ μάτην τοῦτο πάσχει· μεταβολὴν γὰρ δέχεται ἐπὶ τὰ κρείττονα. εἰ δέ τις οὕτω ψιλὸς ἄνθρωπος εἴη μὴ ὑπὸ παίδευσιν, μὴ ὑπὸ ἐλεγμοὺς