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Not being caught by the right hand, he has become a man not knowing his right hand, as one not loving fleeting glory; nor his left hand, as one not being stirred by the passions of the flesh.

The Logos, therefore, it seems, called the right hand, vainglory over supposed accomplishments; and the left hand, licentiousness in shameful passions. And every soul, being illumined by the contemplations of intelligible things, possesses these men, who do not know their right hand and their left. For every soul, having withdrawn its intellectual power from the contemplation of nature and time, has its natural reasonings as men who have passed beyond the number twelve, as those who are no longer occupied with the principles subject to nature and time; but are instead engaged in the understanding and knowledge of the divine mysteries (709); and for this reason do not know their right hand or their left hand. For the knowledge of the virtues according to the logos; that is, the true knowledge, in practice, of the cause of the virtues, is wont to produce complete ignorance of the excess and deficiency which, like the right and the left, lie on either side of the mean of the virtues.

For if nothing irrational is by nature in the logos at all; clearly the one who has been raised to the logos of the virtues will in no way recognize the place of irrational things. For it is not possible to perceive both opposites at the same time according to it; and with the one to know the other appearing simultaneously.

For if there is no reason for unbelief in faith; nor is light by nature a cause of darkness, nor is the devil wont to be shown together with Christ; it is clear that nothing irrational co-exists with the logos at all. And if the irrational cannot at all be with the logos; the one who has been raised to the logos of the virtues, as I said, does not know the place of irrational things; knowing virtue only as it is, but not as it is thought to be. And for this reason, not knowing the right hand through excess; nor the left, through deficiency; for in both the irrational is clearly perceived. For if the logos is the boundary and measure of beings; it is equivalent to irrationality, and for this reason irrational, that which is beside the boundary and beside the measure; or again, to be moved beyond the boundary and beyond the measure. For both equally, for those who are so moved, bring about the falling away from that which truly is. The one, persuading them to make the movement of their course obscure and indefinite, not having God as its goal because of the immoderation of the mind, as a goal pre-conceived by them, fashioning something righter than the right; the other, beside the goal, persuading them to make the movement of their course toward sensation alone, thinking, because of the weakness of the mind, that the pre-conceived goal is that which is circumscribed for them by sensation. These things he who does not suffer them ignores, he who is joined to the logos of virtue alone, and has circumscribed for it every movement of his own intellectual power; and for this reason is able to think nothing beyond the logos, or beside the logos.

But if someone wishes to extend his mind ambitiously toward a higher concept, he will in any case understand the right hand as the principles of incorporeal things; and the left hand, as those of corporeal things; which the mind that has been extended without relation to the cause of beings will completely ignore, contemplating no principle in God who is, as every cause, beyond all principle; toward whom, having been contracted from all beings, it knows none of the principles from which it has departed; contemplating ineffably only the one who is the principle it has become by grace.

(712) God knows how to spare these, and such as these; and for the sake of such men, the whole world, of men who in truth do not know their own blameworthy right hand, or left hand; since almost everything is taken in Scripture in a praiseworthy sense, and in a blameworthy sense; even if the envious one, and the enemy of all philanthropy, and one who is vexed at the salvation of men; and for this reason dares to fight against the very goodness of God, the ungrateful, ungracious, and misanthropic people of the Jews is sawn asunder, and is rejected from life [Fr. the life]; and makes a cause of mourning the

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δεξιᾶς οὐχ ἁλισκόμενος, ἀνήρ γέγονε μή γινώσκων δεξιάν αὐτοῦ, ὡς δόξης οὐκ ἐρῶν λυομένης· οὐδέ ἀριστεράν, ὡς τῆς σαρκός οὐκ ἐρεθιζόμενος πάθεσι.

Ξεξιάν οὖν, ὡς ἔοικεν, εἶπεν ὁ Λόγος, τήν ἐπί τοῖς δῆθεν κατορθώμασι κενοδοξίαν· ἀριστεράν δέ, τήν ἐπί τοῖς αἰσχροῖς πάθεσιν ἀκολασίαν. Τούτους δέ πᾶσα ψυχή ταῖς θεωρίαις τῶν νοητῶν λαμπρυνομένη κέκτηται τούς ἄνδρας, μή γινώσκοντας δεξιάν αὐτῶν καί ἀριστεράν. Πᾶσα γάρ ψυχή, τῆς περί φύσιν καί χρόνον θεωρίας, τήν διανοητικήν συστείλασα δύναμιν, τόν δώδεκα παρελθόντας ἀριθμόν ἔχει καθάπερ ἄνδρας τούς φυσικούς λογισμούς, οἷα δή λοιπόν μηκέτι τοῖς ὑπό φύσιν καί χρόνον πονουμένους λόγους· πρός δέ, τήν τῶν θείων μυστηρίων (709) κατανόησιν καί ἐπιστήμην ἀσχολουμένους· καί διά τοῦτο μή γινώσκοντας δεξιάν αὐτῶν, ἤ ἀριστεράν αὐτῶν. Ἡ γάρ κατά λόγον γνῶσις τῶν ἀρετῶν· ἤγουν ἡ κατ᾿ ἐνέργειαν ἀληθής τῆς τῶν ἀρετῶν αἰτίας ἐπίγνωσις, ἄγνοιαν παντελῆ πέφυκε ποιεῖν, τῆς ὡς δεξιᾶς καί ἀριστερᾶς ἑκατέρωθεν παρακειμένης τῇ μεσότητι τῶν ἀρετῶν ὑπερβολῆς καί ἐλλείψεως.

Εἰ γάρ οὐδέν ἐν τῷ λόγῳ παντελῶς πέφυκεν εἶναι παράλογον· σαφῶς ὁ πρός τόν λόγον τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀναχθείς, τήν τῶν παραλόγων οὐδαμῶς ἐπιγνώσεται θέσιν. Οὐ γάρ δυνατόν ἄμφω κατ᾿ αὐτόν ἅμα καταθρῆσαι τά ἀντικείμενα· καί θατέρῳ ἅμα τό ἕτερον γνῶναι συνεμφαινόμενον.

Εἰ γάρ ἀπιστίας ἐν τῇ πίστει λόγος οὐδείς· οὐδέ σκότους αἰτία κατά φύσιν ὑπάρχει τό φῶς, οὐδέ Χριστῷ συνενδείκνυσθαι πέφυκεν ὁ διάβολος· δῆλον ὡς οὐδέ τῷ λόγῳ τό παράπαν συνυπάρχει τι παράλογον. Εἰ δέ τῷ λόγῳ συνεῖναι παντελῶς οὐ δύναται τό παράλογον· ὁ πρός τόν λόγον τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀναχθείς, τήν τῶν παράλογων, ὡς ἔφην, οὐκ ἐπίσταται θέσιν· μόνην ὡς ἔστιν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὡς νομίζεται, γινώσκων τήν ἀρετήν. Καί διά τοῦτο, μήτε τήν δεξιάν διά τῆς ὑπερβολῆς· μήτε ἀριστεράν, διά τῆς ἐλλείψεως ἐπιστάμενος· ἐπ᾿ ἀμφοῖν γάρ θεωρεῖται σαφῶς τό παράλογον. Εἰ γάρ ὅρος ὑπάρχει καί μέτρον τῶν ὄντων ὁ λόγος· ἴσον πρός ἀλογίαν ἐστί, καί διά τοῦτο παράλογον, τό παρά τόν ὅρον καί παρά τό μέτρον· ἤ πάλιν, ὑπέρ τόν ὅρον κινεῖσθαι καί ὑπέρ τό μέτρον. Ἐπίσης γάρ ἄμφω τοῖς οὕτω κινουμένοις, τοῦ κυρίως ὄντος φέρει τήν ἔκπτωσιν. Τό μέν ἄδηλον αὐτούς ποιεῖσθαι τοῦ δρόμου πεῖθον τήν κίνησιν και ἀόριστον, οὐκ ἔχουσαν σκοπόν τόν Θεόν δι᾿ ἀμετρίαν νοός, ὡς τέλος αὐτοῖς προεπινοούμενον, τοῦ δεξιοῦ, δεξιώτερον ἀναπλαττομένους· τό δέ παρά τόν σκοπόν, πρός μόνην τήν αἴσθησιν αὐτούς πεῖθον τοῦ δρόμου ποιεῖσθαι τήν κίνησιν, δι᾿ ἀτονίαν νοός προεπινοούμενον τέλος νομίζοντας τό κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν αὐτοῖς περιγραφόμενον. Ἅπερ ἀγνοεῖ μή πάσχων, ὁ μόνῳ τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀρετῆς συνημμένος, καί πᾶσαν αὐτῷ τῆς κατά νοῦν οἰκείας δυνάμεως περιγράψας κίνησιν· καί διά τοῦτο μηδέν ὑπέρ τόν λόγον, ἤ παρά τόν λόγον διανοεῖσθαι δυνάμενος.

Εἰ δέ τις καί πρός ὑψηλοτέραν ἔννοιαν ἀνατεῖναι φιλοτίμως βούλεται τόν νοῦν, δεξιάν νοήσει πάντως, τούς τῶν ἀσωμάτων λόγους· ἀριστεράν δέ, τούς τῶν σωμάτων· οὕς ὁ πρός τήν αἰτίαν τῶν ὄντων ἀσχέτως ἀναταθείς νοῦς, ἀγνοήσει παντελῶς, μηδέν θεωρῶν λόγον ἐν τῷ κατά πᾶσαν αἰτίαν ὑπέρ πάντα λόγον ὄντι Θεῷ· πρός ὅν ἀπό τῶν ὄντων ἁπάντων συσταλείς, οὐδένα τῶν ἀφ᾿ ὧν ἀπέστη λόγον ἐπίσταται· μόνον τό πρόν ὅν λόγον γέγονε κατά χάριν ἀνερμηνεύτως θεώμενος.

(712) Τούτων, καί τῶν τοιούτων οἶδεν ὁ Θεός φείδεσθαι· καί διά τούς τοιούτους, τοῦ κόσμου παντός, ἀνδρῶν κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν μή γινωσκόντων τήν ψεκτήν αὐτῶν δεξιάν, ἤ ἀριστεράν· ἐπειδή πάντα σχεδόν ἐπαινετῶς λαμβάνεται τῇ Γραφῇ, καί ψεκτῶς· κἄν ὁ βάσκανος, καί πάσης φιλανθρωπίας ἐχθρός, καί ἐπί τῇ σωτηρίᾳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων διαπονούμενος· καί διά τοῦτο πρός αὐτήν ἀπομάχεσθαι τοῦ Θεοῦ τήν ἀγαθότητα τολμῶν, ἀγνώμων, ἀχάριστός τε καί μισάνθρωπος λαός τῶν Ἰουδαίων διαπρίεται, καί τῆς ζωῆς [Fr. τήνζωήν] ἀπολέγεται· καί πένθους ὑπόθεσιν ποιεῖ τήν