351

60. All the dishonorable passions that rule the soul, drive out the thought of vainglory from it; and when all the aforementioned are defeated, they are resolved into it.

61. Vainglory, sometimes being destroyed, and sometimes remaining, begets pride; and when destroyed, it produces conceit; but when remaining, arrogance.

62. Secret work destroys vainglory; and pride, ascribing one's achievements to God.

63. The one deemed worthy of the knowledge of God, and having consciously enjoyed the pleasure from it, this one despises all the pleasures born from the desiring part.

64. He who desires earthly things, desires either foods, or things that serve the parts below the stomach, or human glory, or money, or anything else that follows these; and unless the mind finds something better than these to which to transfer its desire, it will not be drawn away from them; for the knowledge of God and of divine things is incomparably better.

65. Those who despise pleasures, despise them either through fear, or hope, or knowledge, or even through love for God.

66. The knowledge of divine things without passion, does not persuade the mind to despise material things completely; but is like a bare thought of a sensible thing. (1037) Therefore it is possible to find many people who have much knowledge, and yet wallow in the passions of the flesh like pigs in the mire. For having been cleansed for a short time through diligence, and having attained knowledge, afterwards becoming negligent, they have become like Saul; who, having been deemed worthy of a kingdom, and having conducted himself unworthily, was cast out of it with fearsome wrath.

67. Just as a bare thought of human affairs does not compel the mind to despise divine things; so too a bare knowledge of divine things does not persuade it to despise human things completely; because truth now exists in shadows and likenesses. And for this reason it needs the blessed passion of holy love, which binds the mind to spiritual contemplations, and persuades it to prefer the immaterial to the material; and the intelligible and divine to the sensible.

68. Not everyone who has cut off the passions and rendered his thoughts bare, has already turned them also to divine things; but he can be disposed neither toward human things nor toward divine things; which happens in the case of those who are only in the active life, and not yet deemed worthy of knowledge; who abstain from the passions out of fear of punishment or hope of the kingdom.

69. We walk by faith, not by sight; and we have knowledge in mirrors and in riddles. And for this reason, we need much occupation with them, so that by long meditation and discourse on these things, we may form a state of mind that is hard to tear away from these contemplations.

70. If, having cut off the causes of the passions for a little while, we occupy ourselves with spiritual contemplations, but do not always abide in them, having this as our task, we easily turn back again to the passions of the flesh; having reaped nothing else from there but bare knowledge with conceit; the end of which is both the gradual darkening of this knowledge itself, and the complete turning away of the mind to material things.

71. A blameworthy passion of love occupies the mind with material things; a praiseworthy passion of love binds it to divine things. For the mind is accustomed to be enlarged in those things in which it spends its time; and in those things in which it is enlarged, in them it also turns its desire and love, whether toward divine and kindred and intelligible things, or toward the things and passions of the flesh.

(1040) 72. God created the invisible world and the visible; and He evidently made both the soul and the body. And if the visible world is so [ Fr. οὕτως ἐστί] good, what then must the invisible be? And if that one is better than this one, how much

351

ξ΄. Πάντα τά ἄτιμα πάθη κρατοῦντα τῆς ψυχῆς, τόν τῆς κενοδοξίας ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀπελαύνουσι λογισμόν· καί πάντων τῶν προειρημένων ἡττωμένων, ἐπ᾿ αὐτόν ἀναλύουσιν.

ξα΄. Ἡ κενοδοξία, ποτέ μέν ἀναιρουμένη, ποτέ δέ μένουσα, τίκτει τήν ὑπερηφανίαν· καί ἀναιρουμένη μέν, οἴησιν ἐμποιεῖ· μένουσα δέ, ἀλαζονείαν.

ξβ΄. Κενοδοξίαν ἀναιρεῖ, ἡ κρυπτή ἐργασία· ὑπερηφανίαν δέ, τό τῷ Θεῷ ἐπιγράφειν τά κατορθώματα.

ξγ΄. Ὁ γνώσεως Θεοῦ καταξιωθείς, καί τῆς ἐκ ταύτης ἡδονῆς ἀπολαύσας γνωσίως, οὗτος καταφρονεῖ τῶν ἐκ τοῦ ἐπιθυμητικοῦ τικτομένων πασῶν ἡδονῶν.

ξδ΄. Ὁ ἐπιθυμῶν τῶν ἐπιγείων, ἤ βρωμάτων ἐπιθυμεῖ, ἤ τῶν τά ὑπογάστρια θεραπευόντων, ἤ δόξης ἀνθρωπίνης, ἤ χρημάτων, ἤ τινος ἄλλου τῶν τούτοις ἑπομένων· καί εἰ μή τι τούτων κρεῖττον εὕροι ὁ νοῦς, ἐφ'ᾧ τήν ἐπιθυμίαν μετενέγκῃ οὐκ ἄν τούτων ἀσυγκρίτως, ἡ τοῦ Θεοῦ γνῶσις καί τῶν θείων ἐστί.

ξε΄. Οἱ τῶν ἡδονῶν καταφρονοῦντες, ἤ φόβῳ καταφρονοῦσιν, ἤ ἐλπίδι, ἤ γνώσει, ἤ καί τῇ εἰς Θεόν ἀγάπῃ.

ξστ΄. Ἡ ἄνευ πάθους τῶν θείων γνῶσις, οὐ πείθει τόν νοῦν εἰς τέλος καταφρονεῖν τῶν προσύλων· ἀλλ᾿ ἔοικε λογισμῷ ψιλῷ πράγματος αἰσθητοῦ. (1037) ∆ιό πολλούς ἐστιν εὑρεῖν τῶν ἀνθρώπων γνῶσιν ἔχοντας πολλήν, καί ἐν τοῖς σαρκός πάθεσι δίκην χοίρων ἐν βορβόρῳ κυλινδουμένους. Πρός ὀλίγον γάρ ἐξ ἐπιμελείας καθαρθέντες, καί τῆς γνώσεως ἐπιτυχόντες, ὕστερον ἀμελήσαντες, ὡμοιώθησαν τῷ Σαούλ· ὅς βασιλείας καταξιωθείς, καί ἀναξίως πολιτευσάμενος, μετ᾿ ὀργῆς φοβερᾶς ἐξ αὐτῆς ἀπεβλήθη.

ξζ΄. Ὥσπερ ὁ ψιλός τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων πραγμάτων λογισμός, οὐκ ἀναγκάζει τόν νοῦν καταφρονεῖν τῶν θείων· οὕτως οὐδέ ψιλή γνῶσις τῶν θείων, πείθει εἰς τέλος καταφρονεῖν τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων· διότι ἐν σκιαῖς νῦν ὑπάρχει καί εἰκασμοῖς ἡ ἀλήθεια. Καί διά τοῦτο δεῖται τοῦ μακαρίου πάθους τῆς ἁγίας ἀγάπης, τῆς συνδεσμούσης τόν νοῦν τοῖς πνευματικοῖς θεωρήμασι, καί πειθούσης προτιμᾷν τῶν ὑλικῶν, τά ἄϋλα· καί τῶν αἰσθητῶν τά νοητά καί θεῖα.

ξη΄. Οὐ πάντως ὁ τά πάθη ἐκκόψας, καί ψιλούς τούς λογισμούς ἐργασάμενος, ἤδη αὐτά καί ἐπί τά θεῖα ἔτρεψεν· ἀλλά δύναται, μήτε πρός τά ἀνθρώπινα πάσχειν, μήτε πρός τά θεῖα· ὅπερ ἐπισυμβαίνει ἐπί τῶν πρακτικῶν μόνον, καί μήπω γνώσεως καταξιωθέντων· οἵ φόβῳ κολάσεως, ἤ ἐλπίδι βασιλείας τῶν παθῶν ἀπέχονται.

ξθ΄. ∆ιά πίστεως περιπατοῦμεν, οὐ διά εἴδους· καί ἐν ἐσόπτροις τήν γνῶσιν ἔχομεν καί αἰνίγμασι. Καί διά τοῦτο, πολλῆς δεόμεθα τῆς ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀσχολίας, ἵνα τῇ χρονίᾳ τούτων μελέτῃ καί ἀδολεσχίᾳ, ἕξιν δυσαπόσπαστον τῶν θεωρημάτων ποιήσωμεν.

ο΄. Ἐάν πρός ὀλίγον τῶν παθῶν τάς αἰτίας ἐκκόψαντες τοῖς πνευματικοῖς ἐνασχοληθῶμεν θεωρήμασι, μή ἐν αὐτοῖς δέ ἀεί διατρίψωμεν, αὐτό τοῦτο ἔχοντες ἔργον, εὐχερῶς πάλιν ἐπί τά τῆς σαρκός πάθη περιτρεπόμεθα· μηδέν ἄλλο ἐκεῖθεν καρπωσάμενοι, ἤ ψιλήν γνῶσιν μετά οἰήσεως· ἧς τό τέλός,ἥ τε αὐτῆς κατά μικρόν τῆς γνώσεως σκότωσις, καί ἡ παντελής τοῦ νοῦ ἐπί τά ὑλικά ἐκτροπή.

οα΄. Πάθος ἀγάπης ψεκτόν, τοῖς ὑλικοῖς πράγμασι τόν νοῦν ἐνασχολεῖ· πάθος ἀγάπης ἐπαινετόν, καί τοῖς θείοις αὐτόν συνδεσμεῖ. Εἴωθε γάρ ὁ νοῦς ἐν οἷς χρονίζει πράγμασι, ἐν αὐτοῖς καί πλατύνεσθαι· ἐν οἷς δέ πλατύνεται, ἐν αὐτοῖς καί τήν ἐπιθυμίαν καί τήν ἀγάπην τρέψαι, εἴτε ἐν τοῖς θείοις καί οἰκείοις καί νοητοῖς, εἴτε ἐν τοῖς τῆς σαρκός πράγμασί τε καί πάθεσι.

(1040) οβ΄. Ὁ Θεός ἔκτισε τόν ἀόρατον κόσμον καί τόν ὁρώμενον· καί τήν ψυχήν καί τό σῶμα δηλονότι αὐτός ἐποίησε. Καί εἰ ὁ ὁρώμενος κόσμος τοιοῦτός ἐστι [ Fr. οὕτως ἐστί] καλός, ποῖος ἄρα ἐστίν ὁ ἀόρατος; Εἰ δέ κρείττων τούτου ἐκεῖνος, πόσον