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mind, destroying it immediately with the light of knowledge as in a fire, the destructive power attached to the practical movement of the mind from the contemplation of sensible things.

24. The Apostle was a fragrance from life to life, preparing the faithful by his own example to be moved through action toward the sweet scent of the virtues; or, as a herald, leading those who obey the word of grace from the life of the senses into the life in the spirit. But a fragrance of death to death, to those who have passed from the death of ignorance to the death of unbelief, giving them a sense of his abiding condemnation. Or again, a fragrance from life to life, for those who are being led up from practice to contemplation; but a fragrance of death to death, for those who, from having mortified through inactivity in sin the members that are on the earth, pass over to the commendable mortification of passionate thoughts and fantasies.

25. The three powers of the soul are reason, spirit, and desire. By reason, we seek; by desire, we long for the good that has been sought; and by spirit, we fight for it. In accordance with these powers, those who love God, waiting upon the divine word of virtue and knowledge; by the one, seeking; by the other, desiring; and by the other, fighting for it, receive incorruptible food, which enriches the mind with the knowledge of things that have come into being.

26. The Word of God, having become man, filled again with knowledge the nature that had been emptied of the knowledge given to it; and having tempered it to immutability, not by nature but by quality, He deified it; having unceasingly characterized it by His own Spirit, just as He changed water into the quality of wine for strength. For this reason, He truly becomes man, that He might by grace make us gods.

27. God, who created the nature of human beings, at the same time as He willed its existence, also joined to it a power capable of performing its duties; and by power, I mean the movement essentially sown in nature, (1232) toward the activity of the virtues; but which is manifested gnomicly, according to the will of its possessor, in its use.

28. We have a natural criterion, the law according to nature, teaching us that our desire ought to be moved by the wisdom in all things toward the initiation into the mystery of the creator of all things.

29. Jacob's well is the Scripture; the water is the knowledge in the Scripture; the depth is the impenetrable position of the scriptural enigmas; and the bucket is learning through the letters of the divine word, which the Lord, being the Word Himself, did not have, not giving to believers the knowledge that comes from learning and study, but granting to the worthy the ever-flowing and never-ending wisdom from spiritual grace. For the bucket, that is, learning, taking a very small part of knowledge, leaves the whole unmastered by any reason. But knowledge according to grace possesses, even without study, all the wisdom accessible to human beings, gushing forth in various ways according to their needs.

30. The tree of life, and that which is not so, from this alone, that the one was named the tree of life; but the other, not of life, but only knowledgeable of good and evil, have a great and ineffable difference. For the tree of life is in every way productive of life; but the tree not of life is clearly productive of death. For that which is not productive of life, from the fact that it was not called the tree of life, would clearly be productive of death; for nothing else is contrasted with life by way of opposition.

32. Since man came into being composed of an intelligible soul and a sensible body, let the mind of the soul, in which exists the substance of wisdom, be, according to one conception, the tree of life; but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the [nature] of the body

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νοῦν, τῷ φωτί τῆς γνώσεως αὐτήν εὐθύς ὡς ἐν πυρί διαφθείραντα, τήν τῷ πρακτικῷ κινήματι τοῦ νοῦ, προσαφθεῖσαν ἐκ τῆς τῶν αἰσθητῶν θεωρίας, ὀλέθριον δύναμιν.

κδ΄. Ὀσμή ἦν ἀπό ζωῆς εἰς ζωήν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ὡς τούς πιστούς τῷ καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν ὑποδείγματι, διά πράξεως πρός τήν εὐωδίαν τῶν ἀρετῶν κινεῖσθαι, παρασκευάζων· ἤ τούς πειθομένους τῷ λόγῳ τῆς χάριτος, ὡς κήρυξ ἀπό τῆς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν ζωῆς, εἰς τήν ἐν πνεύματι μετάγων ζωήν. Ὀσμή δέ θανάτου εἰς θάνατον, τοῖς ἀπό τοῦ θανάτου τῆς ἀγνοίας εἰς τόν τῆς ἀπιστίας ἐλάσασι θάνατον, διδούς αὐτοῖς αἴσθησιν τῆς μενούσης αὐτοῦ κατακρίσεως. Ἤ πάλιν ὀσμή ἀπό ζωῆς εἰς ζωήν, τοῖς ἀπό πράξεως εἰς θεωρίαν ἀναγομένοις· ὀσμή δέ θανάτου εἰς θάνατον, τοῖς ἀπό νεκρῶσαι τῇ καθ᾿ ἁμαρτίαν ἀργίᾳ τά μέλη τά ἐπί τῆς γῆς, εἰς τήν τῶν ἐμπαθῶν νοημάτων τε καί φαντασιῶν ἐπαινουμένην μεταβαίνουσι νέκρωσιν.

κε΄. Τρεῖς εἰσιν αἱ τῆς ψυχῆς δυνάμεις, λόγος, θυμός, καί ἐπιθυμία. Τῷ μέν λόγῳ, ζητοῦμεν· τῇ ἐπιθυμίᾳ δέ, ποθοῦμεν τό ζητηθέν ἀγαθόν· τῷ δέ θυμῷ, ὑπεραγωνιζόμεθα. Κατά ταύτας δή τάς δυνάμεις προσμένοντες οἱ τόν Θεόν ἀγαπῶντες, τῷ θείῳ λόγῳ τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως· τῇ μέν, ζητοῦντες· τῇ δέ, ποθοῦντες· τῇ δέ, ὑπεραγωνιζόμενοι, δέχονται τροφήν ἄφθαρτον, καί τόν νοῦν πιαίνουσαν τῇ γνῶσιν τῶν γεγονότων.

κστ΄. Τήν κενωθεῖσαν τῆς δοθείσης γνώσεως φύσιν, γενόμενος ἄνθρωπος ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος, πάλιν ἐπλήρωσε γνώσεως· καί στομώσας πρός ἀτρεψίαν, οὐ φύσει, ποιότητι δέ, ταύτην ἐθέωσεν· ἀνελλιπῶς αὐτήν τῷ οἰκείῳ χαρακτηρίσας Πνεύματι καθάπερ ὕδωρ, οἴνου ποιότητι πρός τόνον μετακεράσας. ∆ιά τοῦτο γάρ καί γίνεται κατ᾿ ἀλήθειαν ἄνθρωπος, ἵνα κατά χάριν ἡμᾶς καταστήσῃ θεούς.

κζ΄. Ὁ τήν φύσιν τῶν ἀνθρώπων δημιουργήσας Θεός, ἅμα βουλήσει τό εἶναι αὐτῇ δέδωκεν, συνήρμοσεν αὐτῇ καί δύναμιν τῶν καθηκόντων ποιητικήν· δύναμιν δέ λέγω, τήν οὐσιωδῶς μέν κατεσπαρμένην τῇ φύσει, (1232) πρός ἀρετῶν ἐνέργειαν κίνησιν· γνωμικῶς δέ, πρός τήν τοῦ κεκτημένου βούλησιν, κατά τήν χρῆσιν ἐκφαινομένην.

κη΄. Φυσικόν ἔχομεν κριτήριον, τόν κατά φύσιν νόμον, διδάσκοντα ἡμᾶς, ὅτι πρός τῆς ἐν ὅλοις σοφίας, ἔδει πρός τήν τοῦ ποιητοῦ τῶν ὅλων μυσταγωγίαν ἡμῶν κινεῖσθαι τήν ἔφεσιν.

κθ΄. Τό φρέαρ ἐστί τοῦ Ἰακώβου, ἡ Γραφή· τό δέ ὕδωρ ἐστίν, ἡ ἐν τῇ Γραφῇ γνῶσις· τό δέ βάθος, ἡ τῶν Γραφικῶν αἰνιγμάτων δυσδιεξίτητος θέσις· τό δέ ἄντλημά ἐστιν, ἡ διά τῶν γραμμάτων τοῦ θείου λόγου μάθησις, ἥν οὐκ εἶχεν ὁ Κύριος Αὐτολόγος ὑπάρχων, καί οὐ τήν ἐκ μαθήσεως καί μελέτης διδούς γνῶσιν τοῖς πιστεύουσιν, ἀλλά τήν ἐκ χάριτος πνευματικῆς ἀένναον σοφίαν, καί μηδέποτε λήγουσαν τοῖς ἀξίοις δωρούμενος. Τό γάρ ἄντλημα, τουτέστιν ἡ μάθησις, μέρος ἐλάχιστον λαμβάνουσα γνώσεως, τό πᾶν ἐᾷ μηδενί λόγῳ κρατούμενον. Ἡ δέ κατά χάριν γνῶσις, ὅλην ἔχει καί δίχα μελέτης, τήν ἐφικτήν ἀνθρώποις σοφίαν, πρός τάς χρείας ποικίλως βλυστάνουσαν.

λ΄. Τό ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς, καί τό μή τοιοῦτον, ἐξ αὐτοῦ μόνου, τοῦ, τό μέν ζωῆς ξύλον ὀνομασθῆναι· τό δέ, οὐ ζωῆς, ἀλλά μόνον γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ, πολλήν καί ἄφατον ἔχουσι τήν διαφοράν. Τό γάρ τῆς ζωῆς ξύλον, πάντως καί ζωῆς ἐστι ποιητικόν· τό δέ μή τῆς ζωῆς ξύλον, δῆλον ὅτι θανάτου ποιητικόν. Τό γάρ μή ποιητικόν ζωῆς, ἐκ τοῦ μή προσαγορευθῆναι ξύλον τῆς ζωῆς, θανάτου σαφῶς ἄν εἴη ποιητικόν· ἄλλο γάρ οὐδέν τῇ ζωῇ κατ᾿ ἐναντίωσιν ἀντιδιαιρεῖται.

λβ΄. Ἐπειδή ἐκ ψυχῆς νοερᾶς καί σώματος αἰσθητικοῦ συνεστώς πρός γένεσιν ἦλθεν ὁ ἄνθρωπος, ἔστω κατά μίαν ἐπιβολήν ξύλον ζωῆς ὁ τῆς ψυχῆς νοῦς, ἐν ᾧ τῆς σοφίας ὑπάρχει τό χρῆμα· ξύλον δέ γνωστόν καλοῦ καί πονηροῦ, ἡ τοῦ σώματος