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How and how many are the motions of the soul. For the soul has three general motions which are brought together into one, by

grace enlightened, the one according to the mind, the one according to reason, the one according to sense-perception, and the simple and inexpressible motion, by which the soul moves unknowingly around God and in no way (1113) recognizes him from any of the things that exist on account of his transcendence, and the definitive motion according to cause of the unknown, by which, moving naturally, it applies to itself through activity according to knowledge all the natural principles inherent in it which give form to what is known only according to cause, and the composite motion, by which, grasping external things as if from certain visible symbols, it models the principles for itself, through these they have magnificently traversed the present age of struggles according to the true and unerring mode of natural motion, having led up sense-perception, which bears the spiritual principles of sensible things simply through the medium of reason to the mind alone, and having united reason uniformly according to a single, simple, and indivisible understanding to the mind which holds the principles of beings, and having offered to God the mind purely released from its motion concerning all beings and at rest from its own natural activity, by which, having been gathered wholly to God, they were deemed worthy to be wholly mixed with the whole of God through the Spirit, bearing the whole image of the heavenly one, as far as is possible for men, and having drawn so much of the divine radiance, if it is right to say so, as they themselves were drawn and joined to God. For they say that God and man are paradigms of each other, and that God becomes human for man through loving-kindness to the same degree that man, through love, has been able to deify himself for God, and that man is seized up by God in his mind towards the knowable to the same degree that man has manifested the by nature invisible God through the virtues. Therefore, by this philosophy, which is constituted by reason and contemplation, through which the nature of the body is also of necessity ennobled, the saints, unerringly wounded with longing for God, through the natural manifestations toward the divine that were in them, came worthily to God, having athletically passed through body and world, beholding these things contained in each other, the one by nature, the other by sense, and the one falling under the other by a certain quality of alternation of the one with the other, and that neither of these is free of circumscription by its own proper principle, and considering it shameful to allow the immortal and ever-moving part of the soul to be corrupted and circumscribed by mortal and circumscribed things, they bound themselves indissolubly to God alone, the immortal and beyond all infinity, in no way yielding to the counter-attractions of the world and the flesh, which is the fulfillment of all virtue and knowledge, and, I think, also the end. But even if the saints have ever been moved by the spectacles of existing things, they have not been moved materially, as we are, with the primary purpose of beholding and knowing those things themselves, but rather that they might hymn in many ways God who is (1116) through all things and in all things and appears, and might gather for themselves a great power of wonder and a subject for doxology. For having received from God a soul possessing mind and reason and sense-perception, this sensible one in addition to the intelligible one, just as also uttered reason in addition to indwelling reason and the passible mind in addition to the intelligible mind (which they also call the imagination of the living creature, by which the other animals recognize both each other and us and the places through which they have passed, concerning which the wise say such things as that sense-perception consists, it being its organ, receptive of the things imagined by it), they thought it necessary to offer the activities of these, rightly not to themselves, but to God who gave them, through whom and from whom are all things. For there being three general

427

Πῶς καί πόσαι κινήσεις εἰσί ψυχῆς. Τρεῖς γάρ καθολικάς κινήσεις ἔχουσαν τήν ψυχήν εἰς μίαν συναγομένας, ὑπό τῆς

χάριτος φωτισθέντες, τήν κατά νοῦν, τήν κατά λόγον, τήν κατά αἴσθησιν, καί τήν μήν ἁπλῆν καί ἀνερμήνευτον, καθ᾿ ἥν ἀγνώστως περί Θεόν κινουμένη κατ᾿ οὐδένα τρόπον (1113) ἐξ οὐδενός τῶν ὄντων αὐτόν διά τήν ὑπεροχήν ἐπιγινώσκει, τήν δέ κατ᾿ αἰτίαν ὁριστικήν τοῦ ἀγνώστου καθ᾿ ἥν φυσικῶς κινουμένη τούς ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ φυσικούς πάντας λόγους τοῦ κατ᾿ αἰτίαν μόνον ἐγνωσμένου φορφωτικούς ὄντας ἑαυτῇ δι᾿ ἐνεργείας κατ᾿ ἐπιστήμην ἐπιτίθεται, τήν δέ σύνθετον, καθ᾿ ἥν τῶν ἐκτός ἐφαπτομένη ὡς ἔκ τινων συμβόλων τῶν ὁρατῶν τούς λόγους πρός ἑαυτήν ἀναμμάσσεται, μεγαλοφυῶς διά τούτων κατά τόν ἀληθῆ καί ἄπταιστον τῆς κατά φύσιν κινήσεως τρόπον τόν παρόντα τῶν σκαμμάτων αἰῶνα διέβησαν, τήν μέν αἴσθησιν, ἁπλοῦς διά μέσου τοῦ λόγου πρός τόν νοῦν τούς τῶν αἰσθητῶν πνευματικούς λόγους ἔχουσαν μόνους ἀναβιβάσαντες, τόν δέ λόγον ἑνοειδῶς κατά μίαν ἁπλῆν τε καί ἀδιαίρετον φρόνησιν πρός τόν νοῦν τούς τῶν ὄντων ἔχοντα λόγους ἑνώσαντες, τόν δέ νοῦν τῆς περί τά ὄντα πάντα κινήσεως καθαρῶς ἀπολυθέντα καί αὐτῆς τῆς καθ᾿ αὑτόν φυσικῆς ἐνεργείας ἡρεμοῦντα τῷ Θεῷ προσκομίσαντες, καθ᾿ ὅν ὁλικῶς πρός Θεόν συναχθέντες, ὅλοι ὅλω Θεῷ ἐγκραθῆναι διά τοῦ πνεύματος ἠξιώθησαν, ὅλην τοῦ ἐπουρανίου κατά τό δυνατόν ἀνθρώποις τήν εἰκόνα φορέσαντες, καί τοσοῦτο ἕλξαντες τῆς θείας ἐμφάσεως, εἰ θέμις τοῦτο εἰπεῖν, ὅσον ἐλχθέντες αὐτοί τῷ Θεῷ συνετέθησαν. Φασί γάρ ἀλλήλων εἶναι παραδείγματα τόν Θεόν καί τόν ἄνθρωπον, καί τοσοῦτον τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ τόν Θεόν διά φιλανθρωπίαν ἀνθρωπίζεσθαι, ὅσον ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἑαυτόν τῷ Θεῷ δι᾿ ἀγάπης δυνηθείς ἀπεθέωσε, καί τοσοῦτον ὑπό Θεοῦ τόν ἄνθρωπον κατά νοῦν ἁρπάζεσθαι πρός τό γνωστόν, ὅσον ὁ ἄνθρωπος τόν ἀόρατον φύσει Θεόν διά τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐφανέρωσεν. Ὑπό ταύτης τοίνυν τῆς κατά λόγον καί θεωρίαν συνισταμένης φιλοσοφίας, καθ᾿ ἥν καί ἡ τοῦ σώματος ἐξ ἀνάγκης εὐγενίζεται φύσις, ἀπλανῶς πρός τόν τοῦ Θεοῦ πόθον τρωθέντες οἱ ἅγιοι διά τῶν ἐνουσῶν αὐτοῖς πρός τά θεῖα φυσικῶν ἐμφάσεων ἀξιοπρεπῶς πρός τόν Θεόν παρεγένοντο, σῶμα καί κόσμον ἀθλητικῶς διασχόντες, ἀλλήλοις ταῦτα περιεχόμενα θεώμενοι, τόν μέν φύσει, τό δέ αἰσθήσει, καί θατέρῳ θάτερον ὑποπίπτον, τῇ κατ᾿ ἐπαλλαγήν θατέρου πρός τό ἕτερον ποιᾷ ἰδιότητι, καί μηδέν τούτων τῷ καθ᾿ ἑαυτόν λόγῳ περιγραφῆς ὑπάρχον ἐλεύθερον, καί αἰσχρόν ἡγησάμενοι τοῖς θνητοῖς καί περιγραπτοῖς ἐμφθείρεσθαί τε καί περιγράφεσθαι τῆς ψυχῆς ἐᾶν τό ἀθάνατον καί ἀεικίνητον μόνῳ Θεῷ τῷ ἀθανάτῳ καί πάσης ἀπειρίας ἀνωτέρω ἀλύτως ἑαυτούς ἀνέδησαν, οὐδαμῶς ταῖς κόσμου καί σαρκός ἀνθολκαῖς ἐνδίδοντες, ὅπερ ἐστί πάσης ἀρετῆς τε καί γνώσεως πλήρωσις, οἶμαι δέ ὅτι καί τέλος. Ἀλλά κἄν εἴποτε περί τά τῶν ὄντων θεάματα κεκίνηνται οἱ ἅγιοι, οὐκ ἐπί τῷ αὐτά ἐκεῖνα προηγουμένως θεάσασθαί τε καί γνῶναι καθ' ἡμᾶς ὑλικῶς κεκίνηνται, ἀλλ᾿ ἵνα τόν διά (1116) πάντων καί ἐν πᾶσιν ὄντα τε καί φαινόμενον Θεόν πολυτρόπως ὑμνήσωσι καί πολλήν ἑαυτοῖς συναγείρωσι θαύματος δύναμιν καί δοξολογίας ὑπόθεσιν. Ψυχήν γάρ εἰληφότες παρά Θεοῦ νοῦν καί λόγον καί αἴσθησιν ἔχουσαν πρός τῇ νοητῇ καί ταύτην τήν αἰσθητήν, ὥσπερ καί λόγον πρός τῷ ἐνδιαθέτῳ τόν κατά προφοράν καί νοῦν πρός τῷ νοητῷ τόν παθητικόν (ὅν καί φαντασίαν καλοῦσι τοῦ ζώου, καθ᾿ ὅν καί τά λοιπά ζῶα καί ἄλληλα καί ἡμᾶς καί τούς τόπους οὕς διώδευσαν ἐπιγινώσκουσι, περί ἥν συνίστασθαι τήν αἴσθησίν φασιν οἱ σοφοί τά τοιαῦτα, ὄργανον αὐτῆς οὖσαν ἀντιληπτικόν τῶν αὐτῇ φαντασθέντων), δεῖν ᾠήθησαν τούτων τας ἐνεργείας, εἰκότως οὐχ ἑαυτοῖς, ἀλλά τῷ δεδωκότι Θεῷ, δι᾿ ὅν καί ἐξ οὗ πάντα, προσενέγκαι. Τρεῖς γάρ ὄντας καθολικούς