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57. He says evil is something that has a beginning; for it has its beginning in our motion contrary to nature; but the good is not something that has a beginning; for before every age and time, the good is by nature. He says the good is intelligible, which alone one must understand; and He says the good is expressible, for it alone must be spoken. And He says the good is something that comes into being; for while being unbegotten by nature, by grace through loving-kindness it endures to come into being from us, for the deification of us who do and speak it, which must be the one single thing that comes to be; but evil is not something that is made, which is the only thing that must not come to be. He says evil is corruptible; for the nature of evil is corruption, having in no way any existence at all; but the good is incorruptible, as always being, and never ceasing to be, and is the guardian of all things in which it comes to be. This, at least, we seek with the rational faculty; with the desiderative, we long for it; with the irascible, we guard it inviolate; with the perceptive faculty according to knowledge, we distinguish it as unmixed with its opposites; with the vocal faculty, by speaking it we make it manifest to those who are ignorant; and with the generative faculty, we multiply it; or rather, to speak truly, we are multiplied according to it.

58. The contemplative mind, reigning over the concepts and spectacles in existing things, and over its own movements, must have a habit barren of wickedness; that is, a habit that neither conceives wickedness at all, nor gives birth to it; upon which it must be borne as it moves in contemplation, lest, while making a spiritual investigation of beings, he may unawares fall prey to one of the wicked spirits that are wont to corrupt, through one of the senses, the pure disposition of the heart.

59. (1288) He who is wounded by some vainglory because of virtue or knowledge, nourishing in vain the hair, as it were, of conceit, like Absalom, displays a contrived and mixed moral conduct, like a mule, for the deception of those who see him; suspended upon which, he thinks to overcome the father who begot him through the teaching of the word, wishing, as an arrogant man, to draw tyrannically to himself all the glory from God of virtue and knowledge that belongs to the father. But such a one, having gone out into the breadth of natural contemplation in the spirit, to the rational war for the sake of truth, because of living perception, is caught by the hair in the thicket of the oak of material spectacles, having the empty conceit itself binding him to death, which suspends him between heaven and between earth. For the vainglorious man does not have knowledge, like a heaven, drawing him in from the conceit that pulls him down; nor again earth, I mean the basis of practice in humility, pulling him down from the puffing up that pulls him up; whom, even when dead, the teacher who begot him mourns through loving-kindness, as a lover of God, in imitation of God, not willing the death of the sinner, but that he should turn and live.

60. The beginning and end of each one's salvation is wisdom; at the beginning it first creates fear, and later, being perfected, it establishes longing; or rather, it becomes fear at first economically for our sake, so that it may stop the lover of wickedness, and later, it is found naturally as longing for its own sake at the end, so that it may fill with intelligible laughter those who have exchanged the cohabitation of all beings for it.

61. Wisdom is also fear, becoming a deprivation according to avoidance, for those who do not desire it; and it is longing, a habit of enjoyable energy, being found by those who love it. For this, by delivering from passions with the hope of punishment, also makes fear; and it works longing, by the acquisition of virtues habituating the mind to see future things.

62. All confession humbles the soul; the one, being justified by the grace of God; the other, teaching itself, being held to account for its own judgment in crimes due to negligence.

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νζ΄. Ἠργμένον λέγει, τό κακόν· ἀρχήν γάρ ἔχει τήν ἡμῶν παρά φύσιν κίνησιν· οὐκ ἠργμένον δέ, τό ἀγαθόν· πρό παντός γάρ αἰῶνος καί χρόνου, φύσει τό ἀγαθόν. Νοητόν λέγει τό ἀγαθόν, ὅ δεῖ μόνον νοεῖν· ῥητόν δέ λέγει τό ἀγαθόν, αὐτό γάρ δεῖ μόνον λαλεῖσθαι. Καί γινόμενον λέγει τό ἀγαθόν· κατά φύσιν γάρ ὑπάρχον ἀγέννητον, κατά χάριν διά φιλανθρωπίαν παρ᾿ ἡμῶν ἀνέχεται γίνεσθαι, πρός τήν ἡμῶν τῶν ποιούντων καί λαλούντων ἐκθέωσιν, ὅπερ δεῖ μονώτατον γίνεσθαι· οὐ ποιούμενον δέ τό κακόν, ὅπερ δεῖ μόνον μή γίνεσθαι. Φθαρτόν λέγει τό κακόν· φθορά γάρ ἐστιν ἡ τοῦ κακοῦ φύσις, οὐδαμῶς κατ᾿ οὐδέν ὕπαρξιν ἔχουσα· ἄφθαρτον δέ τό ἀγαθόν, ὡς ἀεί ὄν, καί μηδέποτε τοῦ εἶναι παυόμενον, καί πάντων οἷς ἐγγίνηται, φρουρητικόν. Τοῦτο γοῦν, τῷ μέν λογιστικῷ, ζητοῦμεν· τῷ δέ ἐπιθυμητικῷ, ποθοῦμεν· τῶ δέ θυμικῷ φυλάττομεν ἄσυλον· τῷ δ᾿ αἰσθητικῷ κατ᾿ ἐπιστήμην, ἀμιγές αὐτό τῶν ἐναντίων διακρίνομεν· τῷ δέ φωνητικῷ, λαλοῦντες αὐτό ποιοῦμεν τοῖς ἀγνοοῦσι φανερόν· καί τῷ γονίμῳ, πληθύνομεν αὐτό· μᾶλλον δ᾿ ἀληθές εἰπεῖν, ἡμεῖς κατ᾿ αὐτό πληθυνόμεθα.

νη΄. ∆εῖ τόν θεωρητικόν νοῦν, βασιλεύοντα τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι νοημάτων τε καί θεαμάτων, καί τῶν οἰκείων κινημάτων, ἕξιν ἄγονον ἔχειν κακίας· τουτέστι, κακίαν μήτε συλλαμβάνουσαν παντελῶς, μήτε τίκτουσαν· ἐφ᾿ ἧς αὐτόν δεῖ περί θεωρίαν κινούμενον φέρεσθαι, μήπως πνευματικήν ποιούμενος τήν τῶν ὄντων διάσκεψιν, λαθών περιπέσῃ τινί τῶν παραφθείρειν διά τινός τῶν αἰσθητῶν πεφυκότων πονηρῶν πνευμάτων, τήν ἁγνή τῆς καρδίας διάθεσιν.

νθ΄. (1288) Ὁ κενοδοξίᾳ τινί, δι᾿ ἀρετήν ἤ γνῶσιν τρωθείς, τήν κόμην ματαίως διατρέφων, καθάπερ Ἀβεσαλών, τῆς οἰήσεως, ἐπιτετεχνασμένην τε καί μικτήν ὥσπερ ἡμίονον πρός ἀπάτην τῶν θεωμένων, τήν ἠθικήν ἐπιδείκνυται πολιτείαν· ἐφ᾿ ἧς αἰωρούμενος, οἴεται τόν γεννήσαντα διά τῆς διδασκαλίας τοῦ λόγου πατέρα χειρώσασθαι, πᾶσαν βουλόμενος τήν τῷ πατρί προσοῦσαν θεόθεν δόξαν τῆς ἀρετῆς καί τῆς γνώσεως, ὡς ὑπερήφανος εἰς ἑαυτόν τυραννικῶς ἐφελκύσασθαι. Ἀλλ᾿ ὁ τοιοῦτος ἐξελθών εἰς τό πλάτος τῆς ἐν πνεύματι φυσικῆς θεωρίας, πρός τόν ὑπέρ ἀληθείας λογικόν πόλεμον, διά τήν ζῶσαν αἴσθησιν, τῷ δάσει τῆς δρυός τῶν ὑλικῶν θεαμάτων κρατεῖται τῆς κόμης, αὐτήν ἔχων συνδεσμοῦσαν πρός θάνατον, τήν διάκενον οἴησιν, τήν κρεμνοῦσαν αὐτόν ἀναμέσον τοῦ οὐρανοῦ, καί ἀναμέσον τῆς γῆς. Οὐ γάρ ἔχει γνῶσιν ὁ κενόδοξος, καθάπερ οὐρανόν ἐνέλκουσαν αὐτόν τῆς κατασπώσης οἰήσεως· οὐδ᾿ αὖ πάλιν γῆν, τήν ἐν τῇ ταπεινώσει λέγω βάσιν τῆς πράξεως, καθέλκουσαν αὐτόν τῆς ἀνασπώσης φυσιώσεως· ὅν πενθεῖ καί θανόντα διά φιλανθρωπίαν ὡς φιλόθεος ὁ γεννήσας διδάσκαλος, μιμήσει Θεοῦ, μή βουλόμενος τόν θάνατον τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ, ὡς τό ἐπιστρέψει, καί ζῇν αὐτόν.

ξ΄. Ἀρχή καί τέλος ἐστί τῆς ἑκάστου σωτηρίας, ἡ σοφία· φόβον μέν ἀρχομένη πρῶτον δημιουργοῦσα, καί πόθον ὕστερον τελειουμένη συνιστῶσα· μᾶλλον δέ φόβος αὐτή κατ᾿ ἀρχάς δι᾿ ἡμᾶς οἰκονομικῶς γινομένη, ἵνα παύσῃ κακίας τόν ἐραστήν, καί πόθος ὕστερον φυσικῶς εὑρισκομένη δι᾿ ἑαυτήν κατά τό τέλος, ἵνα πληρώσῃ γέλωτος νοητοῦ, τούς τήν αὐτῆς πάντων τῶν ὄντων ἀλλαξαμένους συμβίωσιν.

ξα΄. Ἡ σοφία καί φόβος ἐστί, κατά τήν ἀποφυγήν γινομένη στέρησις, τοῖς οὐκ ὀρεγομένοις αὐτῆς· καί πόθος ἐστίν, ἕξις ἀπολαυστικῆς ἐνεργείας εὑρισκομένη τοῖς ἀγαπῶσιν αὐτήν. Αὕτη γάρ ἐλπίδι κολάσεως παθῶν ἀπαλλάσσουσα, καί φόβον ποιεῖ· καί πόθον ἐργάζεται, τῇ τῶν ἀρετῶν ἐπικτήσει τόν νοῦν ἐθίζουσα βλέπειν τά μέλλοντα.

ξβ΄. Πᾶσα ἐξομολόγησις, ταπεινοῖ τήνψυχήν· ἡ μέν, χάριτι Θεοῦ δικαιωθεῖσαν· ἡ δέ, ῥαθυμίᾳ γνώμην οἰκείας ἐπ᾿ ἐγκλήμασιν ἐνεχομένην, αὐτήν ἐκδιδάσκουσα.