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were indeed equally ignorant as to what it is, and how, and of what kind, and when, but only the saints, who purified their soul with virtues and wholly turned its entire intellectual inclination towards divine things, truly alone knew that it would be, having heard the end of its present good order almost explicitly crying out, so to speak, from the universal nature of visible things itself, through the ways in which it is naturally constituted.

A natural contemplation on the world of necessity having an end. For, having surveyed the present world as scientifically as possible, and wisely unfolding the conceptual principle of the bodies variously fitted to one another within it, they found some of them to be sensible, perceptible, and universal, but all things to be contained in and transformed into all things by the exchange of the qualitative property of each. For the sentient are by nature contained by the sensible, and the sensible by the sentient according to perception, as perceptible things. And again, the universals are transformed into the particulars through alteration, while the particulars, being transformed into the universals through dissolution, perish. And for some, corruption occurs through the generation of others. For the conjunction of the universals with one another, producing the generation of the particulars, is the corruption of one another through alteration; and again, the dissolution of the particulars back into the universals by the breaking of their bond, introducing their corruption, is the permanence and generation of the universals. And having learned that this is the constitution of the sensible world—the mutual corruption and alteration of the bodies within it from which and in which it has its being—they were consequently taught of its consummation which must necessarily and sequentially come to be, because of the naturally unstable, alterable, and ever differently borne and transformed property of the universal bodies of which it is constituted, having rightly reasoned that it is neither possible, nor is it of a rational mind, to say that something is eternal which does not always remain the same, without turning and any alteration whatsoever, but is scattered and transformed in myriad ways.

A brief contemplation concerning the age to come, and what the chasm is between God and men, and what Lazarus and the bosom of the patriarch are.

Thence, rising above things seen, (1172) with greatness of mind they aimed at the end of all things which is certainly to come, in which none of the things that exist is any longer bearing and being borne, nor is there any motion of anything at all, since an ineffable stability has delimited the course and motion of things that are borne and moved. Desiring to arrive at this in their mind, while still clothed in corruptible flesh, they wisely crossed the chasm between God and men, having willingly detached themselves from their relationship to the flesh and the world. For the affection and disposition for the body and this world is truly a fearsome and great chasm between God and men. Lazarus, joyfully and nobly embracing the deprivation of these things (as both his sickness and his poverty show, the one causing his estrangement from the world, the other from the body), was deemed worthy to receive rest in the bosom of Abraham, leaving outside of that relief the rich man who was attached to these things, who had profited nothing else from the life in the flesh except to be endlessly tormented for it, since he had neither the present life, which alone he had desired and embraced (it being by nature unrestrainable in its flux), nor was he able to partake of the life to come, toward which he remained completely idle and unloving, with only

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μέν ὁμοίως ἠγνόησαν κατά τό τί ποτε εἶναι καί πῶς καί ποῖον καί πότε, μόνοι δέ ἀληθῶς μόνον ἐπέγνωσαν ἔσεσθαι οἱ τήν ψυχήν ἀρεταῖς ἐκκαθάραντες ἅγιοι, καί πρός τά θεῖα τήν ῥοπήν αὐτῆς ὅλην τήν νοεράν ὁλικῶς μετεγκλίναντες, αὐτῆς, ὡς εἰπεῖν, τῆς καθόλου τῶν ὁρατῶν φύσεως, δι᾿ ὧν συνίστασθαι πέφυκε τρόπων, τό τέλος τῆς παρούσης αὐτῆς εὐκοσμίας, μονονουχί διαῤῥήδην βοώσης, ἀκούσαντες.

Θεωρία φυσική περί τοῦ τέλος ἐξ ἀνάγκης ἔχειν τόν κόσμον. Περιαθρήσαντες γάρ, ὡς ἐνῆν μάλιστα, ἐπιστημόνως τόν παρόντα κόσμον, καί τῶν

ἐν αὐτῷ ποικίλως ἀλλήλοις συνηρμοσμένων σωμάτων, τόν συνεπτυγμένον κατ᾿ ἔννοιαν σοφῶς ἐξαπλώσαντες λόγον εὗρον τά μέν αὐτῶν αἰσθητά καί ἀντιληπτικά καί καθολικά, πάντα δέ πᾶσι περιεχόμενά τε καί περιτρεπόμενα τῇ ἐπαλλαγῇ τῆς περί ἕκαστον ποιᾶς ἰδιότητος. Τοῖς μέν γάρ αἰσθητοῖς περιέχεται κατά φύσιν τά αἰσθητικά, τά δέ αἰσθητά τοῖς αἰσθητικοῖς κατ᾿ αἴσθησιν, ὡς ἀντιληπτά. Καί πάλιν τά μέν καθόλου τοῖς μερικοῖς κατά ἀλλοίωσιν, τά δέ μερικά τοῖς καθόλου κατά ἀνάλυσιν περιτρεπόμενα φθείρεται. Καί τῶν μέν διά τῆς τῶν ἄλλων γενέσεως ἡ φθορά ἐπιγίνεται. Τῶν γάρ καθόλου ἡ πρός ἄλληλα σύνοδος τῶν μερικῶν ποιουμένη τήν γένεσιν ἀλλήλων τῇ ἀλλοιώσει ἐστί φθορά, καί τῶν αὖ μερικῶν ἡ κατά διάλυσιν τῆς συνδέσεως πρός τά καθόλου ἀνάλυσις τήν φθοράν ἐπεισάγουσα τῶν καθόλου ἐστί διαμονή καί γένεσις. Καί ταύτην εἶναι μαθόντες τοῦ αἰσθητοῦ κόσμου τήν σύστασιν, τήν εἰς ἄλληλα τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ σωμάτων ἐξ ὧν καί ἐν οἷς ὑφέστηκε δι᾿ ἀλλήλων φθοράν καί ἀλλοίωσιν, ἀκολούθως διά τῆς κατά φύσιν ἀστάτου καί ἀλλοιωτῆς καί ἄλλοτε ἄλλως φερομένης τε καί περιτρεπομένης καθόλου τῶν ἐξ ὧν συνέστηκε σωμάτων ἰδιότητος τήν ἐξ ἀνάγκης καθ᾿ εἱρμόν γενησομένην αὐτοῦ συντέλειαν ἐπαιδεύθησαν οὐκ εἶναι δυνατόν, οὔτε μήν λογικῆς συνέσεως ἀΐδιον φάναι τό μή ὡσαύτως ἔχον ἀεί, δίχα τροπῆς καί τῆς οἱασοῦν ἀλλοιώσεως, ἀλλά μυρίοις σκεδαννύμενον τρόποις καί περιτρεπόμενον, ὀρθῶς λογισάμενοι.

Θεωρία σύντομος περί τοῦ μέλλοντος, αἰῶνος, καί τί τό χάσμα ἐστί τό μεταξύ Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων, καί τί ὁ Λάζαρος καί ὁ κόλπος τοῦ πατριάρχου.

Ἐντεῦθεν τῶν ὁρωμένων ὑπεράνω γενόμενοι (1172) μεγαλοφυῶς τοῦ πάντως ἐσομένου τῶν ὅλων κατεστοχάσαντο πέρατος, ἐν ᾧ τι τῶν ὄντων οὐκέτι φέρον ἐστί καί φερόμενον, οὐδέ τις οὐδενός τό σύνολον κίνησις παγιότητος ἀῤῥήτου, τήν τῶν φερομένων τε καί κινουμένων φοράν τε ὁρισαμένης και κίνησιν. Πρός ὅ γενέσθαι κατά νοῦν ἐπιθυμήσαντες, ἔτι τήν ὑπό φθοράν περικείμενοι σάρκα ἐμφρόνως τό μεταξύ Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων χάσμα διέβησαν, σαρκός καί κόσμου κατά τήν σχέσιν ἑκουσίως ἀπογενόμενοι. Χάσμα γάρ ὡς ἀληθῶς φοβερόν τε καί μέγα μεταξύ Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν ἡ πρός τό σῶμα καί τόν κόσμον τοῦτον στοργή καί διάθεσις. Ὧν γενναίως τήν στέρησιν χαίρων στέρξας ὀ Λάζαρος (ὡς δηλοῖ ἤ τε νόσος καί ἡ πενία, ἡ μέν τήν πρός τόν κόσμον, ἡ δέ τήν πρός τό σῶμα ποιουμένη αὐτῷ ἀλλοτρίωσιν) τήν ἐν κόλποις Ἀβράαμ κατηξιώθη λαβεῖν ἀνάπαυσιν, τόν τούτοις προστετηκότα πλούσιον ἔξω ἀφείς τῆς ἀνέσεως, μηδέν ἄλλο τῆς διά σαρκός ὠφεληθέντα ζωῆς, πλήν τοῦ ἐπ᾿ αὐτῇ ἀπεράντως κολάζεσθαι, ὡς οὔτε τήν παροῦσαν ζωήν ἔχοντα, ἥν ποθήσας μόνην ἠσπάζετο, ἀκράτητον φύσει κατά τήν ῥεῦσιν ὑπάρχουσαν, οὔτε τῆς μελλούσης μεταλαχεῖν δυνάμενον, πρός ἥν ἀργός παντάπασι διέμεινε καί ἀνέραστος, μόνοις