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67. Things caused are all things brought forth into creation; whether in heaven, or on earth; and causes are the things which brought them forth, that is, the three hypostases of the holy Trinity. It is therefore manifest that there is no resemblance of these to one another, I mean of causes and things caused.

68. It is necessary to know that our intellect has, on the one hand, the power for intellection, through which it sees intelligible things; and on the other hand, a union surpassing the nature of the intellect, through which it is joined to the things beyond itself. According to this, therefore, divine things are to be intellected, not according to ourselves; but as whole selves, standing out from our whole selves, and becoming wholly of God. For it is better to be of God, and not of ourselves. For thus will divine things be given to those who become with God.

69. The intellect, wishing to intellect, goes down from itself, descending into intellections. For intellections are inferior to that which intellects, as they are intellected and apprehended, and are fittingly a scattering and division of the unity of the intellect itself. For the intellect is simple and without parts; but intellections are very numerous and scattered, and are like species of the intellect. For this reason the intelligent, that is those who intellect, are less than the intelligible, that is, those things which are intellected. (1377) And he speaks of a union of the intellect, as he says more clearly in the following, through which it is stretched out towards the things beyond itself, that is, it applies itself to the contemplation concerning God; that is, to stand out from all sensible and intelligible things, and even from its own movement; and then thus to receive the ray of divine knowledge.

70. If the intelligent one is moved intelligently in a manner analogous to itself, it also intellects in every way; and if it intellects, it also loves in every way that which is intellected; and if it loves, it also suffers in every way an ecstasy towards it as the beloved; and if it suffers, it is clear that it also presses on; and if it presses on, it also intensifies in every way the vehemence of its movement. And if it intensifies its movement vehemently, it does not stop until it becomes whole in the whole of the beloved, and is willingly encompassed by the whole, accepting wholly by choice the saving circumscription [male edida δεδομένον]; so that the whole may be qualitied by the whole which circumscribes it, so as no longer to wish that the whole circumscribed thing be able to be known at all from itself; but from that which circumscribes it, as air is wholly illumined by light; and iron made wholly white-hot by fire, or if there is anything else of this kind.

71. Great is the relation of those who intellect to the things intellected, and of those who sense to sensible things. But man, being of soul and a sensible body, through a natural relation and property by turns towards each of the parts of creation, is both circumscribed and circumscribes; the one, by substance; the other, by power. For being soul and body, he is by nature circumscribed by intelligible and sensible things, and he is by nature able to circumscribe these things by his power, as one who intellects and senses; but God is simply and indefinitely beyond all beings, both those which contain and those which are contained, as being completely without relation to all things.

72. All pleasure from forbidden things is by nature produced from passion through the medium of sense towards some sensible thing. For pleasure is nothing other than a form of sensation, being formed in the faculty of sense by some sensible object; or a mode of sensible activity, constituted according to irrational desire. For desire, when added to sensation, changes into pleasure, bringing a form to it; and sensation, when moved according to desire, produces pleasure, having taken on the sensible object. Therefore, the saints, knowing that the soul, being moved contrary to nature towards matter through the medium of the flesh, takes on the form of dust, they themselves, being moved rather through the medium of the soul according to nature towards God, resolved to appropriate the flesh fittingly to God, through the practice of virtues possibly adorning it with divine manifestations.

73. Magnanimously the saints, according to the true and (1380) unerring mode of movement according to nature, passed through the present age of struggles; sensation, on the one hand,

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ξζ΄. Αἰτιατά ἐστι, πάντα τά παραχθέντα εἰς κτίσιν· εἴτε ἐν οὐρανῷ, εἴτε ἐπί γῆς· αἴτια δέ, τά παραγαγόντα, τουτέστιν, αἱ τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις τῆς ἁγίας Τριάδος. Πρόδηλον οὖν, ὅτι οὐδεμία ἐμφέρεια τούτων πρός ἄλληλα, αἰτίων φημί καί αἰτιατῶν.

ξη΄. ∆έον εἰδέναι τόν καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς νοῦν, τήν μέν ἔχειν δύναμιν εἰς τό νοεῖν, δι᾿ ἧς τά νοητά βλέπει· τήν δέ ἕνωσιν ὑπεραίρουσαν τοῦ νοῦ τήν φύσιν, δι' ἧς συνάπτεται πρός τά ἐπέκεινα ἑαυτοῦ. Κατά ταύτην οὖν τά θεῖα νοητέον, οὐ καθ᾿ ἡμᾶς· ἀλλ᾿ ὅλους ἑαυτούς, ὅλων ἑαυτῶν ἐξισταμένους, καί ὅλους Θεοῦ γινομένους. Κρεῖττον γάρ εἶναι Θεοῦ, καί μή ἑαυτῶν. Οὕτω γάρ ἔσται τά θεῖα δοτά τοῖς μετά Θεοῦ γινομένοις.

ξθ΄. Ὁ νοῦς νοεῖν βουλόμενος, κάτεισιν ἑαυτοῦ εἰς τάς νοήσεις καταβαίνων. Αἱ γάρ νοήσεις, κατώτεραί εἰσι τοῦ νοοῦντος, ὡς νοούμεναι καί καταλαμβανόμεναι, καί σκεδασμός εἰκότως καί μερισμός τῆς ἑνότητος τοῦ νοῦ αὐτοῦ. Ὁ μέν γάρ νοῦς, ἁπλοῦς καί ἀμερής· αἱ δέ νοήσεις, παμπληθεῖς καί σκεδασταί, καί οἷον εἴδη τοῦ νοῦ. ∆ιά τοῦτο τά νοερά, τουτέστι τά νοοῦντα, ἐλάττονά ἐστι τῶν νοητῶν, ἤγουν τῶν νοουμένων. (1377) Ἕνωσιν δέ φησι τοῦ νοῦ, καθώς ἐν τοῖς ἑξῆς σαφέστερον λέγει, δι᾿ ἧς πρός τά ἐπέκεινα ἑαυτοῦ ἀνατείνεται, ἤγουν τῇ περί Θεοῦ προσβάλλει θεωρίᾳ· τό, πάντων ἐκστῆναι τῶν αἰσθητῶν καί τῶν νοητῶν, ἔτι δέ καί τῆς οἰκείας κινήσεως· εἴθ᾿ οὕτως τῆς θείας γνώσεως δέξασθαι τήν ἀκτῖνα.

ο΄. Εἰ κινεῖται ἀναλόγως ἑαυτῷ νοερῶς τόν νοερόν, καί νοεῖ πάντως· εἰ δέ νοεῖ, καί ἐρᾷ πάντως τοῦ νοηθέντος· εἰ δέ ἐρᾷ, καί πάσχει πάντως τήν πρός αὐτό ὡς ἐραστόν ἔκστασιν· εἰ δέ πάσχει, δῆλον ὅτι καί ἐπείγεται· εἰ δέ ἐπείγεται, καί ἐπιτείνει πάντως τό σφοδρόν τῆς κινήσεως. Εἰ δέ ἐπιτείνει σφοδρῶς τήν κίνησιν, οὐχ ἵσταται μέχρις ἄν γένηται ὅλον ἐν ὅλῳ τῷ ἐραστῷ, καί ὑφ᾿ ὅλου περιληφθῇ ἑκουσίως, ὅλον κατά προαίρεσιν τήν σωτήριον περιγραφήν δεχόμενον [male edida δεδομένον]· ἵν᾿ ὅλον ὅλῳ ποιωθῇ τῷ περιγράφοντι, ὡς μηδ᾿ ὅλως λοιπόν βούλεσθαι ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ αὐτό ἐκεῖνο ὅλον γνωρίζεσθαι δύνασθαι τό περιγραφόμενον· ἀλλ᾿ ἐκ τοῦ περιγράφοντος, ὡς ἀήρ διόλου πεφωτισμένος φωτί· καί πυρί σίδηρος ὅλος ὅλῳ πεπυρακτωμένος, ἤ εἴ τι ἄλλο τῶν τοιούτων ἐστί.

οα΄. Πολλή ἡ πρός τά νοούμενα τῶν νοούντων, καί πρός τά αἰσθητά τῶν αἰσθανομένων σχέσις. Ὁ δέ ἄνθρωπος ἐκ ψυχῆς καί σώματος τυγχάνων αἰσθητικοῦ, διά τῆς κατ᾿ ἐπαλλαγήν πρός ἑκάτερα τά τῆς κτίσεως τμήματα φυσικῆς σχέσεώς τε καί ἰδιότητος, καί περιγράφεται καί περιγράφει· τό μέν, τῇ οὐσίᾳ· τό δέ, τῇ δυνάμει. Περιγράφεσθαι γάρ τοῖς νοητοῖς καί αἰσθητοῖς ὡς ψυχή τυγχάνων καί σῶμα, καί περιγράφειν ταῦτα κατά δύναμιν πέφυκεν, ὡς νοῶν καί αἰσθανόμενος· ὁ δέ Θεός ἁπλῶς καί ἀορίστως ὑπέρ πάντα τά ὄντα ἐστί, τά περιέχοντά τε καί περιεχόμενα, ὡς πᾶσι παντελῶς ἄσχετος ὤν.

οβ΄. Πᾶσα ἡδονή τῶν ἀπηγορευμένων, ἐκ πάθους διά μέσης αἰσθήσεως πρός τι πάντως γίνεσθαι πέφυκεν αἰσθητόν. Οὐδέ γάρ ἄλλο τί ἐστιν ἡδονή, ἤ εἶδος αἰσθήσεως, ἐν τῷ αἰσθητικῷ τινος αἰσθητοῦ μορφουμένη· ἤ τρόπος αἰσθητικῆς ἐνεργείας, κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν ἄλογον συνιστάμενος. Ἐπιθυμία γάρ αἰσθήσει προστεθεῖσα, εἰς ἡδονήν μεταπίπτει, εἶδος αὐτῇ ἐπάγουσα· καί αἴσθησις κατ᾿ ἐπιθυμίαν κινηθεῖσα, ἡδονήν ἀπεργάζεται, τό αἰσθητόν προσλαβοῦσα. Γνόντες οὖν οἱ ἅγιοι, ὅτι διά μέσης σαρκός πρός τήν ὕλην ἡ ψυχή παρά φύσιν κινουμένη τήν χοϊκήν μορφήν ὑποδύεται, διά μέσης μᾶλλον ψυχῆς κατά φύσιν αὐτοί πρός τόν θεόν κινούμενοι, καί τήν σάρκα τῷ Θεῷ πρεπόντως οἰκειῶσαι διενοήθησαν, δι᾿ ἀσκήσεως ἀρετῶν ἐνδεχομένως αὐτήν ταῖς θείαις ἐμφάσεσι καλλωπίσαντες.

ογ΄. Μεγαλοφυῶς οἱ ἅγιοι κατά τόν ἀληθῆ καί (1380) ἄπταιστον τῆς κατά φύσιν κινήσεως τρόπον, τόν παρόντα τῶν σκαμμάτων αἰῶνα διέβησαν· τήν μέν αἴσθησιν,