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π΄. All the saints, having genuinely taken hold of the divine and unerring Word, passed through this age, not resting the footprint of their soul on any of its delights. For towards the highest reasonings about God attainable by men, I mean of His goodness and His charity, having most fittingly opened wide their mind; by which they were taught that God, having been moved, both gave being to things that are, and bestowed well-being; if indeed it is right to speak of motion in God, who alone is unmoved, but not rather of will, which both moves all things and brings them into being and sustains them, but is itself in no way ever moved.

πα΄. The soul, being an intellectual and rational substance, both intellects and reasons; having the intellect as its power; intellection as its motion; and the concept as its activity. For this is the limit of the intellection of both the one who intellects and the one who is intellected, being that which defines the relationship of the extremes to one another. For the soul, in intellecting. (1384) ceases from intellecting that which was intellected after its intellection. For that which has once been properly intellected, no longer summons the soul's power to be intellected again; and thus with respect to each concept it accepts a cessation of the specific intellection upon the concept of that which was intellected.

πβ΄. Just as ignorance is divisive for those who are in error, so the presence of intelligible light is unitive and unifiying for those who are illumined and perfecting and converting; converting them from many opinions to that which truly is, and gathering the diverse visions, or to speak more properly, appearances, into one true and pure and simple knowledge; and filling them with one and unitive light.

πγ΄. The beautiful is the same as the good, because all things desire the beautiful and the good for every reason, and there is nothing among beings that does not participate in the beautiful and the good. For to all, the beautiful and the good is truly admirable, desirable and lovely and pleasing and choice-worthy and beloved. Note how the divine love, pre-existing in the good, brought forth the good love in us, through which we desire the beautiful and the good, according to the one who said, *I became a lover of her beauty*. And, *Love her, and she will keep you; fence her about, and she will exalt you*.

πδ΄. The theologians call the divine sometimes love, sometimes charity, and sometimes the lovely and the beloved. Hence, as being love and charity, it is moved; but as lovely and beloved, it moves towards itself all things capable of love and charity. And to speak again more clearly, it is moved as producing an inward disposition of love and charity in those capable of them; but it moves, as being by nature attractive, the desire of those who are moved toward it. And again, it moves and is moved, as thirsting to be thirsted for, and loving to be loved, and cherishing to be cherished.

πε΄. Divine love is also ecstatic, not allowing lovers to be of themselves, but of their beloveds. And the superior things show this, by becoming provident for the inferior; and equals, by their coherence with one another; and the subordinate, by their diviner turning back towards the first things. Wherefore the great Paul, having come under the possession of divine love, and having partaken of its ecstatic power, says with inspired mouth, *I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me*; as a true lover and, as he himself says, beside himself for God, and living not his own life, but the life of the beloved, as being exceedingly cherished.

πστ΄. And this must be dared for truth's sake: (1385) that the Cause of all things Himself, through the beautiful and good love of all things, through an excess of loving goodness, goes out of Himself, in His providences for all existing things, and is, as it were, charmed by goodness and charity and love; and from being above all and separate from all, is brought down to be in all by an ecstatic, superessential power, without departing from Himself. Wherefore also those skilled in divine matters call Him jealous, as having a great good love for existing things, and as arousing desire to zeal.

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π΄. Οἱ ἅγιοι πάντες τοῦ θείου καί ἀπλανοῦς λόγου γνησίως ἐπειλημμένοι, τόν αἰῶνα τοῦτο διέβησαν, οὐδενί τῶν ἐν αὐτῷ τερπνῶν τό τῆς ψυχῆς ἴχνος ἐναπερείσαντες. Πρός γάρ τούς ἄκρους τῶν ἀνθρώποις ἐφικτῶν περί Θεοῦ λόγους, τῆς ἀγαθότητός τέ φημι καί τῆς ἀγάπης, μάλα γε εἰκότως τόν νοῦν ἀναπετάσαντες· οἷς κινηθέντα τόν Θεόν, τό εἶναί τε δοῦναι τοῖς οὖσι, καί τό εὖ εἶναι χαρίσασθαι, ἐπαιδεύθησαν· εἴπερ κίνησιν ἐπί Θεοῦ τοῦ μόνου ἀκινήτου θέμις εἰπεῖν, ἀλλά μή μᾶλλον βούλησιν, τήν πάντα κινοῦσάν τε καί εἰς τό εἶναι παράγουσαν καί συνέχουσαν, κινουμένην δέ οὐδαμῶς οὐδέποτε.

πα΄. Ἡ ψυχή οὐσία νοερά τε καί λογική ὑπάρχουσα, καί νοεῖ καί λογίζεται· δύναμιν μέν ἔχουσα τόν νοῦν· κίνησιν δέ, τήν νόησιν· ἐνέργειαν δέ, τό νόημα. Πέρας γάρ τοῦτο, τῆς τε τοῦ νοοῦντος καί τοῦ νοουμένου νοήσεώς ἐστιν, ὡς περιοριστικόν τῆς πρός ἄλληλα τῶν ἄκρων ὑπάρχον σχέσεως. Νοοῦσα γάρ ἡ ψυχή. (1384) ἵσταται τοῦ νοεῖν ἐκεῖνο τό νοηθέν μετά τήν αὐτοῦ νόησιν. Τό γάρ νοηθέν κυρίως ἅπαξ, οὐκέτι τήν πρός τό νοηθῆναι πάλιν ἐκκαλεῖται τῆς ψυχῆς δύναμιν· καί καθ᾿ ἕκαστον νόημα οὕτω στάσιν δέχεται τῆς ποιᾶς ἐπί τῷ νοήματι τοῦ νοηθέντος νοήσεως.

πβ΄. Ὥσπερ ἡ ἄγνοια διαιρετική τῶν πεπλανημένων ἐστίν, οὕτως ἡ τοῦ νοητοῦ φωτός παρουσία συναγωγός καί ἑνωτική τῶν φωτιζομένων ἐστί καί τελειωτική καί ἐπιστρεπτική· πρός τό ὄντως ὄν, ἀπό τῶν πολλῶν δοξασμάτων ἐπιστρέφουσα, καί τάς ποικίλας ὄψεις, ἤ κυριώτερον εἰπεῖν, φαντασίας, εἰς μίαν ἀληθῆ καί καθαράν καί μονοειδῆ συνάγουσα γνῶσιν· καί ἑνός καί ἑνωτικοῦ φωτός ἐμπιπλῶσα.

πγ΄. Ταὐτόν ἐστιν τῷ ἀγαθῷ τό καλόν, ὅτι τοῦ καλοῦ καί ἀγαθοῦ κατά πᾶσαν αἰτίαν πάντα ἐφίεται, καί οὐκ ἔστι τῶν ὄντων, ὅ μή μετέχει τοῦ καλοῦ καί ἀγαθοῦ. Πᾶσι γάρ ἐστι τό καλόν καί ἀγαθόν, ὡς ὄντως ἀγαστόν, ἐφετόν καί ἐραστόν καί ἀρεστόν καί αἱρετόν καί ἀγαπητόν. Σημείωσαι δέ πῶς ὁ θεῖος ἔρως ἐν τῷ ἀγαθῷ προϋπάρχων, ἔτεκε τόν ἐν ἡμῖν ἀγαθόν ἔρωτα, δι᾿ οὗ τοῦ καλοῦ καί ἀγαθοῦ ἐφιέμεθα, κατά τόν εἰπόντα, Ἐραστής ἐγενόμην τοῦ κάλλους αὐτῆς. Καί, Ἐράσθητι αὐτῆς, καί τηρήσει σε· περιχαράκωσον αὐτήν, καί ὑψώσει σε.

πδ΄. Τό θεῖον οἱ θεολόγοι, ποτέ μέν ἔρωτα, ποτέ δέ ἀγάπην, ποτέ δέ ἐραστόν καί ἀγαπητόν καλοῦσιν. Ὅθεν, ὡς μέν ἔρως ὑπάρχον καί ἀγάπη, κινεῖται· ὡς δέ ἐραστόν καί ἀγαπητόν, κινεῖ πρός ἑαυτό πάντα τά ἔρωτος καί ἀγάπης δεκτικά. Καί τρανότερον αὖθις φάναι, κινεῖται μέν ὡς σχέσιν ἐμποιοῦν ἐνδιάθετον ἔρωτος καί ἀγάπης τοῖς τούτων δεκτικοῖς· κινεῖ δέ, ὡς ἑλκτικόν φύσει, τῆς τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτό κινουμένων ἐφέσεως. Καί πάλιν κινεῖ καί κινεῖται, ὡς διψῶν τό διψᾶσθαι, καί ἐρῶν τό ἐρᾶσθαι, καί ἀγαπῶν τό ἀγαπᾶσθαι.

πε΄. Ἔστι δέ καί ἐκστατικός ὁ θεῖος ἔρως, οὐκ ἐῶν ἑαυτῶν εἶναι τούς ἐραστάς, ἀλλά τῶν ἐρωμένων. Καί δηλοῦσι τά μέν ὑπέρτερα, τῆς προνοίας τῶν καταδεεστέρων γινόμενα· καί τά ὁμόστοιχα, τῆς ἀλλήλων συνοχῆς· καί τά ὑφειμένα, τῆς πρός τά πρῶτα θειοτέρας ἐπιστροφῆς. ∆ιό καί Παῦλος ὁ μέγας ἐν κατοχῇ τοῦ θείου γεγονώς ἔρωτος, καί τῆς ἐκστατικῆς αὐτοῦ δυνάμεως μετειληφώς, ἐνθέῳ στόματι, Ζῷ ἐγώ,φησίν, οὐκέτι, ζῇ δέ ἐν ἐμοί Χριστός· ὡς ἀληθής ἐραστής καί ἐξεστηκώς, ὡς αὐτός φησί, τῷ Θεῷ, καί οὐ τήν ἑαυτοῦ ζῶν, ἀλλά τήν τοῦ ἐραστοῦ ζωήν, ὡς σφόδρα ἀγαπητήν.

πστ΄. Τολμητέον καί τοῦτο ὑπέρ ἀληθείας εἰπεῖν· (1385) ὅτι καί αὐτός ὁ πάντων αἴτιος, τῷ καλῷ καί ἀγαθῷ τῶν πάντων ἔρωτι, δι᾿ ὑπερβολήν τῆς ἐρωτικῆς ἀγαθότητος, ἔξω ἑαυτοῦ γίνεται, ταῖς εἰς τά ὄντα πάντα προνοίαις, καί οἷον ἀγαθότητι καί ἀγαπήσει καί ἔρωτι θέλγεται· καί ἐκ τοῦ ὑπέρ πάντα, καί πάντων ἐξῃρημένου, πρός τό ἐν πᾶσι κατάγεται κατ᾿ ἐκστατικήν ὑπερούσιον δύναμιν, ἀνεκφοίτητος ἑαυτοῦ. ∆ιό καί ζηλωτήν αὐτόν οἱ τά Θεῖα δεινοί προσαγορεύουσιν, ὡς πολύν τόν εἰς τά ὄντα ἀγαθόν ἔρωτα, καί ὡς πρός ζῆλον ἐγερτικόν τῆς ἐφέσεως