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is naturally wont to occupy all the more depth, the more it seemed likely to be emptied by its progression. For the disposition of wicked men, when carried out through works, does not depart from its depth, but also madly grazes on all external things, and in no way departs from its region in the soul.

From the same discourse, on the text, "Like a flower in winter completely out of season, and a man's adornment for a woman or a woman's for a man, or geometry for mourning."

Introducing the good order of every word and deed, according to which the principle of the seemliness of each and all things naturally appears unalloyed, through the enumeration of incongruous things, the Teacher says these things, so that through these things he might teach those who are rash and disordered and know no order to be well-ordered and reverent, in nothing, but especially in discourse about God, but who daringly mix and confuse all things together promiscuously. For if it belongs to things that have no nature, and for this reason no order, both the flower seen in winter, and the man's adornment put upon a woman, and a woman's on a man, and to speak of geometry joined with mourning (for the one innovates upon the season and departs from its own place, and the other debases nature by interchange, appearing on a man and a woman, and removes the order inherent in them by nature, and the third, by forcing into one what cannot coexist, I mean both joy and mourning, certainly mixes and destroys them), will not much more the discourse about God, when it is offered haphazardly and by any random person, and at a time and place when it is not fitting, be unsightly and unseemly, and not at all worthy to be heard concerning God, for whom I think those who have sense ought to place so much importance on timeliness, as incomparably preeminent among all things, and the Teacher says (1213) that geometry is unfitting for mourning. But what has made you more perplexed, I think, is in the following ways: either because those who have seized some country by military force divide it by geometry, when they wish to rule it by the law of kingdoms, and this is a matter of greatest joy, of joy, for those who pursue only present goods, both to become victors, and to acquire abundant wealth, for whom it is impossible for any mourning to be present; or because those skilled in these things say that compelling syllogisms are particularly attached to geometry, someone will reasonably appear offensive, not discerning what is fitting, who applies syllogisms to one who is mourning and tries to show that he is mourning irrationally; or perhaps one might say that for the mourner himself it is unfitting to reason syllogistically, contriving to persuade himself with plausible arguments that he has not suffered the misfortune that befell him in deed and in fact, or even to mourning itself, that is to its nature, it is entirely contrary. For just as mourning is driven out when the mourner reasons syllogistically, so too does mourning cease to be mourning, being transformed into syllogism. For when someone has lost the one in whom he had hopes of succession, he henceforth considers all things here superfluous. And perhaps in this way one might say that what has been considered is not beyond reason, having understood that joy and mourning cannot happen to one another at the same time, since the productive cause of each clearly does not have its origins from the same principles. And a reliable witness of these things is the holy and God-bearing Dionysius the Areopagite, who thus explains concerning angelic iconography: "And the geometrical and tectonic instruments, the foundational and architectural and perfecting, and whatever else belongs to the anagogical and converting providence of the secondaries." But all these things indicate a cheerful way of life, to which mourning is certainly contrary, and for this reason unfitting. If

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τοσοῦτον τό βάθος κατέχειν πέφυκε μᾶλλον, ὅσον κενοῦσθαι τῇ προόδῳ κατά τό εἰκός ἔδοξεν. Οὐ γάρ ἐξίσταται τοῦ βάθους πρφερομένη διά τῶν ἔργων ἡ τῶν μοχθηρῶν ἀνθρώπων διάθεσις, ἀλλά καί τά ἐκτός πάντα μανικῶς ἐπινέμεται, καί τῆς κατά ψυχήν οὐδαμῶς ἐξίσταται χώρας.

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, " Ὥσπερ ἄνθος ἐν χειμῶνι παντελῶς ἄωρον, καί γυναιξί κόσμος ἀνδρεῖος ἤ ἀνδράσι γυναικεῖος, ἤ πένθει γεωμετρία. "

Τήν ἐπί παντός λόγου τε καί πράγματος εὐταξίαν, καθ᾿ ἥν τῆς ἑκάστου καί πάντων εὐπρεπείας ὁ λόγος ἀναφαίνεσθαι πέφυκεν ἀκραιφνής, διά τῆς τῶν ἀπεμφαινόντων ἀπαριθμήσεως εἰσηγούμενος, ταῦτά φησιν ὁ διδάσκαλος, ἵνα διά τούτων εὐτάκτους εἶναι καί εὐλαβεῖς τούς θρασεῖς καί ἀτάκτους καί μηδεμίαν τάξιν εἰδότας, οὐδενός μέν, μάλιστα δέ τῆς περί Θεοῦ διαλέξεως, ἀλλά πάντα τολμηρῶς ἀλλήλοις παμμιγῶς τά διεστῶτα φύροντάς τε καί συγχέοντας διδάξειεν. Εἰ γάρ τῶν οὐκ ἐχόντων φύσιν ἐστί, καί διά τοῦτο οὐδέ τάξιν, τό τε ἄνθος ἐν χειμῶνι ὁρώμενον, καί γυναιξί κόσμος ἀνδρεῖος ἐπιβεβλημένος, καί ἀνδράσι γυναικεῖος, καί πένθει συνημμένην γεωμετρίαν λέγειν (τό μέν γάρ καινοτομεῖ τόν χρόνον καί τῆς ἰδίας ἐξίσταται θέσεως, ὁ δέ παραχαράττειν τήν φύσιν ἐναλλάξ, ἀνδρί τε καί γυναικί ἐπιφαινόμενος, καί τήν αὐτοῖς προσοῦσαν ἐκ φύσεως τάξιν ἐξίστησιν, ἡ δέ τά μηδέπω συνυπάρχειν ἀλλήλοις δυνάμενα, χαράν τέ φημι καί πένθος, εἰς ἕν ἀγαγεῖν βιαζομένη φύρει πάντως καί ἀφανίζει) , οὐ πολλῷ μᾶλλον ὁ περί Θεοῦ λόγος, ὡς ἔτυχε καί ὑπό τοῦ τυχόντος, καί ἡνίκα καί οὗ μή καθῆκον ἔτι προφερόμενος, ἀειδής ἔσται καί ἀπρεπής, καί οὐδ᾿ ὅλως ἀκουσθῆναι περί Θεοῦ ἄξιος, ἐφ᾿ οὗ μᾶλλον τοσοῦτον τιθέναι δεῖν οἶμαι τό εὔκαιρον τούς νοῦν ἔχοντας, ὅσον πάντων ἀσυγκρίτως προβεβλημένων, πένθει δέ γεωμετρίαν ἀνάρμοστόν φησιν (1213) ὁ διδάσκαλος. Ὁ δέ μᾶλλον ἀπορεῖν ὑμᾶς πεποίηκεν, ὡς οἶμαι, κατά τοιούσδε τρόπους, ἤ ὅτιπερ οἱ χώρας τινός διά στρατιωτικῆς κρατήσαντες χειρός γεωμετρίᾳ ταύτην καταδιαιροῦνται, ἡνίκα βασιλείας νόμῳ κρατεῖν ἐθέλωσι, χαρᾶς δέ καί χρῆμα μέγιστον, χαρᾶς, τοῖς μόνα τά παρόντα μεταδιώξουσιν ἀγαθά, καί τό νικητάς αὐτούς γενέσθαι, καί πλοῦτον ἀθρόον κτήσασθαι, οἶς τό οἱονοῦν πένθος συνεῖναι ἀμήχανον· ἤ ἐπειδή φασιν οἱ περί ταῦτα δεινοί τούς ἀναγκαστικούς ἰδίως συλλογισμούς ἀνῆφθαι τῇ γεωμετρίᾳ, φορτικός τις εἰκότως ὀφθήσεται, καί τό καθῆκον μή συνορῶν, τόν πενθοῦντα συλλογιζόμενος καί ἀλόγως αὐτόν πενθοῦντα δεῖξαι πειρώμενος· ἤ τυχόν καί αὐτῷ τῷ πενθοῦντι φαίη τις ἀνάρμοστον εἶναι τό συλλογίζεσθαι, πιθανότητι λόγων ἑαυτόν μηχανώμενος πείθειν ὡς οὐ πέπονθε τήν ἔργῳ καί πράγματι συμβᾶσαν αὐτῷ συμφοράν, ἤ καί αὐτῷ τῷ πένθει, ἤτοι τῇ τούτου φύσει, παντελῶς ἐναντίον. Ἐκκρούεται γάρ ὥσπερ τό πένθος ὁ πενθῶν συσυλλογιζόμενος, οὕτω καί τό πένθος τοῦ εἶναι πένθος ἐκπίπτει, πρός συλλογισμόν μετατιθέμενος. Ἀπολαβών γάρ τις τόν εἰς ὅν τάς ἐλπίδας εἶχε τῆς διαδοχῆς, περιττά λοιπόν ἡγεῖται τά τῇδε πάντα. Καί κατά τοῦτον ἴσως τόν τρόπον οὐκ ἔξω λόγου φαίη τις εἶναι τά θεωρηθέντα, γνούς μή δύνασθαι συμβαίνειν ἀλλήλοις κατά τό αὐτό τήν χαράν καί τό πένθος, τῆς ἑκατέρου ποιητικῆς αἰτίας οὐκ ἐκ τῶν αὐτῶν ἀρχῶν ἐχούσης δηλονότι τάς ἀφορμάς. Καί τούτων μάρτυς ἐχέγγυος ὁ ἅγιος καί θεόφρων ∆ιονύσιος ὁ Ἀρεοπαγίτης, οὐτωσί διεξιών περί τῆς ἀγγελικῆς εἰκονογραφίας· "Τά δέ γεωμετρικά καί τεκτονικά σκεύη, τό θεμελιωτικόν καί οἰκοδομικόν καί τελειωτικόν, καί ὅσα ἀλλα τῆς ἀναγωγοῦ καί ἐπιστρεπτικῆς ἐστι τῶν δευτέρων προνοίας." Ταῦτα δέ πάντα φαιδράν ἐνδείκνυται διαγωγήν, ᾗτινι πάντως τό πένθος ἐναντίον, καί διά τοῦτο ἀνάρμοστον. Εἰ