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is forced to say and to be nowhere, and for this reason that the Divine indeed is and exists, but what it is and exists, not to know. For if where the Divine is, is unknown according to them, much more will the Divine itself, whatever it is according to substance, be more unknown. Wherefore they, being pious, must of necessity confess that what is not known is nowhere. For this reason, I think, condescending to those around Eunomius, the teacher cast doubt on the antithesis, placing the adverb "perhaps," and illuminating for us to understand that "nowhere" does not in every case introduce that which is in no way existent. For we say that God is, and happens to be nowhere, in that He is not circumscribed essentially in a place according to His existence, and that He is in every way, in that He is wholly needed by all beings for their being, without which He both was and is, and will always be able to be, or rather He is always. For He who exists even before beings are, does not have beings by position. For if with us craftsmen do not have their being according to their existence circumscribed hypostatically in their artificial products in every case, this perishable thing, and, to speak more truly and properly, never being, what might one say about the ineffable and unknown and incomprehensible power, which is for all alike and always in the same state?

From the same discourse, on the text, "Whether it was some daytime phantasy, or a true vision of the night, or an impression on the ruling faculty, consorting with future things as if they were present."

This blessed Father, having been completely purified from those things by which human nature is wont to be defiled, through practical philosophy, and having his mind wholly qualified by the Holy Spirit with the conceptions of divine contemplations, through the true initiation according to knowledge, having experienced things equal to the holy prophets, enumerated for us in these words the kinds of prophecy. If indeed we should at all dare to apply ourselves to these words spoken so magnificently and divinely, which surpass the power of all who are not such as the teacher himself was, we think it useful to do this conjecturally, not declaratively. I think, therefore, speaking conjecturally according to my own dullness, that by "daytime phantasy" he meant the vision and echo of words and things heard and seen spiritually, as if through the senses, by the saints impersonally. For indeed it is not right to say that in divine matters the wondrous must in all cases be present for the formation (1236) of the phantasy, but that paradoxically and supernaturally, and with no person being present and with no sensible voices resounding through the air, the phantasy operates, so that the one being initiated into divine things truly hears and sees. For since every phantasy is either of things present, or of things past; but of things not yet come to be it is in no way at all. For it is a relation mediating for the extremities through itself. And by extremities I mean both the imaginative faculty and the imaginable object, from which, through the medium of the phantasy, which is a relation of the extremities, the mental image is produced, being a limit of activity and passivity, of activity on the part of the imaginative faculty, and of passivity on the part of the imaginable object, these being extremities joined to each other through the medium of the phantasy, which is a relation of them concerning it. For all things that apprehend others in some way are said to act, and all things that are subject to others in some way, to be passive. Therefore, things that apprehend act naturally, and things that are apprehended are passive naturally, having as a limit of their passivity and activity their conjunction with each other according to the mean. For this reason I think it fitting to suppose that in divine matters the imaginable object is not present, since what is already present in reality according to its own hypostasis is no longer about to be present, and at the same time it is not believed to be divine, of the according to nature

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λέγειν βιάζεται καί μηδαμοῦ εἶναι, καί διά τοῦτο εἶναι μέν καί ὑπάρχειν τό Θεῖον, τί δέ εἶναι καί ὑπάρχειν μή εἰδέναι. Εἰ γάρ τό ποῦ τό Θεῖον εἶναι κατ᾿ αὐτούς ἄγνωστον, πολλῷ μᾶλλον αὐτό τό Θεῖον, ὅ τί ποτε κατ᾿ οὐσίαν ἐστίν, ἀγνωστότερον ἔσται. ∆ιό μηδέ που εἶναι τό μή γινωσκόμενον εὐσεβοῦντας αὐτούς ἀνάγκη πάντως ὁμολογεῖν. ∆ιά ταύτην, ὡς οἶμαι, τήν αἰτίαν συμπεριφερόμενος μέν τοῖς περί Εὐνόμιον ἀμφέβαλε τήν ἀντιστροφήν ὁ διδάσκαλος, τό "τυχόν" ἐπίῤῥημα θέμενος, καί ἡμῖν καταλαμπάνων νοεῖν ὅτιπερ οὐ πάντως τό μηδαμοῦ τό μηδαμῆ μηδαμῶς ὄν εἰσάγει. Θεόν γάρ ἡμεῖς εἶναί φαμεν, καί μηδαμοῦ τυγχάνειν, τῷ μή ὡς ἐν τόπῳ οὐσιωδῶς κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν περιγράφεσθαι, καί πάντως εἶναι, τῷ δεῖσθαι παντελῶς τοῦ παντός τῶν ὄντων πρός τό εἶναι, ὧν χωρίς καί ἦν καί ἔστι, καί ἀεί εἶναι δυνήσεται, μᾶλλον δέ ἔστιν ἀεί. Οὐ γάρ θέσειν ἔχει τά ὄντα ὁ καί πρίν εἶναι τά ὄντα ὑπάρχων. Εἰ γάρ παρ᾿ ἡμῖν οὐκ ἐν τοῖς τεχνητοῖς πάντως τό εἶναι κατά τήν ὕπαρξιν ὑποστατικῶς ἔχουσιν οἱ τεχνῖται περιγεγραμμένον τό φθειρόμενον τοῦτο πρᾶγμα, καί ἀληθέστερον κυρίως εἰπεῖν μηδέποτε ὄν, τί ἄν τις φαίη περί τῆς ἀῤῥήτου καί ἀγνώστου καί ἀχωρήτου πᾶσιν ὁμοίως καί ἀεί ὡσαύτως ἐχούσης δυνάμεως;

Ἐκ τοῦ αὐτοῦ λόγου, εἰς τό, "Εἴτε φαντασία τις ἦν ἡμερινή, εἴτε νυκτός ἀψευδής ὄψις, εἴτε τοῦ ἡγεμονικοῦ τύπωσις, συγγινομένου τοῖς μέλλουσιν ὡς παροῦσιν."

Ἄκρως καθαρθείς τῶν οἷς μολύνεσθαι πέφυκε τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἡ φύσις ὁ μακάριος οὗτος Πατήρ διά τῆς πρακτικῆς φιλοσοφίας, καί τόν νοῦν δι᾿ ὅλου ποιωθείς τῷ ἁγίῳ Πνεύματι ταῖς ἐπιβολαῖς τῶν θείων θεωρημάτων, διά τῆς ἀληθοῦς κατά τήν γνῶσιν μυσταγωγίας, οἷα δή τά ἴσα τοῖς ἁγίοις προφήταις παθών, τά εἴδη τῆς προφητείας ἐν τούτοις ἡμῖν ἀπηρίθμησεν. Οἷς εἴπερ τό δεῖν ὅλως τολμᾷν οὕτω μεγαλοφυῶς τε καί ἐνθεαστικῶς εἰρημένοις, καί πάντων τῶν μή τοιούτων οἳος αὐτός ἦν ὁ διδάσκαλος τήν δύναμιν ὑπερβαίνουσιν, ἐπιβάλλειν οἰόμεθα χρήσιμον, στοχαστικῶς, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἀποφαντικῶς τοῦτο ποιητέον. Οἶμαι τοίνυν στοχαστικῶς εἰπεῖν κατά τήν ἐμήν ἀμβλυωπίαν, "φαντασίαν ἡμερινήν" αὐτόν εἰρηκέναι τήν τῶν ἀπροσώπως τοῖς ἁγίοις ὡς δι᾿ αἰσθήσεως ἀκουομένων πνευματικῶς καί φαινομένων λόγων καί πραγμάτων ὄψιν τε καί ἐνήχησιν. Οὐ γάρ δή λέγειν θέμις ἐπί τῶν θείων τό θαυμαστόν πάντως δεῖν παρεῖναι πρός διατύπωσιν (1236) τῆς φαντασίας, ἀλλά παραδόξως τε καί ὑπερφυῶς καί μή παρόντος προσώπου καί φωνῶν αἰσθητῶν μή κτυπουμένων δι᾿ ἀέρος τήν φαντασίαν ἐνεργεῖν, ὥστε ἀληθῶς ἀκούειν καί ὁρᾷν τόν τά θεῖα μυσταγωγούμενον. Ἐπειδή γάρ πᾶσα φαντασία ἤ τῶν παρόντων, ἤ τῶν παρελθόντων· τῶν δέ μήπω γενομένων παντάπασίν ἐστιν οὐδαμῶς. Σχέσις γάρ ἔστι τοῖς ἄκροις δι᾿ ἑαυτῆς μεσιτεύουσα. Ἄκρα δέ φημι τό τε φανταστικόν, καί τό φανταστόν, ἐξ ὧν διά μέσης τῆς φαντασίας, σχέσεως οὔσης τῶν ἄκρων, τό φάντασμα γίνεται, πέρας ὑπάρχον ἐνεργείας καί πάθους, ἐνεργείας μέν τοῦ φανταστικοῦ, πάθους δέ τοῦ φανταστοῦ, τῶν διά μέσης τῆς φαντασίας, σχέσεως αὐτῶν ὑπαρχούσης περί αὐτό, ἀλλήλοις συναπτομένων ἄκρων. Πάντα γάρ τά κατά τί τινων ἀντιλαμβανόμενα ἐνεργεῖν λέγεται, πάντα δέ κατά τι ἄλλοις ὑποπίπτοντα πάσχειν. Τά οὖν καταλαμβάνοντα φυσικῶς ἐνεργοῦσι, τά δέ καταλαμβανόμενα φυσικῶς πάσχουσι, πέρας ἔχοντα πάθους καί ἐνεργείας τήν πρός ἄλληλα κατά τό μέσον συνάφειαν. ∆ιά τοῦτο δεῖν ἐπί τῶν θείων τό φανταστόν οἴεσθαι μή παρεῖναι νομίζω πρόσφορον, ἐπεί οὐκ ἔτι μέλλει παρεῖναι τό καθ᾿ ὑπόστασιν ἰδίαν πραγματειωδῶς ἤδη παρόν, καί ἅμα μηδέ θεῖον εἶναι πιστεύεται, τῆς κατά φύσιν