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advances," that is, of which things I know the praises, and of the men clearly accepting them the advances toward virtue, that is, the increases, I understand. Therefore, of none of all the things, that is, of those being praised, is there not one upon which you would not entirely find the increase of those who delight in them; or since the teacher, having set forth three things above—himself, the words, the praisers of virtue—having included them in these according to the rhetors he expounded, applying the introductions to the three, and beginning the exposition first from himself, then passing through the midst of the praisers of virtue, he brought them to completion in the words, as the subject concerning Saint Basil is fitting both for him, as a teacher and one set forth of the word, and desired by those who love virtue, that is, by its praisers, such as those who desire to know the ways of progress toward virtue through imitation, and is fitting for the words themselves, as being revelatory of the good things according to virtue. Of every man, then, who has a praiseworthy life according to God, and especially of Basil the Great, whether they are able to comprehend all, and to show, as if a living and ensouled image, the virtue of the man to his admirers, or whether they are not able to attain to its greatness, therefore there is none of all, both of word and speaker and hearer, for whom the goodness of the subject will not be fitting, or as has been more accurately examined above.

By the same, from his poems, on the text: "For the sublime Word plays in all-various forms, ordering, as He wills, His own world here and there.

When the great David, having driven his mind through the phenomena as through certain gates, by faith alone in spirit toward the intelligible things, received from the divine wisdom some manifestation of the mysteries attainable to men, then, as I think, he says, "Abyss calls to abyss at the voice of your cataracts;" by these perhaps indicating that every contemplative mind, being like an abyss both because of its natural invisibility and the depth and multitude of its thoughts, whenever, having passed through all the arrangement of the phenomena, and having surpassed into the beauty of the intelligible things with a vehement motion, it stands upon itself (1409), completely fixed and motionless, because of the passage through all things, then it fittingly invokes the divine wisdom, which is truly and actually an impassable abyss in knowledge, to give it the voice of the divine cataracts, but not the cataracts themselves, which is to ask to receive some gnostic manifestation of faith concerning the ways and principles of divine providence for the whole, through which he will be able to remember God from the land of Jordan and of the Hermons, in which the great and awesome mystery of the condescension of the God-Logos to men through the flesh was accomplished, in which the truth of piety toward God was given as a gift to men, which, because it has transcended all order and power of nature: by the divine initiate and mystagogue of the secretly known wisdom, Paul the great apostle, was called the foolishness and weakness of God, because of its surpassing wisdom and power, I think; and by the God-minded great Gregory it was called a plaything, because of its surpassing prudence. For the one says, "The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men;" and the other, "For the sublime Word plays in all-various forms, ordering as He wills His own world here and there;" each indicating the divine state by the privation of our strongest positions, and by the negations of our things making the affirmation of the divine things. For with us, foolishness and weakness and a plaything

540

ἐπιδόσεις," τουτέστιν, ὧν οἶδα πραγμάτων τούς ἐπαίνους, καί τῶν ἀποδεχομένων αὐτά σαφῶς ἀνθρώπων τάς εἰς ἀρετήν ἐπιδόσεις, ἤγουν ἐπαυξήσεις, ἐπίσταμαι. Ἐπ᾿ οὐδενός οὖν τῶν πραγμάτων πάντων δηλονότι τῶν ἐπαινουμενων οὐκ ἔστιν ἐφ᾿ ᾧτινι οὐχί πάντως τῶν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοῖς ἡδομένων εὕροις τήν ἐπαύξησιν· ἤ ἐπειδή τρία προθείς ὁ διδάσκαλος ἀνωτέρω, ἑαυτόν, τούς λόγους, τούς τῆς ἀρετῆς ἐπαινέτας, ἐν τούτοις περιλαβών κατά ῥήτορας ἐξήπλωσε, τάς ἐπαγωγάς τοῖς τρισίν ἐφαρμόσας, καί ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ πρότερον τῆς ἀποδόσεως ἀρξάμενος, εἶτα διά μέσων τῶν ἀρετῆς ἐπαινετῶν διελθών, εἰς τούς λόγους αὐτάς ἐπλήρωσεν, ὡς τῆς κατά τόν ἅγιον Βασίλειον ὑποθέσεως καί αὐτῷ πρεπούσης, ὡς διδασκάλῳ, καί τοῦ λόγου προβεβλημένῳ, καί τοῖς ἀγαπῶσι τήν ἀρετήν, ἤγουν τοῖς αὐτῆς ἐπαινέταις, πεποθημένης, οἷα ποθοῦσι γνῶναι τούς τρόπους τῆς διά μιμήσεως εἰς ἀρετήν ἐπιδόσεως, καί τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῖς ἁρμοζούσης, ὡς ἐκφαντορικοῖς τῶν κατ᾿ ἀρετήν καλῶν. Παντός μέν οὖν ἀνδρός βίον ἔχοντος κατά Θεόν ἐπαινούμενον, μάλιστα δέ Βασιλείου τοῦ πάνυ, κἄν τε δυνηθῶσι πᾶσαν περιλαβεῖν, καί ὥσπερ εἰκόνα ζῶσαν καί ἔμψυχον ὑποδεῖξαι τοῖς ἐρασταῖς τήν τοῦ ἀνδρός ἀρετήν, κἄν τε μή δυνηθῶσι τοῦ ταύτης ἐφικέσθαι μεγέθους, ἐπ᾿ οὐδενός οὖν οὐκ ἔστι τῶν ἁπάντων, καί λόγου καί λέγοντος καί ἀκούοντος, ἐφ᾿ ᾣτινι τό τῆς ὑποθέσεως καλόν οὐχ ἁρμόσει, ἤ καθώς ἀνωτέρω ἀκριβέστερον μᾶλλον ἐξήτασται.

Τοῦ αὐτοῦ ἐκ τῶν ἐπῶν, εἰς τό· "Παίζει γάρ λόγος αἰπύς ἐν εἴδεσι παντοδαποῖσι, κρίνας, ὡς ἐθέλοι, κόσμον ἑόν ἔνθα καί ἔνθα.

Ἡνίκα τόν νοῦν ὡς διά κλείθρων τινῶν τῶν φαινομένων ὁ μέγας ∆αβίδ κατά μόνην πίστιν ἐν πνεύματι πρός τά νοητά διελάσας ἐδέξατό τινα παρά τῆς θείας σοφίας τῶν ἐφικτῶν ἀνθρώποις μυστηρίων ἔμφασιν, τότε, καθάπερ οἶμαι, φησίν, Ἄβυσσος, ἄβυσσον ἐπικαλεῖται εἰς φωνήν τῶν καραῤῥακτῶν σου· τούτοις τυχόν ἐνδεικνύμενος, ὅτι πᾶς νοῦς θεωρητικός, διά τε τό κατά φύσιν ἀόρατον καί τό βάθος καί πλῆθος τῶν νοημάτων ἀβύσσῳ παρεοικώς, ἐπειδάν τῶν φαινομένων διαβάς πᾶσαν τήν διακόσμησιν, καί εἰς τήν τῶν νοητῶν σφοδρῷ τῆς κινήσεως ὑπερβάς τήν εὐπρέπειαν, ἐφ᾿ ἑαυτόν (1409) στῇ, πεπηγώς παντάπασι καί ἀκίνητος, διά τήν πάντων διάβασιν, τηνικαῦτα τήν θείαν δεόντως ἐπικαλεῖται σοφίαν, τήν ὄντως τε καί ἀληθῶς κατά τήν γνῶσιν ἀδιεξίτητον ἄβυσσον, φωνήν αὐτῷ δοῦναι τῶν θείων καραῤῥακτῶν, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ αὐτούς τού καταῤῥάκτας, ὅπερ ἐστίν ἔμφασίν τινα πίστεως γνωστικήν τῶν περί τό πᾶν τῆς θείας προνοίας τρόπων τε καί λόγων αἰτῶν ὑποδέξασθαι, δι᾿ ἧς μνησθῆναι δυνήσεται τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐκ γῆς Ἰορδάνου καί Ἐρμονιείμ, ἐν ᾗ τῆς θείας πρός ἀνθρώπους τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγου συγκαταβάσεως τό μέγα καί φρικτόν διά σαρκός ἐτελέσθη μυστήριον, ἐν ᾧ τῆς εἰς Θεόν εὐσεβείας ἐδωρήθη τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τό ἀληθές, ὅπερ διά τό πᾶσαν ἐκβεβηκένεαι φύσεως τάξιν καί δύναμιν· τῷ μέν θείῳ καί τῆς θείας μύστῃ τε καί μυσταγωγῷ κρυφιογνώστου σοφίας Παύλῳ τῷ μεγάλῳ ἀποστόλῳ μωρία ὠνομάσθη Θεοῦ καί ἀσθένεια, διά τήν ὑπερβάλλουσαν οἶμαι σοφίαν καί δύναμιν· τῷ δέ θεόφρονι μεγάλῳ Γρηγορίῳ παίγνιον προσηγορεύθη, διά τήν ὑπερβάλλουσαν φρόνησιν. Ὁ μέν γάρ φησι. Τό μωρόν τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφώτερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐστί, καί τό ἀσθενές τοῦ Θεοῦ ἰσχυρότερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐστί· ὁ δέ. Παίζει γάρ λόγος αἰπύς ἐν εἴδεσι παντοδαποῖσι, Κρίνας ὡς ἐθέλοι κόσμον ἐόν ἔνθα καί ἔνθα· ἑκάτερος τῇ στερήσει τῶν παρ᾿ ἡμῖν κρατίστων θέσεων τήν θείαν ἐνδεικνύμενος ἕξιν, καί ταῖς ἀποφάσεσι τῶν ἡμετέρων ποιούμενος τήν τῶν θείων κατάφασιν. Μωρία γάρ παρ᾿ ἡμῖν καί ἀσθένεια καί παίγνιον