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Tractatus ad Xenodorum 96.477 Of Saint Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, from the discourse to Xenodorus the grammarian, of which the beginning is: For Christians, nothing of true theology

is more salvific.

For we say that energy is the natural power and movement of each substance, without which nature neither exists nor is known. For of intelligible beings, [it] is intellection, of sensible beings, sensation (by which they both naturally grasp external things and are perceived by external things), of winged creatures, flight, of swimming creatures, swimming, of crawling creatures, crawling, of walking creatures, walking, of plants, growing. And to speak comprehensively, the significant property of each nature we call a natural energy; of which only that which is non-existent is deprived. For that which partakes of some substance will certainly also partake of the power which naturally reveals it. For the true account knows their natural energies as the definitions of the substances.

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Tractatus ad Xenodorum 96.477 Τοῦ ἁγίου Γρηγορίου ἐπισκόπου Νύσσης ἐκ τοῦ πρὸς Ξενόδωρον γραμματικὸν λόγου, οὗ ἡ ἀρχή· Οὐδὲν Χριστιανοῖς θεολογίας ἀληθοῦς

σωτηριωδέστερον.

Ἐνέργειαν γὰρ ἡμεῖς εἶναί φαμεν τὴν φυσικὴν ἑκάστης οὐσίας δύναμίν τε καὶ κίνησιν, ἧς χωρὶς οὔτε ἐστὶν οὔτε γινώσκεται φύσις. νοερῶν γάρ ἐστι νόησις, αἰσθητικῶν αἴσθησις (καθ' ἣν αὗταί τε τῶν ἐκτὸς ἐφάπτονται φυσικῶς καὶ τοῖς ἐκτὸς ὑποπίπτουσι), πτηνῶν πτῆσις, νηκτῶν νῆξις, ἑρπηστικῶν ἕρψις, βαδιστικῶν βάδισις, βλαστῶν βλάστησις. καὶ περιληπτικῶς εἰπεῖν, τὸ σημαντικὸν ἑκάστης ἰδίωμα φύσεως ἐνέργειαν λέγομεν φυσικήν· ἧς μόνον ἐστέρηται τὸ μὴ ὄν. τὸ γὰρ οὐσίας τινὸς μετέχον καὶ τῆς δηλούσης αὐτὴν φυσικῶς μεθέξει πάντως δυνάμεως. ὅρους γὰρ τῶν οὐσιῶν τὰς φυσικὰς αὐτῶν ἐνεργείας ὁ ἀληθὴς ἐπίσταται λόγος.