Letter 809

To the Same Person. "I will destroy evil beasts from your land" [Leviticus 26:6 LXX]-meaning, plainly, the savage demons and their many-contrived plottings against the soul of those who struggle in the contest-"and you will pursue your enemies, and they will fall before you by the slaughter of the sword," which is your boast, "and five of you will pursue a hundred, and a hundred of you will pursue ten thousand" [Leviticus 26:7-8 LXX]. For the five senses, once they have been fortified by greatness of mind, and by the strength supplied from God, and by that might superior to human nature which the human intellect acquires when it becomes a bearer of trophies, drive off a hundred of the enemy; and the hundred of our most experienced and most perfect thoughts and good deeds take captive and overpower the ten thousand of the tyrants clothed in the uttermost depth of vileness.

Ἀπολῶ, φησί, θηρία πονηρὰ ἐκ τῆς γῆς ὑμῶν, τοὺς ἀγρίους δαίμονας δηλονότι, καὶ τὰς τούτων κατὰ τῆς ψυχῆς τῶν ἀθλούντων πολυμηχάνους σκαιωρίας, καὶ διώξετε τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ὑμῶν, καὶ πεσοῦνται ἐνώπιον ὑμῶν τῷ φόνῳ τῆς μαχαίρας, ἥτις καύχημα ὑμέτερον ὑπάρχει, καὶ διώξουσιν ἐξ ὑμῶν πέντε ἑκατόν, καὶ ἑκατὸν ὑμῶν μυριάδας διώξουσιν. Αἱ γὰρ πέντε αἰσθήσεις τῇ μεγαλονοίᾳ, καὶ θεόθεν χορηγουμένῃ ἰσχύϊ, καὶ τῷ σθένει τῷ κρείττονι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως, ὅπερ κτᾶται τροπαιούχος γενόμενος ὁ ἀνθρώπινος νοῦς, περιχαρακωθεῖσαι, ἑκατοντάδα τῶν πολεμίων ἐλαύνουσιν· ἡ δὲ ἑκατοντὰς τῶν ἐμπειροτάτων τε καὶ τελειοτέρων ἡμῶν ἐννοιῶν καὶ πράξεων ἀγαθῶν, τὴν μυριάδα τῶν ἄκραν ἡμιεσμένων φαυλότητα τυράννων αἰχμαλωτίζουσι καὶ καταδυναστεύουσιν.