Prelude

What do those who want to look at the horse lists experience? Whoever of the competitors in the speed of running they take care of, even if he has not the slightest lack of zeal to speed up the race, nevertheless, out of concern for his victory, they give him a voice from above, following him with their eyes throughout the field, and increase (in their opinion) the swiftness of the rider, shouting at the same time at the horses, stretching out their hands to them and waving them: and all this is done not because they really contribute to victory, but in order to express their solicitude out of benevolence towards those who compete in the heat of zeal, both with voice and bodily movements: it seems that I also do something similar to you, the dearest of my friends and brothers, because when you are admirably striving in the divine course in the field of virtue, by frequent and easy leaps you strive to attain "the honor of the highest calling" (Phil. 3:14). and I give you my voice, and urge you to hurry, and ask you to carefully increase your speed. And I do it, not by any foolish zeal, but as a beloved child, desiring to please thee.

Since the letter you have recently sent has informed me of this request, that we may give you some rule for a perfect life; then I thought it proper to satisfy this. Though there is nothing else in what has been said, it may be of any use to you; yet it will not be useless, of course, that I shall serve as an example of obedience to thee. If we, who have been appointed to take the place of fathers for so many souls, consider it proper for these gray hairs to accept the command of chaste youth; then it is all the more natural in you to prevail in obedience, when your youth is taught voluntary obedience under our guidance.

And enough about this. It is time to proceed to what has been assumed, calling upon God to be a guide in the word.

You asked me, dear head, to describe to you what kind of life is perfect, — you asked, of course, to know how, if you find in the word what you are looking for, to apply these features of perfection to your own life. And I am equally not strong in both, and I assert that both to grasp perfection with the mind and to show in life what the mind could comprehend is beyond my strength. And, perhaps, not I alone, but many of the great and preeminent in virtue confess that such a matter is inaccessible to them. But in order not to give the impression that, in the words of the Psalmist, "there they will fear fear" (Psalm 13:5); I will present my thought to you more clearly.

Perfection in everything else that is measured by the senses is limited by some certain limits, for example, in relation to quantity, whether it is continuous and separate. For every measure of quantity has its limits, and whoever sees the lako, or the number ten, knows how it begins and how it ends, in which perfection should consist. As for virtue, we learn from the Apostle that it has only one limit to perfection — to have no limit itself. For the divine Apostle himself, strong and lofty in mind, in the course of his career of virtue, never stopped, "stretching forward" (Phil. 3:13), because it was not safe for him to stop in this stream. Why? For every good by its nature has no limit; he confines himself to approaching the opposite; For example: life — to death, light — to darkness. And in general, every good ends with everything that we imagine to be the opposite of good. As the end of life is the beginning of death; In the same way, a stop in the course of virtue becomes the beginning of a course along the path of vice. Therefore our word does not lie, asserting that in virtue the attainment of perfection is impossible.

At least he proved that what is contained within limits is not yet a virtue. And since I have said that even those who lead a virtuous life cannot attain perfection; then the word about this will be explained in the following way. Originally and in the proper sense, good is good, which has goodness by nature: this is the Divinity Himself, which, what is conceived by nature, is really what it is, and is called that. Therefore, since it has been proved that there is no other limit to virtue than vice, and the Divinity does not admit the opposite, it follows that the nature of God is unlimited and infinite. But he who walks the path of true virtue partakes of nothing else but God Himself; for He is the all-perfect virtue. Therefore, since those who know that which is naturally beautiful certainly desire the communion of it; and it has no limit: then, of necessity, the desire of the communicant, stretching out into infinity, has no stopping. Therefore, of course, there is no means to achieve the perfect; for perfection, according to what has been said, is not encompassed by limits, but virtue has only one limit, namely, infinity. How can anyone reach the desired limit without finding the limit itself?

However, because, as the word has proved, what is sought is not at all attainable, one should not neglect the commandment of the Lord, which says: "Be ye perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt. 5:48) In that which is naturally beautiful, although it is not possible to obtain everything, it is a great advantage for those who have understanding not to remain unattainable. Therefore, we must make every effort not to completely lose the possible perfection, but to acquire it as much as we have time to know what we seek. For perhaps to have the beautiful in order to always desire it, to acquire it even more, is already the perfection of human nature.

It seems to me a wonderful thing to use the Scriptures as an adviser in this. For nowhere in the prophecy of Isaiah does the voice of God say: "Look at Abraham your father, and at Sarah, who bore you" (Isaiah 51:2). Of course, such a command gives the floor to those who wander outside the path of virtue, so that, as on the sea, those who are carried away from the straight path leading to the harbor, correct their erroneous direction according to the provided sign, when they see a flame rising from a high place, or an open peak of some mountain height; likewise, by the example of Sarah and Abraham, those who wander on the sea of life with their minds lost their breadth have again directed their way to the harbor of God's will. Since human nature is divided into male and female, and both are equally given the power to choose the path to virtue and to vice, the word of God therefore indicates to each department a corresponding model of virtue, so that both sexes, looking at what is akin to them, the men to Abraham, and the other part to Sarah, both sexes, according to their proper patterns, may be directed to a virtuous life. Therefore, perhaps the memory of one man, skilled in life, will be enough for us to serve as a fiery man and show how it is possible to lead the soul into the open harbor of virtue, not allowing it to experience adversity in the midst of the storms of life and to suffer shipwreck in the abyss of vice from the incessant agitation of the passions. For this reason, probably, the way of life of high men appears to be history in all its exactness, so that by imitating their deeds our subsequent life would be directed towards good.

What, then, will another ask, if I am not a Chaldean, as Abraham is mentioned, and not a pupil of the daughter of the king of Egypt, as it is said in the Scriptures about Moses, and in general in such a way in life I have nothing in common with any of the ancients; then how can I put myself on a par with one of them, not having the opportunity in my studies to imitate a person so far removed from me? To this let us say to the questioner: We do not recognize being a Chaldean as a vice or a virtue; it is not by life in Egypt, not by being in Babylon that a person becomes far from a virtuous life. Nor is it only "in Judea" that "God is led" to the worthy, and it is not "Zion" alone, as one might think at first glance, that is God's "dwelling place" (Psalm 75:1, 2). On the contrary, we need a more subtle understanding and a keener eye, in order to discern from history from which Chaldeans or Egyptians we keep ourselves at a distance, and from which Babylonian captivity, having been freed, we shall ascend to the heights of blissful life.

Therefore, let Moses be represented as a model of life for us in this word, whose life we first depicted briefly, as we knew it from the Divine Scriptures, then let us look for a meaningful meaning in the history of extracting the rules of virtue, so that by them we may know the perfect life that is accessible to people.