The Tripartite Soul and its Virtues

To acquire wisdom without war is impossible, and one cannot win the war without prudence; for this prudence is believed to stand against the passion of the demons, forcing the powers of the soul to act according to nature and making the way of wisdom easy. 74 A temptation is merely a thought ascending through the passive part of the soul and darkening the mind. 75 Sin is merely the assent of the thought toward a forbidden pleasure. 76 Angels rejoice when evil is diminished, but demons when virtue is; for the former are servants of mercy and love, while the latter are obedient to anger and hatred; and the former, approaching us through spiritual contemplation, fill us, while the latter, approaching, cast shameful fantasies into the soul. 77 Virtues do not stop the impulses of the demons, but they preserve us innocent. 78 Practical method is a spiritual method that cleanses the passive part of the soul. 79 The working of the commandments is not sufficient to perfectly heal the powers of the soul, unless the mind also receives contemplations suitable to them. 80 It is not possible for us to resist all the thoughts cast at us by angels, but it is possible to overthrow all the thoughts from demons; for a peaceful state follows the former thoughts, but a disturbed one follows the latter. 81 Love is the offspring of apatheia; and apatheia is the flower of practice; and practice is established by the keeping of the commandments; and the guardian of these is the fear of God, which is the offspring of right faith; and faith is a ready good, which is in its nature to exist even in those who do not yet believe in God. 82 Just as the soul acting through the body is affected by weak members, so the mind, acting, recognizes its own proper energy and its own powers, and discovers through that which obstructs it its own therapeutic commandment. 83 The mind, fighting the passionate war, will not perceive the reasons of the war; for it is like one fighting in the night; but having acquired apatheia, it will easily recognize the methods of the enemies. 84 The end of practice is love; the end of knowledge is theology; the beginnings of both are faith and natural contemplation; and as many as

The text ends abruptly with 'and as many as' (καὶ ὅσοι).

On the one hand, demons touch the passive part of the soul, and these are said to oppose practice; but those who wander again in the rational part are named enemies of all truth and contrary to contemplation. The bodies of those being purified do not join with those who are purified; but the virtues both purify the soul and remain with the purified.

By nature, the rational soul acts when its desiring part yields to virtue, its spirited part struggles on its behalf, and its rational part applies itself to the contemplation of realities. He who progresses in practice diminishes the passions, while he in contemplation diminishes ignorance; for of the passions there shall one day be a total destruction, but of ignorance, some say there is an end, while others say there is none.

Virtues and vices become creative through their use beyond mere utility; the use of these for other ends belongs to prudence. Since the rational soul is threefold according to our wise teacher, when virtue arises in the rational part, it is called prudence, understanding, and wisdom; when in the desiring part, temperance, love, and self-control; and when in the spirited part, courage and endurance; but in the whole soul, justice. And the work of prudence is to strategize against the opposing powers, to defend the virtues, to array oneself against the vices, and to manage the intermediate things according to the seasons; of understanding, to harmoniously manage all things contributing to us toward the goal; of wisdom, to contemplate the reasons of bodily and incorporeal things; of temperance, the work is to look apathetically at the things that move irrational imaginations within us; of love, to make oneself such an image of God in every respect that it is almost the prototype, even if demons attempt to defile them; of self-control, to abstain from all pleasure of the throat with joy; of endurance and courage, to not fear enemies and to bravely withstand the terrible; of justice, to produce a certain concord and harmony of the parts of the soul.

Seeds produce drops of moisture, but virtues produce knowledge; and just as tears follow the seeds, so joy follows the drops.