of the mountain of perfection the greater we perceive the extent of virtue to be." (De Prof. Rel. ca. 21.) When we contemplate a high mountain at a distance, we imagine that it reaches so near the heavens, that were we upon the top thereof, we fancy we might be able to touch the clouds with our hand; but having travelled on, and got up to the very top, we find that we are still far from the heavens; just so it happens with those who travel in the way of perfection, and advance perpetually in the knowledge and love of God. St. Cyprian explaining the words of the Psalmist, "Man shall arrive at the greatest height that his heart is capable of and God will still be more and more exalted," says, " That the higher our souls are by degrees raised to the knowledge of God, the higher he appears still exalted above us. Whatever knowledge of God you have attained, and how great soever your love is of him, there remain still infinite degrees of knowledge and love of him, beyond what you have already acquired." (Ad Corn. Pap. Ps. lxiii. 8.) In fine, there will still remain a great way to ascend, in the path that leads up to perfection, and whosoever imagines that he has got to the top, is yet very far from it, which makes him so easily imagine he can reach the heavens with his hand.
This may be understood by what is experienced in human sciences, viz., that the more a man knows, the more he finds he has still to learn. This made the wisest of all the philosophers say, " All that I know, is, that I know nothing." (Socrates.) And an excellent musician was wont to say, that it grieved him to find he understood nothing of music; because he discovered in that science things of such vast extent, that he perceived he could never arrive at any perfection in it. On the contrary, the ignorant, who are not sensible of their own wants, and who see not how many' things they have still to learn, readily imagine that they know a great deal. Just so it is in spiritual science. Those who are best versed .in perfection, know they have a great way still to go, before they can arrive at their end; and therefore the more they improve in this knowledge, the more humble they become; because according to that proportion or progress they make in other virtues, they make the same also in the virtue of humility, and in the knowledge and contempt of themselves, which are things inseparable one from the other. For the more knowledge they acquire of the goodness and majesty of God, the more clearly they perceive their own misery and nothingness. " One abyss invokes another" (Ps. xli. 8), says the Royal Prophet. The great abyss of the
