more, and the more we feed upon them the more we hunger after them. In
the case of the former, the yearning for them was a pleasure, trial of
them brought disgust. In the case of the latter, in desire we held them
cheap, trial of them proved a source of pleasure. For spiritual joys
increase the soul's desire of them even while they sate us, for the more
their savour is perceived, the more we know what it is we ought eagerly
to love. Whence it comes to pass that when we have them not we cannot
love them, for their savour is unknown to us. For how can a man love
what he is ignorant of? Wherefore the Psalmist admonishes us, saying: _O
taste and see that the Lord is sweet!_[398] As though he would say to us
in plain terms: You know not His sweetness if ye have never tasted it;
touch, then, the Food of Life with the palate of your soul that so,
making proof of Its sweetness, ye may be able to love It.

These joys man lost when he sinned in Paradise; he went out when he
closed his mouth to the Food of Eternal Sweetness. Whence we too, who
are born amidst the toils of this pilgrimage, come without relish to
this Food; we know not what we ought to desire, and the sickness of our
disgust grows the more the further our souls keep away from feeding upon
that Sweetness; and less and less does our soul desire those interior
joys the longer it has grown accustomed to do without them. We sicken,
then, by reason of our very disgust, and we are wearied by the
long-drawn sickness of our hunger (_Hom._ XXXVI., _On the Gospels_).

VIII

Is the Contemplative Life lasting?

The Lord said _Mary hath chosen the best part which shall not be taken
away from her_[399] because, as S. Gregory says: "Contemplation begins
here below that it may be perfected in our heavenly home."

A thing may be termed "lasting" in two ways: from its very nature, or as
far as we are concerned. As far as its nature is concerned, the
contemplative life is lasting in two ways: for first of all it is
concerned with incorruptible and unchangeable things, and in the second
place there is nothing which is its contrary: for, as Aristotle
says[400]: "To the pleasure which is derived from thought there is no
contrary."

And also as far as we are concerned the contemplative life is lasting;
and this both because it comes under the action of the incorruptible
portion of our soul--namely, our intellect--and so can last after this
life; and also because in the work of the