nt oculi mei suspicientes in excelsum." So
that it does not require a useless lapse of time, fatigue, and study,
and inquisitorial act to have it, but it is taken in quickly, as the
solar light, without hesitation, and makes itself present to whoever
turns himself to it and opens himself to it.

[AD] When somewhat of this Perfect Good is discovered and revealed
within the soul of man, as it were in a glance or flash, the soul
conceiveth a longing to approach unto the Perfect
Goodness.--("Theologia Germanica.")

MIN. Do you mean then, that the student and the philosopher are not more
apt to receive this light than the ignorant?

SEV. In a certain way no, and in a certain way yes. There is no
difference, when the Divine mind through its providence comes to
communicate itself without disposition of the subject; I mean to say
when it communicates itself because it seeks and elects its subject; but
there is a great difference, when it waits and would be sought, and then
according to its own good will and pleasure it makes itself to be found.
In this way it does not appear to all, nor can it appear to others, than
to those who seek it. Hence it is said, "Qui quaerunt me, invenient me;"
and again: "Qui sitit, veniat et bibat!"

MIN. It is not to be denied, that the apprehension of the second manner
is made in Time. (Comes with time?)

SEV. You do not distinguish between the disposition towards the Divine
light and the apprehension of the same. Certainly I do not deny that it
requires time to dispose oneself, discourse, study and fatigue; but as
we say that change takes place in time, and generation in an instant,
and as we see that with time, the windows are opened, but the sun enters
in a moment, so does it happen similarly in this case.

The fourth, represented in the following, is not really unworthy, like
that which results from the habit of believing in the false opinions of
the vulgar, which are very far removed from the opinions of
philosophers, and are derived from the study of vulgar philosophies,
which are by the multitude considered the more true, the more they
appeal to common sense. And this habit is one of the greatest and
strongest disadvantages, because as Alcazele and Averroes showed, it is
like that which happens to those persons who from childhood and youth
are in the habit of eating poison, and have become such, that it is
converted into sweet and proper nutriment, and on the other han