De Consideratione

3. He is a great man who makes it his concern to utilize the senses, spending, as it were, the wealth of the citizens in thus providing for his own salvation and the salvation of many. And he is no less a man who has made philosophy a stepping-stone to the things invisible. The only difference is that there is more pleasure in the latter, more profit in the former: the one has more happiness, the other indicates more strength. But he is the greatest of all who, scorning the use of sensible things, so far as human frailty permits, has accustomed himself, not by gradual steps, but by sudden ecstatic flights¹ to soar aloft to the glorious things on high. I suppose Paul's ecstasies² were of this last description: they were departures [from the senses], not the ascent [of the senses]; for he himself relates that he did not ascend into Paradise, but was rather caught up thither. This is what he means by saying 'If we mentally depart, it is to the glory of God'.³ Moreover, when Consideration, even in the place of its sojourning, through the pursuit of virtue, and with the help of grace, has gained the upper hand, these three results follow:—it either checks the senses,⁴ lest they assert themselves too strongly: or draws them in, lest they go too far afield: or shuns them, lest they defile. In the first case the mark of Consideration is strength, in the second freedom, in the third purity. For such a flight of the spirit is only made with the wing of purity on the one side, and of rapture on the other.

4. You would like to know the distinguishing names of these various kinds of Consideration. Let us say, if you please, that the first is economical, the second estimative, the third speculative. The meaning will appear from the definitions. Consideration is ‘economical’—that of the steward⁵—when it makes systematic use of the senses and of sensible things in daily life so as to win the favour of God. It is ‘estimative’—that of the valuer—when it wisely and diligently searches everything, and weighs everything, to find God. It is ‘speculative’ when it retires within itself, and so far as Divine help is given, detaches itself from human affairs in order to contemplate God. I suppose you carefully observe that the last is the fruit of the others, and that the others, if they stand unrelated to it, may seem to be what they are called, but are not really so. And unless the first keeps the last in view, it sows much and reaps nothing; moreover, unless the second makes the last its goal, it walks, but does not walk forth. So then, what the first desires, the second scents,⁶ the third tastes. To this taste, however, the others also bring us, though more slowly; and there is a further difference—the first is the more toilsome road, the second the more peaceful.