PREF. DIVINE PHILOSOPHY 5 



and repairs its losses still more basely ; nor to 

 ambition, which leads to place of worth only by 5 

 unworthy means. But yet you have accomplished 

 nothing. You have escaped many perils, but not 

 yet [that of] self! The virtue we aim at raises to 

 a splendid eminence ; not so much because escape 

 from vice is in itself a blessed thing, but rather 

 because the soul is emancipated, prepared for the 

 knowledge of heavenly things, and rendered worthy 

 of entering into communion with God. 



The full consummation of human felicity is 

 attained when, all vice trampled under foot, the soul 

 seeks the heights and reaches the inner recesses of 

 nature. What joy then to roam through the very 

 stars, to look down with derision on the gilded 

 saloons of the rich and the whole earth with its store 

 of gold ! Gold, did I say ? Yes, all the gold the 

 earth ever produced and sent into currency, and all 

 that she keeps hidden in secret to glut the avarice of 

 posterity. Only when one has surveyed the whole 6 

 universe can one truly despise grand colonnades, 

 ceilings glittering with ivory, trim groves and cooling 

 streams transported into wealthy mansions From 

 above, one can now look down upon this narrow 

 world, covered for the most part by sea, and, even 

 where it rises above the sea, an ugly waste either 

 parched or frozen. The philosopher says to himself : 

 Is this the plot that so many tribes portion out by 

 fire and sword ? How ludicrous are their frontiers ! 

 The Dacian must not pass the lower Danube ; 7 

 the Strymon must shut off the Thracians ; the 

 Euphrates must be the barrier of the Parthians ; 

 the Danube must form the boundary between Sar- 

 matian and Roman ; the Rhine must set a limit 

 to Germany ; the Pyrenees must raise their chain 



