Blanquerna

OF UNDERSTANDING Natana the abbess said to the

OF UNDERSTANDING

His works, and that the will, before it be moved to desire or hate, receives light from the understanding that it Stray not in its works. For even as blind men, by defeft of bodily sight, do err in the ways wherein they walk, even so does the soul go aftray in its memory and will when it receives not light from the underftanding.

2. Oftentimes it comes to pass that by overmuch remem¬ brance and desire the underftanding suffers disturbance, and therefore he that would receive spiritual light muft have temperance in his will and memory and underftanding. He that would understand, let him learn to remember and will, and he who would remember and will, let him learn to understand; for much underftanding is engendered of much remembrance and will, and much remembrance and will of much underftanding, when man can make accord between the works of his remembrance and of his under¬ ftanding and his will.

3. If we would have underftanding as touching God, we muft firft use faith and afterwards understanding, and be¬ lieve in excess of that which we can understand, and understand that God in His Essence and His works is greater than we can comprehend : for if the underftanding suffices us not to understand all that we ourselves are and do, how much less beyond all comparison can our under¬ standing suffice to comprehend God and His works I And were it not thus, it would follow that we ourselves in our essence and our works were greater than God ; which is a thing impossible.

4. There is no defeft in failing to understand that which we cannot understand, but there is defeft in the man or woman that has understanding and has never learned to use it in respeft of that which he can understand, or that desires not to use understanding in that which he might under¬ stand, or rejects the use of the beft of all the creatures that God has created, or has no mind to enjoy that excellent delight which comes to the soul through underftanding, or

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fears not the sadness which comes to the soul through ignorance. The Stronger is the working of the understand¬ ing, the greater and nobler and loftier is it by virtue of that working. But by overmuch remembrance, the power of the memory may become less, even as by overmuch loving or hating the power of the will may grow less. He, there¬ fore, that desires not to understand what is within his comprehension,— how should he desire to remember or love it?

5. The will muSt not desire that the understanding may comprehend that which is beyond its power, but it should desire it to be ignorant of the same. And if the under¬ standing comprehend truth, the will muSt love it, and if it comprehend falsehood, the will muSt hate1 it ; and if the understanding comprehend the will, the will muSt love it, for even as the understanding is made to comprehend the will, even so is the will made to love the understanding. And if the memory often remembers without understanding and willing, the imagination is wont to be exercised in such a way as to drive a man mad.

6. While the abbess taught the siSters thus concerning the use of the understanding, a siSter enquired of her in what manner the memory could remember without willing or understanding. And the abbess said to this siSter that as a man may firSt remember one thing and afterwards another, he often remembers one thing and afterwards another so that the will has no time to love or hate, nor the understanding to comprehend. Then the memory works by hazard in its remembrance, and by this use the imagination becomes disordered, and by this disorder of the imagination is destroyed the virtue of the memory.

twtfW m°re litenUI>r “un‘lo'rc’” v«b is the simple con-

OF WILL