Then, since maintenance is necessary for the conservation of our life, divine Wisdom provided many and diverse officers for this kind of alchemy (if it can be so called), because for so great a change as is to make from bread, or from any other food, human flesh, many officers and many cookings and alterations of the food were necessary, so that, its own form left behind, it might be changed into our substance.
Then the first digestion, and the first officer that must make it, is the mouth, which digestion is so necessary that, as the physicians say, the error of the first digestion is not corrected in the second. For all the members have their limited offices, and are so courteous among themselves, that none wishes to usurp the office of the other. The instruments with which the mouth makes this first digestion are the teeth, in whose fabric the artifice of divine providence already begins to be discovered, because those that are in the middle are sharp to cut the food, and the last ones on one side and the other are flat like the stones of a mill, to grind and break small what the others shall have cut. And there is still another particularity in them, which must not be cast into oblivion, and it is that, just as the millers pick the stones so that they may better cut the grain, in place of this picking the Creator formed our molars not smooth nor altogether flat, but with some inequality, which serves as picking, and this so firm, that always grinding the food, it remains and lasts almost all life, without having need to be renewed every day like the other. And because there are some foods hard and difficult to cut, for this he formed the eyeteeth, which are stronger, to conquer this hardness and difficulty. And because greater firmness was required for this, he provided that each one should have three roots with which it would be incarnated in the gums, however much the front teeth, which are for less work, have no more than two, so that by this it may be seen how divine providence was lacking to nothing, however minute it may be. The tongue also serves for this digestion as the paddle of an oven, shoveling the food from below upward, so that on all sides it may remain ground and broken small.
From the mouth there follows through the throat a strainer or gullet, because thus we shall call it from here on, which draws to itself the food already ground, and carries it to the stomach, which is the general cook of all the members. But before we pass on, it will be necessary to advert that, from the part of our mouth nearest the throat, two channels proceed: the one is this gullet that we say, by which eating and drinking go to the stomach, which is always closed so that air nor cold may enter through it, which would impede the cooking of digestion, but it opens and dilates with the food itself, which the stomach draws to itself. But the other channel goes to stop at the lung, which is that by which we breathe and speak, and this is always open, so that we may always breathe through it. And for this reason the Creator made it ringed, because it is composed of certain circles like rings, although not all of it, but two thirds of it, so that thus it may always be taut and open for the aforesaid office. But with all this at the mouth of this entrance there is a little tongue so delicate and set with such refinement that the very air with which we breathe opens and closes it, as the water of the tide does in the gate of the mills of the sea, when it rises and when it falls. And this little tongue serves so that no dust or ill-tempered air may enter through the tube of the lung that could do some harm.
But someone will ask: for what reason are the two thirds of this channel ringed, and the other third not, but rather of a soft and flexible matter? Here already begins to be discovered the artifice of divine providence, which forgot nothing, because if all this channel were ringed and were taut without bending, a man could choke with a large mouthful, but since one third is soft, on the part that joins with the strainer that we say, it dilates and gives love of itself, so that the mouthful may pass without this danger.
But there is here another more admirable providence, because someone will ask: if the channel that goes to stop at the lung has to be open, the food or the drink will be able to enter through it, and the man will choke. For by experience it is seen that, if a single drop of water enters through it, we find ourselves in distress, and all goes from us in coughing in order to cast outside what entered that way. Then what remedy for this? That infinite Wisdom found it.
For which we must presuppose that this channel is on the superior part continued with the strainer, from which it comes to be that when the stomach draws to itself the mouthful already chewed downward, this strainer lowers itself together with it, and the more this lowers itself, so much the more the channel of the lung rises upward, just as happens when two buckets of water are tied over a well, where we see that the more you pull the one downward, so much the more the other rises upward. And this one rising to the high part makes that none of the things either of what is eaten or drunk enters through it, which the prudent reader can experience, when he shall arrive at this passage, by placing the hand on the Adam’s apple that we have in the throat, and swallowing the saliva, because he will then see how this bone lifts itself and rises to the high part together with the channel that is attached to it. This is one of the singular works of this sovereign artificer, who found a way for what our wit could not attain, tracing these two channels in such manner, that this strainer, by one way, should do two errands, carrying the mouthful downward, and making that the head of the channel of the lung should rise upward, so that in this manner neither what is eaten nor what is drunk should enter through it and choke the man. For which also serves that little tongue that we said was at the mouth of this tube, so that nothing of this may enter through it.
But let us now return to the stomach, which then begins to alter the food that it receives, and to give it another form, and here the second digestion is made. And because this cannot be made without heat and without fire, first the heart serves for this, which is its neighbor, and is a very hot member, and thus it influences heat into this pot of the stomach. And another neighbor also serves, which is the liver, which likewise is a hot member. And what is more admirable: the choler also serves, which is like fire for this, because from the little bladder where it is, a vein goes by which this choler travels, to give heat to the stomach, which is composed of two tunics.
And this choler enters by that vein between the one tunic and the other, and thus like a lighted log is placed beneath the floor of this pot to give it heat. Then who does not adore here the author of this singular providence? The members also, as if they had sense to know that the stomach prepares food for all of them, thus help this cooking with their own heat. And from here it is that, having finished eating, our feet and hands grow cold, because the heat of these members goes to help the cooking of the food with which they have to maintain themselves. And this is done by means of a faculty that the physicians call the regitive or ruling virtue of the whole body, which is like the chief steward of this royal house where our soul dwells. And this is the one that makes these applications and other similar works that are required for the conservation of our life.
From this second ventricle of the stomach the food then goes to the intestines, which are the guts. And from these there comes out a great multitude of very thin veins, which go widening and branching in such manner that they come to stop in a trunk, which is the vein that they call porta, which comes to end in the lower part of the liver, so that it has the same figure as a tree, except that the difference is that in the tree the humor rises from the roots and trunk to the branches, but here, on the contrary, the liquor of the food rises from the branches to the trunk, which the nearer they are to the intestines, so much the thinner they are. The cause is so that no gross thing may enter nor go through them to the liver, where the third digestion is made, but a very liquid thing. And drinking serves for this, to make the food more liquid and rare, so that thus it may be strained through these so delicate veins.
I
Then returning to the purpose, by these so thin veins that are born from the intestines, especially from those nearest the stomach, the liver draws to itself the food already digested and cooked, leaving in the intestines the less pure and thicker part to maintain them. For as we already said, nothing is wasted in this house of God, and thus what is superfluous for one member, is necessary for another. And so that this may be better done, that sovereign artificer ordained that these intestines should have so many turns and returns (because they have more than sixty spans in length), so that in so long a stretch there may be time for the liver to draw to itself all that shall be of profit, besides this being necessary for the political life of man, because if there were no more than one short intestine, neither could the liver make good use of the food (and thus man would always suffer hunger) and at every step he would have need to purge the belly. But the Creator provided for these inconveniences in the manner that has been said.
After the intestines have served this office, the dregs that are no longer of profit they send away by their drain, which is in the most secret and hidden part of our body, which Tully notes and enhances, saying that, “just as those who build a house hide these places of our purgation from the sight of the eyes because they may not be offended by a thing so ugly and of bad odor, so that sovereign artificer of this house of our bodies, where the souls dwell, removed from the sight of our eyes what could cause us discontent and bad odor, if it were in another part.” But here Theodoret found matter to exclaim and glorify God, for having taken so much account of what was fitting for man, that, he being the fountain of all purity, he did not disdain to incline his eyes to our vilenesses, and to put his divine hands in what we hold as a thing unworthy of our eyes, so that by this it may be seen that in all things he is admirable.
Nor must the favor of divine providence toward our guts be dissembled here, because since they are of weak and perishable substance (although very vile according to the office that they have), he did not for this reason despise them, rather he provided them with a very soft web,
full of fatness, which is like a quilt that embraces and shelters them so that they may be more guarded.
Now let us return to the liver, where the third digestion and alteration of the food is made, which draws to itself the most liquid part of it by those thin veins (that we said) and receives it in the hollows and pores of which it is full. And as it is of the color of blood, thus from white it changes it into its same color. And not content with the first purgings, in which the impure was separated from the more pure, it adds another more perfect one, cooking more with its natural heat the food that it receives, and sending away from itself the less pure, as we see that the pot of meat placed on the fire does, when it boils. And as in the food that it receives within itself there are all the four humors, which are phlegm, blood, choler, and melancholy, what is left over of the melancholy it sends to the spleen, which by its conduits and ways draws it to itself, and maintains itself from it, but the excessive part of the choler it sends to the little bladder of the gall, which is attached to the same liver, which draws to itself this humor, with which it maintains itself. For which it also has its veins and ways, and if these by some bad disposition come to be stopped up, this choleric humor is poured through all the body, and thus the man comes to be made jaundiced. But because, as it is said that in the house of the wise man there is no idle thing, these two aforesaid excrements, which are choler and melancholy, also serve after being rejected for other effects, because the choler has certain ways, by which it descends to the intestines, and biting them with the liveliness of its heat and activity, makes the excrements go down to purge the belly. For the intestines have no virtue nor vigor for this expulsion, but the melancholy that is in the spleen serves to cause hunger and desire to eat, without which the animal would perish, if it did not have this awakener that solicited it. And this it does by rising and making a corrugation in the walls of the stomach, with which hunger is caused. In which we see two marvels: the one is the choler descending, which naturally rises to the high part, because it is of the nature of fire, and the other, the melancholy rising, its nature being to descend to the low part, because it is of the condition of the earth, at which Avicenna, a great philosopher, although a Moor, marveled, and could not contain himself from praising divine providence, which does these two marvels for the sustentation of our life, which are to lower fire and to raise earth. And if a Moor does this, what will it be reason that a Christian should do, as well for these as for other similar marvels?
There remains to us now another excrement, besides the two already said, which is the wateriness of what is drunk, which we said principally served so that the food and the blood could more easily penetrate and travel through all the veins of the body, of which many are very thin. It is, then, to be known that, after this office has been done, the members send this humor away from themselves as a load now useless, and part of it is resolved into sweat, when there is exercise, and part returns by the same steps to the trunk of the great vein that proceeds from the liver, by which it came out, beneath which are the kidneys, and these have within themselves their concavities and hollows, where the urine comes to stop, which they draw to themselves by a vein that they call the sucking one, deputed for this office. And because they cannot retain so great an abundance of humor in themselves, the Creator provided a receptacle, which is the bladder, in which this humor might be gathered. But the manner in which the urine enters into this pond is a thing so admirable, that by it Galen, a gentile philosopher, invites us to look in this at the artifice of divine providence. For from these two kidneys are born two veins,
which are called ureters, which, one on one side and another on the other, go to stop at this pond. And because they are very subtle and delicate, they are cause of great pain to those who suffer illness of stone, because through them the stone descends to the bladder, and thus the pains of such men are similar to the pains of childbirth. But let us now see the door by which both the stone and the humor enter. Then for this it is to be known that this bladder has two tunics or shirts, the one joined with the other, and those veins that we call ureters come to end, each one on its part, in the first of these tunics by a subtle little hole that they have for this, and in the other interior tunic there is another, but not opposite this first one, but lower down, and by these veins that we said, which make certain turns on the way, the urine goes between both tunics, until it reaches the other hole of the interior tunic, by which it enters into the bladder, and after it has entered it cannot return backward, because the one tunic is very joined with the other. This we see in a wind ball, in which the same wind closes the mouth by which it entered, with a little piece of leather that is beside it. Then in this manner, the urine entering by the first little hole of the first tunic, and walking between both to the second of the second, which is (as we said) deviated from the first, upon entering into the bladder by it, it cannot turn to go out, because this second little hole is covered with the first tunic, which is so attached to the second, that it covers that little hole in such manner, that neither can the urine return backward, nor can even air enter through it. This we see every day by experience, because boys take the bladder of an animal and, blowing through its pipe, fill it with wind and, this mouth tied, it remains full of air without any little point of it being able to go out. Then in this case those who know this ask those who do not know it, by what way the urine entered, and also the stone when there is one, into the bladder, since it is on all sides so closed, that not even a breath of air enters nor goes out through it? The cause is the one that has been said, which declares to us the trace and admirable artifice of that infinite Wisdom that knew how to order it thus. In which we also see that, just as he provided such long intestines to retain the excrements of the already digested food, so that man would not be at every step purging the belly, so he provided this pond, so that he would not always go about urinating. And at the mouth of this pond the Creator put its lock, which is a little nerve, which has that door pressed and closed as if with two fingers you pressed the neck of a wineskin, so that what is within it should not be poured out. And this is a thing in which divine providence shines forth no less than in the past one, which in such manner subjected this little nerve so small to the empire of our will, that when it wishes it to open to evacuate the humor, it opens, and when it wishes to retain it, it closes and presses, for all which blessed be the worker of so many marvels and providences.
II
Of The Office Of The Liver
Now let us return to the liver, already purified of these aforesaid excrements, and to the distribution of the blood that was engendered in it. For this it must be presupposed that the liver is like the steward of the house of a great lord, who distributes his rations and gives food to all those of his house, so that, as the stomach is the cook, so the liver is the distributor and steward. Then it makes from this mass of the blood two principal parts: the one is for maintenance of all the members and bones, which blood
is distributed by the veins of the whole body, which have their beginning and roots in the liver. From which is born a trunk, which is a great vein, which is called the vena cava, and this, in the manner of the branches of a tree, goes branching into diverse veins, some larger and others smaller, as we see in the branches of any tree, and even in each one of its leaves. These, then, extended through all the body, carry the blood mixed with the other humors and distribute it through all the members without leaving high or low part without its ration, which the same members call and draw to themselves with that attractive virtue that we said, and each member draws to itself from all that mass what is conformable to its nature. And thus the bones, which are hard, draw to themselves from the four humors that which is cold and dry, because these two humors are proportioned to the hard nature that they have, where another marvel intervenes, that with the blood being a heavy body and one that naturally runs downward, it no less rises from the liver to the head to maintain it, together with all the bones and hard skull that there is in it. And from this mass superfluities and excrements also result, but not even these did the Creator wish to be useless, because from them the hairs and the hairs of the beard are bred in men.
This is, then, that in which the greater part of the blood is spent. But another part of it goes straight to the heart, which, as it has two ventricles or distinct hollows, receives this blood in the first of them, and there with the great heat of it, it is again refined and purified, sending away by the channel of the lung all the smokiness and soot that it has. And from this first hollow it goes to the second, where it is made still finer, and from venal blood it becomes arterial, which is a most pure and very hot blood, which serves to engender the spirits that they call vital, because they are those that give heat and life to our members. In this manner, that infinite wisdom and providence disposes all things suavely, giving order how imperfect and gross things go in such manner perfecting and thinning themselves, and (if it can be said) spiritualizing themselves, with which they may have greater virtue for higher and more important offices, as we shall presently say. And for this it deputes its vessels and hollows with special properties and virtues, so that this may conveniently be done, as we see in these two hollows of the heart and in all that we shall presently say proceeds from it. Which well considered, will oblige us to exclaim many times with the Royal Prophet, saying: “How enlarged are your works, Lord! All are made with highest wisdom, and the earth is full of your riches and marvels!”
For after this there then follow the arteries, which proceed from the same heart, which carry within themselves the blood that they call arterial, and the vital spirits through all the body, just as from the liver are born the veins, which carry the nutrimental blood with which we maintain ourselves, and thus these arteries are distributed and branch through all the body as the same veins. But this with such order, that the arteries always go walking beneath the veins, which the master builder of this fabric so disposed, the one because the arteries, which are of greater dignity, may have this covering so that they may be guarded, and the other, because placed beneath the veins, they give heat to the blood, without which it would freeze and curdle, because the arterial blood that proceeds from the heart is very hot, because such is the fountain from which it is born. And because this blood is very living and very active, the Creator fortified these arteries with two tunics as strong as if they were of parchment, so that this blood could not burst and come out of its place. This arterial blood comes out by the trunk of a great artery that proceeds from the heart, which trunk is divided into the arms, which afterward go
branching and extending through all the body, just as the veins, until they become very thin, and one of these arms descends to all the members that are beneath the heart down to the feet, and the other rises to those that are above it up to the head, not only to give heat and life to these higher parts, but so that from it may be engendered the spirits that they call animal, of which we shall presently treat.
III
Of The Heart
And inasmuch as this blood is engendered in the heart, it will be necessary then to treat of it. It is, then, like a king in the midst of our breast, surrounded by other principal members, which serve the government of the body. It is a very hot member, because such it was fitting that the one should be that had to influence heat of life into all the members. Its heat is so great that if, having finished killing a large animal, such as an ox, you were to put your hand into it, you would not be able to suffer it. It has within itself two hollows or little bellies, one on the right side and another on the left, divided by a little wall that is in the midst of both, made of the same substance of the heart, which is a hard flesh, because the Creator made it such, in order to have within itself a blood so hot and so living that is engendered in it, so that it should not ooze through the walls of it. From the first of these hollows the blood goes to the second to refine itself more, as we said, in which is seen another providence of that sovereign artificer, which are the holes by which both the one blood and the other makes these its entrances and exits, in which the Creator put his drawbridges, which are certain thin webs, similar to the gates of the mills of the sea, of which above we made mention, which the same sea, when it rises or descends, opens and closes. For thus here the same blood, when it enters, opens and closes them, so that after it has entered it cannot go out.
IV
Of The Lungs Or Lights
Because the heart is very hot, as has been said, that most wise Master provided it, as a king, with a continual refresher that is always making air for it so that it may not choke with its excessive heat, which office it always exercises, as well when we sleep as when we keep watch, because in both times we breathe. And for that reason the Creator formed the substance of the lung spongy and light, from which came to it the name of lights, so that it can easily move, extend, and draw itself together. So that this member, in the manner of bellows, is always opening and closing and, opening itself, receives the fresh air with which it refrigerates the heart and, closing itself, sends away the hot air that proceeds from it. And in gratification of this continual service, the heart maintains it and gives it to eat from its royal table, because while all the other members are sustained with the blood of the veins, which is like household bread common to all, this one alone eats from the table of its lord, because it maintains itself from the arterial blood that is forged in the same heart, which is most pure and most fine.
The lung also serves for the voice, because the air that it sends away from itself coming out with some impetus, and touching the uvula or little bell that we have at its entrance, the voice is formed, wherefore if this little bell is swollen with some gross humor, we can scarcely hear the voice of those who suffer this, and much less that of those who have it eaten and spent. But here it is to be noted that the mouth of the tube of this lung is neither large nor round, rather it is slit like the opening of a money box, which serves to form the voice, because in this mode the mouths of flutes and shawms are fabricated, because in this manner, the strained air entering through them, the voice is caused. Where we see the conformity of art with nature that God created, although nature was before art.
But here it is a thing worthy of much consideration to see the omnipotence and wisdom of the Creator, who could form a kind of flute of flesh, which serves for singing, because to make a flute or trumpet of solid matter, as is of wood or of some metal, is not much, because the hardness of the matter serves for the resonance of the voice. But to make this of flesh, such as is the tube of the lung, and that in it there be formed some voices of women and of men so suave, that they seem more of angels than of men, and these with so much variety of notes, without having the holes of flutes, which serve for this variety, this is a thing that declares the power and the wisdom of that sovereign artificer, who in such manner forged the flesh of this tube that in it there could be formed a voice sweeter and more suave than that of all the flutes and instruments that human industry has invented. And even the variety that there is in this for the service of concordant music is not lacking in admiration, because there are some thin channels, in which the trebles are formed, and others in which voices so full and so resonant are formed, that they seem to thunder through a whole church, without which there could not be perfect music, all of which that divine President traced and ordered thus, so that with this suavity and melody the divine offices and his praises might be celebrated, with which the devotion of the faithful might be awakened.
But here it is to be noted that when to the voice that comes out by here the instrument of the tongue is added, we come to articulate and distinguish that voice, and thus speech is formed, serving ourselves from this instrument, and striking with it sometimes on the teeth, other times on the interior of our mouth, in which we see how art imitates nature in the instruments that it has invented, as appears in flutes and in organs, because in organs, putting example in them, there are certain bellows that send air to the pipes, and afterward, the player touching diverse keys, makes diverse sounds. Then thus the lung, opening and closing, serves as bellows, which closing sends by its own channel this air that it casts from itself, and afterward the tongue, striking on the aforesaid parts of the mouth as on certain keys, comes to articulate the voice, and thus diverse words are formed, with which man, as a political animal, treats and declares his thoughts and concepts with other men. The same example we can put in a flute, through whose pipe, as through the tube of our lung, runs the air that proceeds from it, and the touching of its diverse holes is like touching with the tongue diverse parts of the interior of our mouth and, just as the flute makes diverse sounds by touching diverse holes, so the tongue, touching diverse parts of our mouth, forms diverse words. In this manner the Creator gave us faculty to speak and communicate our thoughts and concepts to other men, which, just as it is proper to man among all animals, so it is a singular
benefit of the Creator, of which the mute are lacking. In which also his providence shines forth, since from the hot air that the heart sends away from itself because it is harmful to it, he serves himself for a thing so profitable as is the voice and speech of man. For he wishes nothing of his works to be so useless and despised, that if it does not serve for one thing, it should fail to serve and profit for another, as has been said.
The lung also has another faculty and virtue, which is to dispose the air that enters through it, so that from it those vital spirits that we said may be engendered, which are formed from the vapors of the arterial blood, together with a part of air, which, distributing itself through all the hollows and substance of the lung, receives virtue from it for this. Which spirits, besides giving us life, serve another office no less important, which is: to be matter from which other more noble spirits are engendered, which are those that are called animal, by means of which we feel and move ourselves, as we shall presently say.
V
Consideration On What Has Been Said
Now it will be reason to philosophize a little over what we have treated up to here, where we shall see how divine Wisdom orders and disposes all things, as we say, suavely, which is by proceeding through the causes to their effects, and proportioning the causes with the dignity of the effects that it wishes to produce, in such manner that, the more noble the form is that it wishes to introduce, so much the more perfectly it disposes the matter in which it has to be received, so that there may be no disproportion between the causes and their effects and between the matter and the form that has to proceed from it. And beginning with the first cause of our nutrition and maintenance, we see that the food is chewed, and disposed in the mouth to go broken small and ground to the stomach, where it takes another form, which the physicians call chyle, with which, purified from the dregs that are sent away by the intestines, it is disposed to go to the liver, in which it receives another more perfect form, which is of blood. And this now purified, and the choler and melancholy sent away with the superfluity of what we drink, it is disposed to go to the right hollow of the heart. And in this it is refined and purified more to go to the left hollow or ventricle, where the vital spirits are formed, and those thus disposed come to be matter from which the other more noble spirits are engendered, which are those that we said are called animal.
By what has been said the prudent reader will see what we have just said, which is the order that divine Wisdom has in the procreation of things, ordering that the matter be disposed according to the dignity of the form that it has to receive, in such mode that, when the form shall be more noble, so much more perfect may be the disposition that is prepared for it. Then applying this same order to spiritual things, we shall understand that, according to the state or to the grace that we wish to attain, so it is fitting for us to dispose and prepare ourselves. And according to this, the penitent who desires to attain the fruit and effect of confession must go disposed and prepared with sorrow and repentance for sins and with the examination of his conscience. Likewise, to receive the fruit of the Sacrament of the altar, it is fitting that he go with another perfect disposition, because this sacrament is higher and more divine, for which he must go with actual devotion, and not only free of sins, but also of all
thoughts that can distract and lessen his devotion. And not only for the sacraments, but for all graces and spiritual gifts, fitting preparations and dispositions for them must precede. And according to this, he who desires to enjoy the suavity and consolations of the Holy Spirit must send away from himself the tastes and consolations of the world, as David did, when he said: “My soul rejected the consolations of the earth, I placed my memory in God, and in him I delighted.”
Likewise he who should wish to aspire to the perfection of the love of God must send away from himself all the disordered loves of the world. And if he should desire to draw near to God in such manner, that he comes to be made one spirit with him, which is to become a spiritual and divine man, he must mortify as much as possible all that is carnal and earthly, when it is an impediment to the divine. And if he should desire to make himself similar to that Lord who is unique and highest good, by the part that he is good he must depart from evil things, and by that by which he is highest, he must not occupy himself in low things, although they be not evil, and by that by which he is unique, he must not intermeddle in many things, although they be good, if they are excessive and such that with their excessive occupation they choke the spirit of devotion. And if to attain this he desires to give himself to the contemplative life, and to have, when he thinks on God, the imagination quiet and free of other thoughts, he must be, as the saints say: deaf, blind, and mute to the things of the world, and thus he will have the house of his soul more unencumbered and pure, and more free from the noise of thoughts. But if he does the contrary he will not be able to fail to be molested by them. And finally, he who desires to find God in truth, let him know that he must seek him in truth, and he who wishes to attain great gifts from him, must conform the work and the diligence and the vigilance according to the dignity of them, just as he who wishes to be a great learned man must be very diligent in study.
This Solomon teaches us when he says that, if we desire to attain true wisdom, we seek it with the ardor with which men work for money, and with the covetousness of those who dig seeking treasures beneath the earth. And according to the same Moses says that we shall find God if we seek him with our heart and with all the affection of our spirits.
This, then, is the common and ordinary style with which our Lord communicates his gifts and graces to creatures, first disposing and preparing them for them. It is true that, since he is not a natural agent, he is not subject to these laws that he ordinarily keeps, for many times, without any disposition preceding by space of time, he makes great and sudden mercies to whom it pleases him, for manifestation of his liberality and magnificence, as we see in the vocation of Saint Paul, of Saint Matthew and of Saint John and James, who, being mending their nets, were called to the dignity of the apostolate. And with this we shall give an end to the treatise of the vegetative soul, which serves to sustain life.