God created the invisible world
and the visible world, and naturally he made the soul and the body as well.
Now if this visible world is so beautiful, what sort of world will the
invisible be? If it is better than the former, how much better than both is
the one who created them? If then the Maker of everything that is beautiful
is better than all creatures, for what reason does the mind leave the best
of all to be engrossed in the worst of all, by which I mean the passions of
the flesh? Or is it not clear that having lived and associated with the
flesh from birth, the mind has not yet received a perfect experience of the
one who is best of all and who transcends all? Therefore if by a prolonged
exercise of self-mastery over pleasure and of attention to divine things we
gradually break it away from such a relationship, it expands and gradually
advances in divine things and recognizes its own dignity and finally
transfers its whole longing onto God.
