As the day now approached on which she was to depart
this life -- a day which thou knewest, but which we did not -- it
happened (though I believe it was by thy secret ways arranged)
that she and I stood alone, leaning in a certain window from which
the garden of the house we occupied at Ostia could be seen. Here
in this place, removed from the crowd, we were resting ourselves
for the voyage after the fatigues of a long journey.
We were conversing alone very pleasantly and "forgetting
those things which are past, and reaching forward toward those
things which are future."[293] We were in the present -- and in
the presence of Truth (which thou art) -- discussing together what
is the nature of the eternal life of the saints: which eye has not
seen, nor ear heard, neither has entered into the heart of
man.[294] We opened wide the mouth of our heart, thirsting for
those supernal streams of thy fountain, "the fountain of life"
which is with thee,[295] that we might be sprinkled with its
waters according to our capacity and might in some measure weigh
the truth of so profound a mystery.
24. And when our conversation had brought us to the point
where the very highest of physical sense and the most intense
illumination of physical light seemed, in comparison with the
sweetness of that life to come, not worthy of comparison, nor even
of mention, we lifted ourselves with a more ardent love toward the
Selfsame,[296] and we gradually passed through all the levels of
bodily objects, and even through the heaven itself, where the sun
and moon and stars shine on the earth.
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