regory says[386]: "When a man
sees one whom he loves his love is yet more enkindled." And in
this lies the full perfection of the contemplative life: that
the Divine Truth should not only be seen but loved.

2. Again, strife and contention hinder delight. But in contemplation
there is strife and contention, for S. Gregory says[387]: "The soul,
when it strives after the contemplation of God, finds itself engaged in
a species of combat; at one time it seems to prevail, for by
understanding and by feeling it tastes somewhat of the Infinite Light;
at other times it is overwhelmed, for when it has tasted it faints."

It is true indeed that contest and strife arising from the
opposition presented by external things prevent us from finding
pleasure in those same things. For no man finds a pleasure in
the things against which he fights. But he does find a pleasure,
other things being equal, in the actual attainment of a thing
for which he has striven; thus S. Augustine says[388]: "The
greater the danger in the battle, the greater the joy in the
triumph." And in contemplation the strife and the combat do not
arise from any opposition on the part of the truth which we
contemplate, but from our deficient understanding and from the
corruptible nature of our bodies which ever draw us down to
things beneath us: _The corruptible body is a load upon the
soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the mind that
museth upon many things._[389] Hence it is that when a man
attains to the contemplation of truth he loves it still more
ardently; but at the same time he more than ever hates his own
defects and the sluggishness of his corruptible body, so that
with the Apostle he cries out: _Unhappy man that I am! Who shall
deliver me from the body of this death?_[390] Hence, too, S.
Gregory says: "When God is known by our desires and our
understanding, He causes all pleasures of the flesh to wither up
within us."[391]

3. But again, delight follows upon a perfect work.[392] But
contemplation on this earth is imperfect, according to the words of the
Apostle: _We see now through a glass in a dark manner._[393] Hence it
would seem that the contemplative life does not afford delight.

It is indeed true that the contemplation of God during this life
is imperfect compared with our contemplation of Him in our
eternal home; and in the