The Ascent of Mount CarmelChapter XXXII. The sixth kind of goods in which the will rejoices. Their nature

The first division of them.

The chief object of my book being the guiding of the spirit through these spiritual goods to the divine union of the soul with God, it will be necessary for me, and for my reader, now that I am speaking of the sixth kind of these spiritual goods which conduces the most to that end, to bestow particular attention on the matter. For it is quite certain that there are people who, because of their want of knowledge, make use of spiritual things in the order of sense only, leaving the spirit empty; so that there is scarcely any one, the better part of whose spirit is not corrupted by sensible sweetness, the water being drunk up before it reaches to the spirit, which is, therefore, left dry and barren.

2. With reference then to my subject, I say, that by spiritual goods I mean all those that move us and help us in divine things, in the intercourse of the soul with God, and in the communications of God to the soul.

3. I begin with the generic difference of these goods, namely, sweet and bitter. Each of these is again specifically divided. The sweet goods are of things clear, distinctly understood, and of things that are not so. The bitter also are divided into clear and distinct, and confused and obscure.

4, These may also be distinguished according to the powers of the soul. Some, being knowledge, pertain to the understanding; some, being affections, pertain to the will; and others, being imaginary, pertain to the memory. For the present I do not speak of the bitter goods, because they belong to the passive night, and I shall have to speak of them hereafter.¹ I omit also the sweet goods of things confused and indistinct that I may treat of them later if they relate to the general confused and loving knowledge wherein consists the union of the soul with God. I passed it over in the second book,² when I was distinguishing between the apprehensions of the understanding, reserving it for more careful consideration in the book of the Dark Night.§ I now proceed to speak of those sweet goods, which are of things clear and distinct.