CHAPTER IX.

FOURTH DEGREE OF THE PASSIVE WAY OF FAITH, WHICH IS THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE DIVINE LIFE — TRAN-SITION FROM THE HUMAN STATE TO THE DIVINE, AND TO THE RESURRECTION OF THE SOUL IN GOD — DESCRIP-TION OF THIS LIFE AND OF ITS PROPERTIES, GRADA-TIONS, IDENTITY, INDIFFERENCE — SENTIMENTS OF THE SOUL — ITS EXISTENCE IN GOD — ITS PEACE, ETC. — POWER AND VIEWS WITH REGARD TO OTHERS, TO ITSELF, TO ITS CONDITION, TO ITS ACTIONS, TO ITS WORDS, TO ITS FAULTS— MIND OF CHRIST — VARIOUS OBSERVATIONS.

"X 1 rHEN the torrent begins to lose itself in the sea, it can easily be distinguished. Its movement is perceptible, until at length it gradually loses all form of its own, to take that of the sea. So the soul, leaving this degree, and beginning to lose itself, yet retains something of its own; but in a short time it loses all that it had peculiar to itself. The corpse which has been reduced to ashes is still dust and ashes ; but if another per-son were to swallow those ashes, they would no

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