Into the very life of the generous soul there enter, accordingly, the contrarieties by which on a lower plane the soul is governed:--"the skilfulness and art of nature cause it to faint with desire for that which destroys it, to be content in the midst of torment, to be tormented in the midst of all content. For nothing derives from principles of peace, but everything from contrary principles, through the victory and dominance of one side of the contrariety. There is no pleasure of generation on one side without the pain of corruption on the other; and the things that are becoming and those that are decaying are conjoined in one and the same composite being. The sense of joy and the sense of sorrow go ever together; it is called joy rather than sorrow if the former predominates and has greater force to solicit the sense."[518] The life in death of the more divine soul is only an extreme instance:--"it is the death of lovers from an extreme of joy, the Cabalist _mors osculi_, and is at the same time eternal life, such as man may have potentially, _in disposition_, in this world, but actually, _in effect_, in eternity alone."[519] Again it is the contrast of infinite desire and finite power:--"the weakness of the human mind which is intent on its divine enterprise, and suddenly is engulfed in the abyss of incomprehensible excellence. Sense and imagination are confused and absorbed, the soul can neither go forward nor backward, nor know where to turn, but loses its being just as a drop of water vanishes in the sea, or a little vapour thins out and loses its proper substance in the spacious immeasurable air."[520] [Sidenote: Intelligence and love.]