18. The Fountain of life then is that chief Good from Which the means of life are dispensed to all, but It hath life abiding in Itself. It receiveth from none as though It were in need, It confers good on others rather than borrows from others for Itself, for It hath no need of us. Thus in the person of man it is said, _my goods are nothing unto Thee_. What then can be more lovely than to approach to Him, to cleave to Him; what pleasure can be greater? He who has seen and tasted freely of the Fountain of living water, what else can he desire? what kingdoms? what powers? what riches? perceiving how miserable even in this world is the condition of kings, how mutable the state of empires, how short the space of this life, in what bondage sovereigns themselves must live, seeing that their life is according to the will of others, not their own. Sidenote: S. Matt. xix. 26. 19. But what rich man passes to eternal life unless he be supported by the riches of virtue, that gift which is the portion of all, and declared to be impossible for the rich alone? Happiness then does not consist in using these things but in perceiving that whereby you may despise them, may regard them as void of truth[164], may judge them to be empty and fruitless, and may love the true beauty of naked truth which confesses the cheating vanities of this world. Sidenote: Cant. iv. 9. Sidenote: Ib. vii. 8. Sidenote: Rev. xxi. 23. Sidenote: S. John viii. 12. Sidenote: S. Luke xxiv. 32. 20. Lift up therefore your eyes, O my soul; those eyes of which the Word of God saith, _Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes. Go up then to the palm tree_, overcome the world, that thou mayest reach the height of the Word. Leave out of doors the vain shows of this world, leave its malice, but bring in with you that goodness of mind which has grace in the tree of life, that is, if she wash her robes and enter into the city which is the true grace of the saints, wherein is the Tabernacle of God, around which the scribes of the Lord encamp, where neither day nor sun nor moon afford light, but _the Lord Himself is the light thereof_, and enlightens all that city. For He is the _Light of the world_, not indeed the visible light, but the intellectual brightness of the souls which are in this world, upon which He pours the bright beams of reason and of prudence, and in the Gospel is said to inspire with the breath of His spiritual influences the inmost soul, and the recesses of the mind. Sidenote: Gen. xix. 30. Sidenote: Ib. 17.