We shall do well to begin by bearing in mind the very ancient, practically unbroken, very orthodox Christian discrimination of faithful souls,--sometimes into the two classes of Mercenaries (or Slaves) and Friends or Children, the latter of whom the great Clement of Alexandria, who died about A.D. 215, called “Gnostics,” “Gnosis” being his term for perfection (this scheme is the one to which Catherine’s life and teaching conform); or into the three classes of Servants (Slaves); Mercenaries; and Friends (or Children), as is already worked out with full explicitness by Saints Basil, Gregory of Nazianzum, and Gregory of Nyssa, who died in the years 379, 389, and 395 (?) respectively. Now Clement places the Mercenary on the left of the Sanctuary, but the “Gnostic” on the right; and, whilst declaring that the former “are those who, by means of renouncing things perishable, hope to receive the goods of incorruption in exchange,” he demands of the “Gnostic” that “he approach the saving word neither from the fear of punishment, nor from the motive of reward, but simply because He is good.”[169] And St. Basil, echoed in this by his two contemporaries, teaches that, “We obey God and avoid vices, from the fear of punishment, and in that case we take on the resemblance of Slaves. Or we keep the precepts, because of the utility that we derive from the recompense, thus resembling Mercenaries. Or finally, from love of Him who has given us the law, we obey with joy at having been judged worthy of serving so great and good a God, and thus we imitate the affection of Children towards their parents.”[170] And, in the case of all these Fathers, it is clear that, not only single acts, but whole states of soul and life are meant. But the increased fineness in the analysis of interior experiences and dispositions has since then required, and the Church formulations have most wisely demanded, that these three classes be not so sharply distinguished as to make any one soul seem exclusively and unchangeably to pertain to any one of them; and, still more, that these three divisions be taken to represent, even where and whilst they are most completely realized, only the predominant character of the majority of the acts constituting the respective state of soul. For it is clear that not only is there, and can there be, no such thing, on earth at least, as a state composed of one unrepeated act; but there is no such thing as a condition of soul made up solely of acts of “simple” Pure Love, or even of supernatural acts of all sorts commanded throughout by Charity, or indeed solely of supernatural acts, both simple and commanded. The “One-act” state is a chimera; the state of “simple” acts of Pure Love alone would, if possible, involve the neglect of numberless other virtues and duties; and the last two states indeed highly desirable, but it would be fanaticism to think we could completely attain to them here below.