Book III, Argument

Book III. The purgation and active night of the memory and the will.

The understanding, which is the first power of the soul, being now instructed, with regard to all its apprehensions, in the first theological virtue, namely faith, so that the soul, according to this power, may be united to God in pureness of faith; it remains for me now to do the same with respect to the two other powers, memory and will, showing how they too are to be purified in all their acts, so that the soul, according to them also, may be united to God in perfect hope and charity. I shall do this briefly in this third book. For having concluded that which relates to the understanding, the receptacle of all objects that pass through the memory and the will —and that goes a great way towards the full execution of my purpose—it is not so necessary to enlarge on the subject of these two powers; because, in general, the spiritual man who shall have well directed his understanding in faith, according to my teaching, will also, by the way, have done as much for the memory and the will in the matter of hope and charity: for the operations of these virtues are mutually dependent the one on the other. But, as itis necessary—that I may observe the same order, and be the better understood—to speak of the proper and determinate matter, I shall treat of the acts of each of these two faculties, distinguishing between them according to the method of my subject. That distinction arises out of the distinction between their - objects, which are three, natural, supernatural imaginary, and spiritual. The knowledge of the memory, following these distinctions, is also threefold: natural, supernatural imaginary, and spiritual. I shall treat of these here, by the grace of God, beginning with natural knowledge, which is conversant with the most exterior objects; and I shall afterwards speak of the affections of the will, and then conclude this third book, the subject of which is the active spiritual night.