the means that produce it. This distaste is felt whenever these
it less death because life was concealed in it; as the silk-worm lies long dead in the chrysalis, but contains a germ of life that awakes it to a resurrection. This new life, then, buds in the centre, and grows from there; thence it gradually extends over all the faculties and senses, impregnating them with its own life and fertility. 40. The soul, endued with this vitality, experiences infinite content; not in itself, but in God; especially when the life is well advanced. 41. But, before speaking of the effects of this life, let me say that there are some who do not pass through these painful deaths; they only experience weakness and fainting, which destroys them, and causes them to die to all. 42. Many spiritual people have given the name of death to the earlier purifications, which are, indeed, a death in relation to the life given, but not a total death. They result in one of the lives of nature, or of grace, being extinguished; but that is very different from a general extinction of all life. 43. Death has various names, according to our different ways of expression or conception. It is called a departure, a separation from self in order that we may pass into God; a loss, total and entire, of the will of the creature, which causes the soul to lack in itself, that it may exist only in God. Now, as this will is in everything that exists in the creature, however good and holy it may be, all these things must be destroyed, so that only the will of God may remain. Everything born of the will of the flesh and the will of man must be destroyed. Then nothing but the will of God is left, which becomes the principle of the new life, and, gradually enlivening the old extinguished will, takes its place and changes it into faith. 44. From the time that the soul expires mystically, it is separated from everything that would be an obstacle to its perfect union with God; but it is not, for all that, received into God. This causes it the most extreme suffering. You will object here that, if it is wholly dead, it can no longer suffer. Let me explain. 45. The soul is dead as soon as it is separated from self; but this mystical death is not complete until it has passed into God. Until then, it suffers greatly, but its suffering is general and unclear, and is caused by the fact that it is not yet set in its proper place. 46. The suffering which precedes death is caused by our distaste for the means that produce it. This distaste is felt whenever these means recur, or grow sharper; but as we die we become more and more unaware of them, and seem to harden under the blows, until