The Literal Meaning of Genesis
BOOK TWELVE 199 flesh and the natural result follows. Yet this happens without sin, just as the matter is spoken of without sin by a man wide awake, who doubtless thinks about it in order to speak of it.
But a right disposition of soul, purified by a desire for what is more perfect, kills many desires that have no connection with the natural motions of the flesh. Chaste people while awake curb and restrain these motions, though in their sleep they are unable to do so because they cannot control the appearance of those corporeal images that are indistinguishable from bodies. But because of this right disposition, the soul's merits are sometimes manifest even in sleep. Solomon even while asleep preferred wisdom to all else and begged it of the Lord without a thought for the rest; and, as Scripture attests, this was pleasing to the Lord, and He did not leave this good desire long without a fitting reward.
CHAPTER 16
Bodies perceived do not produce images in the spirit; the spirit produces them in itself.
32. Bodily sensation, therefore, belongs to the visible corporeal world and flows through the channels of the five senses, which are capable of perceiving objects even at a distance.'? Light, the finest element in bodies and hence more akin to soul than the others, is first of all diffused in a pure state through the eyes and shines forth in rays from the eyes to behold visible objects.'?3 Moreover, it intermingles in some way with pure air, with misty and vaporous air, with a crasser sort of liquid, and with solid matter; and in these four states, as well as in its pure state in ocular vision, in which it is most perfect, it brings about the five kinds of sensation.74 This matter, I recall, I have discussed in Book Four'® as well as in Book Seven.
Now this heaven which meets the eyes, and from which the stars and other luminous bodies shine forth, is far more perfect than all corporeal elements,'° just as ocular vision is the most perfect of the bodily senses. But, since every spirit is unques-