observes it not: for one faculty is that which listens, and
another is that which keeps the soul entire; the latter is as it
were bound, and the former is loosed.

[1] Were it true that, as according to the Platonists, there were
more than one soul in man, he might give attention to two things
at once. But when one faculty is free and called into activity,
the rest of the soul is as it were bound in inaction.


Of this had I true experience, hearing that spirit and wondering;
for full fifty degrees had the sun ascended,[1] and I had not
noticed it, when we came where those souls all together cried out
to us, "Here is what you ask."

[1] It was now about nine o'clock A. M.


A larger opening the man of the farm often hedges up with a
forkful of his thorns, when the grape grows dark, than was the
passage through which my Leader and I behind ascended alone, when
the troop departed from us. One goes to Sanleo, and descends to
Noli, one mounts up Bismantova[1] to its peak, with only the
feet; but here it behoves that one fly, I mean with the swift
wings and with the feathers of great desire, behind that guide
who gave me hope and made a light for me. We ascended in through
the broken rock, and on each side the border pressed on us, and
the ground beneath required both feet and hands.

[1] These all are places difficult of access.